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

from the Lords with some amendments, which would be
printed.
SUGAR DUTIES—ADJOURNED DEBATE.

Sir R. H. INGLIS complained that throughout the
debates which had hitherto taken place on the subj( ct of
the West India sugars, so little had been said as to the
condition and prospects of the slave trade. He did not
desire, after the manner of tree Hon. Member for the
Tower Hamlets, to revert to the stock stories about the
cruelties exercised in former times in the transmission
of slaves to the West Indies, and their treatment after
reaching that destination, but he desired that the sub-
ject should not be lost sight of with reference to future
events. He did not deny that the price of sugar was
of importance to a large class of his poor fellow-coun-
trymen, but he was not prepared to give them
sugar at a sacrifice which would render it
dear indeed. Mr. Canning once said that he could prove
anything by figures, and for that reason he would not
pretend to establish any argument by quoting prices and
duties, but he would merely assert that, under the pro-
posed duties, the protection would not amount to Id. per
lb. The price of sugar was a perfect barometer in re-
spect to its consumption. If, therefore, he could show
that the decrease of Id. per lb. in the price of sugar was
purchased at a terrible sacrifice of African life and
liberty, he should consider he had established sufficient
grounds for the vote he intended to give. It had been
said on a former night of the debate that the question of
admitting slave sugar had been definitively settled. He
believed this was not the case. But supposing even
that it was, he should never shrink from entering his
protest against a measure by which the evils of slavery
were perpetuated. Unless it could be proved that the
thousands of whites interested in the question had not
been sacrificed by the measures of the Government,
which provided cheap sugar for the multitude, he
should not think that those measures could be justified.
The British West Indies presented so important a por-
tion of the great empire with which they have been so
long identified, as to justify to the full the protection that
was claimed for them. His Right Hon. Colleague had
indeed heard that some slave-grown sugar must always
be admitted under the existing treaties with foreign
countries; but could not these treaties be altered? The
Braails had definitively refused to make any concessions on
the score of slavery. He was quite aware that the Em-
peror of the Brazils was opposed to slavery, and with
such a groundwork the Government might hope in a
few years to effect some change in the laws of that
country respecting slavery; but the measures take❑ ,
by the Legislature had greatly marred those ex-
pectations; and, moreover, the slave trade had con-
siderably revived since the Act of 1846, as the
returns of the number of slaves imported into the
Brazils since that year would prove. All the evidence
that had been given upon Committees on the subject
of slavery, and the facilities of procuring slaves
on the coast of Africa tended to prove that the supply
was always equal to the demand, and that when slaves
were required war was resorted to, and the captives
were sold to supply the necessary quantity. Upwards
of 100,000 of these miserable creatures had annually
left the coast, of whom one-third died during their
transit to the colonies of Cuba and the Brazils. The
Noble Lord (Palmerston) had estimated the number of
deaths at from 20 to 25 per cent., but even taking it at
12 per cent., the whole world would be depopulated in
less than a year, if the same rate of mortality were to
prevail during that time, for the voyages only took one
month. Without wishing to dwell upon the inconsisten-
cies of the Government, he could not help quoting an
expression used by the Noble Lord (Palmerston) the
other night, which, to judge by the complacency with
which he uttered the sentiment, would not be dis-
pleasing to the Noble Lord to hear repeated. The
Noble Lord said that the " Government would
nut be a party to enslaving any nation." He doubtless
meant to apply his observation to a particular class of
nations ; but he begged him to remind the Govern-
ment that the Africans were a nation, and though
not of the same colour as Europeans, were fully as de-
serving of being protected as the latter were. He
feared that as little was to be expected from immigra-
tion. An adequate supply of labourers was out of the
question, and those which had been imported, especially
Kroomen, had proved unqualified for the labour. If it
were true, then, that sugar could only be successfully
cultivated within the tropics, if it were also true that
free labour could not be imported in sufficient quantities,
then the only hope of cultivating it successfully would
be to give every possible encouragement to our own
free labour population. His solemn conviction was, that
the question before the House was not merely one of
technicalities and tariffs, but in fact one of the life and
blood of our fellow-men. The question was, in fact,
whether they would or would not continue the slave
trade. Looking at it in that view, believing that trade
to be the cause of unmitigated misery to thousands, and
believing also that the Government measure was calcu-
lated to perpetuate the evil, he felt bound to support the
amendment of the Hon. Baronet the Member for
Droitwich.—(Hear, hear.)
At the conclusion of the Hon. Baronet's speech about
thirty Members on the Conservative side rose simulta-
neously, but at last gave way to
Mr.BARKLY, who observed that the question before the
House lay between a five-shilling duty for ten years and
a ten-shilling duty for a shorter period. In his opinion
the adoption of the higher protection for a few years
would cost the country less than would the measure of
the Government; whilst, by giving them efficient pro•
tection for a short time, they might enable many of the
planters, who had been ruined by vacillating legislation,
to retrieve to some extent their position. It had been
said that the wages of free labour were as low as those
of slave labour, but even suppose they were, the man
who employed slave labour could make his slaves work
from twelve to fourteen hours per day, while those who
employed free labour could not do so above five or six ,

hours at one time. The Right Honourable Baronet
the Member for Ripon had also commented on the
necessity for improvements in machinery, on the part
of the West India interest, and from dispatches
received from British Guiana and other islands,
it would be found that these had taken place to a
considerable extent. He would remark, in regard to the
latter colony, that he found it stated in a dispatch of Mr.
Stipendiary Strutt, lately received, that no improvement
whatever in machinery or in land had taken place for
the last thirty years. The credit, however, to be at-
tached to the dispatches of this functionary would, no
doubt, be considerably shaken, when he found it stated
in another dispatch of his, received in 1841, that the
work previously performed by hand was then performed
by machinery, and that the hands formerly taken up
with it were sent to other employment, so that a great
improvement had been effected.—(Hear, hear.) The
one statement certainly refuted the other, and yet Mr.
Stipendiary Strutt still held office. Then, i❑ regard to
these improvements, the Right Hon. Baronet went on to
say, that were they more generally and extensively
effected, sugar would yield a much greater price ;
but he forgot to take into account the expenses
which attended the making of those improvements. He
knew himself one estate where an expense of 3,0001. had
been incurred in the erection of machinery. In conse-
quence of that improvement there was an increase in the
cost of production of the sugar of three shillings per cwt.
and a complement of seven additional labourers was re-
quired.—(Hear, hear.) Nov, in the present state of the
colonies, these improvements could not be carried, then
the additional amount of labour consequent upon such
improvements, could not be obtained; and to show that,
he might state that the proprietor of the estate be had
referred to, was the individual from whom he had received
the letter he read to the Committee when he gave his
evidence before it, complaining of the ruinous state
to which the colonies had been reduced by the com-
petition the measures of the Government had sub-
jected them to.—(Hear, hear.) He had also received
a letter from a gentleman who had laid out 7,0001.
on machinery on his estate, in the island of
Trinidad, but who was suffering in a lamentable
degree from the system adopted. Lord Harris had also
mentioned many instances of a like nature, and from all
the evidence ho could gather, he came to the conclusion
that competition in present circumstances was impossible.
He could not, therefore, but feel regret at the speech
which was delivered the other night by the Hon. Gen-
tleman the Under-Secretary for the Colonies, as the
effect upon the colonists and upon their friends in this
country must indeed be mortifying, when they found
that those who ought to be the guardians of their
rights and their interests had so shamefully deserted
them.—(Hear, hear.) He had himself seen the mise-
rable state to which some of those colonies had been re-
duced, and could therefore speak with confidence as to

,he state of them. One remarkable instance of the evils

their legislation had entailed on these colonies he would
state to the House. When in Berbice last winter, he at-
tended a sale of the property of a gentleman who had pos-
sessed it for the previous 50 years, and who, not seven years
previous to its sale last winter, had refused 60,0001.
for it, but such was the state to which property in that
island was reduced, that it was knocked down for 2001

—(Hear, hear.) The question he naturally put to those
present was, what will become of the poor old man who
spent the better part of his day in the colony, and whose
property had now gone off at such a sacrifice. Oh, it
was said, he had a son-in-law, who for a considerable
time managed the estate along with him, but who several
years ago went to Surinam and established a business

there, and such was the impetus given to business in that
colony, and such the additional value given to property
by the Bill of 1846, that he was now able to keep his
own family as well as his poor old father-in-law com-
fortably. Now, what a bad state of things was that
which caused ruin to our own colonists, while a man
crossing the river and commencing business in a Dutch
colony was enabled to make a fortune by the legislation
of this country.—(Hear, hear.) The Honourable Gen-
tleman the Under-Secretary for the Colonies had, as a
means of showing that the colonies could not have suf-
fered from the operation of the Act of 1846, stated that
the importation of sugar to this country from them_ wa7
larger last year than in any previous year ; but did, notlast
the Honourable Gentleman know that the c
year, and of which the sugar imported was s . t?
was planted previous to the passing of thell
—(Hear, hear.) So that, so far as it was ytee of produce,.lB46cu
operations of the Act could not be f, concerned, the4t. The Bight
seHonourabledeprecated Baronetlegi s
ltahtei v
,11:Ireema
cbtii,orn for
and lt i pwohni l
eh ahe
(dI Tit::
wi
Barkly) reprobated reaction in as much as
legislation
the Honourable Baronet could do, yet he feared that
the system now pursued towards these colonies would
asshnouoltd as
compose
to the
the stabilityc ofnet a,
have the effect of withdrawing the confidence of the
colonists from this country, and create a reaction which
would be anything but desirable.—(Hear, hear.) The
Cabinet,
but Government, or as to
but it was whether that system of negro emancipation
for which they bad paid thirty millions sterling was a
in
his
opinion,
who Should
mero chimera, and whether the slave trade was now to
be strengthened and supported after all the blood and
treasure this country had sacrificed in endeavouring to
put it down.—(Cheers.)
Mr. LABOUCHERE said, having been a Member of
the West India Committee, he could not give a silent
voto on the questions but after the length at which tho .

subject had been argued, and as he could wish that a de-
cision should be come to before the House rose that
night, he would not trespass long on the time of the
House. He thought it due to that Committee in the
first place to state that he believed no Committee of tbst
House ever met under a stronger desire to arrive at the
truth, and throwing aside all party feeling and party
objects, to do the best they could for the interests of the
colonists, whose case was before them.—(Hear, hear.)
He could not, however, say that the recommendations of
the Committee were satisfactory; and if they were
looked into, it would be found that they were
not so practicable as the course the Government had
pointed out; and he must remind the House
that it was almost impossible for the Committee to
come to any decision, as between the party in
the Committee who would have carried protection
to its utmost bounds and the Right Hon. Gentleman the
Member for the University of Oxford (Mr. Gladstone)
and the Hon. Gentleman the Member for Liverpool
(Mr Cardwell), who was in favour of protection in the
abstract, but on a graduated scale, the Committee was
likely not to come to any recommendation on the sub-
ject. When they did not decide upon a differential duty
of sos. for six years, it was far from the general feeling
of the Committee that such was the proper decision, and
he believed had the vote been properly taken, there
would have been a majority .—(Hear.) He objected to
the proposal of a differential duty of 10s. for six years,
on the ground that it would be injurious both to the
consumer and the revenue, and he did not believe that
it would benefit in the least the West India interests
themselves. All the most important witnesses ex-
amined before the Committee had said, that
the best mode of encouraging the cultivation
of sugar would be to bring the rate ef
wages to a reasonable level, and that nothing would
be so certain to bring that about as the struggle "Iv
going on for competition, and the allowing those colonies
a small protection, in order to fit them for that state,
when all protection must be withdrawn, and when com-
petition would be general.—(Hear.) The Honourable
Gentleman who last spoke had stated before the Cola'
tnittee, that he would recommend a protective duty of
ten shillings for three years, and then allow a
dropping scale of duties, but he was of opinion
that of the two proposals the West India
interests would rather accept that of the Government.
It was not alone upon the West Indies that the course
proposed by the Hon. Members would operate, as it
would also operate upon the East Indies, as it would for
a time give an impetus of cultivation there, and which
would lead in the end, when the competition became
general, to the most disastrous consequences. He ad-
mated that he long hesitated as to making any
in the Act of 1846. but he had now come to the conclu-
sion that the House would do wisely should
they adopt an alteration in that measure
within the limits proposed by Government.
He did not think that the spirit or the proposed measure
It
was inconsistent with the Act of 1846.—(Hear')
was true that the hopes and expectations created in
1846 had not been realised—(Hear)—but their not
being so was not to be attributed to the Act passed ill
that year, for the general convulsion which had fallen
on trade generally, had also fallen on the sugar-growing
interests, who were so much bound up iu the interest!
of the country. They were all aware moreover, that
long previous to the passing of the Act of 1846, the cry
of distress from the colonies had been on many nefli;
sions loud and deep ; and while he did not as)? that
they should not make efforts to relieve it,
think it fair to attribute all the misfortunes of these
colonies to the Act of 1846, while they had for
out
years, and at very different times, been calling out I
assistance and support.—(Hear, hear.) It would' how.-
he did not
ever, have been a most ungracious thing when the West.
Indian interest came before the House, to have refused,
them that sympathy which their case demanded' and
to show that while the House was not prepared
as
abandon the spirit of the settlement of 1846, it was t,
least prepared to reconsider the letter of that settlemenlit
a
and as far as possible afford relief. He believed the
p
of the Government would give more relief than and
other that had been proposed, and that the more it a
been considered by the West Indian interest, the more
satisfactory it had become. He believed that it wo's
afford relief without preventing the settlement of vita.ge,,f
on a satisfactory footing, which would be the result
any any large measure of protection, and he attach Se
greatest importance to that point.—(Hear, heardunrat:
believed the Government measure would lay the afoul a
tion for a better state of cultivation, and, conseotiltaYika
larger amount of production. This would be Pr° scans
to the planter, and it would at the same time be a"
..,
tageous to the revenue of this country, thus obviatingtonvi
objections which had been taken to the G°vernratsesf
measure on that ground. As regarded the interesaa.
the consumers in this country, on which some cool
i
Gentleman had thrown contempt—(No, no)--he
not but attach great importance to an abundant la
cheap supply of what had now become one of the dal y
necessaries of a poor man's family.—(Hear, hear.?
With respect to the bearing of the measure on the grea_
question of slavery and the slave trade, he could not
concur in the views expressed by the Hon. Baronet the
Member for the University of Oxford. The 111
Baronet appeared to think that slavery was a patriarch'.
institution which might in certain cases be tolerated ada
upheld.
Sir R. INGLIS—What I said was, that as the state,
of slavery was recognised by the Book of God, I would
not be a party to any proposition for declaring it un-
lawful.
Mr. LABOUCHERE would not enter into a Scrip'
tural argument on the subject, but having seen song'
thing of slavery, he must state his utter abhorrence
of it as a system which killed at once tbe
body and the soul—(Hear)—and he was most
anxious that this country should wash its hands of the
moral guilt of such a traffic, or the crime of encouraging
others in such an atrocious trade iris that which reeW
nized man as the property of man.—(Cheers.) While'
therefore, he was prepared to give every fair facility for
the importation of free labourers into the colonies, and
to amend the laws relating to vagrancy, it would he
upon the understanding that the one should not lead t°
the establishment of slavery, nor the other to the Cal
'
rforcement of compulsory labour by the police.—(fleariil
He hoped the House would calmly and dispassioaateg
consider the proposals of her Majesty's Government. *
,
was time that they did not hold out to the colonists tu
large and brilliant promises of relief which had bee°
made in other quarters. But he believed that in The
end they would be truly beneficial to the colonies. Th,
colonists had great claims upon us. They had elve,'
been faithful to us.—(Hear, hear.) They were our felloir
subjects, and ho believed that if the House gave its stlci
port to the propositions of the Government, that it wan,
be showing its sympathy and desire to aid our colonies
in the least objectionable and most beneficial manner.
Mr. GOULBURN said, he would detain the House 0
shortly as possible by the remarks he had to make aPnat.
the question. By giving his support to the motion 0
the Hon. Member for Droitwich, he did not pledge bit ;
ha
self as to the amount of protection he might afterwar _
vote for. He must state at the outset, however, that he
felt the Government, who had the whole case before t here,
were the really responsible parties to deal with the uer,
tion, and that he thought should be done on the broaa
principle laid down in the report of 1833, that compel;
sation should be in proportion to the enhanced cost of
production caused by the legislation of that House.
(Hear, hear.) Reference had been made by the Noble,
Lord at the head of the Government, to the state
.0!
prosperity in which it was alleged nine-tenths of t.nl;
population in our colonies were, and that it was only tni..
one-tenth, composed of landed proprietors, who were stittr
fering. But by reports of publiclmeetings, held in vatic). a_
portions of the colonies, and attended by all classes, ai.:
found that the distress existed not only among tn..,
landed proprietors, but also among the bankers, a 39,...
chants, middle classes, and working classes. Of tav
free negrues only one-third were addicted to constant_,
labour, the other two-thirds taking advantage of a fel.
tile soil and fine climate, had entirely divorced there;
selves from labour, and were living a life of idleness o'l_
ease, amidst circumstances which were causing tise.!
rapid demoralization.—(Hear.) The result must 04:
that, even as regarded cheapness of price, unless sonitt
thing was done to relieve the planters, this counP,
would sutler severely. If the island of Jamaica, for.in.,
stance, were thrown out of cultivation,
thousand tons now produced by it abstracted from To
market, the immediate consequence would be a
_,,g1,700
and the thine
rise iu price. They had an instance in point. wu of
St. Domingo ceased to be a sugar colony the priei,4o
sugar rose from 255. to 75s a cwt.—(Elear, hews) ".4,
Hon. Gentleman the Member for Westbury had or°,
some extraordinary statements as to the relative cost
free-labour and slave-labour which bad much surPr so.
him. The Hon. Gentleman had stated the cost :ifslids. ,
ducing sugar in Cuba by slave labour was 17 ' obi I
cwt. .Well, they knew that Cuban sugar had been al,
in our market at 21s. a cwt., and, therefore, if they
ur, •
lowed the very smallest amount for freightage, ll!s,b0
ante, and other charges, it would be seen that it :,
statement as to the cost of labour was correct the Citus; !
proprietor was selling at a great loss. But so far fro',o
this being the case, it was is evidence that the photo,
of Cuba realised a profit of i7s. a cwt.—(Hear, heir./
He thought it was only necessary to put these to_
facts together in order to arrive at a just conclustoat
on the subject. He admitted that there was a grells
scarcity some years, owing to the climate, but "
other years there was a plentiful abandance of sugar'
and he thought it but just to take the mean of ta;°
such years. The House had been favoured during this I
debate, why the colonies should not have the relief r
e'
quired by them. In one case the Right Hon. Ge
an
ntl
wan (Mr. Labouchere) says that the Act of 1846 was
Act of benefit and advantage to the West Indies, an
that because of those advantages it would be injudicious
alterttioonofh
the
ealtogether. He thought that the considers'
House should not be turned only to sugar,
but to other circumstances connected with those colonies,
and particularly connected with her Majesty's Onverfl'
now
tin relation to those colonies. He then, well
thought il
, that that the Government. of o
1846 should
take at the very least three or four months to consider
the alterations they were about to make, and he strongli
recommended that opinion then; but he regretted Ll°
say that such was not acted upon, and that after tog;
lapse of a few days—only fourteen days—they
Parliament to support them in that injurious Ine°6llrei
He should, however, say, that he gave his assent to that
measure, because he thought that the colonies Inigbt
escape the injuries, which an Hon. Member of tbii 1
House had foretold, and he did not think that the wen- I
sure had received that due consideration which a mea-
sure of such importance merited. The want of delibers-
calle
don on the part of the Government was the cause of 0
loss of seven or eight hundred thousand pounds to thus!
particular colonies, which future experience strong i
pointed out to all who know anything of the state of the
West Indian Colonies. He would ask was not this oa°
element of distress? Again, he would say that that vell
Act was the sole and only cause of slave-grown sugar be.
ing brought into this country, because of its being_eanc'el,
aged according to the evidence of Captain Maur:solo
That gentleman, who gave the last evidence, ear that