The Press.
London, England, 1853-07-02 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS."

Sir,—My attention having been arrested by an article
in your paper of last week, under the head of " SitvEn,"
the tendency of which is to point out the i•lportance of
Mr. Diataeli's endeavours to make gold a legl.l tender in
India, I trust the vital importance of this question to the
eolony of Ceylon, with which I am connected, will justify
me in bearing my testimony to the accuracy of the views
which you have propounded.
So admirably is our island adapted to the cultivation
and growth of cotfee that within a few vllirti its produc-
tion, which was insignitieant iu 1t.35, has increased to
400,0ftltewt. in IK:l'3, a quantity sufficient supply the en-
tire conatunption of tireat Britain, and leave a consider-
able surplus for exportation.
Strange as it may seem. the cultivation of this impor-
tant commodity is seriously prejudiced, and itx oat in thin
country enhinced. by the fact that all charges attendant on
its production must be paid in the silver currency of India.
In the first place, the labourers by whom the coffee crops
are 'shied and co'lected in Ceylon are the natives of the
neighbouring coast of Hindostan, who, year after year. re-
sort by thousands to the island, and return after a brief
tesidence, carrying back with them their accumulated
savings. And as the number of these immigrants exceeds

THE PRESS.

:t4),(100 in every year, and their wages vary from 14. to
'2os. a month, some idea may be formed of the amount of
specie which they annually carry out of Ceylon ; and, as
rupees are the only current coins in their own county.
they keep up a chronic drain upon the stock of silver in
our island, which must of course be replaced. by systema-
tic importations from the Presidencies. mid from Europe,
at the exehange Of the day.
Were gold as well as silver a legal tender. in the East
India Company's territories, the returning labotuvrs would
l'ilrry their hoardings in sovereigns. instead of rupees,
and the planter would be spared the additional charge thus
illlpsNed on his cultivation.
Hut the inisehief dews not end here. The population if
Ceylon subsists in a great measure on rice, lint the island
does not produce sufficient (teethe wants of its own 'work,
it less for the extra de i consequent upon the
migrate of labour; and the deficit of three millions of
bushels annually is made up by supplies from the conti-
nent of India. nearly all of which has to be paid for in

Ceylon, according to its official returns, exported pro-
duce to the amount of 11,11:c2,1130/, during last year,
rxclu-
sive of specie, and imponed to the amount of 1,1100,1711.,
likewise exclusive of %liven., during the game period ; thus
showing the balance of trade in favour of Ceylon, which is
really the case. in the tranagetiteis of thee island with
Europe;—but the balance is quite the reverse in its com-
merce with India ; for, of the above-mentioned million of
imports, 490,703/. consisted chiefly of rice, brought from
the Presidencies ; and, as India takes hardly any Ceylon
produce in return, the debt ineumsl by Ceylon can only
liquidated by the remittance of bills at an adverse ex-
change or by silver ; and, when tee this we add the large
amount Of rupees carried otl by the retuniing labourers, it
is evident that India annually drains Ceylon of its title

The suffering party in these operations is the '464,
planter. who must dud means to pay for both labour and
food imported, no matter how adverse the ex,diang,.; and
his situation is greatly aggravated by the 'mita Company
compelled to tender,
for he a,' having silver only as a legali
obtain in England bills on the Presidencies, which he
must sell at a lower exelnuage than the Company's rate in
Europe, at which he purchased them: thus, whilst the
rupee cost him :Is. Id. in London, he could only sell it in
Ceylon at Is. In 11440 the India company agreed
to receive gold in payment of duties; hat, Manned at the
large supplies front the autifvnbus regions, it rescinded
this regulation in January last : and there is eonsequeutly
no longer any legal cirvulation of gold in India.
It formerly suited ns to remit from England sovereigns
instead of India Company's bills to Ceylon, for we eould
sell them for Vs. and ::Is. in silver, but now, owing tic the
alxave•mentiomvl alteration in the Company's law, eoupled
with the Australian discoveries, a sovereign is only worth
/Os. in Ceylon which, allowance being made for freight,
charges, and ittsurunee, is virtually a dixeount, and, we're it
not that there is a small demand for sovereigns by parties
returning to Europe, they would fall still more.

The heavy charge thus imposed upon the coffeetheitcr,
of providing himself with rupees at an enhanced value.
fells eventually on the people of Eteattol. It bevatues n first
charge lapin the crops of the year, and every dealer ir
gnaw in this (soundly levies on the consumer the extra east
of the article which results from its production being paid
for in the comparatively dearer metal.
If free trade is to lie the established policy of Great I tii•
fain, no restrictions of any kind should be pennitted. The
renewal of the. East India tlompany's charter renders the
present moment must opportune fir the props no About is
in the currency, and the ever-inereaming influx of gold
from Australia makes it impend ive 4 ill the 4 ill% enamel t not
to withhold the only remedy it can ',minima's'.
Trusting that you will persevere in your influential 1.11.
lmmlls to July( ovate ri reform (XIIIe utmost import mice, alike
to the mother e try, to the Indian empire, and to •
island, I remain, sir, your obedient sellout,

A CF:II.OS I'UFFF:E•I'LANTFat.

London, dime 20, IM! 1.

This letter of our correspondent outweighs
by its practical value any argument, however
powerful, which mere theory e,tt► ►supply against
the system. Self-interest suggests that, as a
matter of mere economy, we owe it to ourselves
to etreet an immediate reform ; but still more
obviously do we owe it to our colonies in the
East to afford them relief from this grievance-
By successive reductions they have been
denuded of eve►y vestige of protection for
their produce. Our coffee now pays the same
duty in England as does that of Brazil and
Cuba ; but, whilst the latter is procured by the
unpaid labour of the slave, the produce of our
Own possessions, with which it competes, has
to be ►aised by the hired freemen of continental
India, paid in the rupees of the Company,
with which the pla►►ter must provide himself'
at a loss, which will become greater as the sup-
plies of gold from Australia increase. So long as
the course of trade with the Indian possessions
leads England to import a larger ►mount of
produce than is paid for by her exports, thus

involving the necessity of liquidating
'minuet, in silver, it is manifestly
create a fictitious scarcity of the very
in which she imposes on herself the
to pay. Every cask of cotlee, every
cinnamon, paid for in rupees, entails
eesmiuy expense on the protium% for
benefit of those countries which have
; thus loading our own colonists
burden which is indefensibly unjust, consider-
ing the race of competition in which the recent
policy has started them.

THE LIVERPOOL WRIT PARLIAMEN-
TARY MAMEUVRING.
A PETTY battle, fought during the past week,
over the Liverpoo I writ, has been decided in
favour of minium' sense and justice. The
Liverpool Election Committee gave birth to a
report almost unparalleled iu parliamentary
annals tbr ineonausiveness and stultifying
self-eontradietion. Each half of every pars-
tither ; each paragraph
graph I t ta I the
contradicted saute one that preceded or fid-
lowed it; and the last nullified all the rest.
Yet, though the committee could hot reason,
they could act ; and, to the astonishment even
of their own friends in Liverpool, they voted
out the sitting members. Their zeal indeed
outran the occasion ; for the sudden, and on
the whole unjustifiable, verdict fon ml the
Liverpool Liberals without the means of set
ting up new candidates. Not so the Conser-
vatives of that great commercial town. The
strength of the cause is there so fully felt,
that men of the highest local influence are
willing to stand, knowing that, although every
art of unscrupulous partisanship be resorted
to in order to render the struggle severe, the
result is certain. And them is among the
Liverpool Conservatives an earnestness and
activity in the cause that merits this eonfi-
dunce. The Liberals, dismayed at seeing
Messrs. Dem.'. and lloamm.t. in the field,
and rushing ever) where to find victims to suc-
ceed Messrs. Cmtewma, and EwAwr in the
honour of defeat, were unprepared for oil lut
mediate contest At all risks, then, the writ
must be stopped, and time be gained. To this
scheme Lord Dum.tiv STUART was induced to
lend himself. When Nlr. Faystirtm.u, on Wed-
nesday afternoon, moved that the writ do issue,
the noble lord rose to " speak against time,"
drawling on with dull and unintelligible ver-
biage, amidst the derision of the House, long
after the stock of ideas wherewith he had
to himself haul become exhausted. At.
length, as six o'eloek struck, the noble and
magnanimous electioneering agent attained
his object, and the mameuvre so the succeeded.
On Thursday the attempt was renewed ; but
this thilelLOrd JOHN RCMSELI. committed him-
self to a participation in the disreputable
trick. Appealed to, by Mr. .IANtEm M'Cragoon
not to leave Liverpool without represen-
tatives, when such important commercial
questions were coming on, the leader of
the Whigs " was afraid that the House would
be too much occupied to go on with the
suh-
jeet." In other words, the Coalition candidates
could not be found, or were not screwed up to
martyrdom point, and the distinguished party
chief condescended, for the nonce, to do the
work of Mr. COPPOCK. The matter was not,
however, to be so easily shelved. Even at
nearly three in the morning the adjourned
debate was resumed, when Lerd DUPLE'

195
Whig the
unwise to
very metal
obligation
package of
Is an milie-
u. the sole
wiser regu
lists with a

196

Sy;Airr, compelled this time to appeal to the
House instead ofto the clock, noved the suspen-
sion of the writ till the 20th of July,—a course
which Lord PALMERSTON, in the absence of
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, modified into a proposal
of postponement for a fortnight. For surely
in *fortnight some candidates could be caught!
The energetic remonstnuicea of Lord JOHN
MANNERS and Mr. MALINS defeated even this
adroit " move" of the noble Home Secretary,
who, "on learning," of course for the first
time, " that the committee had recommended
the issuing of the writ," withdrew his objection,
and ultimately the writ was ordered to issue
forthwith. _ _

We congratulate the Conservatives of Liver-
pool on this result, so well merited by their
promptitude and constancy. Their city has
indeed escaped a multiplicity of dangers.
Persisting, from some singular perversity, to
return Conservative members, Liverpool has
been threatened on various hands with the dis-

franchisement of its freemen ; with the ballot ;
►uid with an interregnum of representation
at the very time when a new dispensation of the
commercial policy of the country is under
debate. To leave the second city of the
empire unrepresented at such a moment was a
step which nothing could justify, and which
despair only could have suggested even to the
Whigs. It is pleasant to know that the
attempt has been so utterly baffled, and that
the consequences promise to recoil in discom
titure and disgrace upon its authors.