$ 24.

lax.

Property tax

sions.

$25.

Geo. 3. st. 1. c. 55. and 48 Geo. 3. c. 92. these war taxes, granted by the 43 Geo. 3. c. 70. and 46 Geo. 3. c. 39. are charged with the sum of 12 millions which was raised for the service of the year 1807.

XXIV. Another species of war tax consists in the duties on profits arising from property, professions, trades, and offices in Great Britain, which rates or duties have been increased and consolidated by the 46 Geo. 3. c. 65. G. B. This property tax is of a temporary nature, being limited in its duration by this act to the 6th day of April next after the ratification of a definitive treaty of peace.

XXV. The duties upon offices and pensions which were Duties upon of first imposed by the 7 Geo. 1. st. 1. c. 27. Eng. and 31 fices and penGeo. 2. c. 22. Eng. are similar to the property tax. These duties which were formerly perpetual, are by the 48 Gen. 3. c. 2. s. 19. G. B. to have continuance only for one year from the 25th March, 1808; and by s. 20. & 21. are to be assessed in like manner as the property tax under the provisions of the 46 Geo. 3. c. 65. and under the direction of the same commissioners. No duty is payable in respect of offices or pensions in Ireland in aid of his majesty's revenue. By the 2 Gco. 1. c. 3. Ir. and several subsequent statutes a tax of 4s. per £. was imposed upon persons having any offices, salaries, employments, fees, or pensions upon his majesty's establishment, who should reside out of Ireland, for 6 months in any year, while they should be so absent; which tax was repealed or discontinued by the 41 Geo. 3. c. 100. I.

Pells and foundage.

It may be here observed that the clerk of the pells in Ireland claimed by prescription in right of his of*Howard's Rev. fice* a penny and one-fifth per £. upon all payments v.2.p.209-230. issued out of the exchequer, (except where excluded

therefrom by express words in particular acts of parliament); a fee also of 6d. per £. was payable to the vicetreasurer, receiver-general and paymaster-general of Ireland, by all persons on his majesty's establishment for salaries, pay, pensions, &c. These sums are still received or deducted at the Irish treasury, but are now brought to the credit of the public, the offices of receivergeneral and paymaster-general having been abolished by the 35 Geo. 3. c. 28. Ir. and the receipts and issues of

the

the treasury then placed under the controul of commissioners for executing the office of high treasurer of Ireland. XXVI. Another source of extraordinary revenue, or annual aid, consists in the profit arising from lotteries. The last act granting a sum of money to be raised by lotteries is the 48 Geo. 3. c. 139. U. K: which provides (s. 3.) that the commissioners of the treasury shall retain out of the money arising from the sale of the tickets, such proportion thereof as may be necessary to be paid to the holders of the fortunate tickets, and that one-third of the surplus money shall be applied to the service of Ireland.

I have thus confined myself to an enumeration of the several sources of extraordinary revenue in Great Britain and Ireland. The acts imposing these several duties and aids, as well as the statutes for securing and regulating their collection, are very numerous. It would be therefore incompatible with the plan and object of this work, to detail their various minute and complicated provisions.

§ 26.

Latteries.

Great Britain

It seems to be proper in this place to refer to the 6th ar- Trade between ticle of the act for the union of Great Britain and Ireland, and Ireland re(40 Geo. 3. c. 38. Ir. and 40 Geo. 3. c. 67. Eng,) which gulated by the Act of Union. provides that the subjects of Great Britain and Ireland shall be entitled to the same privileges, and be on the same footing as to encouragements and bounties, on the like articles being the growth, produce, and manufacture of either country respectively, and generally in respect of trade and navigation in all ports and places in the united kingdom and its dependencies; and that in all treaties made by the king with any foreign power, his subjects of Ireland shall be on the same footing as his subjects of Great Britain. That all prohibitions and Prohibitions and bounties on the export of articles the growth, &c. of either country to the other shall cease: and that the said articles shall be exported from one country to the other without duty or bounty; and further, that all articles the Duties on import growth, &c. of either country, (not herein enumerated as cles defined-all subject to specific duties) shall be imported into each others free. country from the other free from duty, other than such countervailing duties as in the schedule to this article an

bounties to cense

of certain arti

nexed

Woollen manufuctures.

Coals.

muslins.

nexed are specified, or such other countervailing duties as shall be imposed by the parliament of the united kingdom; and that for 20 years from the union, the articles enumerated in a second schedule, shall be subject A on importation into each country from the other, to the duty of £10. per cent. on the true value. That the woollen manufactures, known by the names of old and new drapery, shall pay on importation into each country from the other, the duties then payable on importation into Ireland. Salt and hops. That the duties on salt and hops, on importation into Ireland from Great Britain, shall not exceed those then paid on importation into Ireland; and coals, on importation into Ireland from Great Britain, shall be subject to burthens not exceeding those to which they were then subCallicoes and ject. That the duties upon callicoes and muslins, on their importation into either country from the other, shall from the 5th day of January, 1808, be annually reduced by equal proportions as near as may be in each year, so that said duties shall stand at £10. per cent. from the 5th day of January, 1806, until the 5th day of January, 1821; Cotton-yarn and and that the duties upon cotton-yarn and twist, on their importation into either country from the other, shall from the 5th day of January, 1808, be annually reduced by equal proportions as near as may be in each year, so that all duties shall cease on said articles from the 5th day of Countervailing January, 1816. That articles of the growth, &c, of either country, which are or may be subject to internal duty, or to duty on the materials of which they are composed, may be made subject, on their importation into each country from the other, to such countervailing duty as shall appear to be just in respect of such internal duty, &c. and that for the said purposes the articles specified in a schedule hereby referred to, shall be subject to the duties set forth therein, liable to be taken off, diminished, or increased, in the manner herein specified. And that upon the export of the said articles from each country to the other, a drawback shall be given equal in amount te the countervailing duty payable on such articles; and that the united parliament may impose any new additional countervailing duties, or take off or diminish such coun

twist.

duties.

Drawbacks.

tervailing

tervailing duties as may appear on the like principle to be just, in respect of any future or additional internal duty on such articles, or on the materials of which they may be composed, or of any abatement of duty on the same; and that when any such new or additional countervailing duty shall be so imposed, on the import of any article into either country from the other, a drawback equal in amount to such countervailing duty, shall be given in like manner on the export of such article from the same country to the other. That all articles the growth, &c. Same charges on produce of either of either country, when exported through the other, country exported shall be exported subject to the same charges as if they had been exported directly from the country of which

thro' the other.

they were the growth, &c. That all duty on the import Foreign produce of foreign or colonial goods into either country, shall on their export to the other be either drawn back, or the amount (if any be retained) shall be placed to the credit. of the country to which they shall be exported, so long as the expenditure of the united kingdom shall be defrayed by proportional contribution. But nothing herein shall take away any duty, bounty, or prohibition which malt, &c. exists in respect to corn, meal, malt, flour, or biscuit, but the same may be regulated, varied, or repealed, from time to time by the united parliament.

Corn, meal,

The produce of the several taxes, which were origi- Consolidated nally distinct funds, were made to compose one con-fund. solidated fund by the 27 Geo. 3. c. 13. Eng. which enacts (s. 52.) that all public monies which shall arise and be paid into the receipt of the exchequer, not being particularly appropriated to any uses by any act of parliament made or to be made, shall be carried to and make part of the fund to be called "The consolidated fund.” And the 33 Geo, 3. c. 34. s. 1. Ir. has also provided that the several duties and taxes, hereditary and casual revenues, and other public monies not being particularly appropriated, shall during his majesty's life constitute a consolidated fund in Ireland. Several branches of the revenue or the produce of particular taxes and duties, appear to have been appropriated, by different statutes passed in England in the reign of queen Anne, for

the

Sinking fund.

the payment of several loans raised and debts then contracted. And by the 3 Geo, 1. c. 7. Eng. and several subsequent statutes, provision was made for redeeming the duties and revenues, which were from time to time charged with such debts, and with several annuities payable thereout.

To this statute (3 Geo. 1. c. 7.) is to be traced the original institution of the sinking fund, it being thereby provided (s. 37.) that the excess or surplus of the duties and revenues appropriated by this act, and the general yearly fund which was thereby established, should be employed for the discharging the principal and interest of such national debts as were incurred before the 25th day of December, 1716, in such manner as should be directed by parliament. But the 26 Geo. 3. c. 31. Eng. is the first statute which directed the operation of this principle, and established the system of applying annually certain portions of the revenue to redeem, and after redeeming to accumulate for the further redemption of the national debt. By this act one million annually was to be applied by quarterly payments under the direction of commissioners, for the reduction of the debt; but it was thereby provided (s. 20.) that whenever the whole sum annually receivable by the commissioners (including the quarterly sum of £250,000. thereby directed to be issued from the exchequer, and the annuities and dividends of stock by them redeemed and placed to their account) should amount to 4 millions annually, the surplus should be at the disposal of parliament. This act was amended by the 32 Geo. 3. c. 55, which provided in order to prevent the accumulation of debt in consequence of any future loans, that one hundredth part of the capital stock created by any loan, or one hundredth part of the value of any annuity upon which a loan shall be raised, shall be payable by quarterly payments, out of the consolidated fund to the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt. And by the 42 Geo. 3. c. 71. these several sinking funds were consolidated, and the 26 Geo. 3. c. 31. and 32 Geo. 3. c. 35. thereby repealed so far as they limited the amount of the

sinking