The Press.
London, England, 1854-08-12 00:00:00

AUGUST 12, 1854.

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was insufficient to meet its expenditure, he suggested
that a large saving might be made by reducing the
regular cavalry force, which was maintained upon a
larger scale than the service required.
Mr. J. G. PHILLIMORE remarked upon the import-
ance of establishing the means of rapid and cheap
transit throughout the vast area of our Indian terri-
tories.
After some remarks from Mr. S. FITZGERALD touch-
ing military promotions in India, and a few words
from Mr. V. SCULLY,
Sir C. WOOD briefly replied, and the formal reso-
lutions which he had moved in the course of his
opening speech were agreed to.
ENCUMBERED ESTATES (WEST INDIES)
BILL.

The committal of thisCillheing moved on Monday
in the Commons,

-- - •
Sir J. PAKINGTON emphatically denounced the in-
justice and cruelty wh.ch the measure would perpe-
tuate among a large section of the West Indian pro-
prietors:—
" He referred especially to that particular portion of the
encumbrances which had arisen from the loan granted under
an act of Parliament in 1832, in consequence of the de-
struction of property in the West Indies by the hurricane
of 1831. Before that act, also, a loan was granted to some
of the proprietors in Jamaica in consequence of the injury
they sustained from the violence which took place during
the rebellion. The loan, which was extended to the West
Indies in consequence of the hurricane, had been standing
from that time to this ; and lately the Government had
been pressing for the repayment of the whole. From
parliamentary returns it would appear that the aggregate
sum originally lent to individuals in the islands was
713,0001., end that 485,0001. now remained outstanding,
the Government having received as interest very nearly
309,0041., exclusive of interest on loans to the islands.
Now, in a letter which had been written last February by
the Secretary of the Treasury, a refusal was given to enter
into a compromise which the inhabitants of the West
Indies had requested; and the honourable gentleman added
that the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury were pre-
p tred to proceed, in virtue of an act passed in 1845, to
accept a composition in lieu of the loan equivalent to the
present value of the property in St. Vincent, in all those
cases in which it could be satisfactorily proved to the
Loan Commissioners that the value of each estate, if
offered for sale, would be less than the sum now due for
principal and interest upon the loan. (' Hear, hear,' from
Mr. Wilson.) The hon. gentleman cheered that statement ;
but he did not see that that was in fact saying that the Go-
vernment were resolved to confiscate the remaining pro-
perty of those West Indian proprietors? (Hear, hear.)
Indeed, with the exception of the case of Shylock and the
pound of flesh, he could remember nothing so cruel as that
climax to our legislation with reference to our West Indian
colonies. The hon. gentleman said, in fact, when the
value of the property had fallen below the amount the pro-
prietor owed the Government, then they would take a sum
equivalent to that whole value. (Hear, hear.) He should
like to know how the Government was to get more than
the present value of the estate. In some cases the value
of estates in the West Indies had fallen as much as ninety
per cent. below what it was at the time the loans in ques-
tion were contracted. If the Government pressed for the
pound of flesh, the result would be that, in the island of
St. Vincent, out of twenty-three estates, no less than
eighteen would be altogether confiscated and taken away
frum the owners. (Hear, hear.) The same consequences,
though perhaps in fewer cases, would take place in the islands
of St. Lucia and St. Domingo. Since the loans in question
were contracted, the proprietors in the West India Islands
had been reduced to a state of poverty, and in some cases
of ruin. Besides, he would ask, had not the people of this
country been repaid those loans in another shape ? What
had the people of this country gained in the interval by the
reduction in the price of sugar ? Why, during the last year
the saving to the public in sugar alone had been upwards
of 3,000,0001.; and that at the expense and ruin of the
unfortunate proprietors in the West Indies. The pro-
prietors themselves suggested. that their respective debts
should be lowered in the same ratio ar their estates had
been diminished in value. He thought that a fair propo-
sition, though he admitted there might be some difficulty
in applying the principle to the different islands. The
Government adopted a fair and generous course with
regard to the loans due from the people of Ireland; but the
claim of Ireland to be so dealt with was not, in his opinion,
nearly so strong as that of the West Indies. He hoped the
Government would meet this case in a fair and generous
spirit; that, at all events, they would not act either in the
spirit or in the letter of the despatch written by the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, in which he declared that the Govern-
ment were willing to accept what in a great many cases
would be an actual confiscation of the property in question.
(Hear, hear.)"
Mr. WILSON defended the course which the Go-

Ye rnment were pursuing, on the plea that a con-
. tinuance of the existing state of indebtedness was
Most prejudicial to the general prosperity and
progress of the islands in question
" Nothing had been more injurious to the proprietors
in the West Indies than the keeping those loans sus-
pended over their heads for so long a time, by which
they themselves were unable to improve their estates
or to raise money upon them with that view. ( Hear, hear.)
Those moneys were originally borrowed under an act of
the 2nd and 3rd William IV., in 1832 or 1833, by which it
was provided that the loans should be repaid in ten years, a
term which, by a subsequent act, was extended to ten
years longer. and in 1848 a further act was passed by which
the term was extended for a further period of Ave years.