The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-01 00:00:00

What bed been the history of the sugar trade during the
last five years? It had risen steadily, but still very ra-
pidly, to no less than 300,000, en increase of 50 per cent.
lie had reason to believe that the introduction of
slave-grown sugar had not given great encouragement
to that mode of production, because the price at the
Hsvannah of sugar during the three ears preceding
the change in the law was 23s Id. a cwt., and in the
three succeeding years e2s. 4d. They might be told,
perhaps, that the great increase in the consumption of
sugar since 1846 was owing to their availing themselves
of shave-grown sugar ell over the world; but the fact
was, that the production ef British free-labour sugar had
increased, while that of slave-grown sugar had ma-
terially diminished. At the conclusion of the first year
after the change in the law, the consumption of this
country was 289,0001. tins, which was made up of
227,000 tons of f, ee labour colonial produce, and 61,000
t ins slave-labour sugar. In 1848, the consumption of
tree labour sugar increased from 227.000 to 243,000
tons, while slave-labour sugar decreased from 61,000 to
39,000 ton-. In 1849, the consumption of the whole
country woe 301,000 tons, of which 253,000 were Bri-
tish free-labour, and 48,000 slave-labour sugar. What
was the case this year? The accounts for the 10 months
warranted him in assuming that the consumption would
be 318,000 tons, of which he might take 282,000 as Bri-
tise, and 36,000 the produce of slave labour.—(Hear,
an) But sugar was not the only thing in which
these colonies were interested. Molasses tend rum must
also be taken into the account. He would take 31bs. of
molasses to represent 11b. of sugaa In this article the
increase of consumption had been from 207,000 tons in
1844, to 317,000 during the last year. Of rum, the
quantity imported from the British possessions in
I the three years preceding 1846 was 3,095,000 pitons,
; and in the three last years 5,080,000 gallons. Tne lion.
Gentleman who last addressed the House placed tne
1 whole issue upon the possibility of our confining our
competition to free-labour countries, to the exclusion of
slave-labour. Now, it appeared that in the three years
preceding 1846 the quantity. was 354,000 tons, and in
the three years following that period 263,000 tons. At
1 the present moment the entire quantity of sugar produced
was 1,227,000 tons, of which 530,000 tons were the pro-
duce of slave labour, and 697,000 tons the produce of
free labour. It was unnecessary for him now to repeat
I the arguments based on the difficulties which would be
created by the admission of refined sugar, and the de-
mands of Holland and the United States to the privileges
of the most favoured nations. In addition to this they
had the additional difficulty caused by the changes
which had taken place in their legislation since the ad-
, mission of slave labour and the repeal of the navigation-
laws. But he maintained that every attempt to return
1 to protection would be the greatest injury they could
inflict on the colonies. Suppose at the present mo-
ment they had it in their power to give the West
Indies protection, what would the effect be? They
were told that Trinidad was able to grow enough of
sugar for the whole consumption of this country—that
British Guiana could do the same if it could only ob-
tain a supply of labour—that the production of the
, Mauritius was likely to be much more than at present.
IThen from the East Indies they had had a most valuable
return of the produce of the last two years, and showing
the extent of land under cultivation, the extent of ground
`under palm trees and date trees for the production of
sugar; and the quintities there indicated amazed and
astonished him, much as he knew of the extent of the
resources of their East Indian possessions. In all these
places they were on the eve, with the slightest en-
couragement, of having a surplus production. Notwith-
standing it had been asserted, and he believed truly, that
the West Indies were in a state of great distress—not-
withstanding all that, they were increasing the amount of
production so rapidly in the West Indies, that long bee
fore the expiration of the Act of 1846—long before
1854—they would find themselves in the same position
with regard to sugar as they were at present with re-
gard to coffee, and that protection had worn itself out.
It would merely by a year or two anticipate the ordi-
nary course of events. On behalf of the British
colonies themselves, was that a desirable result?
They only now required 10 per cent. of additional pro-
duction in their own colonies to have enough for their
entire consumption. He had shown that the predictions
that were made before the Committee of 1846 were not
fallacious—he had shown that, instead of becoming more
and more dependent enslave labour, the production of their
own colonies, in place of being lessened, had been gra-
dually and considerably increased. If the House agreed
to the motion they would have all the slave-holding
countries looking up—they would be proclaiming the fail-
ure of their own experiment, and it would be holding out
to them an encouragement and an inducement to the
continuance of slave labour. They would be telling the
world that with the largest market and the greatest com-
merce of any nation they were unable to support the
principle of free labour—that at that late period it had
become necessary for them to retrace their steps, and
for the sake of their colonies to go back to protec-
tion. On every account, therefore, he felt himself
justified in opposing the motion; and he hoped the
House would bo of the same opinion, and reject the
motion.—(Cheers.)
Mr. S I'ANLEY said—Sir, I have more than one
reason for asking the indulgence of the House. I have
never addressed it before—l shall not now address it
long—l have been personally referred to in the course
of the debate, and I have some personal knowledge of the
countries whose condition we are now discussing.—(Hear
and cheers.) And further, I may say that I have not in
my hand one single statistical table—(Hear, hear)—that
I shall quote no figures, and that I shall detain the
House by no calculations—(Hear, hear.) I shall con-
fine myself to a reply to those lion. Gentlemen who
have preceded me in the debate, and to those I shall re-
ply as briefly as it is in my power. Before I enter upon
the details of the question itself; I may be permitted to
express my astonishment, and which, I believe, has been
felt in common with myself by many Hea Members on
this side of the House, when the Honourable Member
who immediately preceded' me in the debate toll us
that it was something strange that the consider-
ation of this question, which had teen fully
discussed two years since, should have again
been brought forward, and that an appeal should
be again made to the House to reverse its de-
cision. Why, Sir, the period is not very far remote
when it was the practice of that party professing the
policy of which the Hon. Gentleman is so warm a sup-
porter, year after year and session after session, to ask
the House to reverse its former decisions—(Hear)—
when it was their practice to bring forward motions,
not with a view to their being carried, but with a view
to the effect which they would produce, not in that
House, but rather with a view to the effect which they
would and actually did produce elsewhere.—(Hear,
hear.) Sr, I admit that this does not alter the case so
far as we are concerned ; but I was still more sur-
prised when I heard the lion. Gentleman, not ten
minutes after that expression of opinion, admit—nay,
assert, that in consequence of certain changes that had
taken place in the policy of the country, an entire
change had taken place in all the features of
the e,tse.—(Hear, bear.) Sir, although I was not in
Parliament when this question was brought forward in
1848, still I have some recollection of the debates that
took place on that occasion ; and, if my memory does
not deceive me, I find that the overwhelming majority
by which this change was effected, acid against
which we are now told it is hopeless to struggle, was, in
a House numbering between 400 and 500 Members, a
majority of just 15.—(Hear, and cheers.) Sir, I must
also be permitted to offer one remark upon the reply
which the lion. Gentleman made to the argument em-
ployed by the lion. Baronet who brought forward the
motion. That motiou was founded exclusively upon the
existence of great distress in the West Indies; and the
lion. Gentleman replied by a careful and elaborate cafe
culation, showing that the import of sugar had increased
net in the West but in the East Indies.—(Loud cries of
" Hear.") Something has, I believe, been said about
the protective system by the Hon. Gentleman, but, long
as the debate has continued, I am nevertheless the first
Member on this side of the House who has taken part in
it. and, in reference to certain remarks made by the Hon.
Baronet who brought forward the motion, I wish dis-
tinctly and emphatically to corroborate the statement he
has made, and to say that this is not a protection ques-
tion, and that I do not intend to deal with it as anon.—
(Hear, hear.) Taking that view of the case, I feel that
I am supported by very high authorities who have
been often appealed to in this House—by Mr. Deacon
Hume, and by many of the most eminent of those who
brought forward or supported the new financial move-
ment—by Lord Brougham, and by the Right Reverend
Prelate the Bishop of Oxford, who voted against the
Act of 1846, although they were in favour of the mea-
sure for putting an end to agricultural protection. lam
further supported by a very powerful authority in this
House, the Right Hon. Baronet the Member for Tam-
worth, for although his vote was given in favour of the
Act of 1846, he at the same time admitted that sugar
was not to be placed in the general catlory with other
articles of' agricultural produce.—(Hear, hear.) It al.-
pears to me, then, that as regards the West Indian colo-
nies the case is very simple. One of two alternatives
the House must adopt—either it must declare that free
labour can compete with slave labour, or it must at once
and openly confess that emancipation has failed
(Hear, hear)—that it was useless to abolish slavery—
that the 20,000.0001. given as compensation to the plan-
ters, and the 80,000,0001. indirectly paid away, have all
been sacrificed, and are as much lost as if they had
been thrown into the sea.—(hear and cheers.) With
regard to the impossibility of free-labour sugar compet-
ing with the produce of slave labour, it would be difficult
to argue the question fully in a brief compass, but I
shall just refer to one authority, which must be admitted
to be one of considerable weight. I take the authority
of Colonel Reid, who at the time this dispatch was
wriiten, May, 1848, was Lieutenant-Governor of the is-
land of Berbadoes :—" Oa the future prospects of the
planter I shall say but little, since this subject has been
publicly inquired into in England. I shall confine my-
self to recording an opinion I already gave in general
terms on the 26th February, 1848, supported by the in-
formation which I have collected and transmitted, that
the cost of making sugar from free labour is greatly be-
yond the cost of making it by slave labour—that sugar
cultivation cannot yet withstand competition on
equal terms with slave labour, and that free -
dom requires to be nursed with protection." Honour-
able Gentlemen will probably consider for a moment
from what part of the world that declaration comes. It
is from Berhadoes—from an island in the West Indies,
in which, if the question of free labour could be any
where fairly tried, it could be tried there. In that island
the population was far denser than in either England or
Ireland, and it was estimated to be as dense as in China.
The wages of agricultural labour range from 6d. to Bd.
per day, the land is all highly cultivated, there is no
waste land, and therefore there is no possibility of
squatting. The negro must be employed as a labourer
or he must starve.—(Hear.) Is not that as fair a trial
of free labour as it is possible to have? and yet the an-
swer to all that is, that there it has failed.—(Hear,
hear.) Compared with Jamaica, Trinidad, and British
Guiana, the population of Barbadoes is considerably
more dense; and, on the other hod, speaking of the area