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

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JUNE 1, 1850.

the repeal of the navigation-laws had rendered the re-
vival of distinctions of that kind more difficult.—(Hear,
hear.) Besides, the present Government did not enforce
the observance of the treaties with Brazil and Spain.
Under these circumstances he saw no mode in which the
object of the Honourable Member for Essex could be
carried out but by making an alteration in the sugar
duties, and for a time re-enacting protective duties to
some extent; and at all events, for a given number of
years, of arresting the descending scale.—(Hear, hear.)
He could not at present specify the exact amount, but
he intended to propose that the differential duty should
net be lower than the differential duty which at pre-
sent existed between colonial and foreign sugar.—(Hear
hear.) He could not look forward without dread to the
equalisation of the duties in 1854. The Hon. Member
fir Westbury protested against holding out to the
world the wild example or alteration of our policy.
But had not our policy with regard to the sugar
duties been frequently altered before ?—(Hear, hear.)
The Government, in 1848, found it necessary to make
an alteration, under which the colonies now enjoyed a
protection of 3s. 6d. per cwt. more than they would have
done under the Act of 1846, and under which an equali-
sation would not take place till 1854, when the duties
would be equalled at 10s. instead of 143. And he be-
lieved that before 1854 the Government would find the
pressure of distress so great in the colonies that they
mutt give way to another alteration.—(Hear, hear.) He
admitted to a certain extent that the experts from the co-
lonies had not fallen off in quantity; but, nevertheless,
the state of those colonies was most disastrous, and they
could not go on in their present condition. The subject
at issue was, whether it was possible for the West India
colonies to compete with the slave countries producing
su,gar. The Honourable Member for Westbury had
adverted to the continued imports from the East
Indies. Now a great deal of sugar was grown in the
East Indies for the consumption of that country, which
was consumed there, and any surplus might find its
way to England. It was now being brought here
under the protection of 1848, and it was a most noto-
rious fact that the importation from the East
Indies was now carried on at a loss of several pounds
per ton. With regard to the Mauritius, the condition
of that colony was somewhat peculiar. It had
the advantages of obtaining a supply of coolies, and
also the benefit of the increased protection of the Act
of 1848. The reports from the Mauritius and the
East Indies were, therefore, accounted for.—(Hear,
hear.) He would now proceed to consider the state of
the West India colonies.' He admitted that since the
year 1848 there had been a considerable fall in the
wages paid to the labourers in the West India colo-
nies, varying from 30 to 50 pet' cent. In Trinidad
the reduction was 40 per cent., and in Jamaica 30 per
cent. These circumstances were undoubtedly favour-
able to the British grower. He also admitted that the
importation of sugar from the West India colonies had
coasiderab'y increased in 1848 and 1849, as compared
with former years. But notwithstanding these large
importations the colonies were in a distressed and
ruinous condition. When the Hon. Gentleman talked
of the increased consumption of British sugar as com-
pareil with foreign, he had to remind him that there
was ‘an immense import of British sugar in 1847 un-
disposed of in that year. That state of things was now
reversed. In the last three months the amount of foreign
sugar entered for home consumption in this country,
instead of being 90,000 cwt., as in the similar period
of last year, was 180,000 cwt.—exactly double, while
the import of British sugar for the last three months was
19,800 cwt. against 22,900 cwt. in the corresponding
three months of last year.—(Hear, hear.) The Hon.
Member for Westbury had omitted to allude to a most
important point—the prices of sugar.—(Hear, hear.)
The Hon. Member had told them of the quantity, but
had said nothing of the price which the unfortunate
British colonist had received for ft. In 1846 the Gazette
average of muscovado, without duty, was 345. 5d.; in
1847, 28s. 3d.; in 1848, 235. 8d; in 1849, 255. 4d.; and
the average of ten weeks in 1850 was 245. lid. per cwt.
—a lower price than that at the time they were debating
the Bill of 1848. But it would be easy to show that im-
ports might be large and pat profits small, or even no-
thing at all. Lord Harris, writing in the summer of 1848,
admitted that the crop had increased, but stated that it
would not be difficult to show that since 1838, not only
had there been no profit, but, on the contrary, a loss of
British capital to the amount of at least a million.—
(Hear.) According to the statement of Lord Harris, of
193 estates, 17 might be considered as giving a profit—
as many just holding their ground—and that the rest had
been cultivated at a 10-s. Governor Barkly also gave
evidence of the loss sustained by the planters of Guiana
from a depreciation of the value of produce. These
statements were conclusive proof that though the amount
of produce might be large, the diminution of price more
than counterbalanced it. The Hon. Member for West-
bury had adverted to the quantity of rum imported, but
again he made no mention of a fall in its price.—(Hear.)
Since 1848 there had been a fall of little less than a third
in the price of rum, a most important item, as every one
knew, in the returns from a sugar estate. The Hon.
Member had referred to the large importations of sugar
from the West Indies as a proof of their prosperity, and
seemed to deny that any material increase had taken
place in the importation of slave-grown sugar.
Mr. WILSON had spoken of the quantity of slave-
grown sugar taken for home consumption with free-
labour sugar. He had never alluded to the quantity im-
ported, because it was often imported for the purpose of
being re•expoTted to the continent.
Sir J. PAIiINGTON felt that this was a point, never-
theless, which required their attention. In 1831 the
West Indian colonies exported 205,000 tons of sugar;
in 1848 the quantity had diminished to 139,000 tons;
in 1849 it was 142,000 tons, and he believed the
amount this year would not exceed 112,000 tons.—
(Hear, hear.) Meantime in five years, from 1831,
Cuba exported 84,000 tons; and in the four year,
from 1346 to 1849, the amount bad increased to
176,000 tons.—(Hear, bear.) Brazil exported from 1842
to 1845 on the average 69,000 tons; from 1846 to 1849
the figures were reversed, the average export. being near
96,000 tons.—(Hear, bear.) Now, with regard to the
condition of our colonies nothing could be more deplora
ble. He might refer in proof ot this to the able pam-
phlet which the Hon. Member for Lynn had published
on this subject within these few days. Writing cf what
he had witnessed in British Guiana, the Hon. Member
said he was prepared for desolation, but not for the
scenes of ruin which he witnessed—that the whole road
which he traversed was lined with ruined houses and
mills.—(Hear. hear.) Governor Bsrkly held similar
language. What more deplorable than such a state of
things? Again, be would refer to the pamphlet of the
Hon. Member for Lynn. The Hon. Member gave an ac-
count of ten estates in British Guiana which had been
sold at diff,rent periods, from 1835 to 1844, at an aggre-
gate of 155,0001., but which, when sold again, during the
last three years, had only realised 17,000/,—(Hear.)
Again, referring to the pamphlet, he found the Hon.
Member stating that passing through the parish of St.
Ann's, Jamaica, he was informed of an estate of 800
acres without incumbrance, that was in the market fin
601., and that meeting his informant some three weeks
later, was told that he had actually become the purchaser
at the stipulated price.—(Hear.) But there was another
point to be considered—the dreadful effect of such a stilt(
of things on the Creole population of the:West Indies. H,
feared that if they persisted in their present policy
every hope of improving the social and religious condi-
tion of the negro population was at an end, and that
they would lapse into barbarism.—(Hear.) The Right
Hon. Gentleman the Secretary at War had lately pre-
sided over a meeting of the Wesleyan Missionary So-
ciety, at which reference was made to the deplorable
state of the West Indian population. Lord Grey, in his
dispatch to Governor Barkly, also alluded to the state of
the negro population, and admitted that instead of ad-
vancing in civilization they had retrograded.—(Hear.)
The opinion of Dr. Lushington, given before the Com-
mittee, was that the Act of 1846 had greatly stimulated
the slave trade. He would also quote the opinion ot
the Right Hon. Gentleman the Member for Oxford in
favour of his proposition, where that Right Hon. Gen-
tleman had said that he wished to maintain the charac-
ter for sincerity which this country possessed amongst
foreign nations, and therefore he should not have passed
the Sugar Bill of 1846. He could even refer, in support
of his proposition, to a speech of the Noble Lord at the
head ot the Government, wherein it had been admitted
freely that the colonies had been placed at a disadvan-
tage by the measures of the Government of which the
Noble Lord was the head. He was sorry to say that he
believed the Noble Lord had done mere to stimulate
erin;hich ho had used,
that they had passed
b
syo n acno gn
iadge
tthbaensalnavyeotberper
trade,
the Act of 1846, and were prepared to defend its policy.
—(Hear.) If they sincerely wished to pat down the
slave trade, they should carry out their policy with single-
ness of purpose and steadiness of design, with sincerity
and modesty, or they could not expect any blessing of
Heaven to attend the policy of this country so long as
with one hand they lavished their money in keeping up
the appearance of a squadron on the coast of Africa,
whilst with the other they were inviting and giving every
encouragement to the practice of slavery.—(Hear.) They
could not expect any such blessing whilst with one
hand they drew the sword to put an end to 'slavery, and
with the other did everything to encourage it.—(Loud
cheers from the Protectionist benches.) That policy
must be reversed —(Cheers)—and he hoped some day
to see this country acting in a manner which should not
invovle suspicion of its honour—in a manner which would
not involve suspicion of its sincerity—in a manner which
would exhibit this nation to the world as one, not guided
merely by motives of gain—(Cheers)— which would
show to the world that we could not be led solely by
pecuniary considerations, but that we were determined,
at any cost, to put an end to slavery and the slave trade.
—(The Hon. Gentleman resumed his seat amidst loud
cheers from the Protectionist benches.)
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said the ob-
jects of the Hon. Gentleman who had just spoken, and of the
Hon. Gentleman (Sir E. Buxton) whose motion he sup-
ported, were as different as well could be conceived. The
Hon. Gentleman (Sir E. Buxton) had stated he brought
forward his motion as a great question of principle, and no
one who knew the Hon. Gentleman could doubt he had
brought it forward as no party motion, or was influenced by
anything but his attachment to the principle of destroying in
every way slavery and the slave trade. His motion, how-
ever, came far short of the principles be avowed. On what
principle would he draw a distinction between the produce of
Brazil and Carolina? The Hon. Baronet emphatically said
that the man who bought slave-grown sugar was as guilty
as the man who bought a slave.—(Hear, hear,) That
might be so, but how could the Hon. Baronet draw a dis-
tinction between slave-grown sugar, slave-grown cotton, and
slave-grown coffee ? (Hear, hear.) He was afraid the Hon.
Baronet did not altogether abstain from the use of slave-
grown coffee. According to the principle he had laid down,
was not he guilty of the blood of the slave?—(Hear, hear.)
The Hon. Gentleman opposite (Sir J. Pakington) supported
the motion on far different grounds, and, aware of the impos-
sibility of making a distinction, would pat all foreign sugar,
free and slave-grown, on precisely the same footing with
respect to duty. Did the Hon. Gentleman opposite propose
to extend the principles of his policy to the Mauritius sugar?
Did he mean to protect free-labour sugar grown in any of

our possessions, or did he confine himself to the West Indies ;
or did he propose a protection to all British colonial sugar as
opposed to all foreign sugar ? The Hon. Member for Dorset-
shire would exclude all foreign sugar; and there, at least,
it must be admitted that he was consistent with himself; but
the opposite plan had no standing whatever-it had no prin-
ciple to rest upon. It appeared to him that many of the Hon.
Members who supported the motion desired protection to all
colonial sugar. Now, he was not prepared for that, and he
hoped that the House was not prepared for it either. In the
course of the present discussion an observation had been justly
enough made that the question before them was one of
details and statistics, and though he might to some extent
trouble the House with some of that species of evidence, yet
he would not unduly trespass upon them. In the first place,
he desired to call their attention to the fact that for the fif-
teen years ending in 1844 the importation of sugar from the
West Indies had been under 200,000 tons; in 1848 and 1849
it rose to 206,000 tons, and it now amounted to 300,000 tons
per annum. That improvement might be reckoned amongst
the earliest changes consequent upon the abolition of slavery.
But the first effect of the present motion, if it were carried,
would be not what its Hon. Mover might expect-its first
effect would not be to discourage slavery at all. But the
true way to look at the question before the House was to
consider the effect of the present state of free labour and of
open competition, and this he thought might be best seen by
the average rate of consumption of sugar per head per annum
in this country. In the year 1840 the average consumption
was 151 b.; in 1841-2-3-4, it was 171 b.; in 1845, 201 b.; in
1846, 211 b..; in 1847, 231 b. ; in 1848 and 9,241 b. He pre-
sumed that no one would for a moment doubt that that was
a great benefit to the people of this country, that it was a
great advantage to them to be enabled to raise their con-
sumption of sugar from 151 b. to upwards of 201 b. But the
question beyond this was one of great importance. Let Hon.
Members look to the effect of this change upon the West
Indies themselves. A proposition, however, like that then
before them was one to which he would not consent ; for his
impression was, that one more unfortunate for the West
Indies could not be devised. He admitted the distress which
prevailed in the colonies, and no one could be more ready to
afford relief than he should be, but the colonies having sub-
mitted to the Act of 1848-having admitted that Act as a
final settlement-having made unusual exertions to main-
tain and promote their own interests under its operation or
with its aid, whatever might be their condition in other
respects, there could be no doubt of this fact, that sugar,
the produce of the West Indies, of the East Indies, and of
the Mauritius, had greatly increased within the last two
years. That fact was before the House, and was beyond all
possibility of dispute. If Hon. Members would refer to the
returns of 1848 and 1849, they would find that in Antigua,
Barbadoes, Jamaica, St. Vincent's, and Trinidad, there had
been a steady and manifest increase of prodaction and expor-
tation. Thus 2,794,000 cwts. had advanced to 2,840,000 cwts.
and the export from Guiana for the first quarter of the year
1849 was 7,920 hogsheads; while, in the corresponding pe-
riod of 1850, it was 9,336 hogsheads, showing an increase of
1,416; and an increase not perhaps always precisely similar
in amount, but pretty nearly so, might be found to have oc-
curred in all our possessions where sugar was prcduced ; yet
the reverse of all that had been predieted ; it had been pre-
dicted that Ceylon would be a desert, that the Mauritius
would be a desert-and yet those prophecies so confidently
made and so implicitly relied upon, had been falsified within
the short space of two years. The Hon. Member for Lynn,
in his statement, certainly did not omit the West Indies, and
he, comparing periods of three years, gave statements, the
result of which showed an increase of production and of
exportation from 127,000 tons to 148,000 tons, the in-
, crease being in the three years subsequent to the Act of
1846, as compared with the three years preceding that
measure. But, further to show the insufficient ground
on which the motion of the Honourable Baronet rested,
heshouldc
nrtallimthpeaatttinen ofntion sugaroffrom th
Honourable Membersev
ie
tso
the average t
fiTveheyd'eeatrsailsenwdeinreg
alsBflo4ilnawnd:_tAhnetigfinvae,
years
s ending
glBt4h9e.
five years ending 1844, 177,727 cwt. ; five years ending
1849, 180,737 cwt. ; Barbadoes, ending 1844, 290,873 cwt. ;
ending 1849, 402,987 cwt. ; Trinidad, ending 1844, 282,000
cwt. ; ending 1849, 385,000 cwt. ; St. Kitt's, ending 1844,
89,00 cwt. ; ending 1849, 107,030 cwt. ; St. Lucia, ending
1844, 55,000 cwt. ; ending 1849, 70,000 cwt. •, Guiana,
ending 1844, 522,000 cwt. ; ending 1849, 572,000 cwt. ;
Jamaica, ending, 1844, 602,000 cwt. ; ending 1849,
665,000 cwt. ; Mauritius, ending 1844, 591,000 cwt. ; ending
1849, 907,000 cwt. ; aggregate of all colonies, including the
East Indies, five years ending 1844, 3,925,000 cwt. ; endiug
1849, 5,072,000 cwt. The next point to which he should
solicit the attention of the House was the comparative ope-
ration of slavery and freedom-the productiveness of free
labour as compared with slave labour, and he should take
the six years ending in 1834 for the purpose of comparing
them with the six years ending in 1849, the quantities
being, in cwts. : - Antigua, 1834, 175,000 ; 1849,
188,000 ; increase, 12,000. Barbadoes, 1834, 343,000 ; 1849,
390,000 ; increase 47,000. Trinidad, 1834, 310,000 ; 1849,
366,000 ; increase, 56,000. The question was what might
be done by means of free labour, and that question was one
which he conceived those statements fully answered.
It was scarcely necessary for him to go over the
ground that his Hon. Friend the Member for Westbury had
already traversed, but as the House was now more full than
when his Hon. Friend addressed them, he would say it had
been clearly shown by him that the consumption of colonial
sugar had increased, while the consumption of foreign sugar
had fallen off. He should now trouble the House with only a
few more details, for the purpose of :contrasting the effects of
slavery with freedom, as shown in the consumption of sugar.
Thus it was in 1846-47 :-Colonial, 227,000 tons; slave-
grown, 61,000 tons; 1847-48, colonial, 242,000 tons; slave-
grown, 39,000 tons; 1848-49. colonial, 251,000 tons, slave-
grown, 48,000 tons; 1849-50, colonial, 282,000 tons; slave-
4rown' 36,000 tons. The years ending July 5, and the two
months of this :year, were estimated at the same rate as the
10 months. The average importation from the West Indies
1844-5-6, was 127,000 tons; 1847-8.9,148,000. Those facts
appeared to him to be well worthy of the attention of the
House, and his belief was it would always be found that
slave-labour was inferior to free labour. He agreed with the
Honourable Member for Montrose, that protection would
not save the West Indies, but increased cheap-
ness of production would, and the duty of the
Legislature was to afford the colonies every facility for aug-
menting the means of cheapness. Now, reference had been
made to the Dutch colony of Surinam, and there, it was not
unworthy of observation, the proprietors of sugar estates
were beginning to think that free labour was more profitable
and advantageous in all respects than that of slavery. Suri-
nam was on the verge of our possessions, and appeared to be
likely very soon to follow our example. They and others
were about to discover that the way to cheapen sugar was to
Abolish slavery. The Honourable Member for Lynn had
quoted a passage from the dispatch of the Lieutenant-Go-
vernor of Barbadoes, and now he should take the liberty of
reading a few additional words from that dispatch, because.
though the writer had been represented by the Hon. Mem-
ber as holding that free labour was less productive than slave
labour, yet the following portion of the dispatch would show
that an exception was made in the case of Barbadoes:-
" How long that time should be your Lordship will un-
derstand that I cannot say. If there be no protection,
the cultivation of sugar will be given up further
in Grenada, and it will dwindle in all the Windward
Islands, excepting Barbadoes." With that passage in the
hands of the Hon. Member, how could he say that the expe-
riment of free labour had failed in Barbadoes? He also held
in his hand another paper, with a quotation from which he
should trouble the House; it appeared in the Times, in the
month of December last. It was in the following words :-
" Labour was abundant and cheap, and the Trinidadian says,
that field-work was never so cheaply performed in the island
as at the present day, not even when slavery was at its
zenith." Such facts could not be got over, and they clearly
proved that wherever slavery existed production could not
be cheap. At the same time, the Government were not
prepared to adopt the plan of buying slaves in Africa for the
purpose of setting them free in the West Indies, but they
were prepared to grant any facilities short of that which
was only another mode of slavery. The only means similar
to that which had succeeded was when the expense was
incurred of importing liberated Africans.! During the last
three years there had been a gradual increase in the num-
ber of liberated Africans imported into the West Indies.
In 1847 the number was 1,07 ; in 1848, 3,148 ; in 1819,
4,762. It was also right the House should remember that
it present there were not unsatisfactory accounts from
many of the colonies. He was far from saying that distress
did not prevail in the West Indian colonies, but in Trinidad
he found, from a dispatch of Lord Harris, dated February 23,
1850, that the revenue, the exports, and the imports, had all
increased during the last year. In Guiana the import duties,
which amounted to 23,191 dollars for January, 1846, were,
in January, 1847, 22,506; 1848, 27,685; and 1849, 46,195
dollars. His Hon. Friend (Sir E. Buxton) had brought for-
ward his motion with a view of discouraging the slave trade,
and in his hands it had no reference to protection. But these
were not the grounds upon which the motion had been sup-
ported by Hon. Gentlemen opposite, who had advocated pro-
tective duties against the admission of all foreign sugar
whatever. But he hoped that the House would take into
its consideration not only the interest of the planter but the
interest of the consumer at home. Looking to what was going
on in the West Indies, in the exertions which were being
made, and successfally made, to cheapen the production in
the colonies and to adopt a better cultivation of the lands, he
trusted that they would not, by acceding to this motion.
check the active spirit of enterprise that was going on, or
induce.the hope that by a return to protection they would be
giving any encouragement to free-labour over slave-labour
sugar.
Mr. GLADSTONE said, that the Honourable Gentleman
the Member for Essex, in a motion for which his name, in-
dependently of his character, was a perfect guarantee, had
invited the House to resume the consideration of a question
the difficulties of which increased upon them at every step
they took. In 1848, when this question was last opened,
they had before them the question, not whether they would
maintain the settlement of 1846-lbecause that its authors
themselves proposed to abandon; but whether they should
introduce a fixed system of protection, giving uniformity of
condition, and time for the resources of the colonies to de-
velops themselves under the new system; or whether they
should adopt the scale proposed by the Government, which
provided a progressive descent in the different duties, a
descent at first very slight, and which was not yet ex-
, perienced, but which would in another year be a rapid
one-(Hear, hear),-and from which they might expect
not only a continuance of the present pressure, but a very
greatly increased pressure.-(Hear, hear.) In 1848 he (Mr.
Gladstone) with many other Gentlemen on that (the Oppo-
sition) side of the House, who felt themselves bound upon
other points to support the application of the principle of
freedom to the regulation of our commercial system, voted
against the proposal of the Government and in favour of a
proposition to extend a larger measure of protection to the
West Indies. That vote he felt bound to repeat on the pre-
sent occasion.-(Cheers.) The words of the motion of
the Hon. Gentleman might have afforded him the means
of escape had he felt inclined to avail himself of them,i
because the motion placed in the same category the whole
of the British possessions, to some of which, i they stood
But
commend an extension or augmentation of protection.
di
alone, he (Mr. Gladstone) should not he P
the case really before the House was that of the West Indies
-(Cheers)-and he would admit thatinproposingu
and
the present peculiar circumstances of those colonies,
repared to re-
commend
I
tend it also to other portions of the empire w lac no
such peculiar claims.-(Hear, hear.) The case of the West
before them now as in 1848, only with the danger
Indies was
, the suffering aggravated. The grounds of justice
temporarily, to extend protection to them,. they would ex-
tend it
same, and the grounds of policy were clearer and ,
broader than ever. The House ;must recollect the crisis
h h which the West Indies had passed. They were
not now complaining merely and suffering merely, but
through
ground down absolutely to the ground and reduced to total
ruin by the Legislature of this country.-(Cheers.) They
had begun with emancipation, a great and vital change in
the constitution of West Indian society, and if it had been
conducted with no more tenderness and wisdom than some of
our more recent changes it would have precipitated the West
Indian colonists at once into ruin. But happily a wiser
spirit, and one more in accordance with justice, presided over
that act; and Lord Stanley, as the organ of Lord Grey's Go-
vernment, with great energy and wisdom contrived so to
temper and adjust the details, that while he satisfied the
majority of the House, he by a singular felicity gained the
confidence of the planters themselves. Within the last few
days, and even within the last few hours, they had seen that
the perfect talents and statesmanship of that Noble Lord had
descended upon his son, who had that night addressed them.

—(Loud cheers.) It was true—and happy it was for philan-
thropy that such was the fact—that the emancipation of the
negroes in the West Indies was not immediate. He ad•
mated, also, that those philanthropists who had recommended
the abolition of slavery were not responsible for the ruin of
these colonies.—(Hear, hear.) But what did Parliament
do? The Government of Lord Melbourne sent out instruc-
tions for the postponement of all the preparatory legislation
which was necessary for the new state upon which they were
about to enter. They obliged the colonies to postpone every
act of precaution and legislation which might tit them for the
new state of things. In 1837 a Committee of the House of
Commons recognised the Emancipation Act as containing a
solemn contract of apprenticeship until 1840, and they stated
in their report that nothing could be so disastrous as to shake
the public confidence with regard to the sanctity of that con-
tract. In 1838, by a hasty and injudicious vote of the House,
they compelled the West India colonies to give up the re-
mainder of that apprenticeship which the House had gua-
ranteed to them.—(Hear, hear.) They were thus not only
deprived of the pecuniary benefit of the two years' appren-
ticeship, but the Government having desired them to post-
pone all preparation, they were compelled to plunge into the
new state into which they had been forced by public opinion
in this country. With regard to the question of labour, he
could not join in any censures relative to the present
proceedings of the Government. The supply of labour
for the %Vest Indies was a far more difficult subject than
the Hon. Member for Montrose supposed. The Go-
vernment, he believed, were desirous to give such facilities as
they safely could to increase the supply of labour. But he
spoke now of the state of public sentiment in this country;
and he said there was a period when, by seizing the oppor-
tunity, the House might have produced• the most important
consequences by the introduction into the colonies of tree
labour from abroad. Had they chosen to give facilities at
the time for the moderate introduction of labour into the
islands, much of the evil would have been avoided, but they
had refused to do this. Willi such jealousy was every pro-
ceeding of the West Indians—every effort of laudable enter-
prise on the part of some of the planters to increase the
means of labour watched at home—so hostile a construction
was placed on every act of the colonists, that the Govern-
ment did not venture to give the slightest facilities for the
introduction of labour; but, on the contrary, precaution af-
ter precaution, regulation after regulation, was interposed to
create an artificial scarcity of supply.—(Hear.) For that ar-
tificial scarcity of labour the public opinion of the time, and
the representatives of that public opinion, were responsible.
(Hear, hear.) After the breach of contract of apprentice.
ship, after the artificial scarcity of labour, came the Act of
1846; and, as to that, he disputed and denied, not the
figures, but the inferences of the Right Hon. Gentleman op-
posite. The Right Hon. Gentleman cited the three years
since 1846 as indicating the effects of that Act upon the pro-
ducing power of the West Indies. Did the Right Hon. Gen-
tleman really believe his own argument? Had the Right
Hon. Gentleman so little studied the nature of cultivation in
the West Indies, or anywhere else, as seriously to believe
that the exports from the West Indies in 1847 were the mea-
sure of the effects of an Act passed in 1846 ?—(Hear, hear.)
Was their no other fact in our legislation—a fact happily of
a different character—which, concurring with favourable
seasons, might be connected with the increase of crops in the
West Indies ? Had there not been an Act of. 1845 as well as
an Act of 1846 —an Act .reducing the duty on our colonial
sugar from about 245. to 145., and to which, and not to the
Act of 1846, the inferences of the Right Hon. Gentleman
were referable? But for the check of the Act of 1846, in
1848 the Act of 1845 would have been in full operation,
whereas the Act of 1846, so far from developing itself in
1847, had not until after 1848 come into full operation.
What, in the Committee of 1848, said the resolutions pro-
posed by the President of the Board of Control—whose
absence from so deplorable a cause was a source of grief
as deep as unaffected to the whole House?—(Hear, hear.)
Distinctly this, that the distress of the West Indians was
markedly traceable to the restrictions imposed by public
opinion, in its anxiety to carry out the Act of Emancipa-
tion, upon the supply of labour to our West Indian colonies.
—(Hear, hear.) No mere formal regard to consistency
would induce him to repeal his vote of 1848, could he agree
with the Right Hon. Gentleman in the belief that the West
Indies were rallying from the stroke they had received, and
that the present was an injudicious proposition, calculated
to retard returning prosperity.—(Hear, hear.) He would
freely concede thus much to the Right Hon. Gentleman, that
protection would be no permancat cure for the evils of the
West Indies.—(Hear.) He fully bore in mind the admis-
sion of the Right Hon. Member for Tamworth, an admission
of course carrying the greatest weight, that the case of the
West Indies was fairly to be treated as an exception from
the ordinary category of free-trade principles ; this was
an admission so often made that he need not now dwell
upon it, and, could it be shown that the permanent restora-
tion of protection, or its permanent maintenance, or its
permanent increase, would operate as a cure for the evils
of the West Indies, he should be prepared to give his
vote in accordance with that principle—(Hear, hear)—
but he would ask the House to consider well what would be
the operation of protection as a permanent instruffent of re-
lief in the state of our West Indian colonies? Suppose you
were to increase considerably the rate of protective duty.
When the intelligence of that increase reached the West
Indies it would reach not the planter only, but also the
labourer, and so act on the rate of wages quite as much as on
production.—(Hear, hear.) What was the competition with
the West Indian? Not that of the foreign slaveholder only,
but that of the Mauritius planter and that of the East In-
dian planter, both of whom had plenty of labour at their
command, and for both of whom protection would operate
with undivided effect as against the West Indian, with
whom its effect would be divided and broken up.—(Hear,
hear.) What he was prepared to vote for was that the
scale of descending duties should be arrested.— (Hear,
hear.) The British capitalist who was to be invited to
invest his money in production in the West Indies ought
to have some fixity of scale held out to him, and not be
subjected to an incessant change of differential duties, so
that he could never know, from year to year, in what
position he stood.—(Hear, hear.) He did not say the
House should pledge itselfjndefinitely on this point, but he
certainly considered that for such a term as the House
should think reasonable the scale of differential duties should
be fixed for the West Indies.—(Hear, hear.) He would not
refer merely to the.decrease in the exports of the great staple
of the West Indies. That decrease was not the less enor-
mous, that it suited the purpose of some reasoners to pass
over the differences between one colony and another.—
( Hear, hear.) The Right Hon. Gentleman, for example,
triumphantly cited Barbadoes in proof of the good results
of free trade—Barbadoes, where there was plenty of labour,
and not an inch of spare ground. Yes; it was quite true
that the production of Barbadoes had been positively
stimulated since emancipation. In the four years preceding
emancipa ion the production of Antigua and Barbadoes
was 26,900 tons of sugar on the average, while iu the
three last years the average had increased to 31,300
tons. But look at Jamaica; in the years 1831 to 18.34, the
average production of Jamaica was 67,000 tons, of British
Guiana 43,000, or together 110,000 tuts ; whereas, in
1847-9, notwithstanding the liberality of the Legislature in
reducing the duty on colonial sugar to 14s, the exporta-
tion from these two colonies did not exceed 65,500 tons, a
reduction of 45,500 tons, or more than 40 per cent. on the
whole preduction.—(Hear, hear.) This was not a ques-
tion merely affecting the planters; no, it was a question
affecting the whole negro population f our West Indian
colonies—( Hear, hear)—and he affirmed with sorrow that
those indications which the Hon. Member for Lynn had
given in a recent publication of the decaying condition of
all that we should wish to see flourishing in our West Indian
population were but too true, and but too truly the effect of
the legislation of that House.—(Hear, hear.) Not only by
the reduction of prices, but by giving an artificial command
of the market to the negro race, they had done all in their
power to deaden and discourage labour itself, and to stay
the progress of the negro's permanent civilization and pro-
sperity.—(Hear. hear.) During the years of emancipation
the cry was—" True. the exports from the colonies, on
which the planters depend, have undergone some decrease,
but do not, in your regard for the planter, forget the great
mass of the West Indian population, or the increase of those
imports into the colonies which tend to the greater comfort
of the negro." How stood the case now? That the
amount of these imports, the stated tests of the negroes'
comforts, had fallen below the point even of the days of
slavery.—(Hear, hear.) In the last four years of slavery
the exports from this country to the West Indies were in value
2,575,000 L ; in the four years of apprenticeship, from 1833
to 1838, they rose to 3,450,0001. ; from 1843 to 1846, after
the abandonment of apprenticeship, they fell to 2,657,0001. ;
in 1847, the year Honourable Gentlemen were so fond
of quoting, they had still further fallen to 2,279,0001;
while in 1848, the last year for which we had returns,
those exports, which in the years of slavery were
2,500,0001., in the years of apprenticeship nearly
4,000,0001., had fallen to 1,500,000/.—(Hear° hear.) That
most important, most significant, and most disastrous fact
indicated that there was a necessity for their considering
what further measures were required for the relief of the
West India colonies —(Hear, hear.) To what measures,
then, did he point for permanent relief to the We't Indies?
In 1848 they had indulged the hope that great things would
be done towards cheapening production in these colonies, and
numerous were the modes laid down by which that object
might be attained. In many places it was to be effected by
drainage of lands; in many, by a system of irrigation;
in others, by the improvement of roads and by aiding in the
formation of railways; and in British Guiana speculation
turned much upon the means by which it was hoped to keep
out the sea from large portions of that colony. A Commit-
tee of that House laid down in its report the principle, that
Government were to take on themselves the responsibility
of looking to the circumstances of particular colonies,
and making grants of money that might be made available
by the planters themselves. Instead of all this, however,
what had been done? Nothing whatever. The plat noteted
improvements had not been made; Government
assumed that responsibility. which was anticipated,
themselves in the
but had
thrown it upon the Colonial Legislature,
but very imperfect
midst of financial embarrassment, and
the colonies they legislated
organs for numerous purposes of
for; so that while the West Indians were told that protection
was no remedy for the evils under which they laboured, and
that other measures than protection would be tried for their
benefit, those other measures had never been attempted, and
they were in precisely the same condition that they occupied
two yearsa
hear.) They had not taken the
work hand which two years ago had been promised. In
the colonies they were reducing the expenses of their own
Governments, and in that they had received no encourage-
ment.—(
Hear, hear.) In the case of British Guiana, on the
contrary, the report of the Committee showed plainly that
the influence of the Government had not been used in the
direction in which it should have been directed.—(Hear,
hear.) As to the condition of the planters, he begged
the House to recollect that the possibility of their
rain was sot disproved by circumstances which might
seem to give colour to such an idea, because where
there had been a vast expenditure, and where by legislative
measures the floating capital of the planters had been re-
duced to nothing, it followed of course that new parties would
come in, encouraged and attracted by the advantage of
obtaining a large amount of fixed capital at a nominal price—
(Hear, hear)—and, putting in their own fresh capital for the
cultivation of the soil, that would be a temporary stimulus
given to the property. ( Hear, hear.) This was not an ar-
bitrary representation, but was one borne out by the testi.
mony of Governor Light, who in a dispatch stated that one
of the finest estates in British Guiana—and this was a
sample of the rest—had been sold during the time of
slavery for SO,OOO/. or 100,000/. [he spoke from memory
as to the figures] ; during the apprenticeship, for 30,000/.
or 40,000/. ; and in 1848; for 2,000/. (Hear, hear.) q, -
verrior Light proceeded in language not more quaint
than full of meaning and instruction, to say that the
purchaser having acquired all the buildings, works,
machinery, &c., on the estate for 2,000/., had wha,t,
he termed " a noble chance of escaping ruin.
(Cheers, and Laughter.) This was what matters ha _
come to him in the wreck and dilapidation of a once powerful
class—there was left for some fortunate purchasershe
a noble
chance of escaping ruin.—(Hear, hear.) T
repeated, had strong claims on the indulgence of planters,
that House,
whiph had been in fact the cause and instrutent of their
e r
difficulties ; but he did not make his ppeal the H
manly on their account. He would ask them to give the
planters such a form of fixed protection as would serve them
till the remedial measures meant to be introduced were car..
ried into effect, and which would give confidence to the
and avail himself of this " noble
chance of escaping nix
British capitalist to come
" •
e (Hear, hear.) But he asked
this chiefly on behalf of the negro population, who wore

now losing the advance they once made under happier aus-
pices. Let the House consider all the bygone circumstances
connected with the emancipation of this race, let it consider
the eulogies by Dr. Channiug and other eminent men in
foreign countries in reference to what had been done on be-
half of the negro. Those eulogies were founded on the fact
that they bad in their West India colonies a happy and pros-
perous population, who had been saved from the lash and all
the horrors of slavery; and was the House willing to lose
the bright title of having achieved these things in their be-
half ?—(Hear.) Was it not painful to think that there was
a gradual slipping from the hands of the negro population of
the comforts of civilisation, and a less disposition to ask theta,
and to cultivate the rational and spiritual part of their being,
by following after the benefits of religious education ?
( Hear.) For his part he should be sorry to share in that re-
sponsibility. On their behalf, as well as from some consi-
deration for an ill-used class, forming the proprietary inte-
rest in the West Indies, he hoped the House of Commons
would support the motion of the Bel. Baronet.—(Hear, hear.)
He would always regret that they had chosen to break
through the distinction so well maintained by the Right Hon.
Gentleman the Member for Tamworth, relative to slave-
grown auger. For that distinction he was always prepared
to contend, and he lamented that a great political crisis in
the country should have wrung from any those reluctant
votes that had produced a change so disastrous in its con-
sequences and so injurious to the high character of Great
Britain as that effected in the Act of 1846.--illear.) He
admitted the difficulties under which they now stood; but
never certainly was greater industry shown by any party
than was shown by the Noble Lord and his friends in effect-
ing the change of that distinction to which Parliament had
formerly given its sanction. He hoped the House would
not reject the appeal that had been made to them—whether
they considered it in the light of an appeal from a suffering
class, or an appeal urged in behalf of a population once
happy and prosperous, and advancing in a career of social
improvement, but now, under the legislation of that House,
losing the ground they had gained, and sinking gradually-
back towards the inferior, if not degraded condition from
which they were rescued by philanthropy and benevolence.
Viscount PALMERSTON—It has seldom fallen to my lot
to witness a debate conducted on the one side with more
curious inconsistencies and with a greater series of contras
dictions.—(Hear, hear.) My Hon. Friend who introduced
this motion proposed it on the ground of humanity, and as a
mode of getting rid of the slave trade; but scarcely had his
arguments fallen on our ears when the debate took another
turn, and from that time his motion has been chiefly sup-
ported on the ground of protection, a principle which I be-
lieve my Hon. Friend had not himself intended to advocate.
—(Hear, hear.) Almost the only example of consistency
which we have witnessed in the course of this debate, is that
consistency of talent and ability which have been displayed
by the Hon. Member who has for the first time spoken on
this question, and who has proved himself to be the consis-
tent representative of that father whom we have so often
heard with admiration within these walls. The Right Hon.
Gentleman who has just sat down has, I think, crowned the
example of inconsistency in this debate.—(Hear, hear.)
Whether the limited scope of my capacity or the ambiguous
arguments of the Right Hon. Gentleman be the cause, I am
now quite at a loss to know what he means to do and on
what side be intends to vote.—(Laughter and Hear, hear.)
He declared himself, as I understood him, ready to support
the motion of my Hon. Friend, that motion being a perma-
nent declaration that it is impolitic and unjust to expose the
free-grown sugar of our colonies and possessions abroad to
unrestricted competition with the sugar of foreign slave-
trading countries. But the Right Hon. Gentleman has not,
as I understand him, as yet so entirely thrown off the princi-
ples of free trade, of which he was once an able advocate,
and in support of which he has often rushed into the van at
periods of great difficulty, and given his most honourable
support.—( Hear.) The Right Hon. Gentleman did not, as I
understand him, abandon that doctrine, or accept the doctrine
of protection. All he asks for is a limited period of protec-
tion to give time for those remedial measures for the colo-
nies for which he is anxious. But if that is his only
object, if he does not wish for the permanent re-establish..
ment of the principles of protection, then I ask on what
principle of consistency can he vote for a resolution which is
permanent in its object, and which does not give a limited
but a permanent period for the continuance of protection to
our colonies? (Hear, hear.) I certainly shall not vote for
the motion of my Hon. Friend.—(Laughter.) lam not
either for limited or permanent protection. lam convinced
that protection has done no good to the West Indies, and
will do no good. (Hear, hear.) Now, it was under a sys-
tem of protection that the West Indies have been in former
times in a state of continued distress and rain ; and it is not
by recurring to that system that we can restore them to that
prosperity which I trust they are still destined to attain. It
is by those remedial measures which the Right Hon. Gen-
tleman alluded to—by a better system of cultivation—.
(Ironical cries of " Hear, hear")—and by that stimulus
which competition affords that we may hope to see them ex-
tricated from the difficulties under which they complain.—
(Hear.) Now, how my Hon. Friend thinks that this excla-
sion of slave-grown sugar would put an end to the slave
trade I really cannot for a moment imagine. I cannot see
how such a measure would operate in the way he wishes to
put an end to that traffic. Has my Honourable Friend en-
tered into the proportion of free-grown sugar introduced into
this country for home consumption as compared with slave-
grown sugar? He would have seen, had he done so, that
for the year 1849, the proportions were five and a half mil-
lions of cwts. of free-labour sugar to half nmillion of cwts. of
slave-grown sugar.—(Hear, hear.) It is, in fact, not the
competition of slave-grown sugar which is ruining the West
Indian planters, but it is the annually increasing competition
of free-labour sugar from other parts of the world—(Hear)--
and if my Honourable Friend is prepared to give to the West
Indies that protection which he thinks is essential to restore
them to prosperity, it must be done not by confining the
restriction to the slave-grown sugar of Brazil and Cuba, but
by extending to them the full protection which they enjoyed
informer times against free-labour sugar, t'proposition which
I am sure my Honourable Friend would not advocate, and
a proposition which I am sure this House would never en-
tertain.—(Hear, hear.) It has been often urged that we
had only to exclude the slave-grown sugar from the market
of this country, and to draw an equal quantity of free-labour
sugar from the market of the world, in order to afford the
protection desired; but this would be only creating a vacuum
which would be at once filled up by the slave-labour sugar
of Cuba and the Brazils.— (Hear, hear.) The slave-owners
in those countries would laugh at your precautions, and
would know that there were still markets enough open to
them to induce them to go on cultivating sugar and increas-
ine: the number of their slaves as before.—( Hear, hear.) But
if any man c mild doubt that the attempt must be perfectly
fatile, I think those who heard the speech of my Hon. Friend
the Member for Westbury, and attended to the manner' in
which he demonstrated that the recent changes in our navi-
gation-laws have added an insurmountable obstacle to the
carrying out of any such arrangement, must have every
shadow of a doubt removed. It is not measures of this kind
for excluding sugar of one kind, and laying heavier duties on
the produce of this country or that, by which we can extir-
pate the slave trade—the object which I know my Hon.
Friend has most at heart. No doubt many Hon. Gentlemen
have protested against the African squadron, and against
our maintaining a maritime police as being insufficient to
effect the suppression of the slave-trade. But I have never
maintained that that alone was sufficient to put the slave-
trade down, though I have always contended that without
this maritime police other measures would be fruitless.—
( Hear, bear.) The House may rest assured that other mea-
sures for this object are in progress, and that we are, by trea-
ties with native chiefs in Africa, and by other exertions on
the other aide of the Atlantic, pursuing measures which, I
trust, if properly continued, in the course of the next year
will enable us to entertain better hopes that the slave-trade
will be, if not extinguished, at least very considerably dimi-
nished. Now what is the state of the slave-trade at the pre-
sent moment? There are now in Africa 1,500 miles-north of
the line entirely free from the slave-trade—of the entire 2,000
miles north of the line there are now only about 420 in
which the slave-trade at all exists; and I trust the measures
now in operation may lead to the extirpation of the slave-
trade from that remaining portion north of the line. I this
very day received a dispatch from one of the Commis-
saries at Sierra Leone, stating that during the quarter which
had just expired, he can assert that not a single ship had
left that place with slaves.. There are 12,000 miles south of
the line where the slave trade exists; and one-half of that
territory belongs to the Portuguese dominions, where better
methods are at command on the coast for the suppression of
the traffic with Brazil. And I hold it to be by no means
that chimerical expectation which gentlemen who sat in
Committee have chosen to term it, that the combination o f
all the measures now being adopted may tend at no distant
perm • d to accomplish that end. And I must say that no
object—l speak not now of those higher considerations
which thehie h
1h Rightth think
Honourable,nevernevertheless
lee
eGentleman
influencee adverted
a nation to,
and
like the British in matters of this kind—but independently
of these higher considerations, taking even the most
narrow views of temporal interests, I must say that
nothing can be accomplished that would tend more to further
eerxcitai
rl
pi
an
ttieorne soot Atnhde p
loa7
eef it try.
doef. thisiso cpo
au
rntt r y
of than
theth the entire
globe offers more scope for the commercial
coastonlnle of Africa.rcialenterprisive oefhtahvies
country than the interior and th
a demand for the things which she produces, and she stands
in want of the goods that we can supply. In many other
parts of the world, where there is a larger population to con-
sume what we can export, there is a want of commodities to
offer in return. Our trade with China has been limited to a
certain degree by a want of the commodities to exchange for
our products. But in Africa commodities for barter abound;
there is hardly anything of value which cannot be found'
there to offer in exchange for the goods that we can supply.
Cotton might be grown on the western coast in infinite
quantity and of the best quality. And, recollecting how
precarious is the source of supply which we now derive from
the United States of America recollecting how the growing
manufactures of America herself are now annually absorbing
more and more of the cotton which sheprod
produces—and
recollecting what a vast amount of our own -population de-
pend upon the manufactures from that raw material for
daily bread, it becomes a matter of the most extreme im-
portance that we should seek out other sources of supply.
—(Hear, hear.) Palm oil, an article also of great value
and much used, is found in abundance in that country,
there are also coffee, ivory, gold, in fact, hardly anything of
value and utility might not be produced or found in Africa,
and might not be received in return for our own exports. I
say, therefore, it is an object of great national importance,
that by an end being put to the slave trade, we should be
enabled to enter into commercial intercourse with the vast
Hon.fit to
population of that region.—(Divide.) I will not follow the
Right Hon. Gentleman into all those details connected with
oenurteWr.West Indianeonfine possessions into
sintoto which be
Friend. I contend that it is notamethed
avail in putting down the traffic, against
its
of the
tsfort purpose it
whichtacan h t
the of an
y
avail motionaz
ohhtieonofmy thought
lwevouellldedienldcotnoteinnddtieht a atwgitrheaottutte nvry omopnlitshheineog
West Indiana a delusive hope
I country, and would hold out to the
which might induce t
ryo sapnedri tyyr•
principle,
eainpde therefore,
them to relax their energies, and prevent
hose other measures by which alone
them from adopting
they can recover theirsof
l I object
on every ground,
both
Honourable Friend. It is • ffl
expediency npc
men cient
to the motion of spy
of
humanity
for which he b • ' rings it forward,
for the purposest station
the
would tend to re-instate principle of protection in
and it
Our commercial relations—a principle, I maintain, of fatal
and inimical to the prosperity r
of every
community to whose affairs it Ina y be
applied._
k ear, heaand cries of "Divide.") ,
Sir E. N. BUXTON briefly replied. He would not detain
the House at that late hour with any lengthened remarks.
lie felt very grateful to the Government generally for the
measures it had adopted to suppress the slave trade, and es•
pecially to the Noble Lord who spoke last, for the manner
in which he had at all times directed his efforts to securing
that object. But he must urge his motion on the adoption
of the House, simply on the ground that while on the one
hand we sent out a fleet to the coast of Africa to put down
that nefarious traffic, we encouraged it on the other hand by
the admission of slave-grown produce.
The House then divided. The numbers were—
For the motion ***
234
Against it ..*
***
275
Majority against ..• • ••• --41
- -*eft A lost.

'1 he motion wis therefore los..
On the motion of the LORD ADVOCATE, the order for
the Committee of the Public Health (Scotland) Bill was dis-
charged.
The Court of Session (Scotland) Bill was read a third time
and passed.

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