The Press. — London, England, 1857-03-21 00:00:00

MARCH 21, 1857. are prepared to adopt. I mean the principle of diplomatic publicity, the subjection to parli tmentary control, and criticisms of questions of foreign equally with those of domestic policy. If our foreign policy be truthful and noble, it must in the main gain by free discussion ; and, although we may occasionally be oyArreached by subtlety and cunning, this is as nothing compared to the risk we at present incur of being committed without our knowledge to the most serious international obligations, including the tre mendous responsibility of actual war solely at the caprice of a Minister, or of a second-rate politician acting as our representative abroad. So much for the foreign policy of the Conservative party. With respect to its domestic policy, there are some principles so inherent to its traditions that it is hardly necessary to state them. A devoted attach ment to the Crown and to the Established Churches has always been part of the creed of the country party ; but, in order to obviate that vagueness with which party polities is at present chargeable, it is necessary to state how the latter of these principles stands in relation to the prevailing ideas of the time. What is the Conservative compromise betwixt the rights of the Establishments and the educational movement? This question may be answered with precision by referring to Sir John Pakinron's bill, which, while it preserves the tutelar attitude of the Established Church towards the youth of the nation, provides for the widest diffusion of secular know. ledge. _ _ _ Sir John Pakington's scheme is recommended to Conservatives by anotherlea.ling feature—namely, that the machinery it proposes setting on foot con sists mainly of local action. This is a good illustra tion of a general principle of Conservatism, which, differing from the prevailing policy since the Reform Bill—which has always tried to concentrate all action in Government boards—seeks to increase and dis seminate throughout the country those habits of transacting local business which have always been the characteristic of the Saxon race, and which indeed is the main reason why we have preserved our liberties, while other nations who have carried cen tralisation to perfection have lost theirs. . . So far all seems plain sailing ; but what ought to be the attitude of tbe country relative to electoral reform? It is of course no part of the creed of Conserva tives to express approval of the system inaugurated by the Reform Bill. They denounced it at the time as fraught with evil consequences to the ulti mate welfare of the nation. They think their prog nostications have not been falsified, and looking to the absurd anomalies of the system—the \Vest Riding returning only two members, when twenty burghs, with an aggregate population not one-fourth so large, returns forty members—they are not aware of any logical arguments which can be urged in defence of its glaring injustice. It is averred, how ever, that it was a compromise and ought therefore to he religiously observed ; and this is so far true. But the compromise was like that which a footpad would make it' with a pistol at the head of a belated gentleman he contented himself with eighty of the hundred pounds in his pocket—a transaction which certainly raises no moral barrier against an attempt to recover the eighty from Oa robber. But there is another view of the subject not without its force to Conservatives, and that is, the prescription of twenty five years which has since elapsed, and the danger of organic change. And if others would leave the matter at rest, these considerations might long deter the Conservatives from taking the initiative. But a new Reform Bill is now a fated event, and Conserva tives, however unwillingly, must address themselves to its consideration. What then are the alterations in the existing system which the Conservative party should propose? The letters I have had the honour to address to you on " Electoral Inequalities" have shown the monstrosi ties of the 1832 compromise. The Ministerialists have abdicated the role of electoral reformers ; they are, strictly speaking, Conservatives, avow edly declaring that they wish to maintain the status quo of 1832. In this, as I have shown in my letters on "Electoral Inequalities," they are wise in their generation—they have nothing to gain and much to lose by opening up that question. But just for this reason it appears to me that Reform ought to form the cardinal topic of the political creed of this new party. We are all the fools of names ; but if it be shmvn that the reform which is to be advocated is one not only consistent with justice but eminently qualified to fulfil the double function of satisfying public aspirations and of strengthening the really Conservative interests of the country, we would be fools if we declined playing the cards which are thus pla!ed in our hands. But the electoral anomalies I have exposed may be defended on the ground that they in some degree correct the necessary injustice arising from the electoral power being vested by a uni• form qualification in one and a very limited class of the nation. The predominance of the ten-pound householders I hold to be the great defect of our Constitution, as THE PRESS. subordinating the interests of all classes to the sel fishness of one. Therefore, as a new Reform Bill is inevitable, Conservatives should address themselves principally to tho task of opening up to the general advantage this close corporation of the shopkeeper class, which, consisting of about 500 ; 000 in all, has at present the monopoly of political power. This can be done by the adoption of an ancient Conserva tive principle which that party have always main• tamed. The principle is representation based on property, practically carried out by a graduated franchise. Let the ten pound householder keep his vote, but give two votes to one who is a fifty-pound householder, three to one who is rated at a hundred pounds, and so on, till a just representation of property as well as of population is obtained. But are those below the ten-pound householders to continue excluded from electoral privileges? It was not so under the Prim Reform system when "scot and lot voters" gave at least the semblance of a franchise to the working classes. I think the old principles or the Constitution should in this respect be revived a'al realised in a practical manner; for our principle of a property qualification and a graduated suffrage not only naturally suggests such a concession, but permits of its being carried out with ample safeguards against the dangers of demo cracy. Let the franchise be reduced to five pounds, but let those whom this reduced ft anchise would entitle to a vote have only half a vote; or, for sim plicity's sake, let the five-pound voi-er be the unit in the graduated scale, and give two votes to the ten pounder. I throw out this suggestion for the consid?ration of the Conservatives, animating that to many of the most valued of the party it will appear at first sight to savour of democracy ; but if they reflect on the balancing effect of the increased representation given to property by the ascending scale of a graduated franchise, they will peraaps admit that this conces sion to popular wishes is nut inconsistent with an enlightened Conservatism. But I have already said enough. The programme —my programme (for I pretend to no authority)—is simply the condensation of the principles I have attempted to develop :- 1. Peaceful foreign policy. 2. Publicity of diplomacy. 3. Sir John's Pakington's Education Bill. 4. No fuitther centralisation. 5. A graduated franchise involving a large increase of the electoral body. I am, sir, J. A. G. THE SUGAR DUTIES. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—The question of how to escape from the yoke of the high-priced slave.cotton monopoly, which our modern legislation in favour of the slave system hits entailed upon that emporium of intense selfishness, unbounded conceit, liberal opinions, millionaire millocrats, dEvil's•dust and shoddy, is, I perceive, still anxiously mooted. Mr. T. Barely at a meeting held recently by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce said : It was at all events important,that India should be forced to keep pace with America in developing her re• sources. And he further told his hearers that half a century ago, or before we began to foster foreign slavery, we received forty per cent. of our cotton from India, whereas now we only received twenty-six and a half per cent.; and that slaveholding America had in creased her production fourteen-fold, whilst India had only increased hers nine fold; and that the price of a slave in America had increased 200 per cent., and that the value of an able slave now considerably exceeded `3001.;• and he proposed the formation of a cotton league for the encouragement of cotton growth in every part of the world. Now, it' Mr. Barely will replace the id. per lb. duty on slave-grown cotton, he need not trouble himself with the formation of a cotton league, as India then would be able to de velop its resources and compete profitably wit') slaves, when the price of cotton might fall to a low figure, and no force would be required, and the present high price of the raw material would speedily be taken from the Yankee monopolists. Some few years since, and when the staple pro. duce of the West Indies was ruinously low, Mr. Cobden and some other gentlemen ssibscribed and sent out a Mr. Smith to Jamaica to teach the ignorant old planters the scientific Manchester system of growing sugar profitably on the low prices which then ruled, and who, after a year or two of trial, and making less sugar from the same land than the men of the old school bad done before him, and sinking a large sum of money, gave up, ac hope less, the attempt to compete with the low prices at which the slaveowners could work with a profit. In 1850 51, I believe, Manchester sent Mr. Mackey to India, to see if the cultivation of cotton there could not be stimulated to compete successfully with the slave-grown article in the United States. In 1853 Mr. Mackey's report was published, and he 269 stated that India could not, with low prices at Man chester, and 12,000 miles of extra tralsit, compete profitably with the slave-growers of the United States : and he says at page 9 : No matter to how low a point American prices might drop, they seemed to have in reserve a lower point still. Now, however, that the price of raw cotton has risen nearly 199 per cent. since the slave duly was repealed, the Indian free-grower can send it here and make a fair profit, and take Manchester fabrics in exchange, whilst the Yank'e and other slave-growers are making enormous profits, and whose slaves take little nr nothing from Manchester in exchange. Mr. Barely also talks abort the high price of slaves being a bar to tha profitable employment of their labour. I presume Mr. Barely is harping on my Lord J. Russell's string, who told the uninitiated in 1846 that, by relieving slave labour of the burden under which it laboured in our market,' in the shape of a differertial duty in favour of freedom, that then free labour would speedily supersede slave labour; and we have now the result of this logic in a slave monopoly. And, further to enlighten Mr. Barely on this subject, we will take his price of 3001. for an able slave of twenty years of age, with interest thereon at eight per cent., which would he per annum £24 0 - 0 As slaves have increased 200 per cent. in value, it is natural to conclude that mlre care wilt be taken of them by their owner, and instea(l of taking ten per cent. out of them annually and killing them in ten years, that they take only six per cent. anagive them nearly seventeen years of life And better food and clothing, say 52 0 0 Now, a free labourer, like a free trader, will alwals sell his produce, his labour, in the dearest market he can find, as our weavers, colliers, and shipwrights do, or attempt to do, when they strike for wages ; and there is no free man that would work stea lily for nine hours per day, and give as much labour per day, say for 310 days in the year, on such work in such a tropical climate as the slave in America is compelled to do, and now that labour is filo, rising in value in all protected countries, for less than Os. per day, annually+ £93 0 0 Deduct the annual cost of the slave to his owner 52 0 0 41 0 0 Here we at once get an advantage of 411. by the employment of slave instead of free labour; and, in addition to this, the number of extra hours the slave works per day, which may he put at four hours at least, or thirteen hours ner day, and which is equal to another 411. Thus, in fact, the cost of a slave as compared with a free labourer in America would be as 111. to 931. for the free man, or fle2/. in favour of the slave, to say nothing of the profits on the larger amount of the slave's produce. By way of showing how the slave can be worked. and to what advantage, I will state, that in 18.24 I was placed on a silent-e.-tat • in Jamacia to learn my busir ess as a sugar planter, and get initiated into the mystei ies of sugar boiling and rum distilling. The number of slaves of all descriptions,of young and old, belonging to it was some 370 ; this inebeled coopers. carpenters, sawyers, masons, blacksmiths, farriers, Sze., and who performed ali such respective work as the e•tite required, cutting and splitting and preparing from native timber the sugar casks, the staves for the rum puncheons coming out in the rough from England and made un by them. In that year the estate turned out 390 hhds. of sugar, of nearly one ton each, and 190 puncheons of rum ; both sneer and rum were of good quality and brought the best prices in the home markets. These 580 casks were carried twenty miles over a dangerous, mountain, rugged road to the shipping place at a cost of nearly the freight to England. The time occupied in manu facturing this produce was twenty two weeks, and with a cattle mill only ; during which time one half of the working hands were up every other night alternately. I was, myself, every day, and every other night, in the boiling-house, having my mea's brought me there. During the other portion of tl e working days of the year, not occupied in makirg sugar, the slaves were always at their work in the morning by the time it was light enough to see to read the list of their names, and they continued until dusk, with half an hour for hreaktast and an hour and a half allowed for dinner. The net value of this crop to the owner who resided in London, at the Gazette price of that year, and to which the present is rapidly approaching, could not have been much less than 17,000/., after deducting all charges. • We are assured by th e New York Herald, that forty yew's. registering from 150 to 250 tons, are annually fitted out in Ame. rican ports, and make on the average ten voyages in the year '0 the slave coast, and carry away some 4.,00n human bein, losing one-sixth of the nnmher on the passage, and that tb• profits thereon are 22,000,000 dole. + ' , the price of the slave has risen 200 per cent, in America. It is fair to put free labour twenty per cent higher, or from 51. Ce. per day.