ened period, on a very large scale. Instead, however, of increasing with the increasing wealth and population of the country, it has been nearly stationary for the last hundred years. This apparently anomalous result is probably in some measure to be accounted for by the increased consumption of tea and coffee, which are now in almost universal use; but there cannot be a question that it is mainly owing to the exorbitant duties with which malt, and the ale or beer manufactured from it, have been loaded, and to the oppressive regulations imposed on the manufacture of malt and the sale of beer. The effect of these duties and regulations was to impose a tax of about 7s. on the malt and beer made from a bushel of barley; which, taking the average price of barley at from 4s. to 5s. a bushel, was equivalent to an ad valorem duty of from 140 to 175 per cent.! The exorbitancy of the duty was not, however, its most objectionable feature. It was about equally divided-one half being assessed directly on malt, and the other on beer: but the beer duty affected only beer brewed by public brewers, or for sale, and did not affect that which was brewed for private use; and as rich families brewed all the beer they made use of, the consequence of this distinction was, that the beer duty fell wholly on the lower and middle classes, who did not brew any beer; or, in other words, the poor man was compelled to pay twice the duty on the malt he made use of that was paid by the rich man! That such a distinction should ever have been made, or submitted to for any considerable period, is certainly not a little astonishing. Originally, however, the distinction was. not so great as it afterwards became; and being increased by slow degrees, the force of habit reconciled the parliament and the country to the gross inequality and oppressiveness of the tax. But the public attention being at length forcibly attracted to the subject, and the effect of the exorbitant duties on malt and beer in increasing the consumption of ardent spirits having been clearly pointed out-(see Edinburgh Review, No. 98. art. 4.), the beer duty was repealed in 1830. This measure of substantial justice and sound policy reflects the greatest credit on the administration of the Duke of Wellington; which is also entitled to the public gratitude for having put an end to the licensing system, and established, for the first time, a really free trade in beer.

The repeal of the duty has materially increased the consumption of malt; and the anticipations of those who contended that its abolition, if combined with a free trade in beer, would be no great loss to the revenue, are in a fair way of being realised. The clamour that has been raised against the measure, on account of its supposed influence in increasing drunkenness, is, we firmly believe, wholly without foundation. If the measure has increased, as it certainly has done, the consumption of beer, it has at the same time equally diminished the consumption of gin; and it is surely superfluous to add, that this is a most beneficial change. It is true that a number of new public houses have been opened for the sale of beer; but it has not hitherto been proved that this circumstance, though it seems to have occasioned no common alarm among the clergy and magistrates in different parts of the country, has been productive of any public inconvenience. Like all newly opened lines of business, the trade of beer selling has been overdone; and a considerable number of beer shops have been shut up. "It is not," as Dr. Smith sagaciously remarked, "the multiplication of alehouses that occasions a general disposition to drunkenness among the common people; but that disposition, arising from other causes, necessarily gives employment to a multitude of alehouses.”—(Wealth of Nations, vol. ii. p. 146.) The way to eradicate this disposition is by giving a better education to the poor, and inspiring them with a taste for less grovelling enjoyments. All that the fiscal regulations and police enactments intended to promote sobriety have ever done, is to make bad worse, to irritate and disgust, to make the lower classes more enamoured of that which they conceive is unjustly withheld from them, and to stimulate them to elude and defeat the law. (See vol. i. p. 15.)

The following Tables show the consumption of malt in England and Wales from 1787 down to 1833, and in the whole kingdom from 1821. They show that the consumption of malt had been about stationary for nearly half a century, notwithstanding the population had been more than doubled in that period, and that the wealth of all classes had been materially increased. In point of fact, however, the consumption had been stationary for a much longer period-for more than an entire century! For it appears from the accounts given by the very well-informed Mr. Charles Smith, in his tracts on the Corn Trade (2d ed. p. 199.), that the quantity of malt that paid duty in England and Wales, at an average of the 10 years ending with 1723, was 3,542,000 quarters a year; and that the annual average during the next 10 years was 3,358,071 quarters. The beer duties being, in effect, as much a part of the malt duty as if they had been laid directly on malt, it is indispensable that they should always be taken into account, before drawing any conclusions as to the influence of the duty. Ample information with respect to them will be found in the article ALE AND BEER; but, to save the trouble of references, the whole is brought, as far as respects the 10 years previous to their repeal, into one point of view in the subjoined Table, No. I.

I. An Account of the Number of Quarters of Malt charged with Duty, he Amount of the said Duty, the Rate per Quarter in each Year; also, the Number of Quarters of Malt used by Brewers and Victuallers; the Number of Barrels of Strong, Intermediate, and Table Beer, separately; the Amount of Duty on Beer, and the Rate of Duty per Barrel for each sort of Beer, in each Year, from, the 5th of January, 1821, to the 5th of January, 1833; in Imperial Measure.

II. Prices of Malt, per Winchester Quarter, at Greenwich Hospital, from 1730 to 1832.

From the year 1827, the rate of duty per barrel for strong beer was-common brewers. 9s. ; victuallers. 9s. 10d.; table beer, common brewers, 1s. 9fd.; victuallers, 1s. 11td.; the same also for Scotland. + Beer duty ceased the 10th of October, 1830.

III. An Account of the Total Quantity of Malt made in England and Wales in each Year, from 1787 to 1820, both inclusive, the Rates of Duty, and the Amount of the Duty.

IV. A Return of the Number of Bushels of Malt made, and the Amount of Duties collected thereon, in each Collection of Excise in the United Kingdom, in the Year ended 5th of January, 1836.

Malt.

of Malt.

siderable praise; it repeals a good many of the penalties, and some of the most vexatious and useless regulations, in the former; so that the business may now be carried on with equal security to the reve nue, and with infinitely less risk and annoyance on the part of the manufacturer. The existing regulations principally refer to the gauging of the cisterns, the wetting of the malt, the emptying of the cisterns, the gauging of the malt when in the couch frames, the pay ment of the duties, &c. But as no one would think of undertaking the business of a maltster without having a copy of both acts in bis possession, it would be quite unnecessary for us, even if our limits permitted, to give any abstract of these acts. The license duty on maltsters, and the number of maltsters who took out licenses in 1:29, distributed into classes according to the extent of their business, will be found specified in the article Licenses (Excise).

Regulations as to the Manufacture of Malt.-These are embodied in the acts 7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. 52, and 11 Geo. 4. c. 17. The former act is exceedingly complex: it has no fewer than eighty three clauses; and the regulations embodied in it, though frequently repugnant to common sense, are enforced by 106 penalties, amounting in all to the enormous sum of 13,5001.! Under such a statute, it was hardly possible for the most houest and cautious maltster to avoid incurring penalties. Such, indeed, is the nature of this act, that one is almost tempted to believe, in looking into it, that if its framers had any object more than another at heart, it was to condense into it whatever was most contradictory and absurd in the forty statutes that had previously been passe! for the collection of the malt duty and the oppression of the trade! But it was not in the nature of things that such a law could be allowed to exist for any considerable period. It was not only loudly and universally condemned by the maltsters, but by all the more intelligent officers of excise. In consequence, the 11 Geo. 4. c. 17. was passed. This latter statute is entitled to very con--(6 Geo. 4. c. 107. sect. 62.)

Malt may not be imported into the United Kingdom for home use under pain of forfeiture; but it may be warehoused for exportation.

MALTA, an island in the Mediterranean, nearly opposite to the southern extremity of Sicily, from which it is about 54 miles distant.

Valetta, the capital, is situated on the north coast of the island, the light-house in the castle of St. Elmo being in lat. 35° 54' 6" N., lon. 14° 31 10 E. Malta is about 20 miles long, and 10 or 12 broad. The island of Gozo, about a fourth part of the size of Malta, lies to the north-west of the latter, at about 4 miles' distance; and in the strait between them is the small island of Cuinino. In 1835, the resident population of Malta amounted to 100,154; and including troops and strangers, the total population amounted to 106,578. The population of Gozo, at the same period, was 16,547. The total population of both islands making 123,125. The entire revenue collected in Malta amounts to about 100,000!, a year, of which about 23,0001. is derived from the rent of lands; the expenditure, exclusive of that incurred in England on account of the island, amounts to about $8.0007.

Valetta, the capital of the island, is defended by almost impregnable fortifications. These," says Mr. Brydone, are, indeed, most stupendous works. All the boasted catacombs of Rome and Naples are a trifle to the immense excavations that have been made in this little island. The ditches of a vast size, are all cut out of the solid rock; these extend for a great many miles; and raise our astonishment to think that so small a state has ever been able to make them." -(Tour through Sicily and Malta, Letter 15.) Since the island came into our possession, the fortifications have been considerably improved; so that at present it is a place of very great strength.

After the capture of Rhodes by the Turks, the Emperor Charles V. made a present of Malta to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, in whose possession it remained till 1798, when it was taken by the French. It was taken from the latter by the English in 1800; and was definitively ceded to us in 1814.

The island consists mostly of a rock, very thinly covered with soil, a good deal of which has been brought, at an immense expense, from Sicily; but being cultivated with the utmost care, it produces excellent fruits, particularly the celebrated Maltese oranges, corn, cotton, with small quantities of indigo, saffron, and sugar. The principal dependence of the inhabitants is on their cotton; the crop of which, amounting to about 4,000,000 lbs. a year, is partly exported raw and partly manufactured to the value of from 80,0001, to 100,000. The corn raised in the island is not sufficient to feed the inhabitants for more than 5 or 6 months. The trade in corn used to be monopolised by government; and after the monopoly was abandoned, duties on importation, varying, like those in this country, with the price, were imposed. But in 1835 these duties were abolished; and the fixed duties on corn entered for consumption, specified in the subjoined tariff, were substituted in their stead.

Malta presents unusual facilities, which have not hitherto been taken proper advantage of, for becoming the entrepôt of the corn trade of the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Her warehouses for corn are, like those of Sicily and Barbary, excavated in the rock; and are, perhaps, the best fitted of any in Europe for the safe keeping of corn. The wheat lodged in them may be preserved for au indefinite period; and it is affirmed that though it should, on being deposited, be affected by the weevil, it is very soon freed from that destructive insect. It is not often that corn can be brought direct from Odessa, Taganrog, &c. to England, without the risk of being damaged; but were it brought in the first instance to Malta, and bonded there, it might afterwards be conveyed in the best order to London, or any where else. Malta is also admirably well suited for becoming the centre of the corn trade of Egypt, Barbary, Italy, &c.

During the late war, particularly during the period when Napoleon's anti-commercial system was in operation, Malta became a great entrepôt for colonial and other goods, which were thence conveyed, according as opportunities offered, to the adjacent ports, This commerce ceased with the circumstances that gave it birth; and for some years after the return of peace, the trade of the island was depressed below its natural level, by the imposition of various oppressive discriminating duties. In 1819, this vexatious system was partially obviated; but it continued to exert a pernicious influence till 1937, when, pursuant to the recommendation of Messrs. Austin and Lewis, Commissioners of Inquiry, the then existing tariffs of customs duties and port charges were wholly abolished; and a new tariff (which is subjoined) was issued in their stead. It imposes moderate duties, for the sake of revenue only, on a few articles in general demand, without regard to the country from whence they come, at the same time that it equalises the tonnage duties, and reduces the warehouse rent on articles in bond to the lowest level. Every thing has thus been done that was possible to second the natural advantages enjoyed by Malta for becoming the grand entrepot of the Mediterranean frade: and we have little doubt they will powerfully contribute to bring about that result.

There are some good springs of fresh water. Valetta is partly supplied by water brought by an aqueduct a distance of about 6 miles, and partly by the rain water collected in cisterns.

Harbour.The harbour of Valetta is double, and is one of the

finest in the world. The city is built on a narrow tongue of land, having the castle and light of St. Elmo at its extremity and an admi: rable port on each side. That on the south-eastern side, denominated the grand port, is the most frequented. The entrance to it, about 250 fathoms wide, has the formidable batteries of St. Elmo on the one hand, and those of Fort Ricasoli on the other. In entering, it is necessary not to come within 50 or 60 fathoms of the former, on arer unt of a spit which projects from it; but in the rest of the chan

nel there is from 10 to 12 fathoms water. The port, which runs about 13-4 mile inwards, has deep water and excellent anchorage throughout; the largest men of war coming close to the quays. Port Marsamusceit, on the north-western side of the city, is also a noble harbour. The entrance to it, which is about the same breadth as that of the Grand Port, is between St. Elmo and Fort Tique. In the centre of the basin is an island, on which are built a castle and a lazaretto, for the convenience of the ships performing quarantine, by which the port is principally used. Owing to the narrowness of the entrance, and the usual variableness of the wind, it is customary for most vessels bound for Valetta to take a pilot on board before entering the harbour.

TARIFF (A).-Duties on Imports, and Dues for Store Rent, which the Collector of Customs is required to levy on the Account of the Government of Malta.

Beer, per Maltese barrel

Cattle: bullocks, and other animals of the
kind, per head

Horses and mules, per head

Charcoal, per salm.
Grain:-

Wheat, per salm
Indian corn, per salm
Barley, per salm
Saggina, per salm
Other inferior grains
Manufactured grain, per cantar.
Wheat, Indian corn, barley, or other
inferior grains, if damaged so as to be
unfit for the food of man (commonly
called frumentazzo), per salm
Manufactured grain, if damaged so as
to be unfit for the food of man, per

cantar.

0 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 6 0 0 1

0 0 10 0 0 2

020002 0 0 6 002

12000 2 020002

0 11 0 0 0 2 0 2000 2

Observations.-1. The duties payable by the salm on grain, pulse, and seeds (except large Sicilian beans) to be charged by the strike measure. The duties on large Sicilian beans and on charcoal to be charged by the heaped measure.

2. Every liquid compounded of spirit and any other ingredient or ingredients, and containing more than 25 per cent. of spirit of the strength of proof, to be liable to the duty on spirits which is imposed by the present tariff.

3. The store rents on grain lodged in bond to be payable from the day on which the grain was lodged. The store rents on every other article mentioned in the present tariff to be payable from the tenth day after the day on which such article was lodged.

TARIFF (B).-Tonnage dues which the Collector of Customs is required to levy on the Account of the Government of Malta.

Vessels discharging merchandise in the island, shall, on clearing outwards, pay for every ton or any part thereof

. 6d.

TABLE exhibiting the various Articles, and their Value, in Sterling Money imported into the Island of Malta during each of the Four Years ending with 1837.

Movement of Shipping at Malta, during each of the Four Years ending Average Prices of

MAN (ISLE OF) is, as every one knows, situated in the Irish sea, at about an equa distance from England, Scotland, and Ireland. It is about 30 miles long, and 10 or 12 broad. The interior is mountainous, and the soil no where very productive. Population. VOL. II.-P

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