The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-01 00:00:00

EFFECTS OF THE BOUNTY.

Table showing the ex-duty price of West India Sugar In Mincing_
lane, and comparing the same against the price of foreign sugars :
London, Aug. 31, 1838.
The Gazette this day quotes the average price of British Per cwt.
Plantation Muscovado Sugar, exclusive of duty, at 2Bs. 100.
Muscovado Sugars raised by free labour in the Manilla—
which are frequently bought by the Dutch to be refined,
and then to be resold in the River Thames—in competi-
tion with British refined Sugars for exportation—may
be had at from 19s. to 225. per cwt., being about Gs. 10d.
per cwt. cheaper than West India Sugars.
Relined Sugar, equal in quality to double refined (the manu-
facture of it costing ss. per cwt.) has been sold this week
(free on board) at
Deducting shipping charges 2s. 2d. Is. Id.
which is 2s. 2id. per cwt dearer only than the Muscovado
sugar from which it is made, being a loss to the sugar re-
finer of 2s. lOd.per cwt., which the bounty on exportation
reimburses him.

British treacle is worth Ss. 6d. per cwt. in the foreign markets. The
same has I.can sold this week in London, free of duty, at 235. per cwt.,
being an excess of price paid by the British consumer of 16s. 6d. per
cwt., in other words 16s. Gd. per cwt. on treacle paid by the poor man
towards bourity, and not, as it is erroneously supposed, towards revenue.
British Plantation Coffee, through favouritism in the duty, commands
about 565. per cwt. more than Foreign Coffee of a similar quality : thus
Jamaica Coffee sold at 98s. per cwt. would, if the same had been the
produce of St. Domingo, have fetched 425. per cwt. only.

POPULATION OF THE HIGHLANDS

The common custom is, that when the son or daughter of a
loiter or crofter marries, the newly married couple are re-
ceived by the parents of either party, with whom they live for
some time as one family; but eventually the said parents cut
off a portion from their own little possessions, for the young
people, on which they build a house, and become liable to pay
the original occupier a share of the rent, in proportion to what
was thus allowed them in subset. The old people who origi-
nally occupied the lot or croft, generally portion oil their lands
in as many shares as they have sons and daughters unmarried.
In some time after the first member of the family marries,
another does the same, who immediately gets his share of the
croft, and builds his house, then another and another, until the
original occupier be ultimately left with a share no larger than
any of those given away to his children. He stands as federal
head over the whole, and is alone accountable for the rents to
the proprietor. All this takes place on a tenure of land too small
for the comfortable support of the original occupier. On many
farms, by means of this baneful system, the population has
doubled within the last sixteen years. The sub-tenants just
mentioned can never raise the rents from the produce of their
possessions. At times they cannot keep a single cow upon
them to furnish their children with a little milk. They trust
to chance employment for means to pay for their contracted
possessions, which tend, in general, to no purpose but to
bind them in poverty to one locality. It must also be con-
sidered, that, notwithstanding this continued sub-division,
there are more families who have no land than there are who
have. An example of this may be given from Kilmuir, ex-
clusive of the Government district attached to it. In the
parish just mentioned, there were in February last (1837) 421
families, and the number of lots and crofts, together with four
farms occupied by large tacksmen, is only 190. From this it
is seen that 231 families have no land whatever from the pro-
prietor. Of these 231 families, 101 hold shares of lots and
crofts, as above described, and the remaining 130 families oc-
cupy lands in no shape whatever, but subsist upon the half-foot
system, which will be immediately described.—Quarterly
Journal of Agriculture, just published.