The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-08 00:00:00

brought forward by her Majesty's Government, but it

would not affect the public ievenue at a time when the
revenue could not afford to be affected, and, further, it
was not open to the objection of a continual recurrence
to a descending scale. Before he sat down ho could not
avoid referring to ene piece of evidence adduced
before the Slave-trade Committee now sitting, by
Mr. Moore, the Chairman of the Liverpool Brazilian
Association. He (Mr. Cardwell) had asked Mr.
Moore this question—" Can you tell the Committee
whether the Brazilian merchants in this country ex-
pected so full a measure of free trade in sugar
as was afforded by the Act of 1846?" The answer
was, " I should say certainly not." "Do you know
whether their general opinion is that the measure of
1846 extended beyond the justice of the case? Answer
—At the time the measure was brought forward I was
chairman of the Liverpool Brazilian Association, and I
can state we never sought for equality with the colonies;
on the contrary, we always looked for some differential
duties. I frequently came to London on the subject,
and we said that if Brazilian sugar was at 175., and West
India sugar at 255., there ought to be a differential duty
of Bs." Ile (Mr. Cardwell) had pressed the examination
a step further and had asked the witness, " In your opi-
nion was there an injustice done the West India colo-
nies?" and the answer was, "Yes, I think so." Such

was the evidence adduced on the part of the merchants
engaged in the cultivation and import of Brazilian sugars;
and the other day, in attending with a deputation upon
the Government, he (Mr. Cardwell) had urged the hard-
ship to which the colonies had been exposed. Believing
that the plan proposed by the Hon. Member for Leomin
ster (Mr. Barkly) would afford the best means of giving
effect to those sentiments, he (Mr. Cardwell) should give
it his best support.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. WILSON said the question before the Com-
mittee was whether it should adopt the Government
proposition of 13-. per cwt. on colonial sugar, or the 14s.
per cwt. as moved by the Honourable Member opposite
(Mr. Barkly); but, in dealing with that question, it was
necessary to take the whole scale of duties as proposed
on the one side and the other into consideration. The
plan of the Honourable Member would operate bene-
ficially for the colony (Demerara) in which he was most
interested, and which produced the white clayed or
higher class sugars, but would sacrifice the sugars pro-
duced in the other West India colonies, and the effect
would be to raise the price for the next year of all
sugars but is. per cwt. more than would be the case if
the Government proposition received the sanction in
preference of the Legislature. Taking into consi-
deration the consumers' interest on the one hand,
and the state and condition of the revenue on the
other, he was convinced the Government plan has
now proposed would effect a great saving, and operate
most beneficially for the country at large. It
had been said that by the adoption of the Govern-
ment plan the loss to the revenue would be 240,0001. in
the first year, 480,000/. in the second year, and 960,000/.
for the four remaining years. But what would be the ef-
fect of the plan of the Hon. Member for Leominster?

Why, in the first year it would add to the consumer a
cost of 435,000/.; in the second year the additional
charge to the consumer would be 905,0001.; and in the
third year, while there would be a loss to
the revenue of 720,000/., there would be an in-
creased cost to the consumer to the extent of
1,350,0001.; and so on, until, at the end of the six
years, there would be an addition of 2,400,0001. more
upon the consumer than would be the result of the adop-
tion of the Government plan. In what position, then,
at the expiration of that time, would the West India
colonies be placed, when, without protection, there was
no increase of consumption? The advantage of a gra-
dually decreasing duty was, that it produced no very
marked effect at any particular time, especially if the
alterations were known beforehand; and on this ground
the plan of Government was infinitely preferable to that
embodied in the amendment. The mode in which re-
lief was proposed to be given to the planters, namely,
by stimulating the consumption, was the most unobjec-
tionable that could be devised. For years before the
alteration in 1845, the consumption of sugar had been
almost stationary; in 1830 it was 202,000 tons • in 1843,
203,000; and in no one year of that period had it ex-
ceeded 206,000 tons. But after the alterations in 1845
the consumption rose at once to 244,000 tons; in 1846,
to 261,000; and in 1847 (in consequence of the further
reductions of duty in the preceding year), to 290,000
tons. By the amendment proposed the duties would be
kept stationary for six years, and the natural consequence
would be, to cause the consumption again to become
stationary; and how, then, could any increase of revenue
be expected? The Government plan, on the other
hand, by largely stimulating the consumption, would
augment the revenue to such an extent as would pro-
pably compensate for the reduction of duty. The
Honourable Member for Liverpool had dwelt much
on the apparent falling off of 3,000 tons in
the consumption of sugar is May last, as compared
with May, 1847; but had he forgotten that, after the
West India Committee had been sitting for months, and
reductions of duty were recommended, refiners and
dealers would naturally allow their stocks to go low, and
thus cause the apparent falling-off alluded to ? He
knew,by communications with the refiners themselves, that
they had acted in this way, having their eyes fixed on
the anticipated reduction of the sth inst.; and he had no
doubt the quantity entered in the present month would
more than compensate for the past decline. The amount
of sugar to be received from the colonies this year was
fairly estimated at 230,000 tons ; the imports from the
Mauritius and the East Indies might be expected to fall
off from 5,000 to 10,000 tons ; the whole supply would
probably equal 345,000 tons, being only 45,000 tons less
than the supply of last year. The Hon. Member for
Liverpool said that stocks were lower this year than last;
but this was owing to the fact that the shipments were
unusually late ; both in Brasil and Cuba there were
large stocks yet unshipped, and whether they came
direct to this country or to the continental ports, they
would find their way here if they were needed. The
Hon. Gentlemen opposite (Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Card-
well) had dwelt too strongly on the question of revenue
though the accounts of the preceding day certainly
showed a deficit on the year of 2,400,000/.; but of this
no less a sum than 2,200,000/. was in respect of the six
months ending in January last as compared with the
prosperous half-year ending in January, 1847.—(Hear,
hear.) 4 Comparing the last six months with the corre-
sponding six months of 1847—a much fairer way of judg-
ing of our present position—it would be seen that, not-
withstanding the extraordinary curtailment which our
commerce had suffered, and notwithstanding the dis-
turbed condition of the continent, the deficit was only
209,0001. The first six months of 1847 were a period
of comparative prosperity; and, if the comparison was
confined to the last quarter and the corresponding
quarter of 1847, the amount of deficiency bills amounted
only to 35,000/.—(Hear, hear.) The proposition of the
Hon. Member for Leominster (Mr. Barkly), while
raising the price of all sugar, was also objectionable on
the ground of its giving an unfair advantage to certain
colonies, inasmuch as it only imposed a duty of 14s. on
colonial Muscovados and white-clayed sugars, and would
thereby inflict a hardship on the refiners of this
country, who paid a duty of 14s. for the raw material
which they wrought up.
Mr. BA RKLY disclaimed any interested motive in
making the distinction alluded to; and
Mr. WILSON said he had not meant to impute any
such motive.
Sir G. CLERK said he should support the amend-
ment. The most important part of the plan of the Hon.
Member for Leominster was the omission of the dis-
tinctive duty on white-clayed sugar. In 1847 only
30,000 cwt. had paid the high duty of white-clayed, of
which 12,000 was foreign and 16,000 was East India
sugar. This distinction then afforded no benefit to the
West Indian colonies. The Right Hon. Gentleman the
Chancellor of the Exchequer admitted that he would
lose 240,000/. at first, if the plan of the Government
were adopted, but he expected that it would be made up
to that amount by the increased consumption of sugar.
He did net think that expectation was likely to be
realised, because in the five months ending the sth of
June last, the consumption of sugar had fallen off
1,000 toes as compared with the quantity consumed in
the corresponding five months of 1847. And this falling
off had taken place, although the average price for the
1
as
3 ens He
1 ey
five months of the year 1848 was only 245., whilst the
months
thsofB
there was 47 w
any tendency
to increase the consumption of the sugars.—(Hear.) It
did averagenot thinkpr ice
this of thesho fivee
showed
might be said that this arose from the distressed state of
the country in the present year. If that were the cause
there ought to be a falling off in the consumption of
re moreover d
et the
oafdmthiessßioonarodf
otfh eT
rßaidgeh tt
that
n the. G e nootlue
other articles. But that was not so, and they had
mthnernmt ra yn
was in a very buoyant state.
Mr. lIAWES—The sugar trade was in an unsettled
state.
Sir G. CLERK—And that rather gave an induce-
ment to the loreign growers to take their sugars out of
bond, and bring them into the market. The principal
difference between the plan of the Government and that
of his Hon. Friend was, that his Hon. Friend proposed
to retain the differential duty at the same amount for
six years. Hon. Gentlemen opposite said that the
dropping scale would afford time to the West India
planters to prepare for the competition with the foreign
growers. That argument surprised him as coming
from the authors of the Act of 1846. The dropping
scale had this disadvantage, that it produced
irregularity in the trade, because merchants always re-
gulated their transactions according to the gradual fall.
In this respect he thought the plan of the Hon. Gentle-
man was superior to that of the Government. But what
appeared to him to be the great advantage of the plan of
the Hon. Gentleman was, that it would not diminish the
revenue. Giving the Right Hon. Gentleman the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer credit for the improved state of
the finances, there would be still, according to his state-
ment, a deficiency of 1,500,0001., and in such circum-
stances he did not think it would be wise to give up
240,0001. He admitted, whenever the state of the reve-
nue could afford it, that no tax could be reduced with so
much advantage to the great mass of the people as the
tax on sugar, but until the state of the revenue had
greatly improved they should not do anything that would
still further diminish it. The Right Hon. Gentleman
the Chancellor of the Exchequer told them that he would
get 350,0001. beyond what he expected from the malt
duty. It should be recollected, however, that the supe-
rior quality of last year's malt would occasion less sugar
to be used in brewing. There were 1,000 or 1,200
tons of sugar used last year in brewing,
which would not be used. this year in consequence
of the superior saccharine quality of last year's barley,
so that even if there were a slight increase in the con-
sumption of sugar, it would be more than counter-
balanced by the falling off of the sugar used in brewing.
He was also of opinion that the duties received on
foreign sugar would be less this year than they were last
year, for he found that from 11,000 to 12,000 tons less
had been introduced from the Ist of January, 1848, to
the sth of June, than had been introduced in the corre-
sponding months of 1847. Then the Right Hon. Gen-
tlemen said that he expected to save 300,0001. ou the