The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-05 00:00:00

THE RUMOURED TREATY WITH

BRAZIL.

The Brazilian packet has not brought with her a
confirmation of the report that a new treaty had been
signed between the British and the Brazilian Govern-
ments. The intelligence received via Pernambuco
was, therefore, premature, if not incorrect. It
needed very little knowledge of the state of the
various interests concerned, to pronounce decidedly
that the alleged basis of a total emancipation of the
Brazilian slaves was wholly improbable. After the
emphatic declaration of Sir Robert Peel, that he
would be no party to the admission of slave-grown
produce to compete with that of our own colonies,
our merchants, who had made up their minds that all
avenues to a new arrangement with Brazil, after No-
vember, were entirely shut, were much surprised at
the sudden announcement of a fresh treaty, more fa-
vourable to their trade than the existing one.
We regret that it is our duty to state that we
have every reason to believe, from the best autho-
rity, that no such treaty has been, or is likely to be,
negotiated. Up to the present hour no correct in-
telligence has been received that such a treaty has
been concluded; and, we may further add, that
whatever treaty may be the result of the present
negotiations, it will be limited to a new and totally
different basis—a basis of the narrowest and most un-
satisfactory dimensions. We are given to under-
stand that, in the best-informed quarters, it is ru-
moured that the efforts of the negotiators are now
limited to a treaty, from which the forbidden article
of sugar is totally excluded.
Although coffee, which is at present a staple pro-
duct of Brazil, is slave-grown as well as sugar, the
latter article, in accordance with the subtle distinc-
tions drawn by Mr. Gladstone in discussing the sugar
duties, is still to be prohibited. The only object of
such a treaty is therefore to prevent, if possible, any
differential duties from being struck against us
next year; for, of course, no extension of our Brazi-
lian trade can be looked for, unless Brazilian sugar is to
be admitted into our markets. Under such circum-
stances, the completion of the treaty, come when it
may, will not be hailed by the public with any feel-
ings of exultation, for at the best it can but keep us
as we are in the article of sugar. As it is probable,
however, that the Brazilians will not consent to
modify in our favour any tariff which they may have
projected, unless considerable reductions are granted
in the duties on their other commodities, it follows
that we may expect some relief in the price of coffee,
the speculators in which article ought, therefore, to
be on the alert. Such, then, is the abortive result,
after two years' labours, of the Brazilian negotiations
of the Tories—a Brazilian treaty, from which sugar
is to be excluded!

It is hardly necessary to add, that the slave ques-
tion has been passed over, sub silentio, in those dis-
cussions ; the Tory conscience permitting the con-
sumption of slave-grown coffee, but revolting at the
idea of slave-grown sugar, and the Brazilian con-
science making reprisals by a differential duty, a
sort of compromise will be effected which cannot lead
to any great or permanently satisfactory results.—
Liverpool Mercury.