which the possession of that monopoly holds out to the growers of British barley.

If it be suggested that sugar might at least be employed to advantage as the food of cattle, it is remarked that such an application would become a source of continued frauds, unless this too palatable species of nutriment could be first contaminated with some substance, at once disgusting to human sense, and so indelible as to defy the utmost art of the distillers and refiners.

Lastly, if it be hinted that, as the unfortunate salubrity of this article would be productive of no inconvenience, if, by a diminution of the duty, it were permitted to reach the tables of the poor, it is alleged as an insuperable objection, that this diminution, which would only relieve the consumer, and not the grower of sugar, would be highly dangerous to the interests of the revenue.

It is by no means our intention to involve ourselves and our readers in a discussion of topics on which we have, on a former occasion, very fully expressed our opinion. It must be for the legislature alone to decide between the contending passions and interests of individuals; to satisfy the claims which shall appear to be founded on justice, and to silence those of selfishness or avarice. But the last of the difficulties which we have above enumerated being one in which the whole nation is equally concerned, and which therefore may be examined without the fear of offending any private feeling, we will conclude this article by an attempt to shew that a remission of a part of the duty on sugar, whilst it would relieve the present distress of the colonists, is not likely to produce the inconvenience apprehended from it.

It is not a little extraordinary, considering the present extent of taxation, that the real operation of any tax should become a matter of dispute. Why do not the colonists actually send home their sugar in a refined, instead of a raw state? Because such sugar must be imported subject to a duty of 1s. 6d. per lb. But, it is said, every duty must incontestibly fall on the consumer. True; but the privilege of eating sugar refined in the plantations being rated at eight guineas per cwt., whilst that of eating sugar refined in London, costs little more than two, the planter is aware that he would find no customers. The enormity of the duty is, and in this case was intended to be, an effectual prohibition; but it is plain that every tax has a necessary tendency to diminish the consumption by enhancing the price of the taxed article, until a proportionate advance in the price of labour shall have enabled the poorer consumers to re-commence their purchases. If a tax of eight or ten shillings per bushel were, at this moment, imposed on wheat, every other species of provision remaining untaxed, it is evident that a large part of the community would be compelled, by the augmen

tation of price, to adopt a change of food, or, that the growers must consent to part with their wheat at a price, which would by no means repay the expense of cultivation. If, for the purpose of removing this last inconvenience, a draw-back of the whole duty, together with a bounty on manufactured bread, were granted on exportation, the supply of wheat at market, would not, perhaps, be decreased, because the demand of the foreign, would be substituted for that of the home consumer, and maintain the price of the article at its just and natural value. In this case, however, the reduction in the number of home consumers would become permanent; some cheaper species of food would be substituted for wheat amongst the poorer and more numerous classes; wheat would no longer continue to be the natural measure of the price of labour; but would become an article of luxury. Venison, and game of all sorts, which were the necessaries of the savage, have been converted into the luxuries of civilized man, through the increasing difficulty of procuring them; and it is manifestly indifferent whether this difficulty be occasioned by an artificial, or by a natural scarcity; by a supply necessarily decreasing with the increase of demand, or by a system of policy, which either locks up in useless abundance, or forces out of the country, and transfers to some other community a part of the national food. Lastly, let us suppose, that our export to foreigners is suddenly withdrawn; in which case, our British land-holders would be placed in a situation exactly similar to the actual state of the colonists. Would they have a fair claim to a reduction of duty? would such a reduction be feasible? would it produce an augmented consumption? would it relieve the distress of the land-holder? or would it only, whilst it impoverished the revenue, be likely to swell the profits of the baker, the miller, or the corn-factor?

It may be objected, that the two cases are not strictly parallel, because the supposed tax on wheat would obviously be excessive, whereas that on sugar may possibly have had no influence in diminishing the consumption. The answer is, that the real effect of the price on the consumption has been abundantly proved by recent experiment.

The comparison of the gross and net duties on sugar during the last six years, leaves no doubt as to the total quantity of the article really consumed, and the quantity expended in the distilleries; which last, on a mean of three years, was found to be equal to 52,689 hhds. of 12 cwt. Subtracting this, which may be called the extraordinary expenditure of the article, it appears that the ordinary annual consumption of sugar, taking the mean of two years, was, during the years

L 2

1805

Here we have, first, an augmentation of 26,933 hhds., and secondly, a diminution of 32,915 hhds., both of which were produced by variations of price, and accompanied, the one by a gain of 436,8141, and the other by a loss of 534,600l. to the revenue. The lowest depression took place in February, 1808, when the market price was 21. 18s. 7d., being considerably below that which is necessary to indemnify the grower for the expense of making, and bringing his sugar to market. The highest price which obtained during one quarter of 1810, was such as to become liable to a part of the new duty; and this price, which gave a profit to the grower of about 5 per cent. was sufficient, as we have seen, to drive a considerable number of purchasers out of the market. Consequently, this last price is the limit to the possible extent of consumption in this country, until the foreign market shall again be opened; and, even when an augmentation of the price of labour shall extend the faculties of the consumers, the duty of 1806 will begin to attach, and to check a farther increase. Under these circumstances, there being at this moment a large glut of sugar in the market; the actual supply excceding the consumption by about one-third; the price of sugar being far below the point at which it will repay the expense of producing it; and a farther diminution of that price affording the only means of extending the consumption, the growers petition for a remission of a part of the duty now paid for the privilege of consuming sugar. Supposing such a diminution to be granted, what would be its probable effect?

The net revenue arising from the duty on sugar amounts, on a mean of the two last years, to rather more than two millions, seven hundred thousand pounds. The same sum, if levied on the whole quantity which paid the gross duty, would have been produced by a tax of 16s. instead of 27s. per cwt.: in other words, each shilling of the tax produces only 100,000l. instead of 170,000l, which it might, and ought to produce. Consequently, whilst the benefit to the revenue is as ten, the immediate pressure on the people is as seventeen. Besides, the trade in the taxed article is, by the large amount of duty to be advanced, confined to a comparatively small number of wealthy refiners, for which reason, and because those refiners enjoy, by law, a monopoly against the colonist, it may fairly be presumed that their profits are very considerable: indeed they ought to be so, because the price of the article in which they deal being necessarily settled by the foreign consumer, is liable to frequent and violent fluctuations, which it is totally out of their power to foresce, but by which their interests are most materially affected.

affected. It therefore seems fair to infer that a reduction of the present duty would be, in every respect, highly advantageous.

It may indeed be objected, and it has been objected, that such a reduction would not be ultimately productive of the desired effect; since it appears by the document already quoted, that a variation of about ten shillings in the price of sugar does not produce a va riation of more than from 20 to 30,000 hogsheads in the national consumption. To this it may be answered, that if the objection were conclusive, it would only follow, that a farther reduction below 16 shillings will be necessary. It is plain that, whilst the whole produce of the colonies is imported into this country, it must be forced into consumption by a price at which consumption is possible. Supposing that price to be 43 shillings, at 43 shillings it will be sold; and the proceeds will be divided between the revenue, the ship owner, the warehouse keeper, &c. this country therefore (unless the colonies are considered as a part of this country) will be a great gainer, because confiscation is certainly more immediately profitable than taxation; but such profits cannot accrue twice. In fact, however, the objection is founded on a fallacy; because a state of the market in which the consumption, though alternately forced on and retarded by alternations of price, was constantly checked by the undue advantage given to the foreign consumer, cannot enable us to estimate the effect which would take place under a different, and as we think a more rational system.

We conceive that sugar, in spite of all our efforts to render it a mere luxury, is become one of the necessaries of life. The consumption of the two last years (though a period of forced decline) was equal in weight to above 500,000 quarters of wheat. The quantity on which the gross duties are paid, and which, but for the high price, must have been consumed, amounted to more than the weight of 800,000 quarters, that is one tenth of the wheat raised in Great Britain, and more than one twentieth of the food required for the subsistence of our whole population. We think that, for this very reason, sugar is amongst the properest objects of taxation; but we contend that the tax imposed on it ought to be such as to admit the possibility of continuing to raise, and to consume it. This condition, which is obviously necessary to the permanent efficiency of the revenue, is not, we believe, incompatible with its present interests; because it seems that if the duty were levied as a per centage on the price received on the average of sales actually made, the increased quantity which would be progressively forced into the circulation must exactly compensate the progressive reduction of duty. But let us suppose that, having reduced the tax which prevents the home consumption on this article of our own produce, and having abolished the bounties and drawbacks intended to force it

into foreign consumption, we should have reason to fear a temporary diminution of our revenue, where is the difficulty of finding an adequate compensation? Why not indemnify the treasury by a proportionate duty on that part of our stock of grain which we import from foreign and even hostile nations? The amount of this is said to have been, on the average of the last ten years, about 750,000, and during the last year about 1,750,000 quarters. Did our population double during the last year? or was the harvest, for the supposed abundance of which we returned thanks to heaven, notoriously deficient? If not, the importation was apparently excessive. It certainly produced a considerable fall in the price of grain; it excited general, and perhaps just complaints amongst the farmers; it compelled the landed interest to insist on the restoration of the monopoly of the distilleries; it is said to have occasioned that unexampled rise in the price of gold which many very enlightened men mistook for a depreciation of bank notes. But, whether the result of a real demand, or of mercantile speculation, such a supply might surely be rendered subservient to the interests of the revenue. There is no apparent reason why our consumption of the grain supplied by foreigners should be held sacred, whilst that of British malt and sugar is considered as a legitimate object of taxation. If it be said that the burthen of such a tax would fall on those classes who are too poor to consume either beer or sugar, we answer that. the thing is obviously impossible, because every pecuniary contribution is only a commutation for that personal service which we all owe to the state;-and that those who pay in personal service must, and will be adequately fed and clothed, whatever taxes may be levied on food or clothing. If it be objected that in this case the tax will occasion a mischievous rise in the price of labour, the answer is, that such is the necessary effect of all taxation; that it is, in all cases proportionate to the amount levied; and that a commutation of a duty on tea, on sugar, or on any other article, caunot increase the pressure of the national burthen.

ART. X. Essays on Professional Education. By R. L. Edgeworth, Esq. F. R.S. M. R.I.A., &c. 4to. pp. 496. Loudon. Johnson.

IT is an attempt worthy of the active spirit of the present age to revise the existing plans of education; and while other things are sharing the benefit of the new lights afforded to us, to consider, whether some of them may not be turned with advantage upon those systems and places of instruction which are to furnish the state with its most efficient and valuable members. The writers of the day, who