deration of any measure for that purpose, until these legislative improvements shall have been effect ed, when it may be seen in what manner the disposal of the revenue causes out of Dublin may be best adapted to them.

It is to be observed also, that the mode of trying revenue causes in the country would not of necessity be affected by the alteration of the local boards. The reduction of their members would only render a new arrangement of the Dublin jurisdiction indispensable.

We have had under our consideration two plans, calculated to relieve the chief commissioners from this part of their present duty. One of them is a proposal submitted to the lord lieutenant, which had for its object to make the commissioners of appeal the judges in the first instance, and to enable the parties to appeal from that tribunal to the court of Exchequer, with some abridgment of the forms and expenses belonging to the proceedings of that court. The other is a suggestion from Mr. Leslie Foster, a person whose opinion, on all accounts, is entitled to the greatest weight, and one of the board's counsel. His opinion is, that the causes now tried by the court of commissioners might be carried at once into the court of Exchequer, under regulations which would effectually guard the subject against any increase of delay or expense. This has appeared to us to be by much the more eligible course. It would not only be a relief to the revenue boards, in their judicial functions, but would lead to the entire abolition of the commission of appeal in Ireland, the expense of which is about 5,000l. a year.

Mr. Leslie Foster's proposal will

be found in his evidence given before us annexed to this report. The other suggestion to which we have adverted is also inserted in our appendix, together with the opinions of the Irish law officers upon it.

We do not think it necessary that we should state in more detail our opinions upon the respective merits of these plans, because we conceive, that previously to the adoption of either of them, or of any other arrangement for the same purpose, the subject should be fully examined, and considered by the new general boards of Customs and Excise, assisted by the British and Irish law officers of the crown.

In the offices immediately under the boards, and connected with the exercise of their functions, some changes will be required, and some reductions will be found practica ble, in consequence of the alteration of the boards themselves. The offices of the secretaries in both departments are of this description; and those which appertain to the general receipt and collection of the revenues in Dublin and in Edinburgh, will be susceptible of a more economical modification, whenever it may be determined to carry into execution the change which we propose. It will be our duty to suggest the regulations and reductions by which these parts of the establishments may be best adapted to it, after completing our inquiry into each of them, and after conferring with the persons appointed to preside over them.

Of the practical difficulties which the new boards will have to encounter in the full introduction of the English system of collection into Ireland, the most considerable will be found in the Excise de

partment. In the Customs, the differences now existing between the English and Irish practice, are rather those of habit and discipline than of principle or regulation. But in the Excise there are wider distinctions.

These chiefly consist in the combined method of license and survey (before adverted to) which prevails in Ireland, and not in England, and in the mixed system of port and inland duties of Excise which obtains in England and not in Ireland.

For the former, we cannot hesitate to recommend the ultimate though gradual and cautious substitution of the English system of survey alone. We concur with colonel Doyle and Mr. Carr in thinking that it would not be safe to relinquish immediately the means which the license system affords for securing a part of the revenue in Ireland. But we are strongly of opinion, that as soon as the system of survey is well established, the charge by way of license should be abandoned; as we apprehend that the system of license must either be of no assistance to a system of survey, or it must have a tendency to relax it.

If the license is imposed at a rate of duty much below what could be yielded on the average by the actual quantity of the article produced, it must leave the whole business of ascertaining the real duty to the vigilance of the officer, and under good management the duty paid, would, in that case, always exceed the license charge. If, on the other hand, the charge by way of license were imposed, so as to approach very nearly to the amount of the duty on the actual produce, it would gradually induce the officer to take the easier

course of relying upon it, and of sparing his own exertions. But in that case, while it would still produce no advantage to the reve nue, it could not fail to operate very injuriously upon the manufacturers in general, by its unavoidable tendency to confine the trade to the greater capitalists.

No manufacturers could exist under a system of license calculated upon the utmost quantity of any article that could be produced by constant work, except such as could afford to keep their manufactories always in activity, and to abide the fluctuations of the market, with large stocks frequently on their hands. The enterprise of the smaller capitalist would be crushed by it. This is one of the pernicious effects of revenue regulation, which ought most sedulously to be guarded against.

That such an effect has been produced in a considerable degree in Ireland by the license system, even at the rates of charge, and with the evasions which have prevailed there, is apparent from the report of the board of Excise, in which a very great diminution in the number of all traders subject to the Excise, since the adoption of that system, is described with expressions of satisfaction perfectly consistent in persons who have only the easy collection of the revenue at heart; but in which, we presume, neither your lordships nor parliament, who take a more extended view of the general interests of the community, could possibly participate.

With respect to the difference which exists in the collection of the port duties, we can only offer our decided opinion that it ought not to continue; and that the Cus

toms and Excise should be employed in the collection of their several revenues in the same limits as to their respective operations in Ireland as in Great Britain. Whether it may be more convenient to adopt the division established in Ireland between these two departments, where the Customs alone are employed upon the coast and in the ports, while the Excise have no concern but with the collection of inland duties, or to extend to Ireland the English practice of taking a part of the importation duties by the Customs, and a part by the Excise, it is not within our province to consider. The commission which is appointed under the sign manual to inquire into the Customs and Excise of England will, doubtless, submit to your lordships their opinion upon that important point, as it concerns the future manage ment in England; and the practice in Ireland will be governed by the ultimate decision taken upon it. In both branches of the revenue, however, the first proceeding towards the union of the departments, and the establishment of a better system and practice in Ireland will be gradually to introduce a certain proportion of officers of skill and character from the British service into the most important places of check and superintendence in that country, while persons of the same description may be brought from thence to acquire by experience a knowledge of the English practice. The complete identification of the establishments, by interchanging the lower and more executive mem

bers, so as finally to abolish all national distinctions among the officers of the same revenue, would ensue, by such slow gradations, and with such precautions as the

judgment and experience of the boards must naturally suggest.

We are well aware that when these first and general arrange ments shall have been completed, there will still remain much to be done, in the judicious adoption of the subordinate parts, before the new system will be in full operation, and productive of all the advantages which it must ultimately yield. Many of the difficulties to be encountered are sufficiently obvious, and others will no doubt arise in the gradual introduction of so extensive a change, which cannot now be anticipated. But we neither foresee, nor can we imagine any obstacles to the successful ac complishment of this great mea sure, of a magnitude sufficient to suggest to us the least apprehension, or induce in us a belief that they would not be easily overcome by the industry, the zeal, and the judgment of the general and local commissioners, under the superin tending directions of your ships. On the other hand, we must repeat our confident aurance, that neither skill nor industry, however indefatigably and zealously applied, can, by a mere partial amendment of the existing management of the revenue in Ireland, in its present state of se paration from that of England, render it an efficient and econo mical member of the general system.

lord

Of the effect which must be produced by these changes, upon individual interests and feelings, we are certainly by no means insensible; and nothing short of a clear conviction of the great benefit to be derived from them would have induced us to recommend 8 public measure, which may be the inevitable cause of much private

We have thus submitted the grounds upon which we have been led to consider the incorporation of the several boards of revenue throughout the United Kingdom, as an indispensable preliminary to the attainment of that uniformity in the management and collection of the public income which was contemplated by parliament in the act of our appointment. We have also submitted the outline of what has appeared to us, after the fullest consideration, the most eligible mode of accomplishing that incorporation, as it concerns the two principal branches of the revenue, the Customs and Excise. The other departments will be the subject of separate reports. In framing a plan for that purpose, we have steadfastly borne in mind the several objects which it is our peculiar duty to suggest the means of attaining, viz. an uniform system of revenue administration, an improved collection of the public income in Ireland, and a reduction of the charges of management. We have also kept in view the connexion between this charge in the constitution of the revenue departments and the other alterations of which we submitted the

general heads in the commencement of this report.

Upon the fullest consideration, the plan submitted has appeared to us the best calculated for accomplishing all the purposes for which, in conjunction with those measures, it is intended. But we desire distinctly to be understood as not insisting upon this particular mode of effecting an incorporation of the departments with the same degree of confidence as that with which we insist upon the indispensable necessity of the incorporation itself. We are sensible, that other modifications of the same principles, and other schemes of arrangement in the application of them, which have not suggested themselves to us, may perhaps be deemed preferable, notwithstanding the anxious consideration which we have bestowed upon the subject. But whether the object shall be accomplished in the form which we have proposed, or in any other, we shall be equally ready to devote our best endeavours, aided by the powers of inquiry with which parliament has invested us, to ascertain and report to your lordships the scale of the subordinate establishments which may be most consistent with it, having a just regard to all those interests, financial and commercial, which are involved in the due execution of the service belonging to these departments.

We are well aware that it is to those interests alone that the province of our commission extends. In closing this report, however, we trust it may be permitted to us to observe, that some beneficial consequences, even beyond those immediately affecting the revenue and the merchant, may be expect