The Sun.
London, England, 1832-03-12 00:00:00

SUGAR COLONIES.

We, the undersigned Merchants, extensively con-
nected with the British West India Colonies, arid
burthened with the maintenance of a vast number
of estates, are anxious to take this mode of convey-
ing to your Honourable Committee, our united
opinion in respect to the present most critical and
alarming state of colonial affairs, and we shall be
ready, if called upon, to confirm that opinion by per-
sonal evidence.

We respectfully beg to call the attention of your
Committee to the accompanying copies of two Me-
morials submitted by the West India mercantile
body to his Majesty's Government in May, 1830,
and July, 1831, representing in forcible terms, the
unreasonableness of expecting that our Colonies,
with various restrictions on their trade for the bene-
fit of the mother country, and its other dependen-
cies, and with increased cost of labour, arising out
of the abolition of the slave trade, and various ex-
pensive obligations imposed upon them for the be-
nefit of the slave population, should be able to raise
sugar at as cheap a rate as Cuba or Brazil, which
carry on the slave trade, and have a free intercourse
with all the world ; and yet the policy now pursued
by this country forces them into this ruinous and
un,qual competition.
We beg further to call the attention of your Com-
mittee to the statements in those memorials, proving
that di..tress and discredit had arrived at such a
point, from inadequate prices on the one hand, and
interference with the rights of property on the
other, that the whole frame of the Colonial system
must inevitably be broken up unless immediate as-
sistance were given by the Government.
For the accuracy of these predictions we need
only refer to the numerous failures of mercantile
houses which have since occurred, involving in their
fall not merely the ruin of numerous families in
Great Britain, but even the partial dismemberment
of several of the estates which depended on these
merchants for support. Confidence and credit have
been so utterly destroyed as to render it necessary to
curtail the supplies sent out for the comfort of the
slaves arid the maintenance of cultivation ; and even,
in many instances, bills drawn from the Colonies for
the payment of contingencies and taxes have been
dishonoured.

It is no small aggravation of this distress that the
article of rum, which partially supplied the place of
currency in the Islands, is at this time almost
without value either here or in the Colonies.

We entreat in the most erirnest manner, your
Honourable Committee to consider that this is the
actual commencement of the very state of Colonial
extremity which has been predicted, directly lead-
ing to an abandonment of cultivation and to hope-
less disorganization amongst the negrees. We
respectfully trust that you will feel the necessity of
recommending, ere it be too late, some decisive
measures of relief; not merely out of regard to the
vast and various British interests which are involved
in the fate of the Colonies, but for the sake of the
British consumer and of the revenue; since it must
be obvious that the abstraction of so large a portion
of sugar from the general supply to Europe as that
now produced by the British colonic., must for
many years greatly enhance the pi ice of sugar, and
thereby diminish the consumption and the revenue.
Urom our experience as merchants, we can so-
lemnly assure your Honourable Committee, that the
Colonies, as useful possessions of the Crown, wilt