ded a remission of the tax on all
cotton cloth or yarn exported, which will give a stimulus to
manufactures both at the South and the North, and enable our merchants
to meet those of Great Britain in successful competition in all parts of
the globe. The cotton tax, as a substitute for taxes on sales and
manufactures, will meet the cordial support of our countrymen; and, if
it oppose a slight check to production, they have already learned that
half a crop gives more dollars than a whole one.

SPIRITS.

Another change of great importance recommended by the Commission, both
in their general Report, and in a special report devoted to this
subject, is a reduction of the duty on spirits from two dollars to one
dollar per gallon _as a revenue measure_, the higher duty having proved
an utter failure. For some months past the average quantity that has
monthly paid duty has been less than half a million gallons, or at the
rate of six millions of gallons per year, while the entire annual
product, by the census of 1860, exceeded ninety-two millions of gallons,
and, at the customary rate of increase, would have amounted to one
hundred and twenty millions of gallons, or ten millions a month, in
place of half a million in 1866. It has been ascertained that in 1860
more than half the annual production was consumed in the arts. As
alcohol it was used for ether, spirit-lamps, camphene, and
burning-fluid; by apothecaries for tinctures and medicinal preparations;
by hair-dressers for lotions; and it was also consumed in many
manufactures. The duty has carried alcohol to five dollars per gallon,
and nearly stopped its use in the arts, while it has not stopped the use
of spirits as a beverage. It has drawn a revenue from the pockets of the
people, and transferred it from the government to the illicit trader.
While the duty ranged from twenty to sixty cents per gallon, the amount
assessed was from six to seven million gallons per month; but the
returns nearly ceased with the advance of duty two years since. Efforts
have been made to sustain the present duty by reference to the practice
of Great Britain, where a duty of $2.40 is imposed upon the imperial
gallon; but the imperial gallon is more than twenty per cent larger than
the wine gallon of America. The average prime cost of good spirits there
being sixty cents a gallon, while it has been but twenty cents in the
West, the percentage of the British duty is but 400 per cent, while the
du