The Express. — London, England, 1848-07-11 00:00:00

would now also inform the bon. member oppesite that he proposed to no into committee of supply on Friday se'nnight and on the Monday following. SIERRA LEONE. Mr. C. ANSTEY begged to ask the Under Secretary for the Colonies for the reasons of the recent removal of themes O'Brien, Esq , from the office of Colonial Secretary for Sierra Leone, and fur information as to she charges brought by that gentleman against the present governor of the same colony. Mr. B. HAW ES said that Mr. O'Brien had been removed on two grounds : the first was his general unfitness for the situation of Colonial Secretary; the second that he wee so overwhelmed by pecuniary embarrassments, not only in England but also at Sierra Leone, as to render it im possible to continue him in that office with advantage to the public service. As to the charges made against Mr. O'Brien an inquiry had been institued, but whilst it was proceeding, be wrote to the Colonial- t office a letter against the Governor of Sierra Leone so offensive and so full of acrimony, that it was fe.t to be impossible that.he Omuta continue to serve in conjunction with the governor, but that one or the other must be removed: his noble friend (Earl Grey) resolved to remove Mr. O'Brion, in hich he entirely concurred. As to producing such a correspondence as he had described, be telt that no benefit could result to the public service by so doing, sad no should therefore not pro duce it unless he was compelled. Mr. ANSTEY thee g ave notice of his intention to bring forward the whole case at a future period. COLONISATION. The Earl of LINCOLN, in asking the Under-Seore tary the question of which he had given notice, ?Jeered to the discussion which had taken place on the let of June, when his motion for an address to the sown on the subject of usloaisation was agreed to. On that occasion the noble lord at the head of the govern ment promised inquiry, and said that he was ready to give instructions to the governors of the respective COI( Dile to consult the executive councils aad legislative assembly as to the best mode of promoting colonisation. On the same occa sion some doubt was tweezed as to the noble lord's mean ing, and Sir W. James asked whether there wee to be any more than the usual inquiries, to which the noble lord re plied that special iequiries would be made, but riot through the medium of a cemmission. To the address that was agreed to on that occesion (Ist June), her Maj. sty returned a gracious answer to the effect that her Majesty wa. deeply sensible of the advantages of colonisation, and would direct such inquiries to be made as would facilitate legislation on the subject. On the 20th December following, the day before parliament adjourned, he (Lord Lincoln) asked the noble lord whether any answers bad been received to the despatches sent out in consequence of the address, mid the noble lord promise) that all the papers which had been received by the Colonial-office should be laid on the table. During the recess papers were tail on the table, but not any despatch from the noble lord at the head of the colonial de partment directing inquiry, or any papers indicating that such inquiry had been made. Since that time thirteen months had elapsed, and he (Lord Lincoln) wished now to ascertain from the noble lord whether any inquiries had been made or steps taken punt sant to the address, and if so whe ther the noble lord would have any objection to lay the de spatches sent out and tie answers from the colonial govern ments en the table of the house ? Mr. HAWES said thet the noble lord had quite correctly stated the motion which he had made on the let June, 1847, and which was to the effect that an humble address be presented to bee Majesty, praying her Majesty to take into consideration the mess by which cilonitation might be made subsidiary to other measures for promoting the we.fare of Ireland. A commission was objectea to by the govern. ment, but inquiry was promised. Oa the 4th of June a select committee was appointed in the House of Lords to inquire into the matter, and that committee had not as yet Mused its labours. Whether that committee world strike out a plan by which colonisation might be pro moted without a large °miry of public money, he did nit know out government eaited the result of that inquiry. But the house must not think that they bad remained wholly quiescent pending that inquiry. A passenger act had beta passed by lett ch the mortality in the emigrant ships had been greatly abated, and some papers had been recently laid on the table to which he wished to call the attention of the house. Some time since his noble friend at the head of the Colonial-office had sanctioned a loan of loo,oot. to pro mote emigration to New South Wales, and on re ceiving intineation from the colony that the deben tures had been paid off a further loan was guaran teed on the territorial revenues of 300,000/. These loans were graduaily coming into operation, and a larger emigration was in progress. But Insides this important measure, it was will known that settlers in America were in the habit of sending home large sums of money to bring out their friends, but hitherto there had been few facilities for a similar practice in New South Wales. Arrangements had, however, been made, by which motley paid into the hands et government there would oe paid out by the go vernment here, and the emigrants to New South Wales would have the same facilities as emigrants to America,. The emigration last year had been enormous: to New South Wales and South Australia, 17,000 ; and to Canada arum January to June), 174,000. This year, during the same period, it had reached 124,000. There facts would show that the subjects alluded to by the node earl in his question had not been wholly overlooked by the govern. ment. The Earl of LINCOLN said that the hon. UoderSecretary had no doubt given the house much valuable information respecting the colonies, bat certainly bad not arswered his question. His question was, whether a special inquiry had bees ordered in compliance with the address of the IstJune, and in the manner specified by the noble lord at the head of the goveroment. He begged toobserve, that the committee which hod been alluded to by the hen. lender Secretary was appellee-11 on the 4th June, while the answer to the address was not received until the 14. h. What he wanted to know, in fact, was whether or no the address had been entirely ne glected ever since ? (Hear.) Lord J. RUSSELL said thee the inquiry with regard to Canada could hardly have been precee led with, because the great mortality among the emigrants last year had greatly Indisposed the legislative council and executive to giving any encouragement to colonisation. It was but very lately that the excitement on that subject had subsided. NEV.' HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. Mr. HUME wished to krow whether an estimate of cer tain proposed alterations in the new houses not in the original estimate had been submitted to the Treasury. lie wiseed aleo to submit, whether it would not be fit and proper that a committee of that house should be appointed to watch over any niture alterations that alight be projected. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that an estimate ha l been submitted to the Treasury of the pro posed alteration, which, in point of fact, was the construotion of an apartment for the j eurnal office. It would amount to between 4,0001. and 6,0001., and he had postponed it fur an other year. Mr. OSBORNE asked whether the architect was to have additional remuneration on these additional estimates, or whcher he was to be restricted to the ori:inel agreement ? The CHANCELLOR. of the EXCHEQUER said that a minute had recently been i-sued from the Treasury to the effect that no additional allowance should be made to the architect except under exert se orders from the Treasury. PUBLIC WORKS (IRELAND). CA. DUNNE said that the hon. baronet the member for Marylebone bad lately called attention to the conduct of Mr. O'Neill, • f Bunowea Castle, in the disposal of a loan of pub lic money made to him to promote the employment of labour. He (Col. Dunne) wished to know if government had received any information as to whether the works on Mr. O'Neill's property had been commenced ? The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER had re ceived a letter from Mr. Griffiths, who superintended those matters, to the effect that the drainage works on Mr. O'Neill's property were in full eperatime and on the average gave employment to 75 men. His belief was that in the first instance Mr. O'Neill was unaware of the circumstance al luded to in the cmeesper.dence, and that on his return to Ireland he ordered the immediate commencement of the works. (Hear. hear.) GOVERN M ENT PATRONAGE. The Earl of LINCOLN wished to know when the return for which he had moved of the number of new places created since the 18th March, 184.5, would be ready ? The house would be aware that it was in continuation of one which, on a former occasion, bad been moved for by the hon. member for Kinsale, from 1841 to 1845 inclusive. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that the treasury had sent round circular., and in three-fourtbe of the cases answers bad been received. Some of the legal departments had not as yet sent answers, but as soon as they did the return would he laid on the table. METROPOLITAN POLICE. Sir D. L. EVANS wished to know whether on Friday next, on going into committee of supply, the right hon. Se cretary of State would have any objection to his making a few observations respecting the proposed increased rate for the metropelitan police. Sir G. GREY had no objection, but believed it would not be consieent with the orders of the house. LEICESTER WRIT. Lord J. RUSSELL moved that no new writs do issue for the bezoughs of Derby and Leicester before Tuesday, the 15th August next. Mr. A. STAFFORD did not mean to oppose the motion, but wished to know what the noble lord meant to do with the Horsham Borough Bill. He wished also to know whether they were to regard the Leicester writ as suspended for the present session. Lord J. RUSSELL mil he did not propose either to go on with the Horsham Borough Bill, or to take up the bill of the hon. baronet the member fur the Flint burghs. lie should, on Thursday next, move for leave to bring in a new bill. As to the second question, he proposed, should the house agree to a bill for inquiry, and should that bill include these boroughs, to move, as had eequently been dune before, that the writs should not issue melt ten dap; after the new ses sion. Of course the house 'night take a different view of the q•—•tion on the 7 4 •11 In answer to Col. tilintitour, the noble lord further stated, th it he hoped to tarry the new bill during the present session. The motion was then agreed to. SUGAR DUTIES. The house went into committee on the sugar duties. The reeoluiion fixing the duty at 13s. the cwt. having been put, and Mr. Barkly's amendment, Mr. HUME wished before the noble lord opposite rose to adds, s• the house—(a laugh)—to take the opportunity of making a few übservatious. His opinion was that no altera tion should be made in the sugar duties, except with a view to the relief of the colonies. The colonies would have done well h el they been allowed fair facilities for the employment of free labour, but the volume which had lately been placed upon the table showed how they had been obstructed in their efforts in that direction. Every local act they had passed for that purpose had been disallowed by the Colonial-office. He wished to ask the noble lord whether, if cultivation were abendoeed in the colonies, government was prepared to keep up the colonial establishments and pay all the expenses themselves. All the promises they had hitherto made to the THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JUL: (Hug, 124:1 lIR the elm Wm ed on end our Map bargai n Ir ma the West India planter* _ _ Asent to it, viand they were new tmd in honesty to grant comPerlaation for the 100 that was being sustained. If that house meant to do justice they must do one of two things—they must either pay those men full compensation in money, which he had shown to be due, or compensate them in another way, namely, by orotection against the slave producer. (Hear, hear.) He did not see how a loan could fully compensate; because, oven if continual recourse were had to loans to encourage emigration, they would go to Demerara, British Guiana, Trinidad, and Jamaica, and not to Bubadoes, St. Kitt', Antigua, sad the Mauritius, for which places loans would b of little value. And yet these islands bad as much claim to compensation as the others ; for, while 141., and 161,, and 201., had been paid to them, treble the amount had been paid to British Guiana. Again, how would these loans for emi gration benefit the British East Indies ? Surely they ought not to be overlo deed. And, if they were, why was a coin mittee appointed to inquire into them? Why was it nut raid then that we deprived them of no slaves, and that they had not the same claim upon us? But, if it were true that the East Indies had no claim on the score of labour, had they not a still higher claim, on the ground that British power had invaded their territories, and made thesis pay • tribute of 3,700,0001., exclusive of 500,0001., in the way of private tribute? And, when the honour. able member for , Manchester said that the cotton manufacturers of this country had not asked for pro tection, he forgot that protection which for half • century they had maintained against the cotton manufacturers of India ; for whilst wo paid 80 per cent. on their cottons we obliged them to take ours at 3i per cent. (blear, hear.) Therefore did they look to us for compensotion for the loss of the it cotton trade, The late chairman of the East India Company told us that the cotton manufactures exported to Great Britain used to amount to so much as between three and four millions sterling, and that so late as 1820 they amounted to 1,600,0001. In 1816 we made them compensa tion, by admitting their sugar to that amount, but the con sequence since of admitting slave-grown sugar into this ' country had been the ruin of all those engaged in the cultiva tion of sugar in the east. This was apparent by the accounts c intained in the last overland mail, which 'how, d that in 1846 and 7, when the sugar trade was flourishing, Cal. mita took 1,830,000 pieces of shirting, while in 1847 and 8 it only tooa 1,070,000, showing a decrease of upwards of 800,000 pieces. In like manner three was a deen me in the same period on jacconets of 169,000 pieces; on cambr:es, of 134,000 pieces; and on mule twist, of 5,600,0001b1., upon an export of 10,361,000 lbs. The noble lord quoted another document showing that our trade in woollen manufactures to British possessions exceeded by the amount of 460,0031. the whole export of Europe. It was alleged that the di. tress of the manufacturing districts arose from the disturbed state of Europe, and that a great falling off in British ex ports had been the consequence. So tar tram that he found that in 1847 the number of yards of plain calicoes exported was 51,562,000, and in 1848 81,231,000, showing an increase of 29,000,00 0 lands. Of printed calicoes, in 1817 therelwere exported 40,000,000 odd thousands yards, and in 1818, 60,000,000 yards, ehowing an incr of 4,500,000 yards. Of yarn there was also an in crease o Tnom 00,000,000 lbs. to 30,000,000 lbs. Se that, upon every one of these heads of manufacture, so far as the conti nent were concereed, there bad been a very large inemase. Look, then, at the other side of the picture—at our tram marine possessions. There had been exported to our British colonies in 1847, of plain calicoes, 183,49000 yards; in 1848, 12.5,400,000, bowing a falling off of 67,900,000 ; of printed calicoes, in 1847, 80,460,000 yards; in 1848, 60,300,000, showing a decrease of 15,000,000. Of yarns there had also been p decrease. He thought be had now sufficiently shown that we were suffering, not so much from the disturbid state of Europe, as from the ruin of our colonies. (Hear, hear.) It the continent did not tyke so many of our manuficturi s as before, it was because we seat our capital to them, and thereby enabled them to carry on manufactures of their own ; end if the disturbances were a liar to the importation of British manufactures, ni fortiori they were a bar to the introduction of the raw material. The noble lord then quoted returns showing that we did not export to Cube or imit, in 1818,:anything like the amount exported in 1846. Of Europa an exportation there was exported, in 1817, of cotton manufacture, 7,726,000 yards ; and in 1848, 6,850,000. The export of yarn in like manner fell from 2,000,000 the. in 1817 to 1,800,000 lbs. in 1818. Now we imported of colonial and foreign wool, in 1847, 745,000 lbs., and in 1518, 2,660,0001b5. So that while of woollea manufactures there was • decrease in the exports of 27 per cent:, and in yarn f 15, there had been an increase in the import or the raw material of 250 per cent. lie had shown, therefore, that it was not altogether to the disturb ances on the continent they were to attribute the decrease in the trade of this country, but to the decay of our British possessions, which we hail ruined by our anti-colonial police. He coneidered that the question of India hail nut been moil. ciently diseus-ed in this debate. The effect el our legislation had been that instead of India paying her tribute to us in the produce of India, she had been obliged to pay it in the silver of the country. Mr. Tucker, the pi cunt chair man of the East India Company, said, " They hid all beard it stated how important it was to deve lop the resources of India ' and he was sure th- court would agree w.th him in thinking that if their petition (which prayed that the recommendation of the committee in favour of a differential du;y might he attended to) was not attended to, a blow would be struck at the resources of India which she would not easily recover." lle treated the noble lord who had spoken of the value of the British colonies would lm that well to his heart, and recollect that unless a differential duty of 10s between British and foreign sugar we re imposed, a blow would be struck at India from which else would not easily recover. Another proprietor, Mr. Brown, expressed himself in similar terms, remarking that the country had already deprived I ndi a of her manufactures and were now going to ruin her sugar trade; and he warned this country to take care she did riot com pletely ruin the best colony she possessed. Mr. Strahan, an other proprietor, said, with respect to sugar, India had been most unjustly treated ; and at this meeting • resolution in favour of a 10e. differentiol duty was passed, with only one dissentient voice. Closely connected with India was the Mauritius, where the sugar cane was cultivated by coolies, who wero fed upon rice imported there from India. The rice ao imported from India amounted in value to 200,0001. annually. Now, in answer to the statements made on a former evening by the hon. gentleman the Under Secretary for the Colonies (Mr. Hawes), to the eft. et that the Mauritius hail not been ruined by the operation of the act of 1810, he (Lord G. Bentinck) would call attention to a despatch from Sir Wm. Gomm, dated 10th March, 1847. This despatch spike of the then flourishing state of the colony, and of the efficiency of the labourers, and quoted a colonial paper which took is com mercial retrospect of its affairs to prove its advancing condi tion, and it was stated that :the amount in value of exports of produce for that month was 1,600,000 dollars ; and gin the 4th of October of the same year Sir W. Gomm wrote that the quantity of muter produced had reached the unprece dented amount of 66,000 tons, being 15,000 more than the produce of the preceding year. So that in J sane last year, but for the blow struck by the set of 1840, and the conse quent enormous importation into this country of slave-growu sugar, the condition and state of prosperity of the Mauritius promised to exceed what had ever before been known. They all, however, knew fei'l well the state of absolute ruin by which the Mauritius was now overwhelmed (hear, hear) ; and he must ask how di:: the condition of the Mauritius contrast with that of her sister colony, the island of Bourbon There the crops were presenting a pr o mising eppearance, and persons were in a condition to make advances on Mon with the certainty of • profitable return. What then must be the (college of the French inhabitants of the Mauritius, amounting to 23,000, when they contrast their condition with that of their neighbours in the island of Bourbon ? By the proclamation issued by the British go vernor, immediately after the capture of the Mauritius, the people had been promised the establishment, by the English, of a firmer friendship with the inhabitan!s, and that they should have the advantages of the protection atter:led to all British culijects; and yet in 1833 England had deprived them of their slave labour, and in 1816 hail ex posed them to competition with slave.growing countries. (lieu, hear.) On this subject what had been said hi Sir It Farquhar, addressing this house on 21st March,lB34 Why, that " when the case of the Mauritiue was brought forward, it would be found to Ise the hardest and most cruel case ever submitted to the House of Commons,callieg for immediate re lief." He added, that he hail himself been, in 1810, with Capt. Willoughby, at the capture of Bourbon, when proclamations anti each the Hip:run:en: were issued to the inhabitants of the Mauritius, promising not only the Mae protection which France had afforded them but the same permanent auvantages of other British colonies. And yet though France held slave colonies they were protected by a duty of more than 10s. per cwt. on sugar. It hereafter any anti-English European power should irrerpose, what eo operation could be expected by this country from a people who had experienced such treatment at our hands ? The imprtanee sat the Malltitilla to this country was exemplified in the despatelies of Lord Wellesley, in which he premed on the then government the in cessity of their capture from the circumstance that during the war the privateers of ? the Mau ritius had captured British property to the amount of 4,000,0001. sterling ; and be (Lord 0. Bentinck ) had been assured that in 833, about the period when these slaves were emencipati d, such was the discontent of the French population, toe governor, Sir William Colebrooke, that he never sat down to dinner without n guard of forty men in the ante room. Now he asked whether it was altogether looking at the advantages of the position of the Mauritius as the key to our East 'adieu posi,essions, to exasperate the French colonists, in number twenty-fold greater than the British, by withholding from them that protection to their commerce which was enjoyed by their sister colony of Bour bon, and thus tempting t '.erei to seek again the French mar kets, of which they could get the monopoly now that the slaves of Bourbon and Ss. Lucia were in a cote of Menefee eine ? (see's., heee 1 1 4 ^ e"'" en" , * 5 'tin wort of the question, which he was conpelleit to do in consequence of the right hon the Chancellor of the Exchequer having thought fit to bring, neck and shoulders, his third budget for this session into the present discussion. It hail been stated by the noble lord opposite (Lord J. Russell) and by the Chancellor of the Exchequer that if the recommendation of the select committee had been adopted it would have en tailed a loss of 965,000/. to the revenue ; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in commenting on the resolutions (far which he, Lord G. Bentirick, was responsible, and which (dotage, rejected by the committee, had been supported by Sir J. Pekington, Sir E. Buxton Lord G. Manners, Mr. Hope, and Mr. Miles), had said that no man in his senses would believe that there could be an increase to the extent of any thing like 30,000 tons in.the consumption of this country for the year ending the sth July, 1849. He (Lord G. Bentinek) would take leave to say that no man who had at all con sidered the subject and was in hi. senses would believe that the consumption for the year commencing 6th July, 1848, and ending sth July, 1819, could be so little as 289,000 tons ; and unless a man believed that, on what pretence could the noble lord or the Chancellor of the Exchequer presume to rialto looked Ob into with the ootwent to it,. ,mtorlsation my there would be a lose*, 90001. th the plea proposed in the isomaitte. ? (Heat.) • • LorstaV itl./SSELL.- 4 did sot upon I said the first lose would be 960,0004, and the mooed 700,0001. lewd G. BENTINCIC resumed. 1•041 or pin it mu.t be estimated in the consumption, and the leisnobl lord was want ing in candour and frankness when, h took to him self credit for • consumption of 310,000 tone, he allowed that a greeter consumption than 290,000 tons would be admitted when the cue was to be argued by merebeos of the commit tee. The proposal of the committee was to reduce the duty to webin a fraction of one halfpenny per lb , while that of the government was to reduce it one shilling per cwt., which was a reduction which could be represented by no denomi nation of coin that could enter into the weekly payments for sugar by the pour. The government reduction could not be m , seared in money, and when the Chaco llor of the Eimbequer came to consider the details of his financial measure the r proportion of ptln foreign lee showed colonialaud a sugars estimate w t o i uld a en ignorance such u never before had been evi nced in that house when he said that the available stock of British colo nial sugar for the year 1848-9 would be above 300.000 tons. Jo this respect, toe, the hon. members for Liverpool and for the University of Oefortl had shown but very little acquaint ance with the subject when they calculated that the lose would be at the rate they had set it down. Tne Chancellor of the Exchequer seemed to think he could make a clean sweep of all the stocks of sugar in this country, and that if there was a supply fur the year of 200,000 t ins, and that the stock in band was 76,000 tons, he could draw on the whole of that supply as a joint stock. Now there was not a man con nected with the sugar trade that would bear out the right hon. baronet on tut point. For the last fire years the lowest stock on hand of which there was any record had been 45,000 tons, and in proportion as the consumption in creased, it was no emery that the stock should be kept to a proper footing likewise. His (Lord 0. Bentincke) belief was, that if the duty was reduced one halfpenny per lb. , the consumptio the Eac n (toter would had .not c alculated. B reeds 310,000ut w here tons, was as the Ch the slloanceopr of h, ply to come from ? The so venth resolution proposed in the committee had been submitted by the right hon. gentleman, the late chancellor of the Exchequer (hi eGoul hunt ), and was carried by a majority of 8 to 6, and it stated that many estates in the British colonies had already bee n abandoned-that many more were in the course of abandonment, and that thin must lead to a diminution in the total amount of production, and the result would be not only an Lima c in prig s, but also the encouragement of slave-grown sugar,. It estates bad already been abandoned and others were being so, where did the Chancellor of the Exchequer expect to get a supply of 240,000 tons of colonial sugar? From the best estimate he (Lord 0. Bentinck) could form after mature de liberation with those who were held to be high authorities on the subject, he had come to the conclusion that in the year commen ting sth July, 1818, and ending sth July, 1849, there could not be expected from the Mauritius more than 3.5,000 tons, from the West Indies more than 120,000, and from the East toadies more than 46,000 tons. Was the calculation borne out ? The accounts tram the Mauritius up to the 11th IsTril last stated that the falling off in the shipments of produce had been 15,000 tons. The importation thence lest year hadteen 59,000 tons; but then a great per. tion of the exports of the Mauritius for this year had already arrived and formed part of the supply for the year 1848 9 - again, the accounts from Calcutta, up to February last, glowed teat the exports for that inonth were 31 per cent. less than they had been in the month of February, last year. It was true that u,a to the present time there had been some trifling increase in the imports from the East Indies, but still he round the entire stocks held in Europe on the let January lout was 145,000 against 110,000 in the January preceding. In 1846 the stocks were 115,000 tons; in 1845 they were 93,000; in 1844, 70,000 toes; and in 1843, 45,000 tons. Therefore the stocks in January last had been larger than had ever been known in the commercial history of Europe. (Hear, hear) But row he must look at what the stocks in England were. When he drew up the report of the committee, his speculation bad been that on the sth oof July, DOS, the stocks in Eng land of British colonial sugar would be 76,510 tons as against 73,078 ton., the stocks on the belt July, 1847, show ing en increase of 3,332 tens. On the beat information he could obtain there had been a decrease in the deliveries of the months of May and June cons, queoot on the expectation that there would be a reduction in the duty to the extent of Is. if not 4s. per cwt. on British colonial sugar ; and he could show from the sugar cis ulars that, as early as the 22nd June, the prices had risen from 2a. to 30. per cwt. in consequence of the recommendation that a 10,. differen tial duty should be adopted. Hence there had been iu May and June one of the shortest deliveries of sugar that was re. cently on record. Therefore he had a right to assume that et least 11,000 tons out of the 76,000 tons, was an artificial stock, created by the suspension of legislation and the con sequent suspension of deliveries. If that point was greeted, it must further be admitted that the stock, though nominally 76,000 tons was virtually only 6.5,000 toes. But that stock had been further Increased by the adventitious circumstance of the continuance of strong western gal• s having brought, sooner than was ,:petted, an increase of 23,000 tons of colonial sugar in the coarse of the last month ; lout in pro portion es that supply had arrived early, so would it di mini-h the supply for the year commencing July 5, 1818, and ending July 5, 1849. Ti,, Chancellor of the Ex chequer relied on a supply of 210.000 tons of colonial sugar for the year ending July 5, 1849. The right hon. gentleman ought to bear in mind that they were not now discussing the imports for the half-year ending July 5, 1848; those imports had not been operated upon by the ruinous measure of 1846. Those sugars had been grown, advances had been made upon them, and they must come to this country, and be sold even at a loss; hut there would be, as he had shown, no more crops grown, and the falling off in the next twelve months would be heavier than ever had been known. What had already been the falling elf in the supply of British colonial sugar during the six months ending the sth of July of the present year? Against 142,218 tons imported in 1847 there had been imported 113 536 tons in 1848, showing a falling off of 28,712 tons in the first half year, being a decrease of 15,000 tons in the imports from the West Indies, and of 13,000 tons in those from the Mauritius. If, then, the calculation was well founded, that the entire importation of British possession sugar for le4B-9 would not exceed 200,000 tons, and with a nominal stock of 76,000 tons, but virtually of 65,000 tons, making together a stock and supply of 265.000 tons, what man in his senses, who knew the sugar trade, would say there would be anything like '240,000 tons disposable for consumption next year? It hai been said by the Chancellor of the Exchequer that no man could calculate on an increase of 30,000 tons. Was the right hon. baronet right in his conjecture ? lie (Lord G. Bentinck) found that in the three years 1845, 1846, end 1847 the average increase of consumption had been 28,433 tons. And there had been a failure in price of Its. 9d. in 1845; no failure in 1846; but a failure of 61. in 1847 ; making in these three years an average failure in price of ss. lid., with an average increase of supply of upwards of 28,000 tons. But this was not the only ground on which it was fair to make an estimate. In a quarter of the year during which great distress had prevailed 74,000 tone had been the consumption ; and if the average consumption heal during 17 years been about 50,000 tons per quarter it did not require much stretch of imagination or any wild specu lotion to see that if the quarter's consumptien had been 74,000 tons, being an increase of 19,300 tons, the consump tion for the year would be about 310,000 tons. Some ob servations had been made the other night by the right hon. baronet the member for Dover (Sir George Clerk), and by the hon. member for Liverpool (Mr. Cardwell), on the subject of the failing consump tion during the last month and the month of May lie did not think the consumption of May, upwards of 29,000 tans, was below the average; and the consumption of molasses showed a very great increase, no lees than 2,6101 tons, equal in point of duty produced to 995 tons of sugar, to be set against the falling off of 880 tons of su_tar. Hence there was no prospect of a dt crease of revenue from this source. The fact was both the colonial and the foreign sugar had been kept back; and on the 7th and Bth inst. no less than 20,000 tons of foreign sugar had paid duty, making • total for the half-year including those two days, of 163,810 tons, and including moles.ses, an average total for the year of about 337,000 tons. It might not be strictly fair to include the whole of the sugar which paid duty on the 7th and Bth; but it was equally wrong to exclude it all, knowing that it had been kept back in the two preceding months. Hence he felt warranted in the conclusion that at least 22.5,000 tons of celonial would be entered for consumption. which, with the foreign, might produce an annual revenue of 4,629,000/.; or allowing for the proposed reduction of duty, 3,957,0001. Deducting also the loan, or grant, of half a' million, 70,0001. for the reduction f the rum duty, and 40,0001. for the concession to the distiller' in the mode of levying the duty-together. 610,0001., a reduction would be effected which was not at all warranted by the recommenda tions of the committee. He had suggested in that committee an ad valorem duty of 261 per cent. on colonial and 53 per cent. oar foreign sugar ; which, taking the average prices and consumption of sugar, would have produced a revenue of 4,195,0001. This proposition, being unaccompanied by any of the drawbacks attached to the government proposition, would have been more beneficial to the revenue. (Hear, hear.) The day would came when such a measure mus, be adopted. Tho unfairness of the present duty was well known to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was in pea aession of colonial sugar which had been resigned Intl his hands in preference to paying the duty. A fixed duty discouraged the production of sugar, by adding greatly to the cost; it also discouraged shipping; it was moreover pre-eminently unjust to the peer consumers of this country, whose intere-t had been studied and wrought for by tee committee up stairs, while others, like the hon. mem ber for Manchester, rendered them only lip service. (" Hear, hear," from the protectionists.) He would undertake to show that an ad valorem duty would render sugar cheaper to the poor consumer than would the proposition of that hon. member. Tee purr veneer... 4 ee et varied in cost price from 181. to 20/. per ton. while that of the finer sorts was as high as 47/. ; thus, by an ad valorem scale, the rich man would be taxed mat heavily, u he ought to be . ' With an ad valorem duty of 264 percent. on colonial sugar, the sugar new consaimed by the working classes would pay 17s. bd. per cwt. ; under the recommendatioe of the com mittee it would pay 10s. ; by that of the hon. member foe Manchester, 145.; and by that of the Chancellor of the Ex chequer, 13s. Bu. the lower clouts of sugar, which was absolutely exc'uded here by the fixed duty, and which was put down in the report at 23/. 10s. the ton, would only pay a duty on the ad valorem scale of 6s. 3d. per cwt,; while, on any of the other plane, it would be much higher, es at present. (Hear, hear.) On foreign sugar, the ad valorem duty of 53 per cent. would levy u duty of 14s 10,1. on the lower qualities; while the other plans would respectively levy 18e. 6d. and 20s, (Hear, hear.) On the rich man's sugar the ad valorem duty would press more Leerily, while that of the Manceester school would affect this kind of sugar less, and that was the genuine character of the doctrines of this school, so well expounded on one occasion by Mr. Ald. Brooks, in these memorable words ;-" Lad bless pm, air, we are all for ourselves: Len t ' (fasaihcfitri Slave.g 0t n ad valorem sugar would pay 245. IN. per cwt. nn der 20s. (Hear.) So that after all the outcry raised against the e e q r r committee for overlooking the interests of the poor consumer, M E I :Cr , it was evident that they alone had succeeded in producing a d lE tty 6 ; 4. b ; y en t d h e by p tha l an t o o f f the hs hon. Chancellor mem for th e scheme . which was really beneficial to the poor man—a scheme which the government had put forth all their in fluence to throw out. (Hear.) With an h ad valorem duty, the sugar used by the poor man would have been sold at 3d. and 21d. per pound ; the finer sugars at bd. By Mr. Bright's plan the sugar of the poorconsumer would be 31d.; and by that of the government also 31d. per lb. Having I brushed away this prejudice, which had been raised against the committee, he would notice some observations M the hon. member for Manchester, to the e ff ect that the slave trade had not been stimula ted by the act of 1846. (Ilea.) A committee which satin 1842, of which Lord Sandon was chairman, reported that slavery was diminishing, owing to the exertions of our cruis,re, and the depression of the planters in Cuba and Brazil. What was the case now ? (Here the noble lord read extracts from the evid. rice of Sir. Barnes, before the colonial committee, also some advertisements from a Jamaica paper, announcing the sale of various articles need in the sugar manufacture, which were described as nearly new, but thrown out of use by the act of 1846.) These advertisements were in Spanish, being addressed to the planters of Cuba and Brazil. In 1845, Mr. Consul Neukommen, in a despatch addressed to Lord Aber deen, had declared his conviction that Spain must soon follow the example of this country and France in putting an end to slavery unless the English market was open to slave-grown sugar; and even if this were done at a duty of 50 per cent. higher than the duty on the produce of our own colo nies it was said that would be sufficient. In January last Mr. Kennedy wrote from the Havannsh that the net profit of the planters in the preceding year had been 30 to 50 ter cent. higher than in any past year owing to the advantage which they enjoyed in slave labour and the long hours (16 or 18 in the day) which they compelled the slaves to work. Mr. Consul Crawturd her' mentioned a case where a slave owner had made an outlay of 3(0,000 dollars and had real , sed a return in the first year of 150,000 dollars. (Hear, hear.) A despatch of Lord Howdec ' as furnished by the Colonial-office, estimated the number of slaves imported into Brazil in 184 6 at 60,000 ; but Senor Jose oiar, who had himself been engaged in the slave trade, had informed the committee that the number yearly landed there was about 72,000, though it was probable that 60,000 only might come to sale, owing to the great mortality caused by the want of water and other sufferings to which they were ezpesed. (Hear, hear ) Sergeant Ducray confirmed the statement that the slaves were closely packed and kept down. Lord 'Lowden also stated that the slave vessels trading to Rio Janeiro made five voyages in the year. The latest accounts, extending to the first two months of the present year, showed that 5,000 slaves had been dis embarked at Bahia, and 12,000 at Rio Janeiro and two other porta. This amount of 17,000 for two months would give au average of 102,000 for the year. Could, then, the honourable member for Manchester say that the slave trade Lad not been stimulated 7 (Hear, hear.) The noble lord at the head of the government had declared that lie would adopt no course wnich would increase the slave trade ; and similar language had been held by the right hon. . gentleman the President of the Board of Trade and by the noble lord the Secretary for the Colonies. Were not, thee, these noble and right hon. individuals bound to come for , ward and abandon the act of 1846, which must be admitted to have stimulated the slave trade? (Hear, hear.) The hon. member for Manchester, in disclaiming protection for the cotton trade, had forgotten all that protection which they had enjoyed for nearly half a century in our colonies, and the protection which they still retained in the drawback on all soap employed in cotton manufactories, in which re spect they had an advantage even over the woollen menu- ficturers7 Mr. BRlGHT—Perhaps the noble lord will allow me to ' tell him that cotton manufacturers do not us, any soap at all in their manufactori-s. (Cheers and laughter.) Lord G. BEN TINCK could not imagine, tun, why they should have bargained !or an exemption which was no benefit at all to them. The plan of the government was founded on the principle of " beggar my neighbour ;" for now the Scotch and Irish distillers were to have certain advan tages taken from them for the sake of the West India colonists, and the government had also broken faith with the British shipowner for the same purpose. The right hon. gentleman seduced the support of the ship ping interest to the measure of 1846 by telling them that the effect of that act would be that the sugar trade would be carried on in British vessels under the navigation laws. But as the right hon. gentleman could bribe the shipping in terest, an he could bilk them, for the fact was, that there were 17,000 tons of sugar lately brought into this country in foreign vessels, the price of which in bond was 2a. Ed. per cwt. (Hear.) Ile would say one or two words on the sub ject of the finances. The right hon. gentleman the Chan cellor of the Exchequer had suddenly discovered 1,500,000/. in favour of the revenue, and the noble lord had made out, not amisaing despatch, but a missing budget, because there was not a word of this 1,500,0001. when the noble lord wanted the house to agree to the income tax. There was a sans of 350,000/. on account of the malt duties, but the right hen. gentleman ought not to be ignorant of the existence of such a sum, for though the duties were aot paid they were brought to charge six months ago. The right hon. gentle man the other evening touched very gingerly the subject of the corn duties. There were 800,000/. on this head which had to be added to the 1,500,0001., making altogether 2,300,000/., which was concealed from the house when the noble lord wanted to get a renewal of the into we tax. lie did not believe that the government acted with that finesse which was usual in a game of whist, where the errors and oversights of one party made the game of the other, but that they had totally overlook, d the corn duties. If they were ready to fling away 40,0001. of the copper duties, what excuse was there, when the existence ed the British colonies was at stake, for not coming to their aid? (Hear, hear.) He did not believe that the people of England, for the fake of a farthing a lb. on sugar, would refuse to do justice to the British colonies, or endure the continuance of the slave trade. (Hear, hear.) His right hon. friend, the member for Ripon (Sir J. Graham) endea. voured to tempt them, the other night, by pointing out the comfort of having cheap sugar to sweeten their vapid ?wire ridge and their coarse tea and coffee. But he believed he spoke the sentiments of the peasantry, and also of the • operatives of the country when he said that they would not , be tempted by his right hon. friend, or by the most subtle of , all tempters if he came from below to try than. They , would distinguish between the principle fun regnum mete facieutibus offert ) and that which would urge them ut rem facile ; rem Si pane, recta ; el non, quocumque main rent. He believed they would willingly spare from the hard earn ings which they mode by the sweat of their brow a farthing or halfpenny a day to do justice to the West Indians and to save the negro from the horrors of slavery. The people of Eagland, nurqd in the bosom of the English church, and well instructed in moral principles, would scorn as was said by the late Lord Ilarrowby to weigh gold against the blood of the negto." They were strong in religious and moral principles, and knew that to act justly was the highest good. Their principle, therefore, was —hic mums ahencus esto, Ntl eonselre sibi, sena pallesee re culpit. Lord J. RUSSELL said that the noble lord was fully entitled to the privilege of being heard in that house on a question on which he had bestowed so much attention and labour, and of which ho had made himself master, but he certainly thought he hail carried that privilege to excess (Rear, hear.) The noble lord delivered a speech of which but a few words at the beginning, and a wen d or two at the end, were applicable to the motion before the house. (Hear, and laughter.) But the rest of that speech, able and well informed as it wee, if it had any bearing on the motion at all, had a bearing against it ; because the noble lord argued as it was a great advantage to have cheap sugar, that it was desirable that the duties should be reduced. Atter this, it was very strange that the noble lord should vote for a motion which would leave the duties as they were, and would admit of no reduction. (Hear, hear.) The noble lord, at the end of his speech, had made several Latin quotations, which certainly were not unknown is that house—(laughter)—and if he might give the noble lord ono in return, he might suppose, finding that his prospects were not so favourable as they were that night, that he wished to get from the West Indian body that tame which a great Roman general obtained from his country men, as the " onus qui nobie cunctaniio restituit rem." (Laughter.) The noble lord, in the course of his speech, seemed to have upset all those principles with regard to cheapness which had been heretofore laid down on that subject. The noble lord argued that by re. ducing the duty from 14.. to 10i., without reducing the duty on foreign sugar, a reduction in price would be produced. He (Lord J. Russell) should hove supposed it would have been admitted by every one, after all the arguments they had heard, that if the supply from their own colonies was nut out ficient for the consumption of the people, and if a foreign supply was to be introduced, that the duty to be paid on that foreign sugar must regulate the price. (Hear, hear.) The whole argument on the other side, be it just or unjust, was this—that the cost of production by free labour was dearer than by slave labour, and, therefore, that it was necessary to impose an additional duty. The hon. member for Kidderminster, supposing his figures to be correct, said that the cost of production in Cuba was 10s. per cwt., and that in Demerara and Jamaica it was 20s. lle estimated tho cost of freight for each at 71., which would make one 175., and the other per cwt., and therefore it was, he said, proposed to add a cl ,, ty of 10s. to colonial sugar and 20s. to foreign, which would make the price of both 375. So that the additional price was granted fur the benefit of the plan*.ers—for the benefit of the colonial growers. If this were so, it was quite evident that the dif ference of duty was to go not to produce cheapness in rhts r- 1 -• rt to the part r , f-r - greater cost of production. The noble lord was therefore in error in supposing that by reducing the colonial duty without a reduction 4 the foreign duty you would therefore ' obtain cheapness in the markets here. (Hear, hear.) He would also beg to remind the house and the committee that the present question was not whether they were giving 265. per cwt. or 535. per cwt., or whetter they would pro hibit slavery. The question before the house was between two propositions, both of which admitted that slavegrown sugar was to be introduced at a certain differential duty, and that at the end of six years there was to he an end of the differential duty altogether. That was the question on which he would address the few observations he had to make to the committee. The question seemed to him to be really this, whether for the benefit of the consumer, for the be nefit of the West Indians, and finally without great risk to the revenue you cannot afford to reduce from 141. to i 10s., the duty to be paid on sugar—because, according to the plan proposed by the hon. gentleman opposite, you are never to rues the duty below Ids. With regard to the consumers, that additional, 4e. on a consumption t 300,000 • tom made a &rename to them of 1,200,0001. U the con. gumption reached 400,000 tons the difference won d be 1,600,0001. Now it seemed to him that the censea:lln having so much less to pay for sugar, and, cons, (pendi, much more to pay for other articles, war, in itself, giei, s ; m a great benefit. lie woularest the emotion on the central obeervetionsmade by Mr. Huskisson in I . B3o,rheu speaking of the large amount of tax'-s paid on the consumptl'm of aril. des of general necessity, he said that their object should be to lighten those burdens as much as possible, and thereby to stimulate their increased consumption. He thought, there. fore, that it was a great presumption in favour of we pro position against another, that it proposed to reduce the duty on an article of great coneumption, and thereby to diminish to a considerable extent the price of it to the coosumir. But it was said that the West Indians would not get say sudi least comp tie idols for the loss of the revenue, end that if the government scale were adopted it would not be an advantage to them. Now he owned it appeared to him that the beat chance for the West Indian interest was in some large increase of consumption. (Hear, hear.) &dug the great increase in the quantity of sugar introduced into the country last year, it appeared to him that the bust chance of rec int.,' for the West Indians was to reduce the price of lallelf so low that • largo increase of consumption would be likely to follow in this country, the greater part of which would be produced by their own c dodo. It was remarkable to see how great had been the iffect of the reluctiorn made in general articles of consumption. Whilst those reductions had not told in the first or second year, they had done so in the course of years to a much greater extent than was expected. It was on this ground that, whilst he anticipated some increase in theconsuruption of sugar this year, he expected a much greater increase here after. The average of five years' consumption, beginning 1839, was 4,081,000 cwt., whilst the last year's con s umpti on was no less than 6,044,121 cwt. The cdminutiou of price had been very considerable during that period, and this fact, he thought, conclusively proved that a further reductiouot price would ensure a further increase of consumption. Bat it they were to increase the price, they could scarcely expect an in creased consumption. lie would take some instances of articles in which there had been a great thereat, of consume lion following upon • decrease in prices. In the cue of coffee, the various reductions of duty had, in the last t • enty years, caused the consumption to incresee from 41 millions to 37,470,000 lbs. of coffee. is the we of cocoa, that aerie, with • duty of 6d. was only consumed.to the extent of 500,00011 w ; at a duty of 2d. 1,928,0001b'. was sold, and when the duty was reduced to the consumption toe to 3,107,000;1s. Tea was another instance. Its consumption had risen sines 1842 from 37 millions to 46 millior.s of: lbs. in come quence solely of a small reduction, of dtey. Them could be little: doubt that there would., be quite: as great a proportionate increase in the use of an article so generally acceptable and desired by the poor as the article of nigar. His policy, therefore, was to give the people the greatest possible benefit consistent with relief to the planter and to what was due to the revenue. (Hear, hear.) Tbc right hon. gentleman who spoke on Friday thought we should have a very slight increase of consumption this year. Bat he (Lord J. Russell) thought there was but little foundation for his apprehension. The right hen. gentleman had also raised a question as to the state of the West Indies. It was raid those ci.lonies were nearly ruined, and would be totally ruled, unless the amendment were adopted. But how wire the West In dies to be saved by a Flight alteration of figures—an alteration only to the extent of a shilling or two more protection ? With regard to the col ivation of the West Indies he was clad to find that even in the view of the hon. member For Kidder minster there was little reason fur despair. It was generellv mitted that there had been a reduction in wages throughout the islands to an extent of not leas than 25 per cent. The accounts which had been received from various quarters showed that the reduction of the price during the last year had had very disastrous effects upon the planters in the due colonic'--even in that of Cuba. which the noble lord represen. ted as so flourishing. The very large production in o.e West Indies last year was in fact the cause of the great redaction in lrice, and the loss had been shared by both slave and free abour cultivators. No doubt the effect of that would be to diminish the production of the article, but that very circumstance would be favourable to the planter —because there being less competition for labour he could cultivate at less expense, and the supply being more proportioned to the demand, be would not be subjected such heavy losses at home. The noble lord spoke of the amount of supply from the West Indies this year. He held in his band an estimate which gave 135,000 cwt. as the pro duce of the West Indies, 02,000 cwt. as the produce of the Mauritius, and 60,000 cwt. as the produce of the Ert Ir dies. The member for the University complained of the plan, as it affected the finances of the country, and called on the government to make up the loss incurred to the revenue by imposing additional tax itiOn But the Chancellor of the Exchequer had already shown that by reductions in expen diture they could manage the revenue in such a way as to leave no more than abeat 40 1,0001. deficiency. Now that being the case and looking at the present caw ot Europe , he did nut think they ought at this time to propose addi tional taxation. If it were found, at the comment , runt of next year, that in consequence of the threatening state of Europe they were under the necessity of keeping up a large armament, then he thought they would be hound to consider how the income was to be made to meet the expenditure. But in that ease ke thought they ought to apply themselves to consider low that might be done by the exercise of the most rigid ecotomy. It was impossible in the present state of the continent to fore see what might be next year required. All, therefore, that he could say was, if circumstances did oblige us to main tain all our establishments we ought to subject other branches of the public service to the exercise of the most rigid economy, in order to attain that end. With regard to the questim immediately before them he begged the house to remember that this was no question of prohibiting slave griwn sugar—that it was no question of humanity on one aide or on the other. The simple difference as to the two propositions before them was, which of them, without un due risk to the revenue, provided the better fir the comfort of the great body of the people in this country, and at the same time gave to the West Indians the better chance of re coveting themselves from the deep distress in which it was universally admitted that they had become engulfed. Mr. GOULBURN agreed with the noble lord, that the immediate question before them was not the exclueicia of slave-growni sugar, but that what they had to consider was by which plan the interests of the colonies could be beet promoted, and slavery and the slave trade most effectually checked. Had he not known the state of thins in this country, he should have thought the noble lord was a first lord of the Treasury, rejoicing in a large excess of revenue over expenditure. He talked of abandoning immense items of revenue as if they could be dispensed with without the slightest difficulty. For his own part he could not say that either of the plans entirely met his approbation. They 'reined to?tim to suffer from one common fault, that of emit ting slave-crown sugar upon any terms to consumption in this country. Both the East and the West Indies had been deceived by the promises of government. Both had had reason to anticipate that they would be exempted from competition with slave-growing countries. Driven to choose between the meas-ires before the house, he should adopt that of his hon. friend; first, because of the effect ot the proposition of the noble lord on the finances of the country ; and, secondly, on account of the greater ten dency of the measure of his hon. friend to restore that con fidence so essential to the preservation of the West India colonies. At present the rate of duty upon our own MP" was 100 per cent. on the cost price, a greater proportion than was levied upon any other British article except malt; but while malt enjoyed a monopoly in the home market, sugar was exposed to the p Amen! competition of slave-grown sugar from various countries of the world. He contended that in the present critical state of Europe, when at any moment we might be called upon to put forth all our resources, in order to maintain our posi tion among nations, it was utterly preporerons to make this very heavy sacrifice of revenue. He did not mean to deny that by giving protection to the British grower you were enhancing the price of the article to the British consumer ; but it was an utter fallacy to say that this en hancement of price was at all equivalent to the amount of protection given. The whole thing depended rather upon the state of demand and supply than upon the amount of protection, so long as this protection was confined within reasonable limits. The benefits of protection were partici pated in tea very material extent by the consumer as well as by the planter. As to the effect of the n ',hie lord's plan with relation to the West India planters, it would Merrier rathet than diminish the many grounds of complaint they had against the imperial legislature. There would be more and more agitation for redress, and not a year would pass without the manifest necessity present lug itself for again legislating upon the subject. Whereas there were in the proposition of his hon. friend, however im perfect that proposition, the elements of much good to the West te India d r i e a sto co ri lo t n io i n sts t , o th a e oemtudatenrial degree properlyeeoi that worked prosperity u rit t j of which they had so long been deprived by oppressive le gislation. With regard to Cuba and Brazil it was quite certain that they were actively engaged in procuring slaves from Africa, for the more energetic and comprehensive prosecution of that trade in sugar which the policy o f the noble lord had been throwing more and more open to them. O The committee then din ided. The numbers were— For the original resolution For the amendment 124 —B6 vt The following resolutions were then agreed to : —Frora and after July 5,184 e, to July 5, 1849, inclusive, candy, brown or white, double refined sugar, or sop" equal to double re fined, per cwt. 194. Gd. From July 5 , 1848. to J u ly 5,1849, other refined sugar, or sugar rendered by any process equal in quality thereto, per cwt. 17s. 4d. On the resolution imposing a duty of 15s. 2d. per cwt. ' white clayed sugar, or sugar rendered by any process Null in quality to white cloyed, not being refuel or equal to r-finerl. Mr. MOFFATT moved the omission of the words "white dived, or sugar rendered by any process equal in quality to white cloyed ! not being refined, for every cwt.," and th e figures fo ll owing these wor is. And in the following clause to omit the words " whito clayed," and to insert the word "refined." The hon. member expressed a hope that the government and the supporters of the government would give their votes for his amendment, u they bad opposed the resolutions now put from the chair on a former =anon. The CHANCELLOR of the E XCHEQU ER denied that he had ever off red any substantive opposition to the pro posed clause ; all he had said was, that the scheme of duties thereby proposed to be levied, would not be very profitable to the revenue. He could not agree to the hon. member's amendment. - - • The amendment was then negatived without a division. The next reaulution wee, that the duty on muscovado or any other sugar not being equal to white-claycd, should be 13s. per cwt. from July 5 ; 1818, to July 5, 1819, and for 12011 "..,;e during the same time O. 104. per cwt. The follow- Log resolution, were then read ; F colonide had been falsified, and the ships which had been sent to the Kroo coast had returned—one empty, and the other with only one free labourer on board. lie would ask whether the advocates of the abolition of slavery had ever contemplated the abandonment of cultivation in the colonise ? (Hear, hear.) No, the cry had always been that free lebour could compete with slave labour, and so it could, bed the experiment been properly carried out. As thtugs were going on, government must rusk* up their minds soon to colonic' tae all the exses of the on themselvee. The nob pen lord's plan was • homorepathic plan, but i the noble as lord would have done bett er to have left the law t was, as the colonies would have died sooner. Lord G. BENTINCE. said that the question was not whether they should afford protection and relief to those colonies, but what was to be the degree sad amount of that protection and relief. The question was no longer whether the act of 1846 should be adhered to or abandoned. That bill which was carried by a majority of two to one in 1846 had been rejected by a majority of nine to one daring the preceding week. (Hear, hear.) He must confess that he Sid not approve of the plan of the hon. member for Leo. 'Muter, but the question was whether was it better or worse than that of the government. (Hear.) He found that the protection proposed by that hon. member would amount to 03. fur six yearn; that was to say, 7s. 7d. per cwt. each year for six ronvecutive years on the finest qualities of sugar, and it was as 275. on the lower qualities of sugar, while the government plan amounted to a protection of—for the whole course of the six years—'32s. 6d. It was impossible then to doubt that the proposition of the hon. member for Leominster was, as regarded the colonies, a better measure of relief than that proposed by the noble lord. But in preferring the plan of the hon. member for Leomin ster to that of the government, it leather duty on behalf of the West India body and the 'sugar.growing interests of the Mauritius and the Hoot Indies, as well as on behalf of that portion of the committee who had supported his view, to re. padiate it as a final measure. (Hear, bear.) The proposal of the hon. member was not suggested with the sanction of any of the great interests concerned. Those intermits were unanimous in favour of a differential duty of 10s, as the only means of relief which would really benefit them, lie had risen with the intention of unowering the arguments which had been put forward by the two hon. members for Manchester against any further claim on the pert of the British sugar-growing colonies for relief, and be would proceed to address himself to the question of whether or sot those colonies had received full compensation for the losses which the act of the Imperial Legislature had en tailed upon them. It had been argued by the hon. member for Manchester (Mr. Bright) that the produce of Jamaica had averaged during a lung course of years 3,000.0001. ster ling a year ; and the hon. gentleman endeavoured to show that the money paid for compensation, it invested at 6 per cent., wou'd far exceed a profit of 10 per cent. on the whole annual value of the produce, and he went into a limiter cal culation with regard to the other colonies. That argument, though ingenious, had no gelid foundation. No doubt the merchants would be content if their profits amounted to 10 percent. on the whole produce of the Betel Wert Indies. But to Pay that 10 per cent. on that produce was a lair and ample return for the capital invented was the most extraor dinary position he had ever heard advanced. (Hear.) It would be easy to show what had beta the average profits during a long course of years. At the end of the last century the capital invested in the British West ludies was equal to 130,000,0001 , and he believed it was not less at the present moment. Taking Mr. Marshall's celeulation of the produce, and taking the cost of manufacture, freight, brokerage, commeoion, &c., for 1814, which was a period of war, at double what it was in 1831, be found that the value of the capital, (palmated at the ordinary number of years' purchase, was 135.411,4901. The hon. member for Manchester, it he were present, might say that amount was only in consequence of being bolstered up by protection in 1814. But that was nut the case. When the West India proprietors were left to cultivate their estates by the labour of their alive , under the mild and mitigated system of slavery which existed iu our colonies, though they had a non end protection in the British market, that pro. Motion was really a dead letter, and not only did they supply the home market, but exported largely to foreign countries. (Hear.) From a return which had been pro. duced at the instance of the hon. member for Bolton, he found that the average price of colonial sugar as peened for the year 1814 was 591. 101. ; the next year it rose to 73e 4d., but in that same year the price of Havennah sugar was 89s, 6d. ; both exclusive of duty. In 1816 the price of Bri tish colonial sugar was Gls. 10,1., and of Havannah sugar 71'. 2d. Therefore he contended that protection was a dead letter, so long as the British West ladies were allowed to remain on equal terms with other slave labeur states. He would Lot leave this question on the result of one or two rem, but would go to the years 1827, 8,9, and 30, in which the average price of British col eniel sugar was 30s. 2d., while the price of Havannah sugar was 31s. 70.; and though at this time we had obliged the West India planters to give ue half a day every week, or 26 days a year, of the labour of their slaves, they were still able to under. sell all foreign slue-labour growing countries in the article of sugar. (Hear.) As Lord Stanley stated in introducing the Emancipation Bill, up to the year 1833 the British pl inter had by his energy and capital successfully competed with the foreigner, and even been enabled to beat him in the foreign market, to which from fifty to sixty thousand tons of British colonial sugar annually found their way. (Hear, hear.) In toe years 1827, 1828, and 1829, it appeared that the average yearly value of all the produce exported from the British West Indies had fallen from 12,000,0001. of sugar in value to 8,849.9191.; the cost of production, freight, brokerage, com mission, &c., being 3,288.98/41.; leaving a cle ir profit on each of those years of 5,560.9311, which, if multiplell by 20, the number of years' purchase would represent a capital of 111,218,6201. (Hear.) Now, he would show that the 16,600,0001. was no adequate compensation fur the property we had compelled the West India reenters to surrender. The gross proceeds of the sugar sold in 1830 was 195,631 tons, amounting in value to 4,890,7811., and taking the cost of production, freight, insurance, brokerage, and commission at 2,769,5171., the profit left to the planter was 2,121,2691., which et 20 years' purchase would represent a capital of more than 40,000,0001. In 1847 the quantity of colonial SUM imported was 149,557 tons. The cost of manufacture had increased from 161. under slave lab tar to 211.95. per ton under free labour; making for the whole quantity a sum of 3,390,0861., which, added to 638.2291. for freight, and 478,6701. for brokerage, insurance, &c., gave a total cost of 4,506,9851. The quantity of auger actually sold in 1847 was 129,130 tens, realising a gross return of 3,024,3231., 30,427 tons remaining unsold on the sth of January last; if this also had been realised at the average price of 221. 15m. a ton, the total value of the whole proceeds would have been only 4,216,7441., to be set against a cost of 4,506,98.51, thus showing a dead loss of 290,2411., without any charge for interest of capital inveeted, or interest pay able to mortgagees. (Hear, hear.) With this etat- mint before them, which it was impossible to gainsay, he could not understand how any one could say that the British West Indies or the Mauritius had obtained anything like that fair and reasonable compensation which the preamble of the Act of Emancipation had showed that parliament intended ti give them. (Hear, hear.) Both the hon, members for Manchester had stated that the protection the colonies hail received was t qual to a protection of 15s, per cwt. t n their sugar, but those hon. gentlemen forgot that that 10e. went in the difference of the cost of manufacture, which had risen from 1,300,0001. a year during the continuance of slave labour to 3,390,0001. a year after the abolition of slavery. (liter, hear.) It had been argued that the West Indies had no right to expect a mono poly of the British market—that there was no honourable or implied understanding to that effect. But no one could look to whet took place at the parsing of the Emancipation Act without feeling that it was distinctly understood at the time that slave grown sugar was not to he admitted to compete with the free-grown produce of our colonies in the British market (hear, hear.) Lord Stanley, in introducing the measure, said : " It is complained that if slavery be aholished production will be diminished. Ido not know but that that might be beneficial to the planter." How it could be bene ficial to the planter unless it was meant to give him the mo nopoly of the home market, and AO secure him a better price, he (Lord G. Bentinck) could not understand. (Hear, heer.) But there could be no doubt as to what was the intention of the government who brought forward the Emancipation Act, and of subsequent governments, for Lord Glenelg, in his circular despatch to all the sugar.growing colonies, dated Oct. 12, 1835, said: " The purchaser of estates in the West Indies does not incur the risk of losing money by such pur chase, for he has the nation's faith of Great Britain and Ireland pledged in the most solemn form in which an engagement was ever given, and if under such circumstances the fuller supposes that any danger really exists, he labours under a genes delusion." (hear, hear.) What other construction could be put on this than that the colonies were to have the monopoly of the home market ? But the planters had also just cause to complain of the pre mature abolition of the period of apprenticeship without any cometusation. Nur was this all. The planters bad been made the victims of what he mkt not look upon but as a sort of petty larceny. When 20,000,0001. was decided upon as the sum which should be paid for compensation, a certain amount was apportioned to each colony ; and after such ap portionment there was a sum of 1,330,0001. left over, of which the colonies each wet entitled to have its fair proportion. (Hear.) But the parliament of England had never yet been sufficiently hone.t to pay the money. (Hear, hear.) The late Vice President of the Board of Trade (Mr. M. Gibson) said that the losses in the cotton trade amounted to as much as the whole value of the British West Indies, and he asked why was not the distress which that trade was suf. feriag in consequence of those losses to he relieved by par liament as well as the West India interests ? His answer was t tat if parliament had interfered to deprive them of their fair profits, as it had in the case of the West India planter, they would have had an equal claim. (Hear, hear.) He lamented as much as any one the distress which prevailed in , the cotton districts, and which he would show was the recoil of the distress which by the act of 1846 had been created in she West India colonies and the Be.io, East. (Hear.) Acting on the relieious and conscientious feeling of the people of England parliament had deter mined not to permit the continuance of slavery, which was the machinery by which sugar could be grown cheap. If they destroyed that en iehinery they destroyed the means of the British colonist to make sugar. Suppose the sentiment to have taken the line of interfering with the machinery of the cotton manufacturer in this country, would he not have been entitled to compensation ? (Hear, hear.) If the pub. lie had rend the reports of the Factory Inspectors, and there discovered that in less than six months the deeths caused by injuries, accidents, &c., showed a lager amount et killed and wounded than it hod cost u" to win many of our battles—if these reports Mowed no less than 2,276 eeaths within that perio 1 in the manufacturing districts, while those caused by the battle of Trafalgar were only I,69o—and if it were said to the manufacturers that they should no longer make use of steam, but that Ss. 10d, in the pound should be paid them for their steam engines, &c., leaving their tall chimneys and large manufactories out of the calculation, would not that house feel itself called upon to make them full corailensation for the loss they met necessarily have A 1848.