The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-13 00:00:00

MORNING. EDITION

altogether such a principle—they had performed their-parts iii
a manner which could not be too highly valued; but they could
not abandon the cause which they had undertaken. And least
of all could he ( Lord Stanley) who had been the °resin of
Lord Grey's Government on the occasion, and had introduced
that great measure of policy, of justice, and humanity, th,
Emancipation Act—least of all would it become him to con-
sent to a proposition which would render their experiment a
lamentable failure in the eyes of the world, and which should
rivet on the present slaves, and on generations yet unborn, to
be dragged into captivity, in consequence of their failure, the
horrors of slavery in its most aggravated and its most odious
form.--(Cheers.) Hon. Gentlemen opposite had told them
that they already gave an indirect encouragement to slavery
in the Brazils, by permitting slave-grown sugar to be refined
in this country; but it should be remembered that
they, by the proposed measure, would greatly add
to that encouragement, which he, for one, would not
consent to do for the purpose of patching up the Budget of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer. But besides, by allowing
slave sugar to be refined in this country, and afterwards sold
in other markets, they did not really give any encourage-
ment to slave labour which it would not. otherwise receive :
for if it were not refined here, it would he refined in Hol-
land and elsewhere. And, in addition, by permitting its sale in
England they would offer it a new and most valuable market,
and would give a further stimulus by its production. It was
said, however, that they now imported slave-grown coffee and
slave-grown cotton into this country ; but let him tell them,
that if they encouraged the production of slave-grown
cotton and slave-grown coffee instead of sugar,' they
would still contribute much to the diminution of the
horrors of slavery, if not to the abolition of the slave track. i
Coffee and cotton were articles requiring little capital and
little exertion for their production, and, above all, not con-
tinuous exertion capable of being produced by free men and
in the production of which free labour might enter into favoura-
ble competition with slave labour, while it was impossible, ee-
cept under the most favourable circumstances, that, in the
production of sugar, free labour could successfully compete
with slave labour ; therefore, if they could by any means en-
courage the cultivation of coffee and of cotton, to the exclu-
sion of sugar, they would be so far encobraging the repression,
of the slave-trade, and the abolition of slavery. Under these
circumstances he considered it especially undesirable to interfere 1
with the great experiment now going on in the West Indies.
What was the present condition of the negro population ? It
was impossible for any one to have listened with any testiness
hut those of the highest satisfaction to the details which the
Noble Lord had given the other evening of the thriving con-
dition of the negroes in our West India colonies. Hitherto
that great experiment had succeeded beyond the expectations
of its most sanguine advocates. The Noble Lord'said that the
negroes were beginning to acquire property, that marriages
were increasing, that population was increasing—a most impor.
'ant element of future prosperity, if they would but have pa-
tience—that in Jamaica alone 90,000 negroes were workine
in the cultivation of sugar and dividing among them wages
amounting annually to 1,750,0001. He would ask the Noble
Lord if he was prepared to break in upon all that prosperity
To what did the negroes owe the possession of this property
except to the encouragement given to the export of a staple pro-
duct from the West Indies? He would say nothing of the sa-
crifice of the hundred millions of capital invested in machinery
in our West India Colonies—(Cheers)—he would say nothine
of the sacrifice of twenty millions—( Cheers) he would -ay no-
shing of the utter ruin which must inevitably fall upon all our
:ellow-subjects holding estates end property in the West Indies
—but he would say, lookat the condition of the negroes them-
selves, and he would ask if, when they were acquiring habits
of honest industry, of working for wages, wages depending upon
he export of a staple commodity from that country, were the
oreoared, by encouraging a competition with the slave-growe
sugar of other regions, to deprivethe negro of his wages at the
moment that he had learnt to depend upon his own exer ions
—( Loud cheers.) Pis Right Hen. Friend had spoken ci
mercantile distress. Far be it from him to deny its existence
.4- to attempt to lessen the effect which ha
peen produced by the speech of his Right Hon. Friend :
iar be it from him to interpose between her Mak sty's Go-
vernment and any new channels which they might propose to
,pen in our manufacturing industry. But let hi. Right Hon.
Friend consider, if he were conferring a great advantage on our
manufactures. if while opening one new channel he was dam-
ming up all the old streams. and depriving them of amarket,
not dependent upon the caprices of other nations, not to be
waken from us by war, but dependent entirely upon ourselves,
and which while it furthered the prosperity of the colonies,
furthered the prosperity of the mother country also.—(Cheers. )
His Right Hon. Friend had talked to the vast rivers of South
America. Would he turn his eye to the other side of the globe,
and look at the vast country containing millions_ of
British subjects ; at the fertile valley of the Ganges, the re-
sources of which were incalculable; at the new inlet which had
been opened by the Indus, enabling us to approach the markets
of Central Asia teeming with population, and which already
imported a larger quantity of our manufactures than went to
the Brazils, which was capable of receiving any amount of our
produce, and only wanted a remittance to make a
return. That remittance they could make in sugar,
the cheapest and the only remittance they could
make—(Loud cheers)—and at the moment when Bri-
tish capital had been embarked in the great field
of mercantile speculation—at the moment when it was
known that an inexhaustible supply of sugar could be
had from those regions, would they take that moment to de-
prive our manufacturers of the benefit of the Indian markets by
opening the markets for Brazilian sugar, when they knew that
sugar was the only article that India could grow in return ? He
save his Right Hon. Friend credit fur the ability with which
'le had brought forward his statement, and also
for that which had produced a great effect upon
he House, that obvious air of sincerity with which
ie had made it.—(Cheers.) He was firmly convinced that his
Right Hon. Friend believed his view to be the right one, but
he (Lord Stanley) believed it to be a one-sided view, and was
oot prepared t . run the slightest risk of ruining our trade with
the West Indies, of disturbing and ultimately destroying
that with the East Indies, for the advantages which
the Right Honourable Gentleman thought might accrue. He
did not deny the financial difficulties of the country,
but he did deny that our resources were failing. Although
we had an annually increasing deficit. we had an annually in-
creasing revenue ; and when they talked of commercial. die-
tress, he would direct their attention to the state of affairs
in America, and ask if the recently threatened interruption of
our pacific relations with that one great customer, must not
have the effect of producing commercial embarrasment ? He
would also refer to the state of affairs in the East, and in Syria
and India, to the three millions loss sustained by the seizure of
opium in China,—to the state of our relations with that coun-
try ; and ask the country if they did not see some reason for
'he interruetion of commercial activity, and for that state of
commercial lsngour which at present prevailed. But that wits
ao reason for despondency.—( Cheers.) He slid not despair of
he finances of the country under a due. a prudent, and
a proper administration of them.--( Hear, hear, hear. )
When he looked at the state of the revenue for the last five
years, and found that though it had increased from 48 millions
to 50 millions, there was a deficiency in the last of those years of
2,400,000; when he saw, moreover, that for five continuous
years there had been a gradually accumulating deficiency,
after a gradually increasing revenue, the deficiency amounting
at the end of those five years to seven millions • when he saw,
too, that a great portion of that deficiency in the present year
was to be accounted for by the expenditure incurred on ac-
count of Canada and China; when he saw that a moment of
great financial difficulty was the time which her Majesty's Go-
vernment had selected for taking off a tax which produced,
~vithout injury or pressure upon the people, 1,600,000 e(
( Hear, hear)—when he saw that in these three items he
could trace the whole amount of deficiency in the present
year, he might be excused if he entertained some doubts of
the ability of those who hart involved them in that difficulty.
His Hon. Friend the Member for Halifax had said that what-
ever might be the issue of these debates the seed was sown
which would produce its fruit in due time.—(Cheers from the
Liberal benches.) He (Lord Stanley) found that the seed was
sown and would produce bitter fruit, and he deeply regretted
that at a moment when the Government felt themselves totter-
ing to their fall—(Cheers from the Conservatives)—when they
saw, he would not say county by county but borough by bo-
rough, their hold upon the country gradually dropping away--
at a time when the common sense of the country proclaimed
ltohnagt tette!, ys
ecodl4 to holdn longer
reinsho of ldthpeow,..reirn_s o(fLoo
no
power—(Loud c
office
ilise et hr
se yfrhoam d
the Tory benches)—he deeply regretted that that should be
the time chosen by her Majesty's Government for throwing loose
upon the country a crude and undigested scheme involving the
most extensive financial changes, deeply affecting every interest
in the country, and paralyzing for the time all speculations in
trade and all activity in commerce, and all this under a full
conviction that it was impossible that they should be able to
carry that project into effect. The Hon. Member for Carlow
had produced the authority of his Right Honn Friend, in a
speech delivered in 1833, to show that on the mere announce-
ment of a great financial measure by her Majesty's Govern-
ment it was all but carried by the proposal, and in the end
was certain of success. The principle thus laid down by his
Right Hon. Friend was, as far as Parliamentary experience had
then gone, perfectly true ; but they had profited by experience
since that time, and the ultimate adoption of measures so pro-
posed was now by t.o means so certain as it had been in
former days. And not only had the House learnt that lesson,
but the commercial;manufacturing, and agricultural community
had learnt it too. He held in his hand a very matter
of fact paper, the Price Current of Liverpool of the I Ith May,
1841, siped by two gentlemen, one a Conservative, and the
other a Whig ; and at the end of that paper there was the fol-
lowing note :—" Since the development of the Ministerial plan,
the bare allusion to which excited such a panic in the trade,
the market has been much calmer, from a conviction that no
such project can be carried."—(Loud cheers from the Conser-
vative benches.) The proposition of her Majesty's Go-
vernment waswwha
ao h
ne
hadraet a t
wet
evaiTrlddt eehnd tlatyp
ah
act
11 oeaovtkei e dna n
gauptp
the
pGagtrlemwhainch,
of the Irish corn-growers, had expressed" his intention to
An
n interests wasteHon.
o
vote with her Majesty's Government,
ohnfa t
e Lt
vhi
vaetr
Dag uooe t oats, .
to
thhaet
was the opinion of the merchants
effect of a duty of its. ? Why that ev
exist as to the degree of protection requisiteer
eitfftheerernfcoermEinggh_t
land or Scotland, there could be no difference in the minds of
persons connected with Irish corn, for thatinferior to the Irish, there could be
no doubt that the foreign grain would be
by the amount of the duty.---( Hear, hear. )heHe would repeat
hveisrnteepritreegrn etthaist teheeraacomunrse. tuersaguedreelthatr Majesty's Go-
the seed which
had now been sown would produce its fruibt:twbut he feared
that it would be the fruit of bitter animositgygravateeeno:.he con-,
tending classes; he feared that it would a
lousies and rivalries between the agricultural and
(incoahleanieugrfash.c)-
fea-
turing interests, which every former Government had
rather to smooth and to heal than to aggravate.
He feared that her Majesty's Government, while they were seetie ing a popularity which they could not find—(Cheers from e
Tories)—were endeavouring to enroll upon their banners 'the l,
the fatal and revolutionary doctrine of numbers against
i)erty—(Cheers)—and he would tell Hon. Gentlemen opposite
that he could conceive no responsibility deeper than that of a
Government who in the plenitude of its power should aggra-
vate dissensions of this kind between great bodies a.nd classes
of her Majesty's subjects. But the responsibility was fearfully
increased, when the measure which was to add to this effect
was brought forward by an Adliioistration which was
already to! tering to its fall; and when, as the Honour-
able Gentleman, the Under-Secretary for the Colonies,
he told them that night, the principles which they were then
introducing, the scheme which they were then throwing before
the country, must for many long years, be the subject of keen
and angry and ruthless contention.—( Loud cheers. )
On the motion of Mi. SMITH O'BRIEN, the debate was
then .adjourn d to to-morrow night.
The other Orders of the Day were then disposed of, and t'
House Adjourned at Ore "'Cluck.

ting the general principles he had laid down, and on which
• there was no dispute between himself and Hon. Gentlemen on
the other side, he contended that. there were certain manufac-
turee which must be taken out of the range and form an
exception to the general principle of commerce ;
.** and. he said that at the present time and under
existing circumstances, as he should say with regard
to the infancy of any manufacture which they might
deem it expedient to foster and encourage by a higher
range of protective duties. He contended, that on the ground
of analogy, the sugar trade did, for the present, require to be
taken out. of the range of ordinary commercial rules, and that,
for the present, they should substitute prohibition for the ge-
neral doctrine of protection. The Right Hon. Gentleman the
Chancellor of the Exchequer had recommended the measure to
notice, because it would augment the revenue without injuring
their colonial interests. The Noble Lord the Secretary for the
Colonies said it would be an amazing boon, and a vast reduction
to the poor consumer ; and in the next breath he told them,
coming to figures and calculations, that the reduction would
amount to ls. 6d. per cwt., or something less than half a far-
thing a pound. The Right Hon. Gentleman the President of
the- Board of Trade said, that it would foster and en.
courage the trade with the Brazils, and give no en-
couragement to the slave trade. (Hear, hear, hear. )
And when they were told that the commerce of Great Britain
Must be a great encouragement to the slave trade and slavery,
the Right on. Gentleman said, " Well, but you do at present
Carry on the commerce with Brazil—you take their sugar and
their exports, and do at present give encouragement to slavery
and the slave trade." If this were so—if we did now, by
• taking their sugar, give encouragement to slavery andohe slave
trade, no more encouragement was to be given to it by the
measures of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he (Lord Stan-
ley) should like to know where was the boon conferred on the
country by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and by
which he was to obtain a great revenue.—( Cheers. ) He
wished that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had been more
communicative, and had stated on what principle he calculated
to obtain it. It must be on one of the two following principles,
either by a large increase of consumption beyond the productive
power of British or colonial industry, or, the consumption re-
maining the same, to obtain a surplus by the substitution of a
higher duty for colonial sugar. The Hon. Member for Hali-
fax last night, suffering under the silence of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, desired to give an explanation for him, and
-said that when sugar fell to 58s. or 595., if the consumption
was in proportion to the population, as it was in 1830, there
would be an increase of consumption of colonial sugar to the '
amount of 900,000 tons. But if they had it so it would not
be- by the budget of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
but by what his Right Hon. Friend the Member for Cam-
bridge ass taunted with last night for defending, namely, by-
trusting to the increase of colonial production for increasiass
the revenue.—( Hear, hear.) He did not know whether the
Right Hon. Gentleman calculated on any vast increase of con-
sumption beyond the probable increase of the East and Wesr
Indies. Did the Right Hon. Gentleman calculate upon it
He made no sign.—(Laughter.) He (Lord Stanley) was
'therefore obliged to trouble the House with a small number of
figures, because he was obliged to conjecture the mode by
which the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to raise his
supplies. His Hon. Friend the Member fur Halifax had
told them that at 58s. or 595. the consumption
ought to increase to 220,000 tons. He ( Lord Stanley)
had looked back to see what was the case in former years.
The laoble Lord, the Secretary for the Colonies, had esti-
mated the probable price of the present year at 605., and
'at that price he presumed but little Brazilian sugar would
be imported. At 595. 2d. the average consumption for four
s years, commencing in 1821, was 158,000 tons; in the tour
years succeeding 1826, at a duty of 58s. Bd., the average
consumption was 14,000,000 cwt., or 175,70.9 tons; in the
year succeeding 1831, when the duty was 575. 7d., the con-
surnption amounted to 183,374 tons. In the years 1807 and
1838, in which he concluded they did not estimate any mate-
rial increase in the population as bearing upon the consump-
tion, the duty was 58s. Id., and the average consumption for
• the two years was 196,611 tons. He would assume, then, that
the price fell below what the Noble Lod had said.
He would assume that it had fallen to 575. dut.,
pa ii and he asked the House whether they hac
not, from facts and figures, reason at that price to es-
o• timate 195,000 or 200,000 tons of sugar in the course of the,
present year ? Was there any ground to represent the pro-
duction of the British colonies as not likely to exceed than
amount ? He had not heard that position disputed by any
one except the Hon. Member for Carlow (Mr. Gisbo-ne). Th,
Hon. Member said they could not calculate on more than
• 26,700 tons as the produce of the Mauritius ; but he (Lord
Stanley) had that day read a letter from that colony, dated
January 13, 1841, from a gentleman well known to her Ma-
, jesty's Government, Mr. Aiken, of Liverpool, and which
• stated that 20,000 tons were exported up to that
lay, and that it was expected there would be about
the same quantity to export. This was written be-
fore any person knew of the present plan of the Government.
.* even if the Government were aware of it themselves. Thr
s Hon. Member for Callow even doubted if the West Indies
.could furnish more than 115,000 tons. Why, 110,000 ton.
come from the West Indies in the course of the last year.—
(Hear, bear.) That might be an incredible fact to the
ton. Member, but it was a fact, and there was every reason to
believe that the present crop would exceed the very deficient
• ,crop of last year. The Hon. Member also said that we never
had from the East Indies more than 26,000 tons, but it ad-
peered by Cook's Circular that they had shipped from Calcutta
on the Ist January 58,300 tons, that the crop was 60,000 tons,
of which 50,000 tons had arrived. Hi re then wa.
50,000 tons received without dispute.—(Loud cheers,
The Hon. Member for ,tthlone (Mr. J. O'Connell) said
that 6,000 tons of sugar might be exported this year from
China, and expatiated on the advantages that would accrue re
otironerchants from a commercial intercourse with the people
of that vast empire, which was so free and unshackled.--
( Load laughter.) He (Lord Stanley) eonsidersd for a long
timewhat the Hon. Gentleman meant, but at last he supposed
that the Hon. Gentleman had made a mistrake, and mentioned
China instead of Cochin-China. It was true that from Co-
chin-China and from Manila we would obtain a supply of
sugar, as we always did. There were 115,000 tons of sugar
imported from the West Indies, from • the Mauritius 145,0 t
and from the East Indies from 60,000 to 70,000 tons ; and
there were, besibes, 35,000 tons in bond. In all there were
from 240,000 to 260.000 tons, whereas tie annual consumption
did not, in all probability excsed 200,000 ton:. But to recur,
to the proposal of the Right Hon. Gentleman, the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, he could not expect much from the
additional duties upon foreign su,rar, over and above the
supply of colonial sugar, which was inadequate to mee;
the ,:errand in the market. By sub.tituting for
Brt-
'tish free grown sugar foreign slave grown sugar,
in the market, in order to make his ( the Chancellor of she
Exchequer's) estimate complore that Right Hon. Gentleman
should admit 11,000 cwt. of foreign sugar into the British
market, to the exclusion of that amount of British colonial
sugar. The House and the country had a right to know
upon which of those propositions it was that the Right Hon.
Gentleman founded the financial calculations which he had
Stated to the House—( Opposition cheers)—or he was in thi •
dilemma, either his financial projects would fail, and he
would inflict no injury on the British producer, or if-his
projects succeeded, and he obtained his revenue, he inflicteo
a serious injury upon the colonial growers of free labour
sugar, and conferred- a large and extensive benefit en the pro-
ducers of slave-grown sugar.--( Hear, hear.) The Right
'Hon. Gentleman might take which alternative he pleased, but
s • both advantages he could not obtain. But, supposing the
' Chancellor of :he Exchequer had made a miscalculation ?—sne
there were some ominous words which fell on last evening from
-thesJudge-Advocate with regard to 60s. being the highest price.
.Thet Right Hon. Gentleman ( The Judge-Advocate) was of
opinion that Brazil sugars might come down to 575. or 58s.
the calculation of those few shillings was of great conse-
quence as far as regarded the competition of foreign
sand colonial sugar in the market. The colonial sugar,
at however unfavourable a price, must meet the
foreign sugar in the market of this country, because here it
would be brought into the market at a less loss than into any
other...market of Europe. He believed that the country was not
prepared at the present moment, and under the present cirettin-
. stances, to take a step of the nature proposed by her
Majesty's Government. He said at the present time, and under
the present circumstances, because they were the progress of
;'most important experiment—an experiment, on the success
'of 'which the lives and happiness of hundreds of millions were
"concerned—an experiment in which foreign nations were
s‘dy.o.perhaps not ready enough—fro imitate their example if
they succeeded, but ready to scorn their fully, and profit by
their failure, if by their naismagement that great experiment
ehoulfffail.—( Cheers.) He said at this moment, and under
the present circumstances, though however high and important
he might view this question as connected with slavery and the
slavestrade, it could not place it so high as it had been placed
by. his Hon. Friend the Member for the University of Oxford
-(Sits 'Robert Inglis). He could not place it so
'higlias it had been placed last year by the Hon. and Learned
Member for Dublin, whom he (Lord Stanley) heard intended,
in the-course of the present debate, to support the views of her
*jetty's Government.-(Hear, hear.) He listened with
some surprise when thon. and Learned Gentlenainsiimke
of an amendment in Committee to carry into effect that which
he (Mr. O'Connell) must have known to be impracticable.
The resolution of which the Hon. and Learned Gentleman
had given notice, was one for limiting the supply of foreign
sugar to that which was exclusively free-grown, so as to keep
out all slave-grown sugar. The Noble Lord here proceeded
to read an extract from a speech of the Hon. and Learned
Member for Dublin, delivered in June last, on this subject,
when a measure similar to that of her Majesty's Government was
moved by the Hon. Member for Wigan, and which was opposed
be the Hon. and Learned Member for Dublin, and accused that
Hops and Learned Gentleman of great inconsistency in the
co that he intended to adopt on the present occasion.
What would the English people think of a man who
could thus deliver a speech last year against a
measure, and afterwards vote for the self -same
measure when introduced by her Majesty's Government? He
(Lord Stanley) did not quarrel with the Government for any
change which had taken place in their minds on this subject.
He could see no
ground for such change except the difficulties
and embarrassnaents in which they had plunged the financial
affairs of the country, and from which they knew nut how to
extricate themselves. He could see no ground but that on which
they should take a different grord. from what they held last year.
The price of sugar was then 575• , it was now but 375. When,
however, the price was at its highest the British consumer
did not wish to purchase a slight relaxation by giving
..addi-
tional facilities and encouragement to the slave trade ; but
much less would the people of England, whatever the Ciovern-
meat might do, without any necessity and without pressure, now
consent to sacrifice that great cause, which
_was emphatically
not the cause of Lord Grey's or of any other Government, but
the cause of the people of these united realms.—( Hear, hear. )
He would net place the qui-stion of slavery so high as it had
been" placed by his Hon. Friend the Member for the Univer-
sity of Oxford or the Hon. and Learned Member for Dublin ;
and he would not say that we should not admit under
any circumstances slave produce. Much indignation
had been expressed on the other side of the House
because his Noble Friend the Member for Liverpool had
brought forward a resolution containing a -plain, practical.
common-sense view of the question,
and because he had not
embarrassed himself or those who supported him on the sub-
ject itself, by asserting extreme and absolute opinions which,
as a man of sense, and an inhabitant of this country; he
could not hope to see carried into effect. The accusation,
however, appeared to him (Lord Stanley) most unmerited.
If they were never under any circumstances to purchase
slave . productions they should insulate themselves from the
whole world, because there was not a single article of prime
necessity and general consumption which did not in some.
way or other, directly or indirectly, connect itself with slavery.
If they had laid down such a doctrine he could easily conceive that
it would be very convenient for Hon. Gentlemen opposite to have
the advantage of showing the absurdity of such &proposition,
and under cove of that abstract principle to shrink from the
discussion of the practical measu e before them. But while
he did not adopt such an abstract and impracticable principle,
a_principle which no man of sense could desire to carry into
et in this country, he might be permitted to express a strong
!pinion that he should view with extreme regret, and that the
e might to deprecate as a great misfortune, and avoid as a
great notiottal, calttnityi unnecessarily and without the pressure
of *vital itecess ioyoverwlielrneng all considerations except those
iof nationalinters and national existence, without strata neces-
sity -he almald
--ow • with extreme. regret a determination
tab= by this "ntnteY deliberately to follow the course re-
:tene4wl`h•Ta thstiLbny@th4getrumaetitj4der-See rotary for the Colonies,' who t ,Id
tlirgon, so faesso tilos, were concerned,
14.1 neihint fin Aft. t 4 du in' the cause of the atoti:ion of
• tlioteiresthat we had takew tn. •• •
-- guilt frown our own shoulders,
1ti1et4.1114641 Nits St 111 end. He ropagod

1 . .. ~

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
CHRONlCLE.—Throughout the whole course of the pre-
sent debate, one thing is most remarkable on the part of the
Tories. They have cautiously and studiously abstained frani
expressing any opinion as to the line of policy which they
themselves would pursue if in power. They have acted
throughout on the advice given by their great party organ, the
Times, of avoiding discussion on the real merits of the .Minis-
terial measure, and treating it exclusively as a party question.
In one form or other the speeches on the Opposition side have
amounted in substance pretty nearly to this...." the measure
may, for aught I know, be a very good measure, but—it is
brought forward by a Whig Government, and therefore, I
shall vote against it." Is this, we ask, conduct worthy
of a
great party, who aspire to hold the reigns of Go-
vernment ? Is a deficiency of two millions and upwards in
the revenue a mere " bagatelle ?" Is the lose of the
market in the Brazils for fuur millions worth of British manu-
factures a trifle unworthy of serious attention ? Are the inte-
tests of British commerce—of British industry—of the na-
tional creditor—of the labouring classes and consumers of the
country—matters of such insignificance as not to weigh for a
moment in the scale against the all-absorbing importance of
enabling a set of men called Tories to pocket the salaries of a
set of men called Whigs ? Is it fair, is it honest, when a peat
auestion of policy affecting all the most important interests of
the country, is brought forward by one of the great parties who
are in a position to carry on the Government of the country,
that the other great party should oppose it without having some
coanter measure of its own to propose? Ministers say, we
propose this alteration in the sugar duties, because there
,s a sum of 2,400,0001. which must be raised some how or
ether, and if we do not raise it in this way, we must either have
a loan or new taxes. The Tories cannot dispute the alterna-
tive. They say they will not have an alteration in the sugar
duties. Are they not, in common honesty, bound to say what
they will have—taxes or a loan ; and if so, what taxes, and
,hat number of successive loans? The certainty that the
question must go to the country to be decided, renders this coil-
dact on the part of the Tories more palpably dishonest. They
know that if they succeed in defeating the mea•
sure upon any one of the three great polnts—of sugar,
eorn, or timber—new taxes or a loan are inevitable ; but
'hey wish to go to the hustings without the unpopu-
larity which a fair statement of the case would entail upon
them. There is one class of the comminity who, above
el, have a right to insist upon an explicit avowal of their in-
tended policy from those who are abeut to engage the country
in an exasperating conflict by opposing a Government mea-
sure brought forward for the purpose of making goad a defi-
eiency in the national revenue. We mean the national ere-
dicer. We hear a great deal of " protection to the East and
s% est India Interest ;" to the " landlord's interest ;" to this
nr that overgrown monopoly—ii the interest of the fundholder
us interest more important than all put together, to be en.
eerily overlooked? Sir Robert Peel's eupportess tell us
in the streets, " Oh, if we can ony turn the Whigs
Alt, we can get a vote of credit for the emer-
eency, and go on smoothly enough for a year."
Very well, Sir Robert; now, for once in your life,
have the frankness to tell us plainly whether this is your po-
licy or not. It is important that we should know—it is impor-
rant that all who held stock in the public funds of Great Bri-
tain should know. No doubt a vote of credit is the easiest way
it shuffling off the difficulty for the present year—no doubt it
re better for your interests as a party leader than going to the
eountry upon a salt tax or a house tax, dear postage, or some
,f the ether new taxes, which you know very well you cannot
iroid proposing, if you mean to oppose the Ministerial mea.
sures, and yet keep faith witn the national creditor. But what
~f next year? Two things are clear enough :—I st, That the
necessity for new taxes will be not less, but greater than
t is now ; 2dly, That the difficulty of impo-iog them will
lie not one whit diminished. W hen you come down to th, House with your Budget for 1842, and announce that the
-tate of Ireland has rendered it necessai y to replace the
to,ooo men withdrawn by the Whigs, and that the excitement
tgainst the Corn-laws prevailing among the unemployed opera-
ives of the maeufacturing districts makes it a measure of pru-
et nt precaution to fortify the principal towns of the country
sgainst their inhabitants; will you, as the " Citizen King" of
rile French is LOW doing, for the greater peace arid security of
his City of Paris, propose to raise new loans to cover your ex-
penses? Will your agriculsural supporters be more inelined
hen than now to abandon their corn monopoly, or to sub-
mit to a property tax, or tax on the transfer of land?
If you are afrael to free the town constituencies now with a
house tax, will you be more in a condition to do so a-year
Bence ? If you resort to the ruinous expedient of a loan now,
in order to gain a little temporary relief, is it not morally cer-
-ain that, like the opium-eater, the power of resisting the temp-
tation will diminish every time you have recourse to the fatal
drug? One question snore, and we have done. Are there
not many instances in history of nations resorting to loans in
time of peace as an habitual means of making good the defi•
ciency of their ways and mi ens? Is there a single instance in
which the practice once resorted to was not continued until the
nation was involved in bankruptcy, ruin, and revolution ? Once
more, we say, let the National Creditor watch the conduct of
the Tories at the present crisis as he values his property.
T
'TIMES--It is a worthy termination of a career uniformly
marked by the postponement of public to party interests, for
the present Ministers, on the eve of their departure from office,
to aim a deadly blow at the principles of free trade. Paving
Erin by and time nothing when corn and sugar were at exor-
bitant prices, when they possessed the cenfidi nee of the !louse
,rf Commons, when they were encouraged by Conservative
as
well as Liberal statesmen to reckon upon the acquiescence of all
parties in just, temperate, and we 1-considered measures of com-
mercial reform—having neglected these great opportunitirs,
and thus manifested their indifference to the principles of free
ade when it was in their power to advance them effectually,
they now come forward, under totally different c reum-tariees,
at a season of moderate prices, when their ruinous misma-
nagement of the national revenue has destroyed the last. rem-
nant of confidence in their financial views, the country casting
them off with indignation, and both Houses of Par-
liament rejecting their measures with contetopt—they now
come forward and propose, in the name of free trade, an
almost indiscriminate application of the spongee to the entire
system of protective duties. "Itis no slight
evil," says Mr.
fabouchere, " to bring forward measures of this kind. involv-
ing great changes in our complicated commercial system, un-
less they can brought to a successful issue." If this be true,
what are we to think of a measure framed apparently for the
very purpose cf concentrating upon it-ef all the opposition
which a combination of the inset powerful interests, reiefereed
by justice, humanity, and political prucl. nee, can muster—a
measure which it would have surpassed the power yen of
the strongest Ministry which this country has ever known
eo carry through Parlament ? The present. Government can-
licit, in their widest dreams, kave contemelated its success.
What, then, must have been their motive for bringing it foe-
' ward ? Manifestly to throw the country into disorder ; to
rally their broken forces by the help of that passion for revo-
lutionary exc.tement upon which they have ever relied ; to
embarrass their Conservative successors by surrounding the
name of free trade with the hateful aesociations of slavery, and
identifying, it IS ftr a, possible with the insane and unjust
principle of non-protection ; to organize against all com-
mercial changes the enmity and alarm of great and in-
fluential classes—to throw the Conservative party into
the false, unpopular, and untenable position of the
friends of monopoly, the advocates of commercial
restrictions. Such is the game which Ministers have been
playing. It is 'the obvious and only tendency of their ma-
nmuvre to intercept those advantages which the country had a
right to expect from the gradual, but steady, development of
Huskisein's principles, under a Ministry composed of Mr.
Huskisson's colleaseues—to obstruct, by a device analocous to
a premeditated false start in horse-racing, or the premature
firing of a train in mining operations, the realization of those
just and practicable views which were announced by Mr. Herries
on behalf of the Conservative leaders in the debate on colonial
duties before Easter. No man can doubt that Sir Robert
Peel would have acted consistently upon these views, if
the present Ministers had resigned on Tuesday week, when it
became their duty to do so, and had not presumed to propose a
budget involving a financial revolution, after they received
their conge from the House of Commons in tire usual consti-
tutional way. If he is prevented from doing so now, it will be
entirely owing to the difficulties and impediments thrown in
his way by the treachery of his most unworthy pretleceesore
they flattered themselves, that by yroposing to supply the de-
ficiency which they have caused in the revenue by a
readjustment of the scale of differential and pro-
tective duties, they might extract some indiscreet
Sir Robert Peel. Here, too, they have failed; fir if
the expectant Premier should feel sufficient confidence in
the productiveness of this source of revenue to give it a place
in his budget, he may, without the slightest inconsistency, have
recourse to it whenever he pleases. The Conservative states-
men have taken their stand upon the principle of uniting the
greatest possible degree of commercial freedom with bona
,fide
protection to the agriculture of Great Britain, the British set-
tlers in Canada, the free labourers emancipated by British
money in the West Indies, and the British and Indian capi-
talists whom public encouragement has induced to invest their
'money in the East Indian sugar trade. They are ready and
desirous to reduce protection to the lowest practicable limit ;
but they will never consent to break the engagements, or forget
the duties, or wantonly alienate the dependencies of the British
Crown.
GLOBE.—Cobbett, when fishing for a subscription,
used to say, " I know what will save the country ; send
use to Parliament, and I will tell. If not, I am silent.
Think of that, people of England !" The Opposition
seem to be acting on a similar plan. They declare that
the Whigs are ruining the country, and cautiously with-
hold their own scheme for saving it. Put us in Office,
say they, and then you shall see. As Sir (Marge Grey
observed, Mr. Goulburn was the first to tome forward
with a definite statenient of policy. " I will first jet
things alone," said the Member for Cambridge ; and a
very pretty beginning that is for a new Ministry, but not
one on which the national revenues can be kept up to the
expenditure--a fact so well known, that we hope before
the termination of the debe.de to have some authoritative
tieclaration of what is to be the second great measure of
Mr. Goulburn's party. Do they propose to begin busi-
ness by a vote of credit, a new loan, or a property tax ?
These matters will not admit c 1 delay ; and if (hey really
expect to come irate office they must have thought upon
finance, and ha;,re a plan ready, though they now ,so
cautiously wiAhhold it. Through the whole debate they
have avoided the main question before the House, to '
mace a ,:tivenion -about slave F...ogar which has become
an object of abhorrence to those Whose fortunes were
made by slavery, and who were its warmest supporters
as long as it lasted. From several indications in
last night's debate, we suspect that the principal portion
of cant is already poured out. The curious revelation of
Mr. Irving about the employment of English capital in
'mines worked by slaves, and candid admission,
that " if he had squeezed thi•:.r blood, he had squeezed
ceased to be useful.
no gold," will, we trust, be duly " improved" at
the next Anti-slavery awe:Linz. When the cant shall
have
Po,sibly before the we
probably inimettiatel)
after it. Sir R. Pe
should prove" •
wish to encumber himself' a will not
with pledges, ar
said which
shall find it discontinued,—
a little the adoption of the Whig schemes, with
tive M . -risible colouring and shifting, by a Conserva-
,A a., yet nothing hae been
. ...finery. The leader's versatility warrants such an
exr •.
_.,eceation, and it is confirmed by the_certainty that the
eeories can have no hope of governing the country but
upon Liberal principles. On their own policy, foreign or domestic, they have no chance of being
endured.
STEAMERS FOR AUSTRALIA.—Thr
4. steam- STANDARD.—The adjourned debate on Lord San-
whether
and 280 horse power, arrive , don's resolution was resumed last night and again ad-
at..Hull against a journe Thesepakers wore, for the resolution,
Sir G.
shißpiaJeuknwo,al7l,oohatovnsing
made the passage frog sa Tuesday d
strong head wind in 20 hours, which whe be
-sieve is the quickest Clerk, Sir R. laughs, Mr. Goulburn, and Mr. Irving ;on
the other side, Mr. Macaulay, Mr. Ward, Mr. C. Wood,
et this splendid veesel +
.would
is to proceed forthwith to the Aus
ealian colonies, and that and Sir George Grey. Three nights' debate .wou
passage on record. We understand t
she will be followed almost iransecr
date ybytwo others equal
question
exhaust the interest of amore fertile in
power. 1
topics to .arrest attention .than that which has °mu-
! pied .the House of Commons since Friday, a—,
rid in
One of the many
appointment of Liber •
A-Lord Lieutenants for Counties fact,
B'l.oaniactes derived from the
such long. debates tend much more to obscure
of
t, L. t than to elucidate the truth. The plain question
may be seen in-the a- • •
ten e-
ent nominations Deputy nants- for lime, w' dew for • people has been perfectly understood by. all long silloe•
matter or a series of years the , .
and
wasicept " .„
—erelt Is this—Ministers Say that they want revenue,
• ' among the Tories. One of' these ap-
pointmentb, t'
that they.willObtain
.revenue by the introduction of
datable to 'f' •Agtt a*r. Daiid„Salomons, if,
dell: of slave- w 's ar from Brazil and
1 Cuba, lumet, Ate new LielltenAntsorthe County, the Lail of • -gr° ug
/V"r° 4000 gives era daily murdered, 01'
frit. the