that a reduction of duty to 1s. per pound would so effectually destroy the illicit trader, that the revenue would gain by the change, not only by bringing upwards of 30,000,000 lbs. under duty, which at present escape, but by the great increase of the consumption consequent upon the encouragement given to the fair trader.

We would not, however, treat the question merely as a matter of revenue.  We would strongly represent the injustice which this exorbitant duty inflicts upon those who pursue a legitimate trade, by enabling the smuggler to lessen the extent of their transactions by more than half what they would otherwise be; and we would further earnestly urge upon your consideration the demoralising tendency of such a systematic and extended violation of the law, not only upon those engaged in the illicit trade, also upon those parties who are found to connive at the practice from a sense of the gross injustice and impolicy of a duty so disproportioned to the value of an article of such extensive consumption.

We would refer to the opinion of a committee of the House of Commons on the growth of tobacco in Ireland, in 1840, as follows:—­’That it further appears, from the evidence, that smuggling of foreign tobacco is at present carried on to a great extent, and that all the measures now adopted, at great expense to the country, are and will be ineffectual to repress it so long as the temptation of evading a duty equal to twelve times the value of the article on which it is imposed, remains.”

We beg, therefore, respectfully to express our opinion, that if the duty on tobacco were reduced to one shilling per pound, it would be alike beneficial to the interests of legitimate commerce; to the consumers, who consist almost entirely of the poorer classes; to the revenue, by increasing the productiveness of the duty, and by greatly diminishing the expenditure so ineffectually incurred to suppress the illicit trade; and to the general morals of society by removing a powerful inducement to infringe the laws.

The imports of all kinds of tobacco for the last five years have been as follows:—­

|   1848.  |   1849.  |   1850.  |   1851.  |   1852.
|   lbs.   |   lbs.   |   lbs.   |   lbs.   |   lbs. 
Unmanufactured|34,090,360|41,546,848|35,166,358|31,061,953|3

3,205,635
Manufactured  |          |          |          |          |
and snuff   | 1,512,714| 1,905,306| 1,557,618| 2,331,886| 2,930,299
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------
|35,603,074|43,452,154|36,723,876|33,393,839|36,135,934
>
  Gross duty received:—­