The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JULY 8, 1848.

sumers of the country. Besides, a gradually dropping
scale was preferable to a sudden and abrupt reduction,
as proposed by the lion. Member. It would cause less
embarrassment to trade, and enable all parties gradually
to prepare for the new state of things. No doubt a
dropping scale had its disadvantages, but upon the
whole it best met the difficulties of the case. With re-

spect to its effect upon the revenue, he hoped that by
spreading the reduction over a period of years, the in-
crease of consumption would be such as to make up for
any present loss. Those who had locked into Oats re-
turns were aware how sensitive sugar was to any

variation of price. The Noble Lord (George Ben-
tinck) had done great service by preparing a series
of tables showing the variations for 25 years, and
which strkingly showed this fact. But there was
another inference to be drawn from those tables, that
was, there was a tendency to increased consumption,

whatever the price might be. He considered that the
present plan of the Government would greatly tend to
the interest of the West India planter, to the consumer
and to the revenue of this country—([lear, hear)—and
he considered that though it may not go so far as many
would wish, yet that it was founded on just principles,
and however it may be opposed, would in time to come

be approved of by many who are now strongly antago-
nistic to it. Nor could he agree with the Right Hon.

Gentleman (Mr. Gladstone) who urged that it Would ma-
terially affect the finances of the country this year, be-
cause he was fully convinced that the extensive consump-
tion next year would make up for any deficiency that
may be apprehended by the Right Hon. Gentleman. He
should say that he certainly regretted that foreign sugar
had been brought into the English market, in competi-
tion to colonial sugar ; but he should say that was not
the fault of the Government, but of the Honourable Mem-

ber for Stafford, the Noble Lord the Member for Lynn,

and the Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Gladstone), who
by their inclination to express their opinions have pro-
tracted this discussion: therefore, to them, and them

only, is the fault attributable. Ho considered that they
would have opportunities on other occasions to express
their opinions; and, in addition to that, that their re-
proaches on the Government were most unjustifiable.
When the Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Gladstone)

charged the Government with inconsistency, did he
mean that the people of this country should be subject to
morn taxation to relieve the distress of the West India

planters? Such a course he would look upon as a most
unjust and inconsistent one; though, at the same time, he
should say that Government wished to do as much ser-
vice as was consistent with justice and equity, but should
at the same time respect the interests of other classes,
and he should add, that he considered that if Govern-
ment were to comply with the wishes of those in favour
of the amendment, that they would totally clog the ener-
gies of the West Indian planters.—(Hear.)
Mr. CAYLEY said that he considered that the ob-
jection raised was against reducing the wages of West
India labourers. New he should say what he had at all
times thought, even at the time that he voted for the
emancipation of the negroes of the West Indian colonies,
that the agriculture of this country contributed most to
the revenue of the country, and strange to say, that at
the time that free-trade measures were discussed, this
proposition, which is now admitted by the Hon. Member
for Manchester (Mr. Bright), and others of his party,
was then strongly opposed, yet the consummation of the
policy of the Act of 1846 will take place in another year,
which, together with the removal of duty from copper
ore and the navigation-laws, must severely injure the
revenue of this country, and he would ask how was this
falling off in the revenue to be made up? for his part he
was at a loss to knoh.—(Hear.) Upon the question be-
fore the House, he should support the proposition of the
Hon. Member for Leominster (Mr. Barkly) because,
though the Government had listened to the complaint of
the Committee elected to inquire into the condition of
our West Indian colonies, yet they opposed their re-
presentations, even though that Committee had been
packed by themselves, and it should also be recollected
that when the Act of Emancipation was passed that it
was not intended that slave-grown sugar should be
brought into the English market in competition with
free-labour sugar, yet he regretted to say that such was
the case, and thus will there be a serious loss in the
revenue of this country, through means of free trade.
It should be at the same time understood that he was
not at present complaining of that measure, because be
thought it right to give it a fair trial. He would say
with Mr. Burke, that wherever there was abuse there
ought to be clamour; for it was better to be waked by
the fire-bell than to be consumed in the flames. So,
wherever there was failure, there ought to be reaction.
They owed good faith to the West Indian colonies, and
because he did not wish this great country to exact the
pound of flesh in the spirit of Shylock, because he was
fond of freedom, and above all, because, being a Chris-
tian, he admired the magnificent Chi istiaa principle of
doing to others as he wished they should do to him, he
felt bound to give his support to the amendment of the
Hon. Member for Leominster.
Mr. CARDWELL said the Right Hon. Gentleman,
the President of the Board of Trade, before he had sat
down after addressing the House, seemed to have re-
covered from the cloud of dissatisfaction which he had
manifested at the commencement of his speech, and had
arrived at that equable and general state of mind which
was his wont. He (Mr. Cardwell) thought the cloud
had originated in the painful analysis of the financial
state of the country, which had been made by his Right
Hon. Friend the Member for the University of Oxford
(Mr. Gladstone), and the recovery had arisen from the
answer the Right Hon. Gentleman opposite (Mr. La-
bouchere) had been enabled to give on two points, viz.,
that in relation to the amount of the delivery of sugars ad
the lower rate of duty, and the condition of the revenue
as bearing upon the question of the sugar duties. The
Right Hon. Gentleman had stated that the mistake
which had arisen was not the fault of Government,
for that they had taken care to apprise the House of the
consequences which must ensue from delay. Now, what
were the circumstances? On the 30th May the Govern•
meat had plainly told the House and the country that no
change would be made in the Act of 1846, either as to
the amount of the duties or in their duration; and on
the following day the mail went out to the West Indies,
conveying that intelligence. The fault was attributed
by the Right Hon. Gentleman to the Hon. Member for
Droitwich (Sir J. Pakington); but let it not be forgotten
that the attention of the Government had been called to
the position in which the question would be placed on
the very first night upon which the House had been in-
vited to discuss the Government proposition. And
could any man, out of the House, believe it
possible that between the 16th June and the
sth July the principle of the proposition of
the Government—that fairly raised by the Hon.
Member for Droitwich—the amendment of the Hon.
Member for Manchester, and all the other amendments
announced to be moved in Committee—could be dis-
cussed and disposed of in that short interval ?—(Hear,
hear.) He (Mr. Cardwell) denied that the analysis of
the financial condition of the country which had been
made by his Right Hon. Friend (Mr. Gladstone) was
devoid of fairness as had been alleged. His Right Hon.
Friend had contrasted the present year with the year of
the Irish famine and of the 8,000,0001. loan, and he spoke
of this as an ordinary year as compared with those years.
The Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Labouchere) had him-
self said that the present was a year in which the country
had shown great buoyancy—in which articles of con-
sumption had kept up wonderfully, and which presented
remarkable evidence of the irrepressible energies of this
nation. If that were so, how could the Right Hon.
Gentleman complain that it had been argued that the
present must be taken as an ordinary year ? The Right
Hon. Gentleman had himself stated that but for the ex-
traordinary events which had taken place on the continent
of Europe, this country would now have been in the
spring-tide of prosperity, and in an extraordinary state
of advance. But on the 18th February a deficiency of
2,000,0001. had been predicted, though the events in
France did not happen until the 24th of that month.
The question of the timber duties bore no parallel to
the question now under consideration—they were not
parallel cases because his Right Hon. Friend (Mr. Glad-
stone) had contended justly that the Government had
no right to come down to the House, having no resources,
but standing upon an empty treasury chest, and take
credit for a reduction in favour of the consumer, when
they knew that in case of a deficiency in the revenue the
consumer was the person upon whom the burden of tax-
ation to supply that deficiency must be placed. He
therefore repeated that the descending scale proposed
by his Right Hon. Friend (Mr. Gladstone) in the duties
in favour of Canadian timber had no parallel with the
present question. In February, the Government were
determined to maintain the law of 1846—a law which,
he contended, was more favourable to the revenue than
the change in it now proposed by her Majesty's Mi-
nisters, and from which they might have calculated upon
a larger amount to be derived from the sugar duties
than would be the case under the proposed change, and
yet with the state of the continent affecting the produc-
tive industry of the country, the Government came down
and took comfort in an anticipated increase of revenue
from the change. For this there was no basis beyond
the hopeful anticipations of the Right Hon. the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, who supposed that because the
stocks were large, there would be an increased con-
sumption. But were the stocks large ? On the con-
trary, the return made up to the Ist of June last
showed that in all the principal ports of the king-
dom the stocks were smaller than they were at the
same period last year ; and with all this there was no
tendency in the scheme of the Government to lower the
price of the commodity to the consumer. He (Mr-
Cardwell) contended that the stocks were not larger, as
had been assumed—that the Board of Trade returns,
published that morning, established that fact—and that
it was, therefore, erroneous to suppose there would be
' any reduction of prices to the consumer. But it had
been said that his Right Hon. Friend (Mr. Gladstone)
had not been clear in the announcement of his remedy
for the existing state of things in relation to the West
India colonies. In the Select Committee it had been
agreed that, for the permanent benefit of the colonies,
protection was not necessary ; and the Hon. Member
for Westbury (Mr. Wilson) had proposed resolution
to the effect that the remedy ought to be applied di-
rectly to the planters themselves, in some other shape
than in that of protective duties.—(Hear, hear.) Not-
withstanding this, the plan of the Government offered
the planter no other remedy but protection. His Right
Honourable Friend had pointed to other remedies, but
their application was matter of great difficulty, owing
to the complication of interests. They involved the
state of West India property, the state of the negro
or coloured population, and they involved besides the
whole question of immigration from the coast of Africa,
as well as that of loans or grants of public money for the
improvement of estates; and, lastly, they involved the
whole question of the slave-trade.. It was impossible for
his Right Hon. Friend to bring forward a scheme with-
out dealing with all these various points, and being out
of office it would have been rash temerity on the part of
his Right Hon. Friend to have undertaken that duty.
With respect to the proposition brought forward by the
Hon. Member for Leominster (Mr. Barkly), it did not
differ in its operation for the first year from the plan