The Express.
London, England, 1848-02-05 00:00:00

more than at that time were produced in the whole world.
(Rear.) America, too, had at that time little sugar cultivation
now she had a great deal. Of course this great change could
not take place without disturbing property. He would not my
whether the sugar bade would ultimately leave the west for
the east, as the indigo trade had left it, bat he was convinced
it would have dime so if slavery had been persevered in.
(Hear, hear.) But now let him look at the benefits which
were anticipated by the West Indians, supposing their de-
sires were complied with. They Anticipated that if slave labour
sugars were prohibited, they should be freed from competi-
tion, but it seemed to him, that instead of being exposed to
no competition, they would be exposed to a gnat, deal more
than they experienced at present. It was said, indeed, by
the West Indians, that Java sugars were not likely to come
into this country. He was prepared, however, to show that
the Dutch government were very much inclined to send
Java sugars to England. What happened last year ? The
Dutch government absolutely sent out orders to their agents
to clear out their lamest ships for England and Holland,
with directions to c.O at Cowes to ascertain whether their
destination should be Amsterdam or London. Three large
ships, of the 10 or 12 which eicered out of Java, absolutely
did come to London, end their cargoes were said by Baring,
Brothers, and Company, on account of the Dutch govern-
meat. The fate of one of these cargoes was remarkable. It
was purchased on speculation by an East Indian sugar
importer in London, who paid 335. a cwt. for it in
the month of May. He borrowed of his brother
and others upon bills, in order to make the payment. The
panic came, he was unable to meet the bills, the sugars were
pressed upon the London market, and they were absolutely
sold at 23s a cot , being al oss of no less than 101. a ton to
the speculator. This would show the West Indians that the
low prices of sugar did not altogether arise from the opera-
tion of the bill of 1816. (Hear, hear.) But an alteration of
the law had taken place, admitting refined sugars at the
same rate as raw sugars. Let him see how this would affect
the question. According to the common commercial law of
En land, we could notexclude refined sugar the growth and
produce of the country in which it was refined. The whole
of the beet-root sugar of the continent was consequently open
to us, and so there was a bounty on the export of that sugar
in the shape of a drawback equal to the duty first imposed
upon it, there was considerable inducement to send it for
consumption in this country. We had also treaties with
torcien nations under which we are ',ound to receive all
sugars coming from those countries on the same terms as the
sugars of the most favoured nations. The Dutch, therefore,
might refine Cuha or otter slave-grown sugars in Holland,
and send them to us on the most Gsuurable terms. This
same thing might take place in the United States. With
these circumstances staring the hcuse in the fate, what hope
could they hold out of excluding ie. taw sugars which were
the produce of slave-growing cotthiriss ? To hold out such
an anticipation would only be a snare, causing some people,
perhaps, to throw good money after bad, but of no real
tstie:fit to the planter. It might then be asked, of what be-
nefit it would be to go into a committee? His answer to
this was, that there were many questions relating is the
West Indies which a committee of that house might bens-
ffinally. deal with. In the tint place, he believed the social
condition of our Welt India colonies was excessively bad.
It was bad as compared even with Cuba or Porto Rico. In
the Spanish colonies there were old families, capitalists, and
men of enterprise, interested in the soil. Our colonies, on
the other band, were regarded only as the means of pro-
viding funds for persons resident in this country, (Hear,
hear.) In Porto Rico, wool roads and bridges were con-
structed in numbers every year. In our colonies nothing of
the kind was to be found. In Cuba there were said to be
800 miles of railroads ; in all our islands there were only 10
or 12 miles (Hear, hear.) Some eight or nine years ago,
when a proposition was made in Liverpool to make a rail-
way in Jamaica, not a single shilling was subscribed to the
project by any one interested in the colony. They must
admit, therefore, that there were great and suffi•
tient reasons why sugar should be produced cheaper
in Cuba then in our own islands. Only last week
be saw a ship going out to Cebs, fitted with iron tanks, in
order to bring home molasses without that leakage to which
essay exposed them. He believed not a single ship had ever
sailed to any one of our own islands so fitted. 'This was
evidence of superior energy and zeal on the part of Cuba
merchants. (Hear, hear.) With regard to other points, he
thought that the West Indian colonists hn I been unneces-
sarily trammelled as to the matters, relating to their labourers.
They bad not been allowed to take the necessary steps for
the repression of vagrancy in Trinidad. There were twenty
millions of acres of waste crown lands. Why, the strictest
regulations ought to have been adopted to prevent the va-
grancy and squatting which had taken place open those
lands. (Hear, hear.) One of the means by which Porto
Rico was reclaimed so rapidly at it was, was by stringent
laws against vagrancy. Then, as to immigration. Ile
thought the greatest facilities ought to be given to the
planters to import tech labour as they might require. But
it was one thing to open such facilities, and another
thing to lend or give them money to carry out such a project.
(Hear, hear.) In the one case there was an assurance
that immigration would never take place except when
it was wanted ; in the other the probabilities were that the
money
.would be squandered. But look at the extent to
which immigration must be carried in order to produce any
benefit to the West Indies. Why, in order to raise Trinidad
even to the same standard of population as Jamaica, no less
than 1,070,000 labourers must be imported. (Hear, hear.)
To conclude. Notwithstanding all that had been said, he
did hope and believe that the West Indies were in an im-
proving condition. His advice' from Guiana assured him
that a better spirit was springing up between the employers
and the employed, that they were beginning to feel that
they had a mutual interest, and that the crops were con-
siderably increasing. What cease then was there for despair?
If he found, as he did in Mauritius, that the charges of the
colony were no less than 61. on each ton of sugar it pro-
duced, why of course he concluded that such charges must
come down, if countries that produced cheaper were to be
competed with. But this was not a question of protection ;
and regarding the alterations necessary in the colonies, as
alterations which a committee would well consider, he, with
every hope of future colonial prosperity,. should cordially
give the motion his support. (Loud chee nag.)
Mr. T. BARING commenced by saying that nothing, he
thought, could be more distressing to the planters than to
hear the contrast which the hon. gentleman had just drawn
between the prosperity of Cuba, with its eight hundred I
miles of railroads, sod the ruin of our colonies with-
out a public work progressing within their boundaries! '
What a lamentable state of things to reflect upon; what I
a responsibility for the British government to encounter! I
The hon. member had referred to 'the beet-root sugar, but I
the growers of beet-root tune beef had to encounter none of I
those obstacles which had been thrown in the way of the I
other sugar growers. He repudiated the imputation of 1
reckless expenditure and wild speculation so generally ad- 1
vanced against car West India planters. The whole course
of their speculations had been directed and regulated by that I
legislation at home on which they hall so fallaciously relied. I
As to the suggested repeal of the navigation laws,
he considered that any such measure could only be
beneficial to our colonies, by making it special to. those
colonies, for if you extended the benefit of such repeal to I
the foreign sugar-growing colonies, our own would be no I
better off than they were now. What the ado- i
vies wanted was the observance to them of good faith, the i
restoration to them of that credit and that capital which the
bill of 1846 had robbed them of, while it had added in a I
rcarked manner to the capital and credit of the rival slave-
labour colonies. He feared that the right hon. gentleman I
did not fully appreciate the state of things in our colonies.
The right hon. gentleman seemed to think that theeuch whole
difficulty might be obviated by sending out agents as I
Mr. Price. What had been the effect of Mrs Price's
agency in 1547 Why, that on the partieur estate
he managed he expended 18,0004 in the production of
sugar worth 7,0001., or at the utmost 8.0001. The want
of capital in the colonies arcing from the almost entire
destruction of credit was such, that it was extremely
doubtful whether this year's crop could be realised, and
still more doubtful whether the plantations next year could
be cultivated at all. The nropoutien that our planters had
been compensated by the grant made to them in 1833 was
whollv fallacious. The freetraders would find themselves
mista`een if they based the test of their principles on what
they call free trade iu sign, but which was by no means
free trade, wanting those elements of reciprocal advantage
which themselves had held forth as the primary feature of
the principle. Even the result of cheapness, which they
urged es a recommendation of the measure ot '46, they could
by no means rely upon the permanency of. Refuse to
retrieve the ruin of our own planters, throw the market into
the hands of the foreign arowers, and how long were we to
depend upon the supply of cheap sugar ?
Mr. BERN'AL thought that the pictures drawn of the
state of Cuba were suicidal, in so far as they tended
to make retrainee slavery ; for all the great improve-
ments in that island, its railroads, its bridges, its cul-
tivation, were the produce of slave labour. He gave
the noble lord the member for Lynn full credit for
sincerity in his views; but he must take leave to say that,
the proposed committee would do no good. If the West
Indies were suffering, was this the sort of relief they wished ?
He had never hem a protectionist; and when he found the
British agriculturist was set free, he could not consent to
bind the West Indian labourers. He had been very much
disappointed by the speech of the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, who had neither acted consistently with his principles,
nor with justice to the West Indian proprietors. Sundry
taunts had been uttered towards the West Indians, such as
the 20,000p001., and the closing of the account with them.
He himself was sick of having answered such armaments.
Why should the producer of sugar at Jamaica and Barbadoes
be ti bl i ged to pay a duty any more than the Yorkshireman, who
brought his potatoes to the port of London. If he were
told that the West Indies were an expense, he would reply
that BO were the British and Scottish islands, and there-
fore on the principle of free trade, he contended
that a man sending his sugar from Jamaica bad
as much right to send it free as the farmer from Lothian.
If the question was made one of revenue, he was willing so
to consider it , but what he asked was justice on the prim
cipies adopted by the government, namely—those of free
trsile. The depreciation of West India property was such,
that properties entirely unineumbered would neither let nor
sell. He believed that the result of the present discussion
would be, that the packets which took out the news of
the appointment of the committee would she carry
letter ordering the abandonment of estates in the
West Indies. As to the relief expected from the
Colonial-office, he must say that he had never gone there,
because he knew by experience that nothing was ever got by
the West Indiana except a polite bow, and some general
advice that there ought to ben resident proprietary.
Mr. HAYWARD entered into some details with respect
to the statistics of cotton and other exports from this country,
quoted by the noble lord the member for Lynn in the course
of his speech, in order to show the inaccuracy of those state-
ments. He expressed his great anxiety to see the experiment
of emancipation succeed.
Mr. BAGSHAW said that when he first went out to In-
dia, in 1817, the whole of that vast population was clothed
by the inanufa:turee of their own country ; but ten years

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