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

afterwards the influx of British cottons was such u com-
pleteo supersede all the native manufactures. There was
no But India auger then admitted, but in the year
1836 the bill for equalising duels' on East and West
India sugar passed, and ten years after the East Indiana
sent to this country no less than 72,000 tons of sugar. Ile
would venture to say that there was in the world, In
such a time, such a development of the resources of a
country. He, as an East Indian merchant, was a free
trader, and he contended that the trade of India and
of the tropics should get the same relaxations
which had relieved the tom trade in the mother country.
(Hoar, hear.) He only asked what it was just to give—
namely, such a distinctive duty as would put our free colon-
ists on a per with their slave-growing neighbours, and afford
a protection equivalent to that which distance gave to the
British farmer.
Mr. DISRAELI said he would endeavour to put this
question in its true light, and to divest it as far as possible of
all mere secondary considerations. The real political
problem which they were called upon to solve was this ;
Whether the new commercial system which had so lately
been tried upon one great branch of our imperial industry
had not been completely and lamentably found wanting ?
(Hear, hear.) They were called upon to adjudicate respect-
ing a great branch of our imperial industry, which was
prosperous when we first began to apply to it the principles
of our new system, which was now so no longer, and which,
when it tailed out for insistence, received no answer, but the
dry development of a cold abstraction. (Hear, hear.) There
was an interest which perhaps in all its relations represented
no less than two hundred millions of capital. Even the
government, as well as their amateur advocates, admitted
that that capital was in danger. They did not question the
peril, but how did they account for it? They did not attri-
bute it to their free-trade measures, which, if they had been
as successful as was anticipated, would have left him a very
weak cause indeed to defend. Then he might have heard
that if our islands in the Gulf of Mexico were all lost in the
waves which surround them, the new system would amply
repay us for the loss. But, unfortunately, we were not in a
position to justify such an assertion. It could not be pre-
tended that any of the free-trade measures had brought
about such results as would compensate fur the state of
society they had created—a state of suffering he believed un-
precedented in ancient or modern history. The present
system had been baptised with a name which in his opinion
it never deserved. It had been called a resonstructiou of
the commercial system of this country on the principle of
emancipated trade. They had been told to expect great
results. He denied the soundness of the principle on which
it was founded; he denied that they had reconstructed their
commercial system on the principles of free trade. The
principle upon which they had acted was, that of buying in
the cheapest market. (Hear, hear.) That was not the true
principle of commerce. Commerce, they were told by the
politiceseconomic writers, was barter. How often, during
the early years of his attendance in that house, when the
fatal principle like a snail was beginning to emerge from in
shell, had be been told with scoffing, that commerce was
only barter? How could they raconeile that doctrine with
the fatal principle which they were new pursuing—the prin-
ciple of purchasing in the cheapest market? Why that prin-
ciple was only fit for retail trade. (Oh, oh.) But unfortu-
nately although retail in principle, it was not retail in its
effect. Its effects were wholesale, it was not retail—in
rains. (Oh.) Nobody would deny the fact that our
felonies were in a most perilous portion. (Hear, hear.)
They were not so in 1846, after al the interference, all the
Welting up which their affairs had undergone. After their in-
terests had been made the very harridan of party, the energies
and capital of Englishmen enabled them to brave the
storm, until the fatal legislation of 184 G. He had taken
I some part in the debates of that year, and he recollected well
I how great was hie surprise and disappointment to find an
hon. friend of his, the Chairman of the India Company,
supporting the measures of government. Ile remembered
well his hon. friend saying that the British capitalists who ,
had invested in India were not in the least afraid of the
'government measures; and that statement had a vast'
effect on the house. He (Mr. Disraeli) had followed his
hon. friend, and told him that cotton and arra& were
monopolies, and that sugar was the only privileged cultiva-
tion of the Indian ryots. He had had letters sent to hint by
men of high consideration and authority on Indian elf &a—
mong the rest by Dwarkanath Tagore, which showed
that the only hopeful speculation for India was to promote
the cultivation of sugar. He bad read to the house the cor-
respondence of eminent persons who bad since fallen,
Into, Irmo, precipiles! to show that the cultivation of
I sagar had sprung up in every district. Ile had shown also
that coincident with the increase of sugar cultivation in '
India, our exports to that country had increased, and that
that increase mainly consisted of goods required by the
lowest class of the population. lie bad shown that the con-
sumers of our goods were no longer exclusively the wealthy
and powerful, but that the humble cultivator took in exchange
for his sugar, turbans and robes of our manufacture, thus
increasing our exports to the extent of two millions. He
now asked whether the present state of that country had
been well considered? (Hear, hear.) Ile need not dwell
on the condition of the capitalists, for whom the bon. mem-
ber for Beverley hail stood bail. Every one knew what had
been the termination of their career—that they had disap-
peared from the commercial world, but surely the condition
of the ryots was worthy of some consideration. (Hear,
hear.) They had shown the effects of our policy,
by ceasing to be the purchasers of our goods.
Again, what had been the effect of our policy
on the Mauritius, where the amount of compensation
2,600,000?., and the labour of 60,000 labourers had been sunk.
But that was not the worst or the bitterest consequence. A
more bitter consequence was, that men who had for years
filled a high position in that house, men of great practical
ability and high honour, were now held up to public scorn
and contumely, as men devoid of principle, as rash specula-
tors, whose over-trading had met no more than its just re-
ward—in their ruin ; and that which was the consequence
of bad legislation was charged to their own rapacity.
(Hear, hear.) Now, with regard to the condition of the
Strut Indies, no one doubted the condition to which our po-
licy had reduced those islands. The hon. member for West-
bury, who had scarcely touched the great question
under consideration; had stated in dulcet tones his conviction
that as regarded the West Indies the gain had been all our
own—and added that we must, if necessary, sweeten our
tea with beet-root sugar. (Hear, hear.) Well, the peril to the
colonies being admitted, what were the remedies proposed ?
The Chancellor of the Exchequer had announced some
measures which ministers proposed for remedying in some
degree the condition he deplored, and had announced them
at the end of a speech, the whole object of which was to •
prose that no remedial measures would have any effect. The
right hon. gentleman had stated that he could not flatter
himself that his measures would satisfy the West India
body. He (Mr. Disraeli) concurred with hire, and
would not, therefere, dwell on his suggestions, except
as the representative of an English constituency, living in an
age of economy, and trembling for the budget which had
been announced as shortly to make its appearance. to de-
dare his unqualified opposition to the vote of 200,000?., I
which the right hon. gentleman had stated he meant to pro- I
pose. If he thought that vote would cure the evils of the I
colony, he would not offer any objection i but he had no
idea of encouraging that loose habit in public men et
extricating themselves from difficulties brought on by their
own want of caution by votes of the public money. (Hear,
hear.) The law which was passed in 1846 was prop:. •
as a law of regeneration, the effect of which was to be to
throw capital into the colonies, to accumulate labour in
those districts in which it was deficient, and to terminate
all those questions of colonial distress of which so much had
been heard during that period of painful transition through
which the colonies were passing. But had the retelt been
such as to inspire confidence in the:ministry who brought
forward and carried that law, or to show that they had
studied the subject, and were so well informed upon it, that
they were entitled to be the guides and leaders of the legis-
lature in respect to it? His noble friend (Lord O. Ben•
thick) had referred to a speech made at the close of last ses-
sion by the Under-Secretary for the Colonies, which was
valuable as showing the knowledge, the opinions, and the
prospects of the government on the subject at the close of
the year 1840. That that hon. gentleman was not now a
member of tie house no one regretted more sincerely than
he did ; for he knew no man who combined lucid intelligence
with practical business habits to a greater extent than Mr.
Hawes. (Hear, hear.) He looked on Mr. liawes'e opinion
therefore as valuable, not merely as expressing the views of
the government, but as expressing views formed on the mature
consideration of a practical and intelligent mind. His noble
friend, the member for Lynn, had presented a petition
which called forth front Mr. Hawes the following remarks
The noble lord had confined his attention to the West India islands;
but let him turn to the Mauritius and he would find that there the
greatest prosperity was manifest. amp that the production of sugarluid
unmenactv increased and tiao noble turd might rent .tisticil that
a system free trade and open competition would be most beneficial
for all parties concerned., that it would lead to greater economy of pro.
, duction, be the means of embarking more capital in the growth and
manufacture of sugar, and tind to the general presperity of the whole
popukition.
He quoted this to show what the knowledge of the govern-
ment on the subject really was. What was the answer to
this ? The failure of every firm of importance connected
with India or the Mauritius—cabinet counsels hell four
times a week, and the Bank Charter virtually repealed,
while the Chancellor of the Exchequer was vomiting forth a
protest against his own acts. (Hear, hear.) He now came
to the secret and inuendo remedies suggested, in order to
prevent the utter destruction of the colonial interest. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer last night had favoured the
house with those remedies. Ten minutes he had devoted to
molasses and emigration, and that happy idea of curing those
deep-seated evils by a loan less than the government would
propose to expend on one wing of the House of Commons ;
and then he devoted a full hour and half to an
explanation of the remedies —and here they were.
The first was competition. (Hear, hear.) We have
(said the hon. gentleman) heard of that before. I
well remember the noble lord the first minister of the crown
(whose absence on the present occasion I much regret), when
we made the last effort in 1846 to support those interests—l •
remember the noble lord, with that grand expression which
I so well becomes him, andwhich he never assumes with greater
' felicity than when he is about to announce something which
cannot in any way practically influence the country or the
assembly he addresses—saying that he had every hope end
confidence that the means by which the colonies would be
enabled, not to extricate themselves from their difficulties,
for they were not then involved in them, but to inset the
dangers with which they were threatened—and which we
stated must come—wee competition. But what is meant by
competition—what being it is—of what sex—whether it be a
god or a demi god—whether a naiad or a dryad—we know no.
thing. Competition says one, enterprise says another. These
are the remedies, and this is the staple of all their speeches.
(Hear, hear.) The shipping interest is in decline, competi-
tion will restore it ; the colonies are in despair, enterprise
will restore them to prosperity ; agriculture is suffering,
enterprise is all that is required. (Hear, hear.) The whole
speech of the right hon. gentleman last night, following that
of the prime minister is 1846--couched in the seme phrase,
and modelled in the same fety—wv, the same