iews and
designs, the right honourable baronet said, that within the last three
years, the tariff, that is, the whole scheme of customs' duties, had
been submitted to the review of parliament; and the general principle of
the changes then effected was, to remit the duty on raw materials,
and to subject foreign manufactures to a duty of twenty per cent.
Notwithstanding the fears of a falling revenue, those remissions were
carried further: in 1844, the duty on wool was altogether reduced; in
1845, the duty on cotton-wool. Almost the only articles of the nature of
raw material still subjected to duty were timber and tallow; and he
now proposed to reduce these. Tallow, which was chiefly imported from
Russia, had a duty on it of 3s. 2d. per hundred weight; he proposed,
mainly with a view to our own interests, and partly to induce Russia
to follow our liberal policy, to reduce it to Is. 6d. With respect
to timber, he could not yet state particulars, as the details needed
careful adjustment. The course which government would probably take
would be a gradual reduction of the existing amount of duty, where it
should rest a certain time lower than at present: the reduction being
so apportioned, if possible, as to prevent any derangement of internal
trade by inducing parties to withhold the supply of timber, in the hope
of realising a large amount of duty; and yet at the same time, as the
importation of timber from the Baltic partook in some respect of a
monopoly, care would be taken that the reduction of duty should be an
advantage, not so much to the producer as to the consumer. Having given
the manufacturer the advantage of a free command, without any impost, of
the raw materials which enter into his fabrics, he should call upon the
manufacturers of the three great articles which entered into consumption
as the clothing of the great body of the community, to give a proof
of the sincerity of their convictions as to the impolicy of protective
duties, by consenting to relax the protection on their manufactures.
These three great articles were linen, woollen, and cotton manufactures;
and he asked the manufacturers of these at once to set the example to
others, by relaxing, voluntarily and cheerfully, the protection they
enjoyed. It should not be said, that he considered only the "great
interests," and injured the minor interests. As the case now stood, the
great articles of the cotton manufacture, such as calicos, prints, &c,
were s