The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-08 00:00:00

other countries." Does that mean that whatever may be-
come of our produce, we are prepared torefuse the produce
of colonies where slavery exists? If that is the ease, what do
you say to the various other articles which are the produce
of silvery ? I believe tobacco and cotton, and othsr ar-
feles, may be objected to on that ground. This is a
question which the petitionersfrom Bath justly stated may
be looked on not only as a commercial or fieancial one, but
as a national one, relating to the practicability of abolish-
ing slavery in ere ry part of the globe. Brazil coffee,
which is the produce of slaveey, was introduced
by a remarkable evasion into this country last year.
Now, what is the history of this? We have learned that
the history of it is that this coffee is the produce of slave
labour. Now, does the Right Hon. Gentleman propose
that we shall on a future day levy the high duty of Is. 3d.
upon coffee ? Does he mean to prohibit the people of this
country from consuming that coffee ?—(Hear.) I can
hardly think he can intend that; now, can it be contended
that this slave grown coffee in its passage to the Cape of
Good Hope, can be so filtered as to be fit for use ?
If you are pursuing this course with respect to coffee, and
will not adept it with regard to sugar, where is your case
of humanity ?—( Hear, hear.) Who is the philanthropist
that will tell me that he can have a cup of hot good slave-
grown coffee, and that by putting a lump cf free-labour
sugar in it—( Hear, hear, and laughter)—he thereby
makes the whole potation innoxious, and that no person,
whatever may be his regard for the negrces, or however he
may value a black face as much as a white one, can be
exposed to any reproach for having consumed it? But I
must refer to one other instance, the instance of sugar
itself. You have great refiners in this country, who buy
sugar to a great extent and invest capital to a large
amount in the refining of sugar to be sent to foreign
countries. How do you justify yourself in being the go-
between in that case 2 ( Hear, hear.) But there is still
a stronger case than that, because it appears that the
planters of the West Indies send out from this country to
be consumed in the West Indies the very sugar which is
refined in this country, and which is the product of these
very slaves. Why du you not alter that ? (Here Lord
Sandon made some observation across the table). The
Noble Lord means to stop that. Let him stop likewise
the coffee which goes to the Cape of Good Hope. Let
him stop the various other things which are sent from slave
colonies. Let him interrupt and vex our trade and commerce,
and I defy him to keep up the character of this country
as a great commercial nation ; much less will it be con-
sistent with humanity to our distressed artisans.—( Hear.)
Well, then, Sit., I come to the conclusion—a conclusion to
which I teiiik most of the world will come—that this re-
solution, well as it sounds, philanthropical as it must ale-
' pear, is in effect nothing but a party movement—nothing
but a motion made to embarrass the management of the
finances of the country. Beside!, those who were inter-
ested in the productions of the West Indies, it has been
atteoipted to enlist against the Government those who en-
tertain a feeling of abhorrence to slavery. But if we
are to consider that as a party question, I am obliged to
put another to the House, and that is, where is the party
that has been ever anxious and foremost to assist the abo-
litionists ?—( Cheers.) I have been looking to the records
of speeches made on this subject, and I find—not the
Noble Lord the Member for Liverpool, but the predeces-
sor of the Noble Lord (Colonel Dalton), boasting of
tee number of ships and men that were employed
by persons in Liverpool in carrying on the
slave trade between the coast of Africa and the West
Indies. Wny, Sir, through the opposition of Liver.
pool and other places, in spite of the eloquence of Mr.
Pitt, who was deserted—as we have been on various oc-
casions—when he was more liberal than his colleagues—
( Hear, hear)—in spite of his eloquence, the slave trade
was continued until the Whigs, in 1806 and 1807, put an
end to the abhorred and cruel traffic. Some attempts, in-
deed, were nsade by a Tory Government to mitigate the
flogging of the slaves in the West Indies, but it was not
till Earl Grey was at the head of the Government that
slavery was finally abolisbed.—( Cheers.) Sir, if we
have made these efforts, and if I find an absence on the
other side of any real and effectual efforts of this kind—
when I sec those who never did anything as a Government
for the abolition of the slave trade, or for the abolition of
slavery, come forward with a resolution of this kind, I say it
is for some party purpose, with an affectation of hu-
manity, for which their past conduct does not entitle them
to credit. I believe I have now stated the principal grounds
why the resolutions of the Noble Lord opposi'e should
not be adopted by the House. There are various other
questions which would remain, even if the House went into
Committee. We have thought it necessary to propose to
give a protection of 50 per cent., and of course all the
details we are aware would be open for discussion. With
regard to the effect of the proposed reduction of the duty on
colonial sugar, though hclo not anticipate so great an increase
as my Right Hon. Friend has stated, yet, as there is no
article which more aff. eta the comfort and welfare of the
working classes, so I think there is none in which at the
present time it is more ads isable to make a reduction, in
the hope that there will be a very considerable increase
in the number of consumers. There arc other questions
concerning the then state of our relations with the
Brazils. By adopting the proposed measures an op-
portunity will be afforded to us of learning bow
the Brazilian Government are disposed, and also, upon
what grounds to renew the commercial treaty. We shall
be in a situation then, I think, to urge upon that Govern-
ment the danger in which that Government, and every
other Government, must. be placed which has a large popu-
lation, consisting chiefly of slaves; or shall have an op-
portunity of pointing out to them not oily the moral ma-
chief—not only the guilt of slavery and the slave trade,
but how, by another and by a difference of conduct, their corn
mercial and agricultural prosperity might be advanced, and
their relations with this country would be made perma-
nent and secure. But if you adopt the resolution of the
Noble Lord, what will be the result? Will they at once
renounce slavery ? Will they become philanthropists ?
( Hear, hear.) Will they not sell their sugar ? Ay, sell
it they can, and sell it they wi.l to other nations. The Eng-
lish merchants who deal with those of Brazil, Lye stated
that there are rnany articles which will go from Germany ;
that printed goods will go from Switzerland ; that hardware
may be sent to Brazil in exchange for sugar—sugar, the
produce of slave labour, of which they would have the ad-
vantage, instead of other nations.—( Hear, bear.) I know
not in shat way other lion. Gentlemen may view this mo.
Lion ; but I own it does not appear to me that anything is
gained to the world or to the negroes of Africa, or the
slaves of the Brazils, if they are told, " This sugar you
are making is not to go into the hands of the European
shopkeeper and the European artizan ; you may be im-
ported, you may be worked, you may be floggea to death,
with this consolation, that to Germany and to Switzerland
wiil go all the products of your labour."—( Laughter.)
I do Lot understand what is gained to the negro by that
argument, and yet such is the argument which is used.
I own, as I stated at the commencement of my address,
that I do regard this as a motion of very great importance.
I believe, not only with regard to the Brazils and the
United States, but with regard to the Continent of Eu-
rope, the example which you are about to give will be of
the utmost consequence. If they see that this great corn.
mercial country has come to the opinion that restriction and
prohibition are the best maxims of commercial policy, they
will quote that example to themselves, their manufacturers
will quote it to titter Governments, and restriction and
prohibition will be the rule in all our intercourse with
those countriet.—( Hear, hear.) New, is that for your
advantage 1 Is it for the advantage of the world? I say
for your advantage it certainly is not, for, as a great com-
mercial and manufacturing nation, you ought to look, to
the extension of that commerce and those manu-
factures.—( Hear, hear, hear.) Is it for the benefi., of
the world? it is not, because I believe ti at
- the
more free and unrestricted is the intercourse /hetween na-
Lions, the more they are mingled together by the ties of
peace and commerce, the more will y carry, with your
bales of goods and your cases of hardware, the general
knowledge, the general rnaems, the civilization, the
arts, which belong .
to a . nation which stand in the
front rank for those
cpesaste&—( Hear, hear.) You must
observe that though, you now stand in so proud and emi-
nent a position, your giving a pernicious example in this
respect, while it may be some disadvantage to them, will
finally be of the utmost disadvantage to you. We do not
stand like Rome as the conquerors of the world. You
are, ou the Continent, one among several nations of great
civilization, with institutions sonic of them as free as your
own, many of them being advanced to great prosperity,
and now competitors and rivals with you in all the arts of
peace, and in all the productions of commerce. Give
them a right example, and you will still stand I should
say not only equal with them, but in the foremost rank.
--(Hear, hear.) Take the contrary course, and say that
now is the day in which you have resolved upon restriction
and
owe sail,
tell them that your merchants of the
West Indies, and of the East Indies, that your timber
n
merchants,heoaf, North America, that the landowners of your
w
placed monopoly upon their standard ; that
undor that standard they are to march, that by that
F*.andard they will abide. You will have the example
rapidly spreading—you will have that example, before
long, confirmed—and when you wish to retrace your steps
the lesson which you will have taught may be t,o well im-
parted for it ever to be unlearned.—( Hear, hear.
) viewsHaving
these views of the state of this country, having these
of our relations with our own colonies, and with other
countries of the globe, it was our bounden duty to state
them to the House; our bounden duty, as we have given
our advice to our Sovereign, to produce the result of that
advice before this House, and to let this House de-
termine thereupon. If you shall adopt the plan
that we shall propose we look confidently for-
ward to an era of prosperity for this country;
if you do not adopt it, upon this House will be the respon-
sibility of having rejected those measures. We have dis-
charged the only duly that was incumbent upon us, that of
not having concealed our opinions, and of having done
our best for the service of our country. )(The Noble Lot d
conclu'ed amidst loud and long continued cheating. )
Lord SANDON said he did not feel that he was called
upon to enter into that wide field of discussion in which
the Noble Lord had indulged. He believed it was an
entirely new proceeding in that House, that when the
Chancellor of the Exchequer came down with a distinct
proposition, and when notice bad been given of an amend_
merit upon that proposition, that another Member of the
Government should give notice of an amendment upon that
motion.
It was not the usual practice thus to secure a
mode cf retreating from the field of lyt le. But he
werereduct.o callednsi
in
uponro foreign
itgh
( Lord Sandon) would confute himself strictly to the sub-
jectntsungigahrt.
to consider apropo.sal for ;
before the House.
cTerhtaeiyn
They had heard a good deal of declamation from the Noble
Lord, which he would not say bad been thrown away__
(Cheers from the Ministerial benches)—because it had
afforded considerable amnsement—(Cheers)—but which
had nothing whatever to do with his (Lord Sandon's)
proposition. The proposition which be had laid on the
table of the House, and which he believed would obtain
the sanction of the majority of that House, was simply
this:—Did they consider that the proposition of the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer would give to the slave trade, and
to slave trading countries, an advantage ; and were we
compelled to
do teat by any
overweening conside-
ration of the wants of the country ? He did not
assume the position that this country was bound
to consume nothing but what was the produce of
free labour, although it had pleased the Noble Lord to
reprrsPni hiss as adopting that proposition, nor wa3 he