The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-29 00:00:00

but what I protest against is the remedy that is
aske(A.-
—(Cheers.) We are asked to give to flu • West
Indian 'dy a protection duty of 10/. per ton up ta all
the color '1 sugar imported into this country. et is
the modest . request that is made to the repre slake*.
tives of the people of this country-101. t ton,
amounting to ~ipwards of 2,000,000/. of taxation, to
be upon the people of this cot mtry,
imposed annei,
and that not for the purposes of the State, not to be
B:reat body of the cons) lining'
paid into the coffers. of the Exchequer, but to be
pockets of the Wes's In its
transferred from the'
no doubt it is vet .y easy
classes of England into elms
why Lot grant this protection
proprietors. Now I haves
for persons to say,
won't be felt by the
to the West Indian body, it will make very little
addition to the price of sugar, it
consumer, and you will prevent ,13e ruin of many
respectable families, and, perhaps, ins 'lre t7de restore,•
tion to prosperity of many West Indi,en mercantile
houses." Well, if I were asked to give ne) • own pro-
perty for that relief, I might say, " \Tee v we:l, I
have no objection to grant you from my 0\ wn funds
the amount which you ask, and I only hope it may
relieve you from your distress." But that is not the
position of a Member of Parliament. He is met deal.
ing with his own funds.—(Loud cheers.) Ho is
trustee for the people, and he is bound to act upon
strict principles of justice between all classes of the
people.—(Cheers.) But can a more obvious or clear
right—a more inalienable title to anything be est*.
te,d than that which the labouring man hies to
-rd of his labour ? I never can under, tend
the rang one evve_
has a better claim to that man's
that
oiwt,.llDl.lalgates which m tash et
.man.
thimself—(Loud cheers)—and
wages than the
until a better title cat: o
teo shown
his
W.eshlndie
labouring man sno
of distress, in
and upon that show my
decline, merely at the request of the:
proprietors,
capacity of trustee, to transfer any portion of the
poor man's earnings to the pockets of the West I ndie
proprietors.
Mr. COBDEN, rising with great animation. Three
cheers for the sentiment.—(The cheers were given
with hearty good will.)
Mr. M. GIBSON continued : When the Sugar
Duties Bill passed through Parliament all the f sotat
were before the Legislature which are before them
now—everything was taken into consideration, and
after a mature discussion if the question, the sugar
duties were placed on a permanent footin, g'• The
measure of 15;48 has conferred a great benefit on the
country—it has, as the free-traders pledged them-
selves it would do, added materially to the revenue of
the State, and at he same time increased the quantity
of sugar to the consumer and reduced the price...me
(Cheers). I have some statistics upon this point
which I should wish you to bear in your mind. For
the twelvemonths ending Ateesnet, 1845 (the year
preceding that in which the present Bill was passed),
the revenue derived from sugar amounted to
3,339,1821. For the twelve months ending August,
1847, being the first year of our Susser Bill—
the Free-trade Sugar Bill—the revenue from sugar
amounted to 4,652,4021., showing an increase of
1,313,0001. gained to the revenue, accompanied, as I
said before, with less taxation to the consumer, and
an increased quantity of sugar brought at a lower
price within the reaca of all classes of her Majesty's
subjects.—(Loud cheers:) lam prepared, therefore,
to stand by the Bill of 1846,----(Hear, hear.) I think
it is a good measure—l think it answered the pur-
pose for which it was intended—l think it a just IBM..
sure—l think it cis a well-considered measure, and
I think the country will never regret that it was
passed into a law.—(Applettee.) But after all, has
nothing been ever done tot' OA' West Indian body
Do we forget that when slaVonty was abolished the
people of England paid them in co mpensation the SUM
of 17,000,0001. out of 20,000,00047 e which at 4 per
cent. adds to the taxation of the co untry something
like 680,0001. a year ? You are noew paying out of
the taxation of this country for the ealencipation of
the slaves no less a sum than 680,0001. per annum to
the West India body. Is that nothing ? But we
are told that they did not get the 171.0,004, that they
were in debt, that their estates were heertgeged,
at d
that their merchants and brokers got posseiesision of t-
But you did not pay it any the less lot' that. ---
(Cheers.) The 680,000/. still remains a charge n
the tax-payers of this country, and they can .t 11
anything to do with the previous arrangements, whe-
ther wise or unwise, which existed between the W 'at
India proprietors and their merchants and brokers:
(Cheers.) The money was paid, and, as I always
understood, that closed the account, and it can no mere
be re-opened. The question of slavery is settled, send
let it lee remembered that the abolition of slavery watt
not a law merely applying to the proprietors of esta' es
in the West Indies. It was applied to all classes of
her Majesty's subjects, and at the present moment I
have no doubt that in many other of her Majesty's
dominions—say at the Cape of Good Mope or in
Australia—the proprietors, if they were allowed to
employ slaves, might be enabled to make a good deal of
land profitable which now returns them nothing. I
was talking myself to a gentleman who has lately pur-
chased property in the Cape of Good Hope, and he
said, " %VI-1y you seem to talk as if no one was de-
prived of any advantage by the abolition of slavery
but the owners of slaves in the West Indies ;" and he
added, that if he might purchase slaves, much of the
land which now yielded hire nothing might be made
profitable. So they are not the only parties Who caa
claim to have been deprived of an advantage, if there
possibly can be any advantage, .
either present or r,a7
mote, resulting from such a system.— -(Cheers). I
my part, I hope to see slavery abolished in ere7l
part of the world, and I believe, leaving free e ahkir
compete without protection openly in ihe Vert, ;'g
markets with slave labour, that the day- will ex' e
when it shall be proved that free labour is more -pro-
fitable than slave labour, and when men's interests
will induce them to abandon for ever the horrible
traffic in human flesh.—(Loud cheers). We have
had so many proofs lately from the successful
operation in other countries, as well as Engler: 1,
of the effect of reducing duties, and giving a fre,r
scope to industry and trade, that I will not dwell
longer on that branch of the subject - but there is of
remarkable case in connexion with the trade of EnE -
land, to which I can't help calling a momentary attet
tion—l allude to the trade with France. Now smel
as that trade absolutely is in amount, there is no tra' a
which has relatively shown a more rapid increase.- -
(Cheers.) The declared value of our exports
France has amounted, within a very short period,
something like 3,000,000/., and now amounts, f
believe, to 2,700,0001., whilst in 1815 they amounts-I
to not more than 300,000/. But of that great iii•
crease, be it remembered that the greater portion of
it has taken place within a comparatively recent
period, and it has taken place almost entirely in con-
sequence of the relaxation on our part, without an y
reciprocity on the part of France. I mention this
tecause it affords a strong argument against what a
called the " reciprocity system," showing as it do a
that you have increased materially your trade with
France, by acting for yourselves, and reducing the
duties on your imports, even though France has re t
reciprocated and materially reduced the duties on
imports into that country.—(Cheers.) But I men-
tion this trade with France also, to show you that-,
after all, the exports to France are as great as the
exports to the British Wrest Indies, so that those
dreadful Frenchmen, whom we are told to regard es
our natural enemies, are as good customers of out
as the protected and much-cherished Wtst Indio
proprietors.—(Hear, hear.) France takes of your
exports 2,700,000/. The West Indians take
2,300,000/., and, more than that, want you to give
them a protective duty on their sugar equal
amount to the value of all the experts you send tee
the West Indies. lam not over-stating these things
—I am mentioning merely those facts which parlia-
mentary documents place before us, and I ask you.
now whether we can reflect upon this gradual increase
of commercial intercourse with France, without, at
the same time, feeling that it must have a weight
upon the ties of friendship and of interest, which
it would be more difficult to break than if the
trade with France were only what it used to be in
1815—something like 300,0001. a year.—(Cheers.)
I think my excellent friend Colonel Thompson woul.l
tell you that the two countries, with a trade of that
sort subsisting between them, were less in a fighting
condition than if there were no larger trade than
300,0001. a year. I, for one, believe from my con-
science—though I dare say diplomacy may have done
much in the world—l believe from my conscience,
and I state it unhesitatingly here in this public as -
sembly, that the most potent of all human agency t,)
prevent war and maintain peace is the extension cat
commercial interests.—(General applause.) Bin,
notwithstanding that growing trade, notwithstandinse
that increased intercourse with trance, we were tol 1
in the south—and recollect that letter came front
Lancashire, from a great man in that district—that
we were frightened out of our propriety by a lettec
from the north, telling us that we might expect aft
invasion by the French people—that the Frencit
people were actuated by feelings which I will not
mention towards the natives of this country, and the
we were lulling ourselves into a false security if
we did not prepare an adequate force to reps t
that meditated invasion. Idu not mean to say—foY.
1 should not be honest if I did say, and it has al-
ways been my habit in Manchester candidly In
fairly to state my opinions—I do not mean to say
that you can dispense with the use of an armarnere.
I do not say, and I do not believe my excellee
friend, Mr. Cobden, ever said that you are to abolish
all your military and naval preparations—there an.
those who would, bUt I do not believe Mr. Cobden
has proposed that.
We are all agreed, however
that it would he the greatest improvement the world
ever saw, if by international communication armee
merits could be abolished altogether.--(Cheers.)
Now we have averaged something like 16,000,0001.
a year since 1815. for the maintenance of defences,
and I believe, therefore, we always have had ade-
quate means of defence, and as far as I am capable of
judging, no case has been made out which should