The Express.
London, England, 1848-06-23 00:00:00

little more than the mere freight to England. The prices
are, however, very low, and unless the duties could Co. re-
mitted under a system of reciprocity, it seems very doubtful
whether the Jamaica planter could be placed in any better
position by shipping his produce to the United States;
although he certainly could hardly find a worse market any-
where than the mother country at present.
Now, setting aside the accuracy or inaccuracy of the
writer's speculation as to the success of this adventure,
here we have the fact that under the pressure of the
trade, the Jamaica planter is attempting to compete
in the United States with Cuba, against whose sugar
he protests he cannot compete in this country. Here
we have the fact that, under the influence of free-
trade, he is exporting sugar to a place whither he
never sent an ounce so long as ho had a monopoly of
the English market. Here we have a display of that
exertion and enterprise under free trade which yon
may look for in vain under the somnolency of protec-
tion. If we wanted a higher practical testimony than
any we have hitherto had to the beneficial tendency
of tree trade, we have it in this statement, that the
free labour of Jamaica is now competing in the
markets of Baltimore not only against the protected
slave labour of Louisiana, but against the unprotected
slave labour of Cuba. The first venture may not of
course be successful; but it indicates a spirit of enter-
prise worthy of the British commercial character, and
it suggests a hope that matters arc not qui.° so bad in
the \Vest Indies as the planters and their friends have
described.

But there is another point in the above paragraph
that calls for a passing remark. The writer states
that the American duty on fine Jamaica sugar is 30
per cent. ad raloreni. A duty of that amount in-
volves, of course, protection to the American sugar
planter, though it also yields revenue to the American
treasury. The writer however suggests, that by
negotiation England may be able to induce the United
States to lower this duty in favour of our colonial
sugars, and thus give them a preference in the
American markets agains' Spanish colonial sugars.
Mark the gross inconsistency of the suggestion. The
Jamaica Dispatch is devoted to the practice of pro-
tection ; it demands for its patrons, the colonial sugar
planters, a monopoly of the home market. Yet, with
the very next breath it suggests that the United States
government should reduce the protection it gives to
Louisiana planters,and let in at aloes duty Jamaica sugar.
In this inconsistency there is either no great reliance,
on the principles of protection which the writer deems
necessary to the salvation of Jamaica, or there is an
amount of selfishness such as no reasonable being can
contend against. The man blusteringly demands that
Lord .1011#4 RUSSELL. should protect the West Indies ;
yet he quietly requests Lord PALMERSTON to induce
the United States to cease to protect Louisiana ! In
London he is a monopolist ; in Baltimore he is a free
trader ! He has, however, one characteristic, common
to both places—selfishness. At both he attempts to
misp what he has no right to attain. In Baltimore
he has no chance of being successful ; it remains for
the House of Commons to say whether he has more
here. _ .

While in the act of bringing these remarks to a
close, we receive the subjoined extract of a private
letter from a West India colony, dated 26th May.
The writer, it will be seen, is a staunch protectionist,
and yet he admits that without protection Barbadoes,
Antigua, and St. Christopher's will be able to keep
their ground. This admission from a West India
protectionist corroborates the argument we main-
tained yesterday miming, that it is only
the three large colonies in the British West
Indies that are in any s2rions danger; that
their danger results from some peculiarity
in their situation, not from any general inca-
pacity in the British sugar-grower to compete on
equal terms with the foreigner ; and that the remedy
for this peculiarity in their situation is not protection,
but effectual immigration, coupled with such law re-
forms as will restore credit and facilitate the transfer-
ence of property to those who really possess the usu-
fructuary right to it, and extensive reductions in
local public expenditure :
The committee now sitting will all end in smoke; they
have no inclination to help us; they are sacrificing these co
lonies to benefit the Spaniards and other foreigners. Bad
as things are, Barbadoes, Antigua, and St. Kitts will, it is
believed, stand their ground, while the large colonies and
the moo magnificent, such u Jamaica, Trinidad, and British
Guiana, will sink peat redemption unless saved by protective
measures. There is no doubt every article of commerce—and
sugar is no exception—must inevitably be depressed in the
European markets by the terribly disturbed state of almost
every country on the continent where republics are springing
up every hour and revolutions of daily occurrence. Credit
and confidence are at a serious discount, and there can be tIJ
security for property, and if things go on so, not much for
life.