Chapter IV.: Working of the Excise Laws.

It can hardly be denied that during the last one hundred and forty years by far the largest portion of the active talent and intelligence of the government has been directed, not to objects of national improvement, but to picking the pockets of the people, to the watching with the vigilance of a Turkish pacha their growing riches, and then carrying off with remorseless gripe the fruits of their toil and skill, to be wasted in exhausting wars, regal pomp, and aristocratic profusion. The genius of the people has been commercial; the policy of their rulers anti-commercial. Trades’ unions have been obnoxious to the charge of interfering with the freedom of industry; but the annoyances from this source are insignificant when contrasted with the vexatious impediments resulting from the unceasing inquisitions of our fiscal administration.

For proof of this we shall only refer to one department, that of the Excise;—a term giving rise to similar imaginings of judicial tyranny as the Court of Star Chamber or Holy Inquisition, and which is no less repugnant to sound principles of finance than of commercial legislation. The laws therein are for the most part unintelligible, and subjecting the individuals obnoxious to them to harassing domiciliary visits and spiteful persecutions. They are also mischievous by interfering with the conduct of business, and thereby imposing restraint on skill, enterprise, and improvement. As a tax the excise is generally unequal, being levied on commodities used by the bulk of the people, but on which the rich spend little or nothing. To get rid of it altogether is perhaps neither possible nor desirable, but we shall select a few examples to illustrate the working of the system, in which improvement would not be difficult, and which would involve no great sacrifice of revenue,—certainly not more than has been squandered in indemnifying the West Indian planters, and clearing out judicial nuisances in the courts of law.

1. Paper.—The duty on paper varies from 50 to 150 per cent. on the different kinds of paper. Except the very coarsest wrapping paper all paper is subject to a first-class duty; and even wrapping paper, to be charged at the lowest rate, must be manufactured wholly of tarred ropes, a regulation which causes the refuse of the finer paper to be wasted. The duty is a tax on science, on the diffusion of education and useful information. But the tax forms a small part of the expense to which the public is put in order to repay the manufacturer for the trouble and annoyance to which he is subject in carrying on his business. There are sixteen acts of parliament regulating his trade, commencing with the 10 Ann, c. 19, and ending with 6 Geo. IV. c. 111. By one of these he is required to take out a license, and to enter his presses and engines, vats and chests, at the Excise Office. He must only carry on his business in certain places, and a maker of paper must not be a maker of pasteboard. He must letter each room of his manufactory; he must fold his paper in quires, reams, and bundles, and tie it up in a form prescribed by statute: he must give twenty-four or forty-eight hours’ notice of weighing, and after weighing paper must not be removed in less than twenty-four hours. Errors in weighing to the extent of five per cent. subject paper to forfeiture. The penalties vary from £20 to £500. An excise label must be pasted on each ream or parcel; and if the maker do not account for every label received he is liable to a penalty of £200 for each. A master will sometimes send for 500 labels at once to the excise, and should any person get into the mill and steal or destroy them the penalties would amount of £100,000.

2. Glass.—The direct duty on glass varies from £100 to £200 per cent. Little more than half the gross duty levied is brought into the exchequer; the remained being either returned or lost in the collection. On flint glass the officers may charge the duty either at 3d. per pound in the pot or 6d. out. It is thought more advantageous to the revenue to exact the duty in the pot; and the tax is by this means virtually raised to 7d., whilst the manufacturer who makes the fine glass from the middle, and the coarser from the bottom and top, is compelled, whether he requires it or not, to manufacture the whole from having paid the duty, whereas he would often remelt the coarser parts.

This is only one vexation of the manufacturer. The laws regulating his trade are scattered through twenty-nine acts of parliament. He must take out an annual license, and enter at the excise all his workshops, furnaces, pots, pot chambers, annealing arches, &c. He must provide locks, fastenings, trays, windlasses, scales, and weights, as approved by the officer, and keep them in repair. Before filling any pot he must give twelve hours’ notice, with an account of the weight of the materials and species of glass intended to be made. Officers may enter at any hour, guage, mark, and number the pots: counterfeiting or altering marks penalty £500. Officer may forbid fires to be stirred, or smoke raised, lest he be annoyed in the discharge of his duty, on pain of £100. Refusing to assist officer, penalty £100. Removing flint-glass before weighing, or any way attempting to evade the duty, subjects to a penalty of £500. The structure of the annealing arches, the number of entrances, and the different processes and stages of manufacture are all prescribed under heavy penalties. Exclusive of forfeitures there are fifty-eight penalties, amounting in the aggregate to £9740. So tied down and watched, the manufacturer neither attempts improvement nor experiment in his business.

3. Soap.—The manufacture of soap is peculiarly a chemical process, but notwithstanding the discoveries in chemical science, there has been no improvement in the making of soap during the present century. The number and complexity of the excise regulations render deviations from the established routine almost impossible. There are twenty-nine acts of parlinment regulating the manufacture, beginning with 10 Ann, c. 19, and ending with 3 Will. IV. c. 16.

A soap-maker must occupy a tenement assessed to the parish rates. If he alter any boiling-house, warehouse, room, or other place, or use any copper, vat, or other vessel, without giving notice, he is liable to penalty. All materials and utensils for soap-making found in an unentered place become forfeited. He must provide covers, locks, fastenings, and keys, as approved by the excise, and opening any copper, furnace, or ash-hole door, without twelve hours’ notice, or if in the country twenty-four hours’, subjects to penalty. Officers may break up the ground, or remove any wall or partition to search for a private pipe. If any hole be found for privately conveying away soap the fine is £500. Notices must be given of cleaning and beginning to work; failing to begin at the time mentioned notices must be renewed. The form of soap-frames, the depth of soap therein, and the time to elapse before it is divided into cakes or bars, are all minutely prescribed by statute. Hard soap must be sold in bars or cakes, or ball soap, and the scraps and parings, immediately after it is divided, must be put into the boiler in presence of an officer on pain of £100. Removing soap without notice is finable; or, if the quantity exceed twenty-eight pounds, without inscribing the word “soap” in letters two inches long on the package, and three inches long on the carriage. Dealers are liable to sundry penalties, and any person, not being an entered soap-maker, having barilla, kelp, or other materials in possession, they may be seized.

4. Malt.—The act by which the forty statutes regulating the malt-trade were consolidated imposed no fewer than one hundred and six penalties, amounting altogether to £13,500. The number and complexity of these provisions were such that neither excisemen nor maltsters could proceed in their business till they had been explained and amended by orders issued from the Treasury. By a subsequent act some of the penalties are repealed, leaving however the manufacture of malt sufficiently restricted by precautions as to the structure of cisterns and couch-frames, notice of wetting—keeping of grain in steep—the number of floors, &c.

An officer may enter a maltster’s premises at any hour, by night or day. If officer suspect corn to have been condensed in the couch or cistern, by treading or otherwise, he may have it turned out; if, on laying the corn level again in the cistern or couch, an increase to a certain amount is found, the maltster is subject to a penalty of £100. A like penalty is imposed on the maltster if he refuse to assist the officer in making the trial of his own honesty!

5. British Spirits.—The importance of these to the revenue afforda at least some extenuation of the severity of the excise-regulations. But really the act on the distilleries seems the acme of fiscal refinement and policy. It has one hundred and fifty-three sections; the number of penalties inflicted is eighty-nine, varying in amount from £100 to £500. It is quite impossible to give even an outline of this masterpiece of excise genius, and we must refer to The Book of Penalties for particulars.

In extenuation of the number and severity of the excise-laws it is urged that they are not strictly enforced: like capital punishments, they are only held up in terrorem. But this is an aggravation of their iniquity. Laws to be enforced or not at the pleasure of individuals, are equivalent to no laws at all—it is living under a mere despotism. Whether or not the excise penalties are inflicted depends on the whim, temper, or spite of the revenue officers, or perhaps an unfriendly neighbour. They are snares and scorpions to an honest man, whilst rogues escape them by cunning and bribery.

For examples of the oppressive and arbitrary administration of the Excise Laws, see the cases collected under that head in the last edition of The Black Book, page 321.