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

011111iir C Mt

LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 30, 1843.

/Alter a discussion which lasted no less than six en-
tire evenings, the House of Commons has at length
divided on the West India question, and the Minis-
terial proposition has been carried by a majority of
fifteen only in a House of 50,5, the numbers being—
for going into Cornrnitte, 260, against it, 245. The
minority consisted of persons wholly opposed to each
other in political opinions, who appeared to be in-
fluenced by the most conflicting and opposite reasons
for the votes which they gave. There were the
ultra-Protectionists, who desired that a high differen-
tial duty, amounting to a practical monopoly, should
be permanently maintained, and who were utterly
careless of the burden imposed on the working men
of this country by an increased price for an article of
the first necessity—of daily consumption even in
the humblest dwellings,
provided their darling
principle should be thereby sustained, and the full
development of an unrestricted trade and commerce
retarded. Arrayed in the same ranks were to be
found others, actuated by a conscientious abhorrence
of the atrocious traffic in human flesh, and who
would gladly submit to any loss rather than that
which might appear to be an encouragement of the
unholy slave trade should be recognised or sanctioned
Others, like the Hon. Member for Birmingham, op-
posed going into Committee, simply with the inten-
tion of getting rid of the Government measure alto-
, gether, of preventing any change, and abiding by
the settlement of the question adopted in 1846, while
the Right Hon. Members for the Universities of Ox•
ford and Cumbridge desired something intermediate
between the protection recommended by the casting
vote of the Noble Chairman of the Committee on
West India Distress, and that proposed by the Go-
vernment ; and, although:their views might properly
have been submitted in Committee as a modification
of the proposed plan, they still opposed the Speaker
leaving the chair, because they did not in every re-
spect agree with Ministers. Many Irish Members
also recorded their opposition, merely because the
distillers of their country might possibly be injured
by the reduction of the differential duties on Colonial
and British spirits from 9d. to 4d., which they
conceived not equivalent for the disadvantages
sustained by the home manufacturer in con-
sequence of the stringency of the excise regu-
lations to which he is exposed. When the
heterogeneous composition of the minority, consisting
as it did of persons who may never again walk into
the same lobby upon a division, is taken into account,
it will not be surprising that the majority was so
narrow, although it may seem strange that any
persons could have supported the amendment ofthe
Hon. Member for Droitwich, except those who de-
sired that a protecting duty of 10s. per cent. should
be maintained for six years, if not for a longer period,
The Right Hon. Baronet, the Member for Tam-
worth most ably refuted the arguments advanced in
favour of the protecting duty of 105. He showed
that it would not at all meet the alleged exigencies
of the case. The West India body is distressed
in consequence of the supply of labour not being
adequate to the wants of the planters. That, at
least, is the only
~tangible ground on which they

E. could demand, as a matter of right and justice,
his
the suspension in their favour of the doctrines that
have received the sanction of the great majority of
the Legislature and of the community in general.
As a remedy for this deficiency they ask for
protection for colonial produce generally. Not merely
for that of the West India colonies, where this want
is felt, but also of the East Indies and the Mauritius,
in both of which there is an ample supply of labour.
Production will of course be stimulated in these latter
settlements as well as in the West Indies, and the
competition thus occasioned will, in a pecuniary point
of view, be as injurious as that of foreign countries.
It would lead also to a constant struggle to get rid of
the obnoxious impost, which would, in all proba-
bility, be successful, or if not, would keep the West
India body in a most difficult position, and would
retard the other measures of legislation that are
so urgently required. It would also decide the ques-
tion as to the rate of wages in favour of the indolent
negro, who stands out for extravagant remuneration
for his services, in order that the greater portion of
his time may be spent in total idleness, and who is
the real cause of West Indian distress, from his re-
fusal to render " a fair day's work for a fair day's
wages." If the black population in the West India
Islands could be induced to exert themselves as
English labourers are compelled to do, in order to
obtain a coarse and humble provision for their fami-
lies, there would be no want of labour to execute
every operation incidental to the growth or the manu-
facture of the sugar-cane, and the cause of slavery
would not be sustained by the argument which
avaricious men are enabled to use, that the
negro will not work unless actually corn.
pelled to do so by the most stringent re-
gulations, and that, consequently, free labour can-
not compete with slave labour in a tropical climate,
in which European workmen cannot be procured.
The great points, required by the West Indians are
an improved method of cultivation and manu-
facture, by which the utmost produce may be obtained
from the lands, and the placing of the relations be-
tween the employers and the employed upon a proper
footing. These great desiderata, which are wholly
within the power of the planters themselves, would
only be retarded by the
protection of 105. per hun-
dred for six years, which would induce them rather
to rely thereon, and to make new appeals for its con-
tinuance when the period for which it was
granted was coming to a close, than to make
those efforts for a free and unrestricted
competition which can alone prove effectual
and lay the foundation of a permanent prosperity.
The Government resolutions propose to give a pre-
sent protection of 7s. for one description of sugar,
which will be gradually diminished, accompanied
also by such a reduction of duty as may fairly be
expected to occasion a great increase of consumption,
and thus afford the required assistance in the most
beneficial manner.
The House will go into Committee this evening,
when we hope effectual progress may be made, so
that the resolutions may be fully sanctioned before
the sth of July, from which day the contemplated
changes are to take place.

We last week alluded to the meagre and unsatis-
'actory character of the report recently published by
,he Committee appointed to inquire into the causes of
the commercial distress during the past year. Al-
though that Committee was so constituted that on the
very day when its members were nominated it was
well;known that the result of their deliberations would
be to recommend a strict adherence to the provisions
of the Bank Charter Act of 1844, it was supposed
that they would, at least, have entered into some ex-
planations stating the grounds on which they had ar-
rived at such a decision, and defending the
Act, to the policy of which a positive majority had
been actually pledged before the commencement of
their labours. Indeed the community had a
just right to expect at their hands a positive state-
ment, as to " how far the distress had been affected
by the laws for regulating the issue of bank-notes
payable on demand." It was the very issue that
they were empanelled to try, and they were bound
to return a distinct answer to the question so asked.
The Hon. Member for Westbury, in bringing for-
ward his amendments, stated " that his object was
to obtain the sanction of the House that the inqui-
ries of the Committee should be more confined," and
added, that " as the motion then stood, it would
allow to the consideration of the Committee any
subject which any Honourable Member might
conceive to have been the cause of the re-
cent commercial crisis. Now, if he under-
stood the object of the Government, and
the desire of the country, the object they had in this
inquiry should be confined to the one question of
banking and currency." And although that amend-
ment was withdrawn, it was perfectly understood,
that if not the sole it was at least the chief topic for
discussion, on which an unequivocal verdict should
be pronounced. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
himself, in moving for the Committee, said, " lam not
ignorant, however, that many persons of great autho-
rity—of great experience--and of great practical
acquaintance with business, differ from the views I
have ventured to state to the House, and that they
differ also in no inconsiderable degree amongst them-
selves on this subject. And it is, therefore, most
desirable that the opinions of all those gentlemen dif-
fering as they do from one another on a point of vital
importance to the country should be well and care-
fully considered. * * I think few can say that
we have not learned something in the experience of
the last 18 months, and for my own part I think it
most desirable that a Committee consisting of persons
of various opinions, taking very different views of this
subject, should inquire into the matter, and by the
collision of their opinions, and the result of the evi-
dence that may be laid before them, they may be able to
throw additional light on this most complicated and
difficult question." Such was the language used 14y
the Right Honourable Baronet on that memorable
occasion, and surely it could scarcely be conceived
that tlse report drawn up by himself and adopted by
the obedient majority would have been utterly silent
on the subject. The value of the report would
altogether depend on the validity of the
reasoning, the soundness of the arguments by which it
was sustained. The country did not require that the
semblance of an investigation should be carried, or
that they might know that Sir R. PEEL and three
subordinate members of his Administration, and Lord
d
. RUSSELL and a similar number of his associates
that the Bank Charter Act should be sus.:
esired
tallied, in all its stringency, without alteration or mo-
dification of any description. It had too painful ex-
perience on the subject. The arguments of those
persons might, however, have hadsome effect in
changing the general
that opinion,aantdhadh vindicating the.
existing law from the censure
versally cast upon it. "They
ineetnhe s o
words
of Sir CHARLES WOOD, " have been able to throw ad-
ditional light on this most coolplieated and difficult
question."

- No such elucidation has, however, been vouchsafed
to us—the Committee have wholly shrunk from the
responsibility of giving any response to the interro-
gatory exhibited to them. True it is they state, that
Llafter a careful review of all the evidence, they are
of opinion that it is not expedient to make any altera_
tion in the Bank Act of 1844." But they do not

venture to declare that the intensity of the crisis
was not seriously aggravated by the operation of that
Act ; that the mercantile distress, the panic, and
want of confidence that prevailed throughout the
entire country, and the fearful extent of losses in-

curred by commercial houses, were not greatly en-
hanced in consequence of the existence of that law,
the mere temporary suspension of which, accompanied
as it was by conditions that almost neutralised
the good effects of that suspension, had so immediate
and so magical an effect in assuaging that pain, and
restoring a certain degree of confidence, where all
before had been gloom and despair. They simply
state, that " the evidence which had been given as to
the effects of the Act of 1844, has been contradic-
tory ; its beneficial effects, as regards the issue of the
country banks, have been admitted by many of the
witnesses, and although some have suggested an
alteration of its provisions, very few have contested
the general principles on which it is founded." This
is, indeed, blinking the question ; they are asked to say
how far the distress has been occasioned by those
laws, and they tell us, in answer, forsooth, that the
witnesses differ in opinion, but do not at all attempt
to decide which of these witnesses are right and