BRICK, used in building, and too com monly known to require description. It is noticed here as an article on which a tax is levied. The activity of this manu facture is one of the most unerring indi cations of prosperity. In 1756 a tax on bricks and tiles was proposed by the ministry, but they were forced to give it up. (Walpole's Letters, iii. 203.) Mr. Pitt proposed bricks as an article of taxation m his budget of 1784 ; and though the op position to such a tax was very great, his measure was carried, and an excise duty upon them was imposed by 24 Geo. III. c. 24. The duty was at first 28. 6d. per 1000 on bricks of all kinds, or less than one-half of the present rate of duty. By 34 Geo. III. c. 15, an additional duty of Is. 6d. per 1000 was imposed. In 1802 distinctions, which are still retained, were introduced in the denominations of bricks, and they were subjected to different rates of duty. (43 Geo. III. c. 69.) The duties have been increased at different times, and are now as follows :—Bricks not ex 'Needing 10 inches long, 3 inches thick, and 5 inches wide, are charged 5s. 10d. per 1000 ; exceeding these dimensions, 10s. ; smoothed or polished bricks, not exceeding 10 inches by 5, are charged 2s. 5d. per 100 ; and exceeding these dimensions, 4s. 10d. per 100. Ireland is exempted from duty. The duty on tiles was repealed in 1833. The number of bricks brought to charge, and the amount of duty, was as follows, in 1840 1-2 and 3 :— Number. Duty.
1840 1,725,628.383 ,4524,420 1841 1,463,257,575 449,060 1842 1,309,814.731 400,086 1843 1,184,388,666 363,375 In 1842 the duty charged in England was 390,210L on 1,271,872,112 bricks, and in Scotland 98751. on 31,942,619 bricks. The number made in England and Scot land, at different periods within the pre sent century, has been as follows:— England. Scotland. Total.
1802 698,596,954 15,291,789 713,888.743 1811 950,547,173 18,765,582 969,312,755 1821 899,178,510 14,052,590 913,231.100 1831 1,125,462,408 27.586,173 1,153,048.581 The difference between 1821 and 1840 is nearly 90 per cent. The increase in
houses somewhat exceeds the increase of population ; for while the population of England and Wales, from 1831 to 1841. increased 14.5 per cent., the increase of houses was 18•6 per cent. ; and the actual increase from 1831 to 1841 in England and Wales was 515,813 houses : the total number returned in 1841 was 3,142,031. It is to the increase of manufactories and the construction of railroads that we must look for the great increase in the trade of brick-making. As many bricks have been used in a single railway tunnel (the Box tunnel on the Great Western railway) as have been made in Scotland in a year. The number of bridges on a line of rail way is said to average 2} per mile, and in their constriction a very large number of bricks is used. There are several via ducts in which above eleven million bricks have been required. A greater number of bricks is made in Middlesex and Lan cashire than in any other part of the kingdom. In 1838 the duty on bricks in England and Wales amounted to 419,103l.; and the amount contributed in the Manchester collection was 33,9671., or nearly one-tenth of the whole. In 1836 the duty for the same collection was 56,3791. The demand for bricks for the metropolis is principally shown by the duty obtained in the following Excise collections : — London, 20,319L ; Ux bridge, 21,2251.; Rochester, 20,247/.
The number of brickmakers (that is, persons having brick-kilns) in England In 1835 was 5711, and in Scotland 128. In 1841 the number of persons employed in brickmaking, according to the census, was 18,363 for Great Britain, of whom 470 were females. The number for each country separately was, England, 16,840; Wales, 312 • and Scotland, 1142.
The kind of building material in use in different parts of the kingdom is de termined in some measure by natural causes. In Scotland, for example, few bricks are used, because an untaxed ma terial, equally suitable, is everywhere abundant.