The Sun.
London, England, 1839-03-04 00:00:00

BEET-ROOT SUGAR.

ADVICE TO LANDLORDS.
(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)
Perhaps the mischievous effects of Government in-
terference in any trade were never more glaringly pour-
trayed than they are in the article of sugar. While the
snpply from the West Indies exceeded the demlnds of
our home consumption the nation was grievously taxed,
through the invidious operation of bounties granted to
stimulate the exportation o: such a weight of the sugar
in a relined state as would diminish the quantity imported
below what our domestic purposes actually required.
By this stratagem all the baneful evils of monopoly
were brought into activity, and the people of this coun-
try clandestinely robbed of millions, through the exor-.
bitantly high prices which sugar commanded, for the
exclusive benefit of the Colonists. The complaints and
remonstrances of sugar-refiners and others have, for
time out of mind, been unceasingly urged against this
monstrous abuse. At length, when it is ascertained,
with some degree of accuracy, by the parties interested,
that the powers of domestic consumption have increased

to an extent which ensures that this demand will take
off the whole supply, and it would take off more than our
own Colonial supply if the law permitted access to other
sugars, then the Minister of the daysteps forth armed with
statements which had been deposited in his office years
before, and talks loudly against the abuse, as though it
had been a discovery recently made by him, and the
bounty is forthwith reduced, not because it was costly to the
nation, but because it is no longer necessary as a means to
ensure to the West Indians all the advantages in price
of sugar which they had uninterruptedly enjoyed for ages
past. The present state of markets in Mincing-lane
abundantly testifies the accuracy with which the con•
elusion was attained, that the demand for sugar would
henceforward exceed the supply of it. British Planta-
tion Muscovado sugar is worth, exclusive of duty 365.
per cwt., while foreign, of similar quality, which is sold
side by side with it in the same market, commands but
245. per cwt.—being a difference of 12s. per cwt.,
which 125., by the time the sugar reaches the con-
sumer's hands, are augmented by charges and profit to
18s., or twopence per lb. Therefore, to secure to the
Colonist (the home consumption for 1838 being about,
in round numbers, 200,000 tons at 19s. per cwt., or
121. per ton), the sum of '2,400,000/. over and above
the foreign value of the sugar—the consumers pay the
enormous sum of 3,600,0001., being the amount of 181.
per ton, or 18s. per cwt., on the said 200,000 tons of
sugar; and be it observed that this amount of money is
exclusive of other costly monopolies on produce im-
ported from the West Indies, such as coffee, rum,
Sze. &c. We have consequently no hesitation in de•
daring that, next to the Bread-tax inflicted by the
Devil's-laws, this atrocious fraud upon the British com-
munity stands pre-eminent, the law which promotes it,
ought, like its companion in sin, to be erased from the
statute-book forthwith. It is evident that the love of
money links these plunderers together—the landlords of
England and the proprietors of the West Indies make
common cause ; the West Indian speaks of his landed
property in Jamaica to the English landlord as though
his plantation were a part and parcel of this country—
as though Jamaica were as much a county of England as
Yorkshire is, and therefore merited the same protec-
tion. We arc both landed proprietors, says the West
Indian, and we are both mutually interested in obtain-
ing a high price for the produce of our land.
This mutual determination to stand by each other
was palpably shown in the Session of 1837, when the
high price of sugar promoted an attempt to make beet-
root sugsr in this country. On that occasion, however,
the West Indian contrived to hoodwink his brother
landlord of England, as to the advantages to be obtained
by the cultivation of beet for the production of sugar,
and both harmoniously set to work to crush a rising
establishment, fitted up ter the purpose of manufac-
turing sugar from beetroot, by enacting not only a duty
of 245. per cwt. on sugar so produced, but by conferring
such vexatious powers of interference on the excise as
would certainly render abortive all attempts at manu-
facturing sugar in that manner. Now, let the landlords
of England turn their eyes to what has been achieved
in France and other countries, and, when they have
examined the matter closely, let them decide whether
they acted wisely in siding with their brother monopolist
in destroying, in the bud, an effort which, carried
out, would have enabled them to snap their fingers at
tho protection given by the Corn-laws, the value of
which to them, as a body, is extremely equivocal. We
say, let them meditate on the perfection to which the
production of sugar from this vegetable has arrived,
and let them look hard at the profit which this per-
fection has ensured to the owners of foreign soil, and
we augur they will be just as eager to rescind the law of
July, 1837, as they then were to pass it ; but as ti.e
parties may not have at hand documents which will
give them this necessary information, we quote from an
able pamphlet, entitled, " Remarks on the State of the
Sugar Trade," by Trueman and Cook, the well known
and eminent brokers of Mincing-lane. At page 9,
after showing the production in tons of sugar of the
different foreign colonies, they state, " The actual con-
sumption, however, of Prance alone is about 120,0c0
tons per annum ; but such has been the progress
of the manufacture from beet-roqt in that country,

that it is said to havo yielded in 1838 the
quantity of 80,000 tons against 55,000 in 1837,
and only 10,000 in 1832, which operate seriously to
affect the colonies of that country, whose produce, esti-
mated at 85.000 tons, is subject to a duty equivalent to
20s. per English cwt., while beet-root sugar, which had
been exempted altogether till very lately, pays only now
10s. Looking at the immense production of the latter (in
Europe), now estimated at 120,000 tons, approaching
nearly to half the annual continental consumption of
foreign, it is a remarkable fact, and deserves to be ro-
corded, with reference to the hitherto supposed depend-
ence on tropical climates for supplies of sugar, that in
the year 1806, the period of the Berlin and Milan
decrees, the most powerful efforts were made by the
then ruler of France, but in vain, to give effect
to those decrees by promoting this manufacture.
It may be reasonably conjectured that the scien-
tific experiments then made originated the process
e.hich has since been brought to such maturity ; but
fr,m whatever source, it seems not now improbable
that Europe, and even this country, might be indepen-
dent of its colonies for this necessary article. Such,
indeed, have been the well-founded apprehensions upon
this head of the Colonial interest at home, that an Act
was passed in July, 1837, imposing a duty of 245. per
cwt. 03 all sugar of beet-rout manufacture. In Bel-
gium, great part of Germany, and even in Russia, the
culture of beet-root is rapidly increasing."
We hate given the forgoing extract for the purpose
of exciting the attention of the landed interest to the
question. They possess the means of investigating the
accuracy of the figures by reference to authentic docu-
ments ; for ourselves we firmly place our faith on the
statement given,—and we believe that had the
project of sugar from beet-root not been crushed
in 1836, Great Britain and Ireland would have
been now extensively cultivated with beet. We
say, therefore, to the landlords look to your own
interest, and do not foolishly array yourselves
against the avowed opinions of your countrymen by
pertinaciously adhering to your corn monopoly, which,
do what you will, you must lose soon or late, but turn
your attention to the cultivation of a vegetable which
will pay abundantly better than wheat. To parties
throughout the nation who have small gardens we say,
wait not for the tardy movements of the Legislature,
but cultivate beet-root—if the present law could by
possibility be strained to interfere with your afterwards
boiling down the root so as to obtain a isyrup for your
own domestic purposes—still be not afraid but perse-
vere—for although the law may be stringent, yet if all
the cottagers and yeomen simultaneously proceed to
make their own sugar, it would require an army of
excisemen to carry is conditions in:o effect, and the law
would consequently be totally inoperative.
We shall at our leisure peruse some of the best French
treatises on the cultivation of beet-root and its conversion
into syrup. We therefore hope in akw clays to have
space to lay before the public a simple mode of following
our advice—which will assuredly be a death-blow to the
costly effects of the sugar monopoly.

BRUSSELS AND GERMAN
PAPERS.

BRUSSELS, FEB. 28. —The Municipal Council of the
city of Brussels has addressed a very earnest petition to
the Chamber of Representatives, showing the absolute ne-
cessity of peace, and the entire impossibility of resisting
the decree of the Conference. Various other petitions in
favour of peace have been presented.
M. Barthel is arrested on an accusation of a crime
provided against in the penal code. The Beige mentioned
yesterday an examination is which M. Barthel declared
to the examining Judge, M. Graef, that he was the au-
thor of a proclamation to the army, which has been dis-
tributed in Brussels and other cities.
Several persons have been arrested this morning.
M. Birthcl is imprisoned in the Petits Carmel. He
is accused of having, by means of printed papers, which
were distributed directly, excited the citizens cr
taus to commit the crimes provided against by penal codes
in the year 18:38 and 1839.
BRUSSELS, Mallen I.—lt is said that M. Kato, Presi-
dent of the Meetings has been arrested at the same time
as M. Barthel, and that several more arrests are to be
made.
Dolez has presented the Report of the Central sec-
tion on the pr,j.i.ct of law for the acceptance of the treaty
of peace. It is as follows

Gentlemen—The Central Section appointed to examine
the project of law authorising the conclusion of the treaties
which are intended to regulate the separation between Bel-
gium and Holland has dune me the honour to confide to me
the ofliee of preseatiug to you its Report. In accepting
this commission, I have been fully sensible of its importance,
and it is not with more than one painful feeling that I have
engaged in it. You, Gentlemen, who are called upon by
your Commission to defend the interest of the country have
had occasion to convitwe yourselves that it is in ono of
those great crises which dn‘.:ide on the existence of a nation.

In sibliitting to you the result of my labours I hop.
only that it will be approved in one respect, which I yen'
ture to claim from your justice, viz., that you will acknow-
ledge it to be a with of a citizen who is the friend of his
country.

The; notes of the proceedings of the sections have
proved to the Central Section the great care with which
they examined the project of law; and the presence of
almost all the Members of the Chambers at the examina-
tion proves how deeply the importance of it was felt.
The reporter then presented an analysis of the proceed-
ings of each of the six sections, from which it appears
that forty-two Members voted for the project of law,
thitty•ni+Je against it, and seventeen refrained from vot-
ing. The presence of almost the whole of the Mem-
bers of the Chambers proves that many who • declined
voting were actuated only by the desire th,t to decide. in a
matter of such paramount interest till the general debate
shall have ant ded to each the powerful light which it will
throw on the sulljeet. We have thought, gentlemen, that
we might be allowed to make this observation to reply to
the remarks which had been made, and the circumstance of
Members declining to vote. All the observations brought
forward in the several petitions have been carefully weighed
and discussed at great length in the Central Section.
The Ministers being invited to our meetings, their at-
tention was directed to all the observations, and they gave
to the Central Section the explanation it required. We do
not think it proper to give those explanations in a document
which is to be made public. The debacs in the Chamber
being still uncertain, the Central Section has judged that it
ought to observe in its report a reserve on this point, which
you will appreciate.
The first question that was offered to our examination
was the reproach made to the project of the law that it was
a violation of the Constitution.

The Central Section decided unanimously that it was
not a violation of the Constitution.

The report then enters into a discussion of the conse-
sequence of accepting or rejecting the treaty. It shows
that by rejecting the treaty,:Belgium would be exposed to a
fruitless struggle against a combination of the great powers,
since its best allies, France and England, would join the
three other powers in enforcing the decision of the Confer-
ence ; that the situation of our manufacturing establish-
ments, the embarrassments which already oppress them,
and those with which they are still threatened, renders it
an imperative duty to avert the general ruin which would
be the inevitable consequence of an impotent resistance.
The reply of the Minister of War, on being questioned re-
specting the expenses of his Department, convinced the
Section that very extraordinary financial measures would
be the inevitable and speedy result of a prolongation of
the present state of things.
" If at least," says the Report," so many sacrifices could
promise us some advantageous result. But we are ccin-
vineed that they would only hasten the consumption which
undermines us, and would render the acceptance of the
Treaty, to which we should ultimately be compelled, not
less painful but far more disastrous."
The Report observes " That some persons had dwelt
on the dishonour which Belgium would bring on itself by
accepting the Treaty, and argue at length that there can
be no dishonour in yielding to an irresistible force."
In fine the Report declares that " The proposal of the
Guvernment has been adopted by six Members—one only
voted against it for the present, declaring that it has
yielded only to the pressure of necessity, the Central Sec-
tion has the honour to propose to you to adopt the Project
of Law, with the modifications which you will find in the
draft which it submits to you.
" RA ITH E IRA, President.
DEL EZ, Reporter."