Anions, & C. J ONFEES, GRATUITIES, & c. Importers as were parties to the agreement, led to its becoming general, and to its being continued with mutual content. Importing retailers and confumers were however excluded from the benefit of this agreement, and continued to make prompt payment of the Excife Duties chargeable on their importations. In i 783 all Duties of Import were required to be paid down in ready 2. & n Geo m money without any allowance, except for Wines unfilled; and in order c- to reconcile the wholefale Importers to this meafure, and maintain the diftinCtion that had hitherto exifted between them and the importing retailers, an additional Import Duty of £. 6. per cent, was impofed, payable by the latter on all articles except Sugars. This Duty on retail- 42 Geo in. c. 103. ers was difcontinued in 1802, revived in 1804, and again difcontinued in ^ G^ o.' iVl c.' fs' 1805, lince which time it has altogether ceafed. By the 19th and 20th Geo. III. the importation of Tobacco was pro- & zoGeo m hibited, except into certain Ports therein enumerated; and provifion was c- made to enable the Importer to warehoufe ali fuch Tobacco, and after payment of a certain proportion of the Duty thereon, to give bond for the remainder. I11 1785, an Inland Excife Duty was firft impofed on manufactured Geo. 111. & Tobacco in Ireland, amounting to 2d. per lb. weight. Tobacco was likewife fubjeCtecl to a Duty of 10d. per lb. to be paid down on impor- tation, or of 11 d. in cafe of its being warehoufed. The rate of thefe Duties has varied from time to time: In 1804 a 44Geo. Hi. c. 67. Cuftom Duty of 8d. Britifh per lb. was impofed upon unmanufactured Tobacco, and an Excife Duty of gd. Britifh per lb. exceeding by about 6d. per lb. the higheft aggregate Duty ever before impofed upon Tobacco in Ireland. In 1807, 2d per lb. was transferred from the Cuftom branch 47 Geo. JIT. c. 31. of this Dutv to the Excife, but the total rate per lb. remained the fame. Seff- » • J and Notwithstanding this transfer of a part of the Cuftom Duty to the Excife, 47Geo. 111. c. 18 and the difficulty of carrying 011 a contraband trade during a ftate of war,- s-' in it appears that the confumption of Tobacco in Ireland, eftimated by the A * N„ 24_ quantity manufactured and charged with Duty, has on an average of four years ending 5th January 1808, compared with an average of four years ending 5th January 1804, decreafed by 1,411,502 lbs.; and we are in- formed that the Smuggler, for whole rifle the evalion of the Cuftom Duty lince its reduction proves an infufficient compenfation, receives a thare of the profits drawn from the evafibn of that of the Excife. The correCtnefs of this information is ftrongly fupported, if we advert App* to the reduced prices at which the Manufacturers in fome parts of the country can afford to fell, and to the places which that reduction prin- cipally pervades. It is therefore to be feared, that fo long as the prefent App* 2?> high rate of Duty, whether under the name of Import, or Excife, fhall continue to prefent fuch temptations, . no effectual protection can be furnifhed againft the perfeverance and enterprize of the illegal Importer ; the extent of the injury however both to the Revenue and fair 1 rader, might be confiderably d'. minifhed, by a greater degree of attention to the - due and conftant em, ploy< ment of the different veffels and cruize; s in the ferviceofthe Revenue; but notwithstanding the increafing expence of • this eftablifhment to the Public, which, exclusive of the Office of the InfpeCtor . of Cruizers, amounted in the year . ending 5th January 1S08, to APP* N° iS £. 46,820. 3. 7I.