The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JUNE 2O, 1848.

proposed for the West India planter, or what amount of
(,tand
itvotes.
he
protection they would substitute for that which the re-
solutions of the Government would establish. The
Hon. Baronet (Sir J. Pakington) having given notice of
the. terms
d 0 Buxton)
slave-
grown v e
_
oifnhjahadiii
t snasofmitevecneed putdm
iennitt,,.a in
a
had:hin
z stivaui cpreeewiastra
e which -
changed
te his
thou
ui g
s—ai(dErfa"irrly heenaor4:l t Isis
hat
Hon.
wouldFrien d(S r E
totally
grown sugar.— (Hear, hear.) His lion. Friend con-
tended thet when emancipation passed in 1834, the
exclude N.
House and the country entered into a compact with the
West India colonists that they should have twenty mil-
lions paid to them as compensation, together With the
perpetual monopoly of the British market. He admitted
that if the Imperial Legislature chose to deprive the
West India proprietors of their slaves, it was bound to
give them full compensation ; but he remembered that
Lord Stanley argued at the time that the compensation
which was given was full and ample. Parliament had
since decided against giving to the West Indies a per-
petual monopoly of the British market, and against the
permanent maintenance of a high protective duty.-_
(Hear, hear.) It there had bean a contract entered
into in 1834 to grant such a monopoly of the market
it was broker, as his Honourable Friend behind him
had stated, by the Act of 1844, which, according to
the present Lord Harrowby, who moved the cele-
brated resolution of 1841, did, by opening our market to
the sugars of Java and other foreign sugar-growing
countries, encourage the import of slave-labour sugar in
the market of Hamburgh; and only last year no less
than 3,000 tons of sugar were admitted from slave-
growing countries into England which eve were com-
pelled to admit by our treaties under the Act of 1844.
He did not mean to say that the Act of 1846 had not
given a further encouragement to slave-labour sugar.—
(Hear, hear.) But if they were to stand on the con-
tract, he must contend that the first infraction of the
principle of discouraging slave-grown sugar was to be
found in the Act of 1844, and those who supported that
in
Act were not nowa position to turn round on the
proposition of Ministers, because it might in its results
encourage the import of slave-labour sugar. The
grounds on which the Act of 1844 was brought forward,
as stated by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr.
Gonlburn), himself a West India proprietor, were the
insufficient supply of colonial sugar, and the consequent
high price; now, however, it was contended by the
Ron. Baronet (Sir J. Pakington) that it had always
produced a supply sufficient for the demands of this
country. If any one would compare the present con-
sumption with that a few years back, he would see that a
more monstrous proposition had never been put forward.
In 1840 the consumption was 179,000 tons; in 1842 it
was 193,000 tons; and last year it was 289,000 tons; an
increase of more than 110,000 tons in seven years, and
96,000 in the last five years.—(Hear, hear.) Comparing
this increase with that of the population, it was evident
that the supply was not adequate to the consumption hi
1840 and 1842. When the Bill of 1846 was proposed,
there was scarcely any person in the House except those
who voted with the Noble Lord (G. Bentinck) who did
not distinctly avow that the principle of permanent pro-
tection as against slave-labour sugar must be given up.
The Right Honourable Baronet the Member for Tam-
worth made that avowal distinctly; and the Honourable
Member for Leominster (Mr. Barkly) declared that he
was for free trade in sugar, as he had been for free trade
in corn, it being understood that protection should be
continued for a time in order to enable the colonists to
make arrangements to compete with other sugar. growing
countries. He was entitled to assume, therefore, from
what had occurred in reference to the mestsure of 1846,
that the present majority of the House abandoned the
principle of permanent protection. He thought the Hon.
Baronet had somewhat overstated the case as to the in-
creased export of slaves as attributable to the Act of 1846.
He believed it would be found that the number of slaves
exported from the coast of Africa in 1847 scarcely ex-
ceeded the number in 1846, and that the increased ex-
port during the last two or three years was owing rather
to the Act of 1844 than that of 1846.—(Hear, hear.)
But the only way to put down the slave trade was to
beat slave labour in open competition by the superior
cheapness of free labour production. They had tried all
other means and failed; and it was no argument against
the coarse they were now taking—the only course left,
as he hel:eved, for eff,cting the object—that the number
of slaves exported had increased under the operation of
the Act of 1846—even if it were so. With regard to
the amount of ;protection, he found that the Committee ,1
on the coffee and sugar plantations recommended a dif-
ferential duty of 10s. for six years; but if the Hon.
Baronet's facts and arguments went fur anything, they
went to show that there was a cost of 15s. 9id. between
the cost of slave-labour sugar and free-labour sugar, and
that nothing short of a permanent protective duty to
that amount would have the required effect of enabling 1,
the West India colonists to compete with slave-labour
countries. If that -was the view of the Hon. Baronet, he
could understand why he was no longer prepared to
abide by the recommendations of the Committee of which
he was a member. But the Committee went further, and
agreed with his (the Chancellor of the Exchequer's)
view, that the ultimate prosperity of the British West
India possessions must depend on their means of success-
fully competing with the foreign producer rather than on
any permanent protection—(Hear, bear)—and unless
they were so enabled to compete, there was but little
hope of their being restored to permanent prosperity.
If it was still the opinion of Parliament that sooner or
later the British West Indies must compete with the
slave-growing colonies, the question was how that com-
petition could be brought about in the best and safest
way. From the evidence taken before the Committee it
was shown that great reductions in, the expense of
managing might be effected without any loss in the
amount of production. In one case the cost
of management had been reduced from 2,3001. in
1843, to 1,600/. in 1846; and in another from 2,3001. in
1843. to 1,3001. in 1846. The evidence of Mr. Barkly,
Mr. Lines, Mr. Greene, and others, also went to show
that if protection were only continued for a short time,
and arrangements were made for a small additional sup-
ply of labourers—a few thousands in a continuous
stream—the rate of wages might be considerably reduced
without any real injury to the labourers who, in conse-
quence of the very high rate of wages which they now
received, enjoyed luxuries to which persons in a much
higher station in life in this country were strangers.
The Hon. Baronet had not stated what he recommended
in lieu of the Government plan in regard to the emigra-
tion of labourers to the West Indies, but he had alluded
to contracts, and had urged that permission should be
given to enter into contracts for labour for three years.
He believed that the Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Glad-
stone) had permitted such contracts to be entered into.
Mr. GLADSTONE—But excluding natives of. Africa
and the West Indies.
The CHANCELLOR of thtOEXCHEQUER would
not enter into the details, but believed that it depended
on the colonial legislators themselves whether such con-
tracts forlabour should be entered into, and his Noble
Friend (Lord Grey), since he had been in office, had not
refused his sanction to any Act of the Colonial Legisla-
ture for that purpose. But it was not quite certain that
the contract system would act. Mr. Tollemache, in his
evidence, stated that it had been tried in Antigua, but
he was not inclined to think that it answered. The
object of the contract was to compel the labourer to
work for less than the ordinary rate of wag.es.—(No,
no.) To that there was no objection, provided the la-
bourer refusing to carry out such a contract was not
treated as a felon. With regard to squatting., he heard
no means suggested by which it could be effectually
prevented. There were plenty of laws::on the subject.,
but the difficulty was to euforce them ; and he must say
that the worst kind of squatting was produced by the
proprietors themselves, who drove the negroes to a dis-
tance from their estates. The great difficulty was ad-
mitted on all hands to be the want of labourers, but the
proposal they made of advancing money, or guarantee-
ing the interest of a loan, if the colonists raised it them-
selves, would enable theta to meet that difficulty. But
neither the introduction of labourers, nor the other
measures proposed, would avail, unless they extended to
the West India planters further time than was contem-
plated by the Act of 1846. In so extending the time,
however, he did not consider that there was any depar-
ture from the principle of that Act.—(Bear.) It was
stated as a matter of complaint, that, owing to the pre-
sent classification of sugars, the colonists did not get
that amount of protection which it was intended they
should have, because the whole of the colonial sugars
was exposed to a competition with the best foreign sugar.
That was stated very clearly in the evidence of Mr.
Greene. To remove this ground of complaint they pro-
posed to introduce a new classification of foreign Mus-
covado sugar, and to divide that which was now intro-
duced uniter one denomination into two classes, to be
called brown clayed and Muscovado. The lion. Gentle-
man said that this plan would be defeated, because the
fine sugar would come in as Muscovado. .Everything
depended on the point at which they fixed the standard,
and, after consultation that
day
with the officers of the
Board of Trade and Customs, they were of opinion-se
but they would not pledge themselves absolutely to it—
that the description of sugar which was now 368. 60.
long price in the market should _
ebe the standard of
b
brown clayed sugar, and that all low that should be
entered at Ow rat©• If the Muscovadopresent law re-
mained unchanged the West India planters would only
have a protection of 6s. By the,pl
have an which the Govern-
ment proposed they would second aprotection of 7s. for
the first year, 6s. 6d. for the
a..year, and 6s. for the
third year. But that was not for they proposed to
reduce the differential duty on rum, with respect to
which ho was surprised that no mention had been made
in the recommendations of. th Committee.—(Hear,
hear.) And this was not altogether valueless to the
West Indian interest, for a great increase had
taken place in
the quantity of rum entered
for home consumption. In 1846 the number of
gallons entered amounted soot 2,684,000 ; in 1847,
to 3,330,000. And the qaity entered was still
on the increase ; for the number of gallons introduced
during the four. first months of 1847 was 849,000,
whilst for the four first months of 1848 no less than
1,010,000 gallons came ja.—(llear, hear.) These were
the advantages which they proposed to give the West
Indians. They proposed to give them a higher protec-
tion than they at present enjoyed, and to extend that
protection
three years beyond the time for which it now
existed. They proposed to reduce the differential duty
on rum, to advance money to facilitate immigration, and
they were prepared to coilsider. any suggestion for the
t
suppression of vagrannY. Butthey were not unmindful
of the interests of the consumer in this country.—(Hear.)
He believed that the interests of the producers of sugar
and of the consumers were identical, and that the pro-
ducers must ultimately look to increased production with
low prices for safety and prosperity.—(Hear, heir.)
They proposed to reduce the duty on colonial
sugar Is.,
and to increase the differential duty between foreign and
He did not think that
colonial sugar. H the price would
be thereby enhanced to the consumer for the present
or the next year, because in the first place there
was a great quantity of sugar in hand as com-
pared with last year ; and, secondly, there was a
prospect of a large production in the present year ; and,