The Sun.
London, England, 1824-03-09 00:00:00

SOUTH AMERICAN COLoNIEs.

Sir JA MES MACKINTOSH was' extremely -desirous of
fixing a day for a motion, of which he had given notice, respect-
in the diplomatic relations, or rather the want of divlounAtic
relations, between this country and the independent States of
North and South America. He wished very much to x Thurs-
day a_fnni.,_Tlit for this purpose, if the Hon. .Aleinbtx tin Aber.
(teen, who had given notice of a motion for that ev 'would
allow him to take the prccadencts. Perhaps, asthus subject was
one not Dilly of great importance, but of an urgent nature, his
Hon. Friend would consent to the nostponment of his motion.
Mr. HUME consented, and Thursday se'nnight was ac-
cordingly fixed for Sir J. Abckintosh's motion.
WAYS AND lIEANS.
The House resoWed itself into Committeea of Ways and
l!lean4.

SUGAR .DUTY.
Mr. HUSIIISSON said that in the absence of his Right
Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, lie had to sub-
Mit to the House the usual vote for the. Duty on Sugar. He
understood an Hon. Member had some Amendment to pro-
-pose ; but as he (Mr. Huskisson) was not aware of the grounds
on which the Amendment would be moved, and as the vote was
. an annual one, he should for the present confine himself to
moving the vote ; which the Right Hon. Gentleman did ac-
cordingly.
The motion being put,
Mr. HUME-said, be felt reluctant to press any motion upon
Ministers, for further reduction, after the liberal policy they
had sheen ; but he had no doubt the plan he should propose
would, if carried into effect, be the niece s of relieving the
people, withotit affecting our Revenue. The article in question
was a most important necessary of life ; and, as had been obs
served of tobacco, its consumption decreased exactly in pro-
portion with the increase of duty put upon it. The same obser-
vation applied to wine. The duty being increased, the. con-
sumption became less, and the Revenue sufrered. With regard
to the duty on many articles, much, perheps too much, had been
said of the dealers ; but the House shradd look at the consumers
as well as the dealers. And the producers cf this article were
also deserving of consideration ; for they (the West Indian
Proprietors) were known to be in a sten of great distress. The
duty on sugar had been so heavy that the consumption-of it
had not kept pace with the increase of population since the
war. The consumption was in tact now pretty nearly the same
vs in 1814. In Ireland the average of three years, at the pe-
riod of 1800, was 302000 cwt., whereas at present it was only
222,000 cwt. In England, in the year Ibl6, the consumption
was 2,145,000 cwt., and in IIP2 it was net more than 2,400,000
—a clear proof, in his opinion, that the price of the article,
owing to the heavy duty, was too great, and impeded the na-
tural consumption. He thought, therefore, his Majesty's Go-
vernment would do well to take ofl'a part of the duty, if only
by way of expedient. The revenue, he thought, would not
materially suffer, perhaps not at all, while certainly the West
India interest would be considerably improved. Even if they
were to break in upon the Sinking Fund to the extent of le 5):,
or 390,0091. for one year, they would do no more than their
chesty to -.yards the suMSring West Indians, in merely giving them
a small chance of recorery. They were told that relief was
administered to them by the reduction of thirteen pence half-
penny on rum. But he considered that a paltry diminution ;
and the more so when compared with the law which had given
to them some interest last Session, by the new distillery lows,
which excluded rum from the large markets both cf Scotland
and Ireland. He could not altogether approve of the allowance
made fu r wastage, which he thought ought to he merged in a
large deduction from the present amount of slaty. To meet
the West Indians in their present distressed state, and offer
them no better assistance, would be beyond precedent. It was
his object in rising to propoese an amendment of the Resolution,
deducting 7s. from the present duty: His amendment, there-
fore, was, that instead of 27e. the duty should he 295. • and he
begged to say that be made this proposition- as well' for the
community as for the West Indies.
The Amendment having been seconded and put from the
Chair—
Mr. BARING said, that it )vas undoubtedly the duty of
the House to look to the condition of the ditEirent classes of
the community with a view to• aflbrding them relief when
in a state of distress. He sitould therefore say that, if im-
pertant, the reduction en the amount of duty on sugar would
rye one for which he might vote ; but in doing so he should
feel himself obliged to look at the general state of the
finances of the country—a duty to which his Honourable
Friend (Mr. Hume) was not amenable, because- he had
the whole of the Sinking l'und at his dieposal, in which.
he (Mr. Baring) was not so fertunate.e--The result of
that reference to the finances of the country in the pre-
sent case was, . that it did not appear to him that they
could spare the reduction called fir by the Honourable
Member for Aberdeen. And he would say, that if they could,
It might be applied to other and better articles than sugar.—
If a certain quantity of duty were to be scrambled fee, as had
been the case in former Sessions, then he did not think Sugar
came in for the first title, as be did not think there was one pe,
tbion fora reduction of duty on that article. Itle should next