The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-05 00:00:00

COFFEE PLANTING.

Mr. J. WILSON stated that it was his intention
to confine his remarks to the subject which the
Noble Lord had in view in bringing forward the
motion. He would confine his remarks ex-
clusively to the interests of the cultivators of
sugar in the East and West Indies. He was satis-
,fied to place the whole merits of the question upon
the interests of the West India planters themselves,
and the demands which they were now making for
increased protection, and the power of the Govern-
ment to afford that increased protection. The de-
mands of the West Indians might be summed up in
the language of one of the documents of the West
India body itself. Their arguments might be stated
as being four in number :—First, they said that as moral
considerations compel them to prohibit the introduction
of slave produce,so moral considerations compelled them
to prohibit slavery ; secondly, that slave labour was
cheaper than free labour, and to expect them to
compete with slave labour, confining them to free
labour, wasiboth unequal and unjust ; thirdly, that
the exclusion of slave-labour sugar would be a pro-
tection to the British colonial planter; and, fourthly,
that the Government had the power of so protecting
the colonies by excluding or placing a higher
rate of duty upon Brazilian sugar.—(Hear.) It
was impossible to deny that in every country the rela-
tions subsisting between the employer and the em-
ployed were daily improving. As civilization advanced
slavery disappeared. They had a proof of this in
the history of theiri own country, for he need go no
further back than 30 years ago to show that the rela•
tions which then subsisted between the employer and
the employed by no means coincided with the
moral sentiments and social feelings of the present
day. But he apprehended that those conscientious
gentlemen who supported this question in that House,
and who were anxious to exclude the produce of
Cuba and Brazil, would equally object to the intro-
duction of the produce from any other coun-
try where slavery was to be found in one
shape or another.. He apprehended that the principle
upon which those gentlemen took their stand would
exclude the produce of Russia from this country, for
in that kingdom slavery existed. It would be incum-
bent upon those gentlemen, if they wished to be
thought consistent, to resist the introduction of the
produce of Egypt, for the re was no severer slavery to be
found in any part of the world than existed in Egypt,
nor could these gentlemen consistently allow the
produce of the -United States to be introduced if
these principles were good; and the result must
be, if they were anxious to observe consistency, they
must put a stop to the trade of Russia, Egypt. the
United States, and many other countries, if they refused
to admit the slave-grown sugar of Cuba and Brazil.
The great practical question, however, they had to
consider was, the allegation that these gentlemen put
forward in the first instance, namely, that free
labour was dearer than slave labour. Now, in
estimating the various qualities of labour it was
difficult to tell to what extent the cost of free labour
could he reduced. For example, upon the Bristol and
Gloucester Railway, locomotive labour, which three
years ago cost 2s. 10d. per mile, at the present time
did not cost more than one shilling; so that it was
utterly impossible to determine to what extent the
cost of free labour could be reduced. But he found
in various letters and pamphlets that had been pub-
lished in the colonies, it was stated that in Trinidad
and the Mauritius the cost of free labour in
producing work by the piece was much less than
slave labour would have cost during the existence of
slavery in the British colonies. In referring to
the Mauritius, he found there was this striking
fact, showing that at all events, whatever distress
they might labour under, they had nothing
to complain of from free labour, for it ap-
peared that by slave labour each man pro-
duced about three quarters of a ton of sugar per
year, while of free-labour they produced one ton.
The Noble Lord alluded on the previous night to
Colonel Flinter's account of Porto Rico, and said he did
not place much confidence in that gentleman's statement
with regard to the condition of the labouring population.
(11r. Wilson) could say, that having referred to a
great number of other sources, he had, upon the whole,
found that gentleman's statements perfectly correct. In
the chief part of the Island he stated that the cultivation
was nearly all carried on by free labourers; and accord-
ing to the census taken two years ago, in a population of
nearly 500,000, there were 180,000 white persons,
280,000 free coloured, and only 50,000 slaves; and it
could not bo supposed that these 10 per cent. sufficed
for the chief cultivation of the island; so that Colonel
Flinter's statement was corroborated. But perhaps the
most conclusive evidence of the greater economy of free
labour over slave was to be found in the progress of
sugar cultivation in the east. Twenty years ago Java,
now one of the most considerable markets for the sugar
supply of Europe, barely produced as much of that
article as its own inhabitants consumed; the whole ex-
ported product in 1826 did not exceed 1,000 tons. Since
then, in open competition with Cuba and Brazil, and with
the slave labour of their own Surinam, the production
of Java had increased to 75,000 tons last year.—(Hear.)
He (Mr. Wilson) did not mean to say the labourers
in Java were freemen ; but, as far as he could learn from
Dutch ministers who had resided officially there, they
were as free as any other labouring people in the world.
Some might call our own colliers not free, who were
bound for twelve months at a time; he should call them
free, if, at the end of the year they had the power to
change their master.—(Hear.) A change had taken
place with respect to the cultivation of sugar, of which
few persons were probably aware, The quantity of
sugar at present produced on the continent amounted to
more than two-thirds of the whole amount produced iu
our West India islands not longer than twenty years
ago. The total quantity of sugar produced on the con-
tinent at the present time was 100,000 tons, and that
production took place not only in competition with slave
labour, but under other disadvantageous circumstances.
So rapidly did the home manufacture extend that the
French colonists were now crying out for protection
against the home producer, just as the latter was for-
merly accustomed to do against the planter. The pro-
duction of beet-root sugar was rapidly extending in
Germany; within the last twelve months 72 sugar manu-
factories had been established in the Zollverein. This
:as a competition to which the West Indian interest
The
T.earr?. exposed, and which it was impossible for
lian?t to control. The competition, too, was
tbnrcareeeahs i
en
one which promised to be permanent and it was rapidly
increasing. tivatien of beet-root formed a new
useful in the rotation in le:ruorposp;e,foarn,d
exactly
foundth
the
highly
way in which the turnipo wa stt
proved husbandry of otwlctateidemployed in the most ap
food the beet-root on the con-
tinent served partly for the
for a fallow crop to prepare
the
e of cattle, and partly
ground
It was a remarkable fact that although for a wheat crop.
) the manufacture
of beet-root sugar on the continent i
soots as it was deprived of the highest rateegatioit.o wane as
protecting
duty, yet under the spur of competition the
manufac-
turers had recourse to improved modes of manufacture,
I the consequence was that their businessan( was rapidly
nt -
extending itself. If the W est Indian interest would only
vast increase which had taken -
reflect upon the place
in the production of sugar within the last twenty
years, they would not find it difficult to account
for the painful position
in which they were now
placed. In 1826 the whole amount of sugar
pro-
duced for European consumption, east of the Cape, was
only 21,000 tons. In 1847 the quantity which
Europe drew from the same quarter was
1.10,000 tons,
and this great increase was the produce of tree labour.
A large quantity of sugar was also produced now in the
United States were, twenty years ago, scaruely any was
manufactured; It was impossible to deny that a rapid
lincrease in any article of general consumption, like
uw.ar
, must Mae great disturbance iu the value of pro. 4