The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-29 00:00:00

PROTESTS AGAINST THE SUGAR

DUTIES ACT.

LORD STANHOPE'S PROTEST.

DISSENTIENT,

1. Because the importation into the United Kingdom
of sugar which is produced by the labour of slaves tends
to promote the slave trade, with all its atrocities, and is
quite inconsistent with the principle upon which this
country has so long acted, and for which it has made,
and still continues to make enormous sacrifices.

2. Because there is no reason to apprehend a deficiency
in the supply of sugar from other sources, as the quan-
tity which is produced in the East Indies and in other
British possessions is rapicly increasing, which would
also be the case with the British colonies in the West
Indies if they received due protection and encouragement.
3. Because the proposed measure would be most un-
just to those colonies, and would be ruinous to their in-
terests, which have already been grievously injured by
reducing the price of their produce without a cor-
responding reduction of the taxation to which it is sub-
ject, and by the want of sufficient labourers for their
cultivation.

4. Because the consequences of the proposed measure
might be very calamitous, and might occasion such dis-
tress and discontent as would ultimately lead to the
separation of those very important colonies, which, whe❑
deprived of the protection that is justly due to them,
might also lose their allegiance.
STANHOPE.

LOVELL and HOLLAND.
GAGE.
DENMAN, for the first reason.
Aug. 10, 1846. S. OXON, for the first reason.

LORD BEXLEY'S PROTEST.

DISSENTIENT,

1. Because the theories by which this Bill is defended,
if true, ought to have been long ago laid before the
public, in order to their being fully and impartially con-
sidered ; whereas this Bill, which assumes their truth
without adequate discussion, has been passed with such
haste and in such a crisis of affairs as to preclude inquiry.
2. Because the slave trade carried on from the coasts
of Africa has long been acknowledged by the Legisla-
ture of this country, and by the general consent of
civilised nations, to be the greatest practical and moral
evil now existing upon earth, and this country has,
under this conviction, for many years attempted to sup-
press it at a great expenditure, not only of money, but
of the lives of her people.
3. Because this trade is now almost wholly confined
to the export of slaves from Africa to Brazil, and to the
Spanish colonies in the West Indies, for the purpose of
the cultivation of sugar; and on that account the con-
sumption of sugar produced in those countries has been
subjected to heavy discriminating duties.
4. Because this Bill, by opening the British market to
sugar the production of Brazil and the Spanish colonies
on equal terms with that of countries in which no slave-
trade has been carried on for many years, and even with
the colonies and dominions of Britain, must give a great
and immediate encouragement to that unchristian and
inhuman traffic.

5. Because to give any encouragement to such a
traffic for the sake of any expected fiscal or commercial
advantages would cover this country with indelible dis-
grace, as an infamous barter of our religious and moral
duties for mere lucre.

6. Because this Bill inflicts a grievous injury on the
British colonists by exposing their produce to the un-
restricted competition of foreign countries, which con-
tinuo to be supplied with the labour of African slaves.
BELEY.
S. OXON, for reasons 1,2, 3,4, and 5.
DENMAN.
Aug. 13, 1846.

LORD ELLENBOROUGH'S PROTEST.

DISSENTIENT,

1. Because the Bill, by increasing the consumption of
sugar the produce of Brazil and Cuba, will increase the
demand for the slave labour by which that sugar is pro..
duced, and thus tend to stimulate the slave trade, through
which that labour is supplied.
2. Because the Government of this country has been
engaged for more than 30 years in endeavouring to in-
duce all foreign states to prohibit and prevent the slave
trade ; and has recently concluded a treaty with France
for the conjoint application of a large naval force to its
suppression, while Parliament has passed enactments of
an unusual and stringent character to facilitate the ac-
complishment of that object.
3. Because, to establish relations which tend, by en-
couraging the slave-trade, to counteract the measures so
adopted for its suppression, is inconsistent with good
faith towards France, our ally, and disparaging to the
policy and to the reputation of this country.
4. Because the immediate reduction of the discrimi-
nating duties on British and foreign sugar, in the man-
ner proposed, and the gradual assimilation of those
duties as it is to be effected by the Bill, are measures
for which India and the colonies are in their present
condition not ,sufficiently prepared, the West Indian
colonies especially still suffering under the effect of the
various conflicting enactments which Parliament—first,
in its unscrupulous cupidity, and since in its late re-
pentent morality—has passed with respect to them, and
India having been only recently enabled, by a tardy act
of common justice, to compete on eqnal terms with the
other sugar-producing dominions of the Crown.
5. Because the projected scheme for facilitating the in-
troduction of labourers from Africa into the West India
colonies is not yet in detail before Parliament, although
proposed as a means of enabling those colonies to meet
on more favourable terms the foreign competition to be
created by the Bill; and there is but too much reason to
apprehend (the condition of Africa being considered)
that this projected scheme of relief cannot be effectual
without practically reviving the slave trade in British
vessels, under the specious disguise of immigration.
6. Because the whole measure is of a nature to convey
the impression that the people of this country are become
tired of the honourable but costly character they had as-
sumed, of the moral instructors of nations; that they
are now resolved to seek compensation for the charge
they are bound by treaty to incur, in endeavouring to
suppress the slave trade, from the increased revenue to
be derived from regulations tending to its encourage-
ment; and that they no longer acknowledge the claim of
India and the colonies to have their interests equally
considered, although unrepresented in Parliament.
ELLE GII,
S. OXON, for the Ist, 2d, 3d, and 6th reasons.
BEXLEY.
BROUGHAM.
Aug. 13, 1846.

THE P OST-OFFICE ORDER
FORGERY.

William Waldron, who stands charged with fraudu-
lently obtaining a ost-office order, by forged letters to
the secretary of the General Post-office, who was appre-
hended a few days since at Berkhampstead, has been
finally examined by the Mayor of Banbury.
Mr. Phillips, from the solicitor's office, Post-office, at-
tended to conduct the prosecution, but said that, under
the circumstances, the Postmaster-General did not press
the charge, but left it with the magistrates to deal with
it according to their judgment.
The facts stated at the previous examination were,
that so long bacjc as January last a Post-office order
was obtained by a Mr. Palmer, of Gravesend, and en-
closed in a letter directed to a Mr. Davis, a theatrical
performer, then at the Daventry Theatre; but it after-
wards appeared that he never received the letter, but
that some other parson had written from Banbury, re-
questing the Secretary of the General Post-office to allow
the town of payment to be altered from ,Daventry to
Banbury; the letters were written in the name of Davis,
and the request was complied with. Mr. Peake, the
officer of the establishment, however, traced the prisoner,
and apprehended him.
Palmer, clerk to Messrs. Matthews and Co., solicitors,
at Gravesend, deposed that on the 17th of January last
he obtained an order in favour of Davis, payable at
Daventry, and never heard any more of it till May last,
when he was surprised by Davis stating he had not re-
ceived it.

Davis deposed that he was a performer in Jackerman's
company, and that he lodged with the prisoner, who
was also a performer. Prisoner knew that he had
written for money. Witness left Daventry two days
before the company, and came to London ; the company
went on to Banbury. Witness never gave any sanction
to prisoner to take the letters, receive the money, or to
write to the Post-office authorities on the subject of
having the order transferred, The handy% riting of the
letters he believed to be that of the prisoner.
The postmistress at Banbury deposed that the pri-
soner, representing himself as Davis, took the order,
and asked how he was to proceed in the matter to have
it altered to Banbury, and she suggested the applica-
tion to the secretary. About a fortnight after, a Miss
Capron, of Banbury, presented the order, and on her
statement that Davis was ill she paid the amount.
Miss Capron deposed that she presented the order
at the request of the prisoner, who lodged with her father,
and paid the money to him.
The prisoner admitted that he had written the letters
to the secretary, and intended to have made up the
amount.

The MAYOR said that, in order to protect the public,
he had no other alternative than to commit the prisoner
for trial at the next assizes, and bound over the post-
office constable to prosecute. Bail could not be accepted
under the circumstances.

SLAVE TRADE.-It appears from returns just laid
before Parliament, that in the year 1845, there were 56 ships
of war (of 886 guns, and 9,289 men) employed for the sup-
pression of the slave trade. Of these, 13 were steam
vessels, and 28 sloops; and 27 ships with 282 guns, and
3,334 men were employed on the west coast of Africa sta-
tion. In the same year, 1845, the cost of the vessels on
the west coast of Africa, was '291,501/. ; and of vessels not
exclusively used on the coast, 414,953/., making a total of
706,4541. There were 166 deaths on the west coast of
Africa in the year, officers and men; and 93 in the vessels
employed elsewhere, making a total of 259 deaths ; more-
over, there were 271 officers and men invalided-104 in the
vessels on the west coast of Africa.

VESSEL PICKED Up.—On Friday, as the Waterloo,
of London, was passing St. Abb's Head, she spied at a dis-
tance the hull of a vessel buffeted about by the wind and
waves as if no person was on board. She made up to her, and
on boarding found her to be the Alexandre, a fishing lugger,
of Gravelines, apparently about 60 tons burthen. There was
no person on board, and the masts were cut away as if with a
hatchet, the mainmast about two feet and the foremast about
seven feet from the deck. Not a rope or block was to be
found. The cabin companion was carried away and the
hatches were broken up. No provisions were found except
a cask of biscuit and a small quantity of potatoes. Not the
least appearance of the men's chests or bedding were to be
seen. She was laden with herring barrels, a few of them
filled with salt, the rest empty. The vessel was brought up
on Saturday by the Waterloo as far as Broughty Castle, and
afterwards towed to the harbour by one of her boats, where
she now lies, What has become of the crew remains as yet
a mystery.—. Dundee Advertiser.