Walpole broached his design. He took
notice of the arts which had been used to prejudice the people against
his plan before it was known. He affirmed that the clamours occasioned
by these prejudices had originally risen from smugglers and fradulent
dealers, who had enriched themselves by cheating the public; and that
these had been strenuously assisted and supported by another set of
men, fond of every opportunity to stir up the people of Great Britain to
mutiny and sedition. He expatiated on the frauds that were committed in
that branch of the revenue arising from the duties on tobacco; upon the
hardships to which the American planters were subjected by the heavy
duties payable on importation, as well as by the ill usage they had met
with from their factors and correspondents in England, who, from being
their servants, were now become their masters; upon the injury done to
the fair trader; and the loss sustained by the public with respect to
the revenue. He asserted that the scheme he was about to propose would
remove all these inconveniencies, prevent numberless frauds, perjuries,
and false entries, and add two or three hundred thousand pounds per
annum to the public revenue. He entered into a long detail of frauds
practised by the knavish dealers in those commodities; he recited
the several acts of parliament that related to the duties on wine and
tobacco; he declared he had no intention to promote a general excise; he
endeavoured to obviate some objections that might be made to his plan,
the nature of which he at length explained. He proposed to join the laws
of excise to those of the customs; that the further subsidy of three
farthings per pound charged upon imported tobacco, should be still
levied at the custom-house, and payable to his majesty's civil list as
heretofore; that then the tobacco should be lodged in warehouses, to be
appointed for that purpose by the commissioners of the excise; that
the keeper of each warehouse, appointed likewise hy the commissioners,
should have one lock and key, and the merchant-importer have another;
and that the tobacco should be thus secured until the merchant should
find vent for it, either by exportation or home consumption; that the
part designed for exportation should be weighed at the customhouse,
discharged of the three farthings per pound which had been paid at its
first importation, and then exported without further trouble; that
the portion destined for home consumption