The Sun.
London, England, 1838-07-18 00:00:00

SUGAR DUTIES.

Extract from Mr. Clay's speech on going into a Com-
mittee on the Sugar Duties Bill on June 25. Mr. Clay's
speech was not fully reported on that occasion, and the fol-
lowing extract from a corrected report is of public interest :
" The following is an account of the actual proceedings, as
communicated to the Board of Trak, of a Refinery in Lon-
don during a part of the year 1836:
Statement furnished to the Board of Trade of actual results of
Refining 9,121 Cwts. of Raw Sugar.
9,121 Cwts. produced 82+lbs. per Cwt., or
6,096 Cwts. ; equal to Custom; Standard
of Double Refined, receiving drawback
435. 2d. per Cwt. £14,452 1 4
9,121 Cwts. produced 151bs. per C;vt., or
1,216 Cwt. Bastards, drawback of 24 per.
Cent.
9,121 Cwts. produced 101 lbs. por Cwt., or
863 Cwts, Treacle

9,121 Cwts. produced 4lbs. per Cwt., or
345 Dirt and Waste £15,911 5 4

Duty paid on 9,121 Cwts. Raw Sugar £10,945 0 0
Net amount of concealed bounty, if the Re •
fined Sugar had been exported ......
Equal to 10s. 10d. per Cwt., independently of the remitted
duty on Treacle, equal to 2s. 21 per Cwt., together 13s.
per Cwt.

In the letter from the Board of Trade to the Treasury,
recently laid on the table of this House, from which I have
quoted the foregoing remarkable statement, it is assumed, al-
though it is not said on what grounds, that the instance in
question " is to be taken rather as an experiment to show
what can actually be produced, than as coming within the or-
dinary course of Sugar Refining." I believe, from informa-
tion on which I place reliance, that if more favourable in its
results than the ordinary process of modern refining, under the
improved methods now in use, the experiment I have just re-
ferred to is so only in a very small degree. I believe, that on
the average, a Refiner of the ordinary skill, using the best
machinery, can produce from an cwt. of Raw Sugar as
much Refined Sugar as will entitle him to a drawback on ex-
portation of between 31s. and 325., 7s. or 81. more, that is to
say, than the 245. he paid on the cwt. of Raw Sugar—if to
this be added the advantage of selling, duty free, for home
consumption, the 15 to 20lbs. treacle made in Refining the
cwt. of Raw Sugar, an advantage of front 2s. to 35.., it is
impossible to estimate at less than 103. per cwt., the concealed
bounty obtained under our present laws by the Refiner on
every cwt. of Raw Sugar which he refines for exportation.
This conclusion is rendered irresistible by the perfectly noto-
rious fact, that British Plantation Sugar, which can be used
in our Refineries, sell; for 10s. or 12s. per cwt. dearer than
Foreign Sugar, of equal quality, which cannot be so used. Now,
what are the results of this state of the law ? Whv, first, that
the Reventya is greatly defrauded—the Customs lose 10s. in
every es' t. of Sugar refined and exported. If five hundred
thousrad cwts. of Sugar be refined and exported, therefore,
the revenue suffers to the extent of 250.0001. But, secondly,
'_.nd this is by very far the more important consequence of tho
present state of the law, this concealed bounty of 10s. per
cwt. does enhance, to that precise extent, the price of every
pound of sugar consumed in the United Kingdom; and as the
quantity consumed is about 4,350,000 cwts. annually, has the
effect of imposing a tax on the public of 2,175,000/. per an-
num, for the whole and sole advantage of the West India pro-
prietors, or the growers of that sugar which has the monopoly
of the home market. The mode in which this effect is pro-
duced may be stated in very few words, and will be at once
admitted by every Hon. Gentleman who hears me, who is
conversant either with commercial transactions, or with the
elements of economical science. It is worth the while of the
foreign merchant to give as much for our refined sugar as it
will fetch in the foreign market, deducting his profit and the
charges of transit--the price he will at present give for refined
sugar, put on board his ship in the river Thames, is 355. per
cwt. ; the refiner gets in addition 435. 2d. drawback—to-
gether 78s. 2d.—or, deducting the charges of shipping, 2s. 2d.,
,6s. per cwt. for his cwt. of refined sugar. Of course, this
must be also the price of refined sugar in the home market,
for he will not sell to the English grocer for a less price than
he can get from the foreign merchant. But, in the 435. 2d.
drawback on his refined sugar, I have shown that the refiner
has got much more than he paid as duty on the raw sugar.
Now, does the House suppose that, of that excess, he puts
into his pocket any the smallest fraction as profit ? Not one
single sixpence. The competition of other refiners will pre-
vent his getting more than the ordinary profits of trade; and
if it be true, as is undoubted, that on refining ono cwt. of
raw sugar, he gets from the Customs 101. more in drawback
than he paid in duty, precisely that 103. more per cwt. will
it be worth his while to pay for the raw sugar, than
would be worth his while if there were no concealed
bounty. In the same market, there cannot be two prices
for the same article ; the price, therefore, which the
refiner can afford to give, every other buyer must pay,
and the price of the whole quantity of sugar consumed in the
United Kingdom is enhanced to the public to the exact
amount of the concealed bounty on the export of refined
sugar. * • •
I do not say that the measure of my Right Hon. Friend
is not a beneficial measure, or that we should not be grateful
to him for what he proposes to do in the matter ; but I do
say that the public is entitled to much more, and would sup-
port him in c irrying through a much bolder measure. That
my Right Hon. Friend does not take off more of the con-
cealed bounty arises mainly from this—that he adheres to the
old system of paying drawbacks calculatod on the assumed
products of refining. Now, as there is great uncertainty as
to the result of refining any given sample of sugar, he cannot
venture to take off from the drawback the real amount of con-
cealed bounty, lest in sonic cases he should inflict a hardship on
the refiner by giving him less drawback than he paid duty. The
plan involved in the motion I have submitted to the House,
and the motion I shall submit to the Committee obviates this
difficulty, and it is the only plan by which all difficulty and
unfairness to any parties can be obviated. I would propose
that a refiner should be at liberty to take raw sugar out of the
bonded warehouses, on giving approved security to the Cus-
toms for payment of the duty ; that at the end of a given pe-
riod he s'muld be called on to vacate that bond, which he
might do, either by entering far exportation the whole produce
of the sugar refined, or any part of it, and receiving credit at
the rate of 245. per eat., the duty on the raw sugar for the
p.:rt so returned, whether refined, bastards, or treacle ; on
whatever part of the produce of the sugar he chose not to
enter for exportation, whether refined, bastards, or treacle, he
should be called on to pay the duty of 24a. per cwt. Thus
it would be certain that on whatever sugar he refined for the
home market, he would pay more than the duty nu the raw
sugar consumed, and on that uhich he exported he would
merely be free from any duty at all, there could be no con-
cealed bounty, and consequently no factitious enhancement of
the price of the home market.

Parliamentary Electors in Cities and Boroughs entitled
under the Reform Act, will lose their cotes for the next
year, unless they pay, on or before the 20th of July instant,
all the poor's rates (and window tax, if any) payable from
them, in respect of their premises previously to the 6th
of April last. County voters must send in their claims by
the 20th of July instant.

DYSS INI A .—lt had long been desired by Giiental
scholars that the Ethiopic MS. of the Apocryphal Book of Enoch, brought
by Bruceirom Abyssinia, and deposited in the Bodleian Library, should
be published in the original. No one, however,seemed disposed for such
a task, until the present Archbishop of Cm , formerly Regius Professor
of Ilebrem at Oxford, and well know' y his many valuable and Icarricd
writ:ngs, has sot about the wlt k, which is now in the press. By a
par coincide ice, it happens that Dr. Hoffman, of Jena, has also just an:
n9unced a similar publication of the tt xt of Enoch, from a manuscript
brought to Europe by Hoppa!, a traveller.

CAUTlON.—lntorinations of an exti aordinary cha-
racter were brought before the magistrates on Thursday. It appears
plainly enough that excise officers employ persons to go about and tempt
unwary householders to purchase illicit spirits, and that the excisemen
then pounce upon those whom their agents have thus tempted, and tim.
pel the magistrates, who; have no discretion in the matter, to convict in
heavy penalties. If Government permit mat transactions, it will be as
much disgraced as the persons more imtnadiately concerned.—blanches.
kr Times.

On Sunday morning, a boy, one of many who were
bathing in the new entrance of the London Dock, near the swivel bridge
at Simdwell, was drowned, b) falling from the recess in which the bridge
revolves, into the water. tie was soon got out, bnt not in time to save
his life. A youth was drowned while bathing in the River at Poplar, in
the same afternoon, and two others lost their lives by getting in deep
water, above bridge, in the evening.
ABELARD.—A manuscript has been found in the
Vatican Library, which, among other thiags, contains the songs of Abe.
lard, with their musical notation. The celebrated Abbe Raini is
about to give a modern dress to them, which is to be edited by a
German now in Reme.—Allrenreurts.