The Express.
London, England, 1852-02-25 00:00:00

TO CORKS/WON DENTS.

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pahlidael sway Urea" bad lrtttaf sten. la Woe
ese pet.
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At 4 .11 the tells% le, Ileaverbeeervet, tiy Two o'coek es the
day of pobtrottue.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON ARMOR.
tuts Day—klursios. U. Ha. —Mtn mos. Sl. 292.
am.

LONDON, WEDNESDAr, FEBRUARY 23.

TUE DESIST lIININTRY, the more we know of it
appears to less and less advantage.
There seems to be no mistake in the ma:ter; and
that Sir Jour PAK tmutom, of all the borouglimungero
in England. has been really appointed Secretary for
the Colonies! Why, this is worse than the M oats
and Forests appointment of Lord JOHN MANNERS,
with his never-to-be. forgotten
Let lass SU4 lvaraioa, ra.le sod commerce, die—
list Uri prrstrse our old sußility ;
with his "hook of sports" for the peasantry instead
of good cheap wheaten bread, and his repeal of the
notated° Laws, that the face of England may be
covered with Anglo catholic monkenes and nun-
neries. Worse than the Board of Control appoint-
ment of poor okl Mr. IlEamat—the neglected and
rejected of Sir HoHERT PEEL in Is4l, despite the
fortune he has made in place. Worse even than
giving office to Mr. litatut.E. ALLIANPER II %MILTON
—with his notice on the books of the Commons for
an address to the Crown to abrogate the national
school system in Ireland!
Why. Sir Jolim I' tottswrox is the incarnation of
all the prejudices and faults of the "gnat tittra'd "
justices of the country. Under him the spirit of the
petty *cookout will administer the colonial affairs of
this inspire. Ile will convict the Mauritius of
pouching on British Guiana, send the ('ape colonists
to the treadmill, and bring British America under
the licensing system. It is bad enough to have in
the Earl of Mari' a Prime Minister, Mho no
longer ago than 141.3, refused the ('ape it constita-
tioo, and reduced New Zsidand to a state of insol-
vency t hut Lord Ibt.tinv has some exit( rienee—
though it ttachtv him nothing—of the colonies. Ile
is familiar with their &tolls; knows their antece-
dents ; and—though short-sighted—can nevertheless
see a little away ahead. AVhereas Sir Jour
PARINI:C(IN lots never paid the least attention to
colonial affairs; except to promote a monopoly, in
which he is personally interested, he never took part
in a colonist debate ; he has the very A. B. C. of-our
dependencies to learn. Why. Mr. BENJAMIN IIAWEs
is a statesman. and Mr. FREDERICK PEEL a learned
Pandit, in compari.on with PASINGTON.
IRtMsjast look at the measures this Quarter Sessions
Pecritary of State has at present in hand in the
Commons. First of all, he has a Beer Bill—a bill
to restrict the sale of the labourers beverage; to
limit the labourers' accommodation; to lessen the

con-umption of barley and malt ; to confirm the in-
Ilnenee of the great hn:u era ; to increase the power
of the piluires ; to bring ail the beer-houses of England
under the licensing system;—and as can be readily
proved. should nny one controvert the position,—to
augment the intemperance (happily on the decline,
under the influence of free-trade, and cheap tea,
coffee, and sugar) of the United Kingdom. This is
his hr.t measure: monopoly at home is its prevailing
future.

Here is his second, and it involves monopoly for
the colonies; thus it stands in the votes and proceed-
ings of the House of Commons as delivered on Mon-
day but. appropriately following Mr. G. A. HAMIL-
TON'S notice already mentioned:
Sit; Jolts PARIAL los —That. considering the trulo in
Afriean *Lives which is sail e.irried on 1..) Cuba and Brasil,
and the unjust competition with the produce of slave labour
to which British planters arc exposed, this house will forth
with rcsolve itself into ■ committee, to take into considera-
tion the act 11 it 12 Viet ,e. 97, for the purpose of em-
Booing the duties oo foreign and colonial sugar respectively
which came into operation on the fith day of Ju:y last.
About that there is no mistake. It means the
imposition of a fixed differential duty on foreign
sugar; as • step (who can doubt it ?) to a still
higher differential duty hereafter on the produce
of Cuba and Brasil, and—for corn is sugar
and sugar is corn—to a substantial fixed tax
on our bread. Lord DERBY, well knowing that Sir
lons PAKIBOTON has solemnly and deliberately
pledged himself to this, makes him Secretary of
State for the Colonies; and thereby Lord Dexter
has undertaken to fulfil the pledge Sir lons PA-
RINI;TON has taken. Sugar and coffee, as well as
bread, are therefore in imminent danger; or Lord
DERBY and Sir J. PAKINGYON are RIMMO men than
we now think them to be.

Let us try to guar the ignorance of the man by
the terms of his motion, and so realise the demerits
of his appointment. " Considering the trade in
African slaves which is still carried on by Cuba and
Brazil." Hid the inditer of this sentence hear the
debate on the address? If he did he might have
learned, on no less an authority than Lord PALMER-
IITON himself, that, so reduced in extent is the African
slave trade, that in 18;11 only 3,000 slaves were im-
paled into both Cuba and Brazil, and that, in Lord
PALMER/WOWS judgment, the African slave trade
was nearly extinct. And does:not this Worcester.
shire justice of the peace know, that in Cuba the
planters themselves are afraid to import more raw
Africans; that the governor is resolute in resisting
such importations; and that the court of Madrid
now joint England in her anti-slave trade policy?
Is he not aware that the government of Brazil, too,
has entered on • career of suppression ; that the
Brazilian navy is engaged in protecting its own
coasts against the trade ; that the Brazilian legislature
has passed laws rivalling our own in severity ; that
it has already liberated several thousand Africans
newly landed ; and that there is a flight of slave-
dealers, with their unlawful gains, from Brazil to
Portugal ?
And during what period has this decline of the
slave trade occurred—since what date did it com-
mence ? During the but five years—since we had
free trade in sugar—and, we will venture to add,
because of that policy; for it allowed reason, moral
sentiment, and a fuller sense of national dignity to
have lair play in Brazil and Cuba; and their free
exercise has taught the Brazilians and the Cubans
that their real interests are coincident withthose of
humanity. Hence, in Brazil especially, the mighty
change that his occurred in public opinion on this
question.
Next, parliament is asked by the new Colonial
Minister to consider " the unjust competition with
the produce of slave labour to which British planters
are exposed." Why, the PLEL baronet might as
reasonably talk of the "unjust competition' with
Californian enterprise and lawlessness to which the
Australian gold dmpre are subject, and ask parlia-
ment to lay a ententeal tax on quarts front
the Americas esetiewL The people of England
want sugar; bra bads Is the commodity has given
it to them is asegenes and abundance; in nine
short years their bows of its consumption has been
69 per rent. Let the Act of 11 & 12 Vier. c. 97,
run its course, and by July, 15.55, its nee will have
augmented a hiumbrahlold. Would there be no in-
justice in checking this eatemaption ; would there be
no hardship, no enmity, is arrasting the use of sugar
here in the United Kingdumf Are the welfare and
comfort of the minis= bore nothing in Sir J.
PARINOTOWS estim •
oy sewpared with the en-
riching of a handful atip wlws in the West Indies?
But, would the ertestment of the sugar duties
benefit, as ha swum the planters? Nothing of the
sort. The probe*. be stupidly. proposes for their
advantage would out find its way into their pockets.
Any increase is the value of West Indian sugar by
means of protection would be absorbed in the in-
crease of wages to which it would necessarily lead,
the supply of labour being deficient. No longer ago
than January, 18.51, Governor BARKLY—es wean
by the Bluoßook on British Guiana just praseated—
pointed this out to the Colonial-office:
_

Were any attempt made to keep it (the duty] fixed by
act of parliament, besides the danger of checking consurop-
Lon, competition for labour] would assuredly recommence
on the faith of high prices, wages world renieedentely ►iee,
and the 'Austere, iss ecesenteseets, be as badly of ea May
were before the recent sessitroottment goat place.
What, then, are we to think of a colonial minister
who—eartlem of injuring the people of England—
proposes a measure of protection for the benefit of the
planters, which the governor of our largest and finest
sugar colony, himw If one of its greatest proprietors,
declares would injure the very planters it was meant
to benefit ? Can ignorance go further than that ?
Yet, this is the man Lord DERBY has placed over
the colonial empire of Queen Vicrolun. lilting
protect it; sow that each folly is uppermost.