sources when necessary- —a power which is found in all governments, and is essential to their efficiency, and even to their existence.

Duties on articles of internal production and manufacture, form, in every country, the principal sources of revenue. Those on imported articles can only be carried to a certain extent, without defeating their object, by operating either as prohibitions, or as bounties upon smuggling. They are, moreover, in some degree, temporary; for, as the growth of manufactures diminishes the quantum of duty on imports, the public revenue, ceasing to arise from that source, must be derived from articles which the national industry has substituted for those previously imported. If the Government cannot then resort to internal means for the additional supplies, which the exigencies of every nation call for, it will be unable to perform its duty, or even to preserve its existence. The community must be unprotected, and the social compact be dissolved.

For the same reasons that a duty ought not to be laid on an article manufactured out of the country (which is the point most insisted upon), it ought not to be laid upon the produce itself, nor consequently upon the land, which is the instrument of that produce; because taxes are laid upon land, as the fund out of which the income of the proprietor is drawn; or, in other words, on account of its produce. There ought, therefore, on the principle of the objection, to be neither taxes on land, nor the produce of land, nor on articles manufactured from that produce. And if a nation should be in a condition to supply itself with its own manufactures, there could then be very little, or no revenue; of course, there must be a want of the essential means of national justice and national security.

Positions like these, however well meant by those who urge them, refute themselves, because they tend to the dissolution of government, by rendering it incapable of providing for the objects for which it is instituted.

However true the allegation, that it is, and ought to be, the prevailing policy of nations to cherish their own manufactures, it is equally true, that nations, in general, lay duties for the

purpose of revenue, on their own manufactures; and it is obvious, to a demonstration, that it may be done without injury to them. The most successful nations in manufactures have drawn the largest revenues from the most useful of them. It merits particular attention, that ardent spirits are an article which has been generally deemed, and made use of, as one of the fittest objects of revenue, and to an extent, in other countries, which bears no comparison with what has been done in the United States.

The special reasons alluded to, are of different kinds:

1. It is said, that the act in question, by laying a smaller additional duty on foreign spirits than the duty on home-made spirits, has a tendency to discourage the manufacture of the latter.

This objection merits consideration, and, as far as it may appear to have foundation, ought to be obviated.

The point, however, seems not to have been viewed, in all its respects, in a correct light.

Before the present constitution of the United States began to operate, the regulations of the different States, respecting distilled spirits, were very dissimilar. In some of them, duties were laid on foreign spirits only; in others, on domestic as well as foreign. The absolute duty, in the former instances, and the difference of duty in the latter, was, upon an average, considerably less than the present difference in the duties on foreign and home-made spirits. If to this be added, the effect of the uniform operation of the existing duties throughout the United States, it is easy to infer, that the situation of our own distilleries is, in the main, much better, as far as they are affected by the laws, than it was previous to the passing of any act of the United States upon the subject. They have, therefore, upon the whole, gained materially, under the system which has been pursued by the National Government.

The first law of the United States on this head, laid a duty of no more than eight cents per gallon on those of Jamaica proof. The second increased the duty on foreign spirits to twelve cents per gallon, of the lowest proof, and by certain gradations, to

fifteen cents per gallon, of Jamaica proof. The last act places the duty at twenty cents per gallon, of the lowest proof, and extends it, by the like gradations, to twenty-five cents per gallon, of Jamaica proof; laying, also, a duty of eleven cents per gallon on home-made spirits, distilled from foreign materials of the lowest proof, with a like gradual extension to fifteen cents per gallon of Jamaica proof; and a duty of nine cents per gallon on homemade spirits, distilled from domestic materials of the lowest proof, with the like gradual extension to thirteen cents per gallon, of Jamaica proof.

If the transition had been immediate from the first to the last law, it could not have failed to have been considered as a change in favor of our own distilleries, as far as the rate of duty is concerned. The mean duty on foreign spirits, by the first law, was nine cents; by the last, the mean extra duty on foreign spirits is, in fact, about eleven cents, as it regards spirits distilled from foreign materials, and about thirteen as it regards spirits distilled from domestic materials. In making this computation, it is to be adverted to, that the four first degrees of proof mentioned in the law, correspond with the different kinds of spirits usually imported, while the generality of those made in the United States, are of the lowest class of proof.

Spirits from domestic materials, derived a double advantage from the last law; that is, from the increased rate of duty on foreign imported spirits, and from a higher rate of duty on home-made spirits of foreign materials.

But the intervention of the second law has served to produce, in some places, a different impression of the business than would have happened without it. By a considerable addition to the duties on foreign spirits, without laying any thing on those of home manufacture, it has served to give to the last law the appearance of taking away a part of the advantages previously secured to the domestic distilleries. It seems to have been overlooked, that the second act ought, in reality, to be viewed only as an intermediate step to the arrangement finally contemplated by the legislature; and that, as part of a system, it has, upon the whole, operated in favor of the national distilleries. The thing

to be considered is the substantial existing difference in favor of the home manufacture, as the law now stands.

The advantage, indeed, to the distillation of spirits from the produce of the country, arising from the difference between the duties on spirits distilled from foreign, and those distilled from domestic materials, is exclusively the work of the last act, and is an advantage which has not been properly appreciated by those distillers of spirits from home produce, who have complained of the law as hurtful to their manufacture.

Causes entirely foreign to the law itself, have also assisted in producing misapprehension. The approximation of the price of home-made spirits to that of foreign spirits, which has, of late, taken place, and which is attributed to the operation of the act in question, is in a great degree owing to the circumstances which have tended to raise the price of molasses in the West India market, and to an extra importation of foreign spirits prior to the first of July last, to avoid the payment of the additional duty which then took place.

It is stated in the petition from Salem, that, previous to the last act, the price of domestic to foreign spirits was as 1s. 9d. to 3s. 4d. of the money of Massachusetts, per gallon, and that, since that act, it has become as 3s. 3d. to 4s. 2d.

It is evident that a rise from 1s. 9d. to 3s. 3d. per gallon, which would be equal to twenty cents, is not to be attributed wholly to a duty of eleven cents. Indeed, if there were a concurrence of no other cause, the inference would be very different from that intended to be drawn from the fact, for it would evince a profit gained to the distiller of more than eighty per cent. on the duty.

It is, however, meant to be understood, that this approximation of prices, occasions a greater importation and consumption of foreign, and a less consumption of domestic spirits than formerly. How far this may, or may not be the case, the Secretary is not now able to say with precision, but no facts have come under his notice officially, which serve to authenticate the suggestion; and it must be considered as possible, that representations of this kind are rather the effect of apprehension

than of experience. It would even be not unnatural, that a considerable enhancement of the prices of the foreign article, should have led to a greater consumption of the domestic article, as the cheapest of the two, though dearer itself than formerly.

But, while there is ground to believe, that the suggestions which have been made on this point, are, in many respects, inaccurate and misconceived, there are known circumstances, which seem to render advisable, some greater difference between the duties on foreign and on home-made spirits. These circumstances have been noticed in the report of the Secretary, on the subject of manufactures, and an alteration has been proposed, by laying two cents in addition, upon imported spirits of the lowest proof, with a proportional increase on the higher proofs, and by deducting one cent from the duty on the lowest proof of homemade spirits, with a proportional diminution in respect to the higher proofs.

This alteration would bring the proportion of the duties nearly to the standard which the petitioner, Hendrick Doyer, who appears likely to be well informed on the subject, represents as the proper one, to enable the distillation of Geneva to be carried on with the same advantage as before the passing of the act. He observes, that the duty on home-made Geneva, being nine cents, the additional duty on foreign ought to have been twelve cents. By the alteration proposed, the proportion will be as ten to eight, which is little different from that of twelve to nine.

It is worthy of remark, that the same petitioner states, that, previous to the passing of the act of which he complains, he "could sell his Geneva sixteen and a quarter per cent. under the price of Holland Geneva, but that he cannot do it at present, and in future, lower than fourteen per cent." If, as he also states, the quality of his Geneva be equal to that of Holland, and, if his meaning be, as it appears to be, that he can now afford to sell his Geneva lower, by fourteen per cent., than the Geneva of Holland, it will follow, that the manufacture of that article is in a very thriving train, even under the present rate of duties. For a difference of fourteen per cent. in the price, is capable of giving a decided preference to the sale of the domestic article.