The Sun.
London, England, 1833-07-25 00:00:00

Mr. ROBINSON asked whether it would not be bet•

ter to accept the Noble Lord's proposition, rather than
by refusing it to let the whole question remain over until
another session. One proposition hail at least this advan-
tage, that it was attainable at once, whilst the other was
not; for it %as impossible to carry the measure in the
teeth of the Government and West India body united.
If the Hon. Member pressed his motion to a division, he
should certainly vote for it ; but he thought the much
better course would be, to accept the offer of the Noble
Lord the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Mr. P. THOMSON said he should detain the House
but a short time; but if they understood this subject, as
he was sure they desired to do, they would agree with
him, that it was one of the most important that could be
brought under the consideration of the House. If the
Hon. Gentleman had studied the question a little more
fully, lie would not have spoken in the manner he had
done, nor have deemed the question so easy of solution.
He did not blame the Hon. Member for the objections he
had made to the present system, but because the Hon.
Member had not sketched out a plan by which he could
effect the object he aimed at. Every one must agree with
the Hon. Member, that it was moat desirable the object he
had in view should be attained, and that full employment
should be given to the inhabitants of the Tower Hamlets.
He believed that that Hon. Member desired to effect the
object ; but it must be effected in such a manner as to
enable the House to adhere to the principle, from which
he trusted they would not depart of keeping, so far as it
was possible, the monopoly of the sugar refinery for the
West Indian sugars, especially now that the system of
negro slavery was about to be abolished. His opinion
was, that this country should, as much as possible, retain
the business of refining for the whole world ; but
this could not be done without giving a bounty en such
refining, which he thought inexpedient, or admitting fo-
reign sugars for refining here. He did not believe that this
country could become a refining country to any extent
without doing the latter of these two things. Still they
might do as much as they could to produce that effect. He
had already prepared a Bill to admit foreign sugar in bond
for refinery. With respect to the political part of the
measure, he had nothing to do with it—that he left to the
Members of the Government ; but the other part of the
Bill he had prepared, and was ready at once to introduce
it. Now, however, be was told that such a measure
would not satisfy the refiners, who wanted the Bill of
1830. To calculate the amount of duty that should be
laid on foreign sugar, it was necessary to proceed on a
proper basis. He should to-morrow lay on the table of
the House the last report on the experiments undertaken
l by Dr. Ure, at the desire of the Government, and car-
ried on during a period of eighteen months. These were
experiments which showed, that on foreign sugars, when
refined with West India sugars, there was in fact a
bounty paid on their export. He should now state some
facts to show bow that bounty operated, and that it
therefore became impossible to frame any scale for the
admission of foreign sugars on a duty, unless a bounty
was given upon foreign sugars when refined, which he
hoped that House would not agree to. There had been
three expel iments as to the refining of West India sugars.
The first was on a parcel of indifferent sugars purchased
at the average price, and the only bounty given on that
was Is. 6d. On the second experiment the bounty was 55.,
and on the third it was 6s. ; these were on West India
sugars. This bounty would be beneficial to those engaged
in the trade, though they would not directly receive it.
He had made as many inquiries as he could on the subject,
and in spite of the repugnance of most men to exhibit their
accounts, or to show the result of the calculations on the
process of refining, there was, however, one manufac-
turer who bad shown him all the banks for the last three
years, with calculations of the amount of the bounty.
In the first year the amount was 4s. 10d., in the second
4s. 3-1., and in the third year it was 3s. 9d. That
showed that there was on such a mode of refining a bounty
of from 4.. to ss. if not higher, on every cwt. of West
Indian sugar, which was refined in this country. Expe-
riments had then been made with respect to the refining
of foreign sugar, and on the first parcel the bounty was 2..
per cot. That parcel was Brazilian sugar, but when that
kind of sugar was mixed with one half of West Indian
sugar, the bounty rose from 2s. to 3s. 3d. the cwt. This
fact showed that by some chymical combination, the two
sugars, when united, could be refined so as to produce a
greater value than belonged to either when refined sepa-
rately. When the Brazilian sugar, subjected to this ex-
periment, was sugar purchased not at 3s. below the
average price, but at the average price itself, it produced,
on being refined, a bounty equal to Bs. the cwt. It,
therefore, appeared that the yielding of sugars was dif-
ferent on account of the qualities of the different sugars
before being refined, and that could not always be deter-
mined by the price, so that that could not be relied on as
the exact measure on which the drawback could be
founded. The revenue ought to be placed in the situa-
tion of rep lying on export no more than it had received
when the sugars were imported for the purpose of refining.
He conceived that the result of these experiments must be
conclusive, not only to the mind of his Hon. Friend the
Member for the Tower Hamlets, but on the mind of the
Hon. Member for Worcester. The only course that it
in
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nsugars properlyowbionn allowing sugars
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el difficulty.
the market, to reline such sugars for home consump-
tion. The refiner could not always depend on exportation
alone. Yet if he refined sugars in bond, he must be
stopped from receiving the benefit of the heme market, so
fir ,is related to such sugars. This would not give him
all the advantage it was desirable to afford him. In
giving him the liberty of refining sugars in bond, it would
not he advisable to permit him to refine foreign sugars
only, hut lie must be allowed to mix foreign sugars with
them, for one great advantage to the refiner, as be had
shown, was in 'mixing these different sugars in the process
of refining. Their object, therefore, must be to enable
the
hesilould withoutobject, pay
be-
cause
him to bring together these two qualities of sugar. He
single exception etph
should propose, therefore, to permit all sugars in bond to
tei
on endh ofe
hadh i
already s
Hon.
stated.
be refined for
the purpose of exportation
went of the duty. That would answerg
he believed there could be no other that would not
be in some degree more or less injurious to the revenue.
Friend oppTosoit aeisl with
plan
easin
other h
Then came another important branch of the queetion—
namely, the bounty on West India sugars. The Hon