THE EXCISE SCHEME PROPOSED.

The house having resolved itself into a committee, to deliberate upon the most proper methods for the better security and improvement of the duties and revenues charged upon tobacco and wines, all the papers relating to these duties were submitted to the perusal of the members; the commissioners of the customs and excise were ordered to attend the house, the avenues of which were crowded with multitudes of people; and the members in the opposition waited impatiently for a proposal, in which they thought the liberties of their country so deeply interested. In a word, there had been a call of the house on the preceding day. The session was frequent and full; and both sides appeared ready and eager for the contest when sir Robert Walpole broached his design. He took notice of the arts which had been used to prejudice the people against his plan before it was known. He affirmed that the clamours occasioned by these prejudices had originally risen from smugglers and fradulent dealers, who had enriched themselves by cheating the public; and that these had been strenuously assisted and supported by another set of men, fond of every opportunity to stir up the people of Great Britain to mutiny and sedition. He expatiated on the frauds that were committed in that branch of the revenue arising from the duties on tobacco; upon the hardships to which the American planters were subjected by the heavy duties payable on importation, as well as by the ill usage they had met with from their factors and correspondents in England, who, from being their servants, were now become their masters; upon the injury done to the fair trader; and the loss sustained by the public with respect to the revenue. He asserted that the scheme he was about to propose would remove all these inconveniencies, prevent numberless frauds, perjuries, and false entries, and add two or three hundred thousand pounds per annum to the public revenue. He entered into a long detail of frauds practised by the knavish dealers in those commodities; he recited the several acts of parliament that related to the duties on wine and tobacco; he declared he had no intention to promote a general excise; he endeavoured to obviate some objections that might be made to his plan, the nature of which he at length explained. He proposed to join the laws of excise to those of the customs; that the further subsidy of three farthings per pound charged upon imported tobacco, should be still levied at the custom-house, and payable to his majesty’s civil list as heretofore; that then the tobacco should be lodged in warehouses, to be appointed for that purpose by the commissioners of the excise; that the keeper of each warehouse, appointed likewise hy the commissioners, should have one lock and key, and the merchant-importer have another; and that the tobacco should be thus secured until the merchant should find vent for it, either by exportation or home consumption; that the part designed for exportation should be weighed at the customhouse, discharged of the three farthings per pound which had been paid at its first importation, and then exported without further trouble; that the portion destined for home consumption should, in presence of the warehouse-keeper, be delivered to the purchaser, upon his paying the inland duty of fourpence per pound weight, to the proper officer appointed to receive it; by which means the merchant would be eased of the inconvenience of paying the duty upon importation, or of granting bonds and finding sureties for the payment, before he had found a market for the commodity; that all penalties and forfeitures, so far as they formerly belonged to the crown, should for the future be applied to the use of the public; that appeals in this, as well as in all other cases relating to the excise, should be heard and determined by two or three of the judges, to be named by his majesty; and in the country, by the judge of assize upon the next circuit, who should hear and determine such appeals in the most summary manner, without the formality of proceedings in courts of law or equity.

Such was the substance of the famous excise scheme, in favour of which sir Robert Walpole moved that tha duties and subsidies on tobacco should, from and after the twenty-fourth day of June, cease and determine. The debate which ensued was managed and maintained by all the able speakers on both sides of the question. Sir Robert Walpole was answered by Mr. Perry, member for the city of London. Sir Paul Methuen joined in the opposition. Sir John Barnard, another representative of London, distinguished himself in the same cause.

He was supported by Mr. Pulteney, sir William Wyndham, and other patriots. The scheme was espoused by sir Philip Yorke, appointed lord-chief-justice of the king’s-bench, and ennobled in the course of the ensuing year. Sir Joseph Jekyll approved of the project, which was likewise strenuously defended by lord Hervey, sir Thomas Robinson, sir William Yonge, Mr. Pelham, and Mr. Wilmington, which last excelled all his contemporaries of the ministry in talents and address. Those who argued against the scheme, accused the minister of having misrepresented the frauds and made false calculations. With respect to the supposed hardships under which the planters were said to labour, they affirmed that no planter had ever dreamed of complaining, until instigated by letters and applications from London: that this scheme, far from relieving the planters, would expose the factors to such grievous oppression, that they would not be able to continue the trade, consequently the planters would be entirely ruined; and, after all, it would not prevent those frauds against which it was said to be provided: that from the examination of the commissioners of the customs, it appeared that those frauds did not exceed forty thousand pounds per annum, and might in a great measure be abolished, by a due execution of the laws in being; consequently this scheme was unnecessary, would be ineffectual in augmenting the revenue, destructive to trade, and dangerous to the liberties of the subject, as it tended to promote a general excise, which was in all countries considered as a grievous oppression. They suggested that it would produce an additional swarm of excise officers and warehouse-keepers, appointed and paid by the treasury, so as to multiply the dependents on the crown, and enable it still further to influence the freedom of elections: that the traders would become slaves to excisemen and warehouse-keepers, as they would be debarred all access to their commodities, except at certain hours, when attended by those officers: that the merchant, for every quantity of tobacco he could sell, would be obliged to make a journey, or send a messenger to the office for a permit, which could not be obtained without trouble, expense, and delay: and that should a law be enacted in consequence of this motion, it would in all probability be some time or other used as a precedent for introducing excise laws into every branch of the revenue; in which case the liberty of Great Britain would be no more. In the course of this debate, sir Robert Walpole took notice of the multitudes which had beset all the approaches to the house. He said it would be an easy task for a designing seditious person to raise a tumult and disorder among them: that gentlemen might give them what name they should think fit, and affirm they were come as humble suppliants; but he knew whom the law called sturdy beggars: and those who brought them to that place could not be certain but that they might behave in the same manner. This insinuation was resented by sir John Barnard, who observed that merchants of character had a right to come down to the court of requests, and lobby of the house of commons, in order to solicit their friends and acquaintance against any scheme or project which they might think prejudicial to their commerce: that when he came into the house, he saw none but such as deserved the appellation of sturdy beggars as little as the honourable gentleman himself, or any gentleman whatever.

1733

After a warm dispute, the motion was carried by a majority of sixty-one voices. Several resolutions were founded on the proposal: and to these the house agreed, though not without another violent contest. The resolutions produced a bill, against which petitions were preferred by the lord-mayor, aldermen, and common-council of London, the city of Coventry and Nottingham. A motion was made that counsel should be heard for the city of London; but it was rejected by the majority, and the petitions were ordered to lie upon the table. Had the minister encountered no opposition but that which appeared within doors, his project would have certainly been carried into execution; but the whole nation was alarmed, and clamoured loudly against the excise-bill. The populace still crowded around Westminster-hall, blocking up all the avenues to the house of commons. They even insulted the persons of those members who had voted for the ministry on this occasion; and sir Robert Walpole began to be in fear of his life. He therefore thought proper to drop the design, by moving that the second reading of the bill might be postponed till the twelfth day of June. Then complaint being made of the insolence of the populace, who had maltreated several members, divers resolutions were taken against those tumultuous crowds and their abettors; these resolves were communicated to the lord-mayor of London, the sheriff of Middlesex, and the high-bailiff of Westminster. Some individuals were apprehended in the court of requests, as having fomented the disturbances; but they were soon released. The miscarriage of the bill was celebrated with public rejoicings in London and Westminster, and the minister was burned in effigy by the populace. After the miscarriage of the excise scheme, the house unanimously resolved to inquire into the frauds and abuses in the customs; and a committee of twenty-one persons was chosen by ballot for this purpose.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760