The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-30 00:00:00

the effect of the 10s. protection would be to raise the
price of sugar 4s. a hundred weight in the market. And
who would gain by it? You would thus terminate the
struggle between the West Indian and the negro in
favour of the negro. You raise the price to the extent
of 41. a cwt., and you get the save-grower perhaps a
better price. If the price of sugar be raised 45., end
you tax him 35., that must be the result, and at the same
time you subject the West Indian to this disadvantage,
that the negro with whom he is struggling for a reduc-
tion of wages shall have the advantage over him.
And recollect he will have that advantage, because you
are paying an additional 4s. to give relief to the West
Indians.—(Hear, hear.) My Honourable Friend says,
"There would be an increase of wages tantamount to
the increased price of produce, and therefore the benefit
would go into the pocket of the labourer, for though it
were coupled with unrestricted intercourse with Africa,
it would be some time before that came into play; the
inducement to extend cultivation would keep up the
wages beyond the effect which the importation of fresh
Labourers would have." My Honourable Friend further
says, " I have not now been in Jamaica for more than
eight years, and the accounts given to me of the island
represent it to be in a much worse condition, not only
than it was then, but than the rest of the West Indies ;
almost in a hopeless state ; therefore I do not wish to
damage their chance of obtaining additional protection
by anything I may say. I believe that it would be of
assistance to the present proprietors of Jamaica if they
got such a protection as that, but if it had the effect of
increasing the production very largely, and bringing a
large quantity of produce from India, the Mauritius, and
other colonies, it would not permanently benefit even
the island of Jamaica; it might benefit the present pro-
prietors, who might perhaps get out of their properties
with a sacrifice." Now, with all the sympathy I have
with the present West Indian proprietors, the object at
which I aim is not to put some money into the pockets of
those proprietors, but to lay the foundation of national
prosperity.— (Hear, hear.) If I aim to pay him a sum
of money, ten thousand times would it be to put it into
his pocket directly, rather than do it in the way in which
you propose to do it by this proposition to raise the price
of sugar and enable the labourer to put it into his pocket.
—(Har, hear.) It appears to me that there is an objec-
tion to this proposition for a 10s. duty for six years on
various grounds. It will end the struggle of the pro-
prietor with the labourer, and decide it against him; it
will increase the price of sugar and it will offer no dis-
couragement to slave sugar.—(Hear, hear.) On this
further ground, I cannot consent to the proposal to raise
the price of sugar 4s. in the British market to give
temporary assistance to Jamaica. It is my belief that
the way to benefit the West Indian proprietor is to
reduce the cost of cultivation; and -enable him per-
manently to enter into competition with the foreign
producer; and it is because I cannot hold out to him
the expectation that I can fulfil the hopes to which I
would give rise by voting for the proposal of my Hon.
Friend, that I must give to that proposal a negative.—
(Hear, hear.) I say nothing now of the immediate pro-
posal of her Majesty's Government. I leave that for
further consideration; but this I say, that I have a sin-
cere desire to enter into the consideration of their plan
without reference to party considerations.—(gear, hear.)
I am prepared to discuss the details of their measure,
and to extract from them as much benefit as we can
without loss to the revenue of the country, and with the
hope of affording relief to the West Indians.—(Hear,
hear.) Our object I think ought to be to encourage the
means of future competition, for I see many causes con-
tributing to the depression of the West Indians at the
present moment, fir which, I believe, legislation could
provide no remedy.—(Hear, hear.) Of this lam con.
vinced. that if by means of protection, you give the
monopoly of the British market to your colonial pos-
sessions, you do not advance a single step towards
advancing their permanent prosperity.—(Hear, hear.)
My Honourable Friend has referred to the Committee
who sat in 1832, to inquire into the cause of the distress
that prevailed in 1830. And what was the cause of the
distress in 1830? It was over-production ; there was a
greater supply than the home market could take, and the
report of the Committee in 1832 is well worth the most
attentive perusal.—(Hear, hear.) You will find
that, for some years before 1832, there was a gradual
increase in West Indian production. There was a num-
ber of hundred weights increase, from four millions to
five millions ; and that was more than the British market
could take off when it came into competition with foreign
sugar in the European market ; and that Committee
said the only way of affording the means of effectual re-
lief was, to enable the British producer to undersell the
foreign producer in the British market. Well, they got
the monopoly of the home market ; you had not a single
hundred of foreign sugar brought in, arid see the inef-
ficacy of such regulations. In like manner, your ten
shilling duty may now increase the supply, and you may
impose a protective duty that will exclude foreign
sugar, and yet do nothing to ensure per-
manent relief.—(Hear, hear.) You may increase the
supply, you may have more sugar produced than the de-
mands of this country require, and then we will begin to
have signs of depression.—(Hear.) Look, for instance,
to what took place under the corn-laws in the year 1836
and in the year 1823. Exactly the state of things I
have described took place, there having been a more
abundant supply than the market could take off.—
(Hear, hear.) In each year you have had Committees
to consider the causes of distress. The markets here
were dull, not a single cwt. of foreign corn was intro-
duced, and each of those Committees came to a conchu.
sion that legislation was of no value. The price of
wheat was 395. in 1835; there was an abundant supply,
and a complete monopoly of the home market; there
was no competition with the foreigner, and yet com-
mercial distress prevailed. And so it will be with sugar,
if the factitious stimulus of protection is applied to
it.—(Bear, hear.) I feel it important, after what has
taken place, not to unduly burden the pur-
chaser; but, in the case of the West Indies especially,
I would not depart to the extent of one fraction from
the principle that ordinarily prevails; for I have come
to the conclusion that the protection demanded would
not be for his benefit.—(llear, hear.) I would not de-
spair of the result of competition with the foreigner, be-
cause I think that the man must be blind indeed to the
signs of the times who can believe that this system of
slave labour can ultimately be maintained.—(Hear,
hear.) Now look to what the state of this slave labour
is in Cuba. Lord Howard de Walden has lately paid a
visit there, and this is his account of the condition of
Cuba. He is asked by the Noble Lord the Chairman
of the Committee a question with respect to the state of
that island, and Lord Howard de Walden, after a recent
visit to Cuba, makes the following statement, Being
asked if the overseer of an estate was obliged to go
armed? ho answered,
" Yes, I believe, invariably; the
overseer had a cutlass and dagger, and three bloodhounds I
at his heels close by him,
understand it was the
custom of the island that no white man belonging to an
estate should go wholly unarmed. They would not go
(ear, hear.)
on foot to any distance, but even on horseback they have
always their pistols at their sides."—
When you look to the United States, are you sure that
can
the status of slavery H
always be maintained ? Do
you believe that the inhabitants of the United States are
easy and confident under the maintenance of it ? What
is the reason all discussion of it is put down, and the
abolition of it is apprehended ? It is on account of the
growing antipathy to slavery ; and my conviction is,
that that country cannot be blessed which maintains this
cursed slave trade.—(Cheers.) For a considerable time
there have been frequent complaints of it, and they have
led to its gradual abolition.
They must ultimately lead
to its total reduction, because there is a blot upon the
land that has slavery on it.—(Cheers) The unhealthy
and unwholesome relation in which the proprietors and
their slaves stood towards each other led to constant
complaints ; but now they possess the means of security.
—(Hear, hear.) I hope you do not repent of the efforts
and of the magnificent determination you evinced in
the sight of Europe to put an end to it--(Cheers.)
It is true that those men who favour it are pos-
sessed of great riches ; but I hope we will not
have to say that it is in vain we cleansed our hearts and
washed our hands of the stain of that crime.—(Hear,
hear.) Under no circumstances and at no time can that
country feel secure in which the system of slavery is
permitted to continue;
and I, for one, do hope that no
Government will give encouragement to such a trade,
affording its advocates a hypocritical pretence for de-
feating free trade, and assisting this cursed traffic.—
(Hear, hear.) I hope those who uphold it will be wise
ira time, and see the consequences that may ensue from
the continuance of it. If I thought that a measure pro-
posing temporary protection would have the effect of
impeding the slave trade, I would vote for it at once;
but your temporary protection expiring at the end of six
years, and then bringing you into competition with
foreign sugar, would be of no avail.—(Hear, hear.) But
at no time, under no circumstances was this system
of slave trading secure, and have there, I ask, any
events occurred which have a tendency to add to
that insecurity?—(Hear, hear.) There has been a
mighty convulsion in Europe, and the man would be
considered a mad speculator who, in speaking four
months ago of the events in Paris, would prophesy that
they would involve Vienna and Berlin in anarchy and
con-fusion. He would be thought a very unwise man
who said it, but still that has occurred, and the mighty
heaving of the convulsion is already felt at the other
side of the Atlantic.—(Hear, hear.) Look to the state
of Martinique, and remember also that these events are
furnishing a lesson which the Governments of Brazil
and of Cuba----aye, and of the United States—should
learn, and, in fact, are learning.—(Hear, hear.) My
opinion is, that the events which are happening in Eu-
rope must precipitate the time when there shall be a
final extinction both of the slave trade and of the
slave.—(Hear, hear.) This state of things should
be met by timely
precaution on the part of
this country. There will be increased sympathy with
the condition of the slave ; and he who traffics in
human blond and brings the slave to Cuba and to
Brazil from the coast of Africa, may find, notwithstand-
ing his present prosperity, and the price he sets on sla-
very, that his prosperity may come to an end.—(Cheers.)
It is my hope that it may come to an end, through wise
but whether it be brought to
aa and d
end providentb by
w
wise be-
lievelegislation
its doom is sealed.—(Cheers.) I believe that it
ftnisdi a
ptirOnvident legislation or not, I
cannot lone survive, and that the slave at no remote pa.
rind must be emancipated.—(Cheers.) To use the mag-
nificent language of Curran, which was expressed in
words worthy of the aspiration :—" No matter in what
language the doom of the slave may have been pro-
nounced—no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty
may have been cloven down—no matter what complexion
incompatible with freedom—an Indian or an African
sun may have burned upon his brow, the time is fast
approaching when his soul shall walk abroad in his na-
tive majesty—
whet] his body shall swell beyond the
measure of the chain which bursts from around him,
and he shall stand forth redeemed, regenerated, and
disenthralled by the genius of universal emancipation."
Mr. URQUHART moved the adjournment of the de-
bate amid loud cries for a division.
Mr. ANSTEY seconded the amendment.
Lord J. RUSSELL hoped the House would come to a
division before they again separated,—(Hear.)