The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-25 00:00:00

see how they carry on their business. If all he heard was true,
nothing could be more clumsy, more expensive, more extrava-
gant he should have said, nothing more erroneous than the system
pursued in the West Indian colonies. He had heard a great
deal of this expense attributed to the habits of the workmen.
He believed the blame was justly attributable to the masters.
What was the fact? The wages of workmen, in the West In-
dian colonies, was only one shilling per day. The Noble Lord
observed, and his observation was founded upon a statement
made on the other side of the House, that the wages were two
shillings per day. But he (Mr. Cobden) should say advisedly
that the wages were only one shilling per day.
Mr. JAMES—The wages are two shillings per day.
Mr. COBDEN said he had received a letter from Jamaica,
in which it was stated that the wages were only one shilling per
day, so that the Hon. Gentleman did not know his own busi-
ness. He would net mention the name of the gentleman from
whom he had received this advice, nor the names of those per-
sona contained in it, but he would show the letter to any lion.
Member who wished to inspect it ; and the Hon. Gentleman
the Under-Secretary for the Colonies, who had received a
copy of the letter, would be able to answer for the authority
and genuineness of the document. He learned from this letter that
men's labour was done by the day, and Is. 3d. was the standard
rate of wages ; but when they laboured at job work they were
able to earn 2s. a day, which was very satisfactory to both
parties. He apprehended that after all this was not such a
dispiriting description of the West India labourers. A man
that received Is. a day for ordinary work, and by greater
dispatch was able to earn 25., could not he such a mere ma-
chine, such a mere leg as the West Indian labourer was some-
times described. He thought, as he said before, that
more blew was attributable to the masters than the workmen,
and if it would not too much occupy the time of the House, he
would read one or two extracts Irons the letter alluded to. The
writer of this letter was a resident of Jamaica, and was ae•
quainted with everything going on there. The Hon. Gentle-
man proceeded to read extracts from the letter, of which the
following is the substance fie said that the great evil of the
West Indian colonies was absentees +m, and that absentee pro-
prietors could never expect to get anything out of their
estates. Their profits were swallowed up by attorneys,
overseers, bookkeepers, and a host of others. Then
the merchant must have his portion before a
shilling could be remitted to the proprietor in England. I f
the proprietor resided on his property, and attended to it, or
let the property to practical men, the results would soon be
apparent. The writer proceeded to say, that a friend of his,
whose name he would not mention, made last year one hun-
dred hogsheads of sugar and sixty of rum, clearing one thousand
pounds. Another, Mr. —, a Creole, and a man of colour,
cleared 150/. per annum. Last year he made 110 hogsheads
of sugar, with the usual proportion of rum, clearing 6001.,
althoegh the season was a dry one. Another, who
held Is.nd at a place called St. Thomas (I see
that the mouth of my Honourable Friend the
Hon. Member for Weymouth waters at this description.)
( Laughter.) This person five years ago cultivated and ma-
nured what had been rather a barren estate, according to the
most approved principles, sinking a good deal of money in it,
but last year he cleared 8001. The writer mentioned the case
of another who commenced some years ago with 6,000/.
capital ; 4,000/. of this he spent in improving the land, and,
amongst other things, imported from England a stock of agri-
cultural implements, and from Scotland some labourers, and in-
stead of oxen he employed horses. Last year, after every expense,
this gentleman,who did not reside on his property, cleared 2,000/.
and had he resided on his estate would liaes cleared 500/. more.
The surrounding estates belonged to absentee proprietors, they
were losing money in them, as far as they were sinking it.
The radical defect in the system was, that many proprietors
had too much land, only a portion of which was cultivated in a
practical manner. The expenses were swallowed up with
attorneys, overseers, and such-like persons, in short the greatest
evil resulted from this system of absentee proprietorship. In
short, lie (Mr. Cobden) thought that upon examination they
would find that the same cause of agricultural depres-
sion in this country operated in the West Indies—Protection.
He had always found the very strongest argument for free
trade when he sought for it in the condition of the agricultu-
rists; and if any one were thoroughly master of our colonial
condition on the question of the sugar duties, it would, he be-
lieved. be found the strongest ground for advocating the aboli-
tion of protective duties, and the ultimate welfare and pros-
perity of the colonies themselves. He would not enter into
further arguments on this question, but Hon. Gentlemen op-
posite must not console themselves with the idea that this was
a final settlement of the question.—( Hear, hear.) Look out
of doors. Had the principles of free trade advanced or
retrograded ?—( Hear, hear.) The Right Honourable Gen-
tlemsn talked of the small body of free traders—very
violent men he said. Let him look to the free traders in that
House, and whom they represented. Look, for instance, into
the City of London, in svhieh every heuse hada vote, and behold
the test of the opinion of her citizens on this; question. Were
they the advocates of protection or free-trade ? Let the Hon.
Member for Huntingdon answer that question, and tell him
the result. In the metropolis the question; he repeated, had
been fairly tested. It was a fair open fight, protection or free
trade ; or let them turn to Middlesex, or South Lancashire, or
the West Riding of Yorkshire, or Manchester, Glasgow, Edin-
burgh, Nottingham, or Derby—" violent men," free traders re-
presented these great and important constituencies.—
( Cries of " Bear, hear.") What were these but
the great expositors of public opinion ? They were not mere
pocket burghs, from which votes might be counted in that
House, but a vote there was not everything, argument
should likewise be considered.—(Cries of " Hear.")
The arguments of Hon. Members opposite might be very well
here ; but he could tell them that when they went out upon
the lobby of the House, they would find very few amongst
their supporters but those who were the representatives of
pocket boroughs and counties.—( Hear, hear.) And whatever
the result of this debate might be—whatever side the vote
should be for—he could tell Hon. Members opposite that the
decision of it would not end here; and if that vote should be
in favour of protection, most decidedly it would be resisted.—
( Hear, hear.) It had been said that no more capital was
wanted to be expended by the owners of those distant estates ;
but he would ask was not capital required to be expended in
the farming districts here ?—( Hear, hear.) He would say,
look at the town and neighbourhood of Macclesfield ; would it
be said that if free trade operated there it would not be a mere
prosperous town than it was, though it had its Duke? or would
it be said that Jamaica would not be had recourse to because
free trade had been put in force there?—( Hear, hear.)
In fact the view taken of this whole question by Hon. Mem-
bers opposite put him in mind of the sayings of old women,
that sugar was not e holesome, in order to deter children from
using it, because it was so dear • but there never was a greater
mistake, for sugar, next to bread, was the most nutritious food
that could be used.—( Hear. ) The whole of the arguments,
then, of Honourable Gentlemen opposite, notwith-
standing all they had raid about their consideration and feeling
for the poor, vanished completely before their support of those
class interests, whether of landlords or sugarlords.—(llear.)
The professions of lion. Members opposite, in regard to the
poor, when contrasted with their conduct upon this question,
led the people to say that the Government were treacherous,
that all they said was lip service, and that a difference of one
penny in the pound in the price of sugar would make them
throw the poor labourers and their families to the winds.
Mr. CARDWELL did not conceive that the observations of
the lion. Member who had just sat down were at all applicable
,to the motion now under consideration. The Noble Lord the
Member for Sunderland had said that the arguments of Hon..
Members at this side of the House were not confined to the
question at issue ; but he (Mr. Cardwell) would ask—did not
the amendments proposed by the Hon. Member opposite deal
entirely with the question in the abstract ?—( Hear, hear.)
Surely, then, it could not be said that the Government were
blameable for dealing in abstract principles, when the resolu-
tions of the lion. Members opposite were more than usually
remarkable for dealing in abstract principles, and entirely
wanting in facts and circumstances to support ;hem. It was
all very fine for Hon. Members to talk of free labour, and all
that; he (Mr. Cardwell) sincerely hoped that the time would
come when slave labour would be done away with
in the West Indies ; but he would ask—who first
established it ?—was it not that aide of the House ?—( Hear,
hear.) lie would say to those lion. Gentlemen who were for
doing away with the protection, let them re-enact the slave
trade if they were anxious to permit Cuba and Brazil to com-
pete with West India sugar.—( Hear, hear.) Several Hen.
Members had said that there would be a great increase in the
consumption ' • but the Noble Lord the Member for Sunder.
land had said that the West Indies would produce sufficient to
bear clown all competition ; yet, if the present measure pro-
posed by her Majesty's Government should be supported by
this House, there need be no apprehension on that ground.—
( Hear, hear.) Even supposing that the price of West India
sugar were materially reduced, and that this country was to
depend for a supply on Cuba and Brazil, was there to be no
calculation made for the present price, with a view to doing
justice to the West India growers.—(Cries of "Hear, hear.")
I He believed that the calculations made by some of the Hon.
Gentlemen were erroneous in a commercial point of view,
while the evidence which he had brought forward confirmed
the great increase which was now going on in the produce of
the East and West Indies, under a process which was entirely
unobjectionable, and calculated to promote their own commer-
cial schemes. The Hon. Member who last sat down had intro-
duced into this discussion topics which he could not help think-
ing were quite unnecessary. The Honourable Member had
thought proper to cast imputations on the Government
which might recoil upon himself.—(hear, hear.) The
Honourable Member said the people would call them
" hypocrites," and he gave this as his reason for thinking so.
The Hon. Member said that a great number of the persons
who formed themselves into an anti-slavery body ten years ago,
were now joined with him in a cry for cheap sugar. Now, peo-
ple out of doors might draw their inferences from this as well
as from what fall from Hon. Members on the Ministerial side
of the House. They were quite as likely to impute hypocrisy
to the one as to the other.—(Cheers.) They were pursuing a
prudential course now ; but if they were to follow the recom-
mendation of the Hon. Member for Stockport, the slavery
market would be revived, and then they would see those gen-
tlemen to whom the Hon. Member alluded getting up a new
agitation against slavery.—(Hear.) Now, on the other hand, he
showed them that their supplies were being increased without
resorting to this objectionable source, and without disturbing
the existing interests of the country, and he therefore did not
think it advisable to adopt a recommendation which was not
sanctioned either by the commercial body or the public
generally.
wastot the
ffillcoiuesnet
ewvatti
dence to induce him to believe that some Members of that
House thought otherwise.—e(
said the
had taken upon himself to say that
Right Hon. Gentleman who had
jusAtiard.dir3eßssleGdilthrre
the proposition whichh
one of an abstract character.had
be
e n
Now,submitted t ere
Hear, hear.) The Hon. Member
s
for Cumberland, who was a West India proprietor, he did not
recollect having seen in the House since the time when the
sugar duties were discussed during the last session, and if he
was net mistaken, the lion. Member came from a distant
capital of Europe for the imrpose of meeting this abstract
proposition.—( Cheers.) The Right Hon. Gentleman the
late President of the Board of Trade, did not consider it an
abstract proposition, for he had shown extraordinary symptoms
of resuscitation that eveniug.—( Laughter.) The Rig ht Hon.
Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had invested his
countenance in more than usual solemnity, notwithstanding
say
ye
thaatbstthriascptropmosaitttieorn w
aosf
the most
ropplaoisni,tiotrah.e
moHsteeacosyutlod
understand, that had ever been submitted to that or any other
House of Legislation.—(Hear, hear.) The proposition which
had been made was that the system of taxation pursued with
respect to sugar was unsatisfactory to the great body of the
people of this country, nor could it be otherwise, unless the
duties imposed on foreign and colonial sugar were equalised.
They maintained that the Government, by collusion with the
West Indies, the East Indies, and the Mauritius planters, were
taking from the people of this country a very large annual tax,
which they were not paying into the exchequer of the Queen,
but handing it over to the sugar plantation proprietors.
Now, there had always been a great stickler against discussing
this question, and this they found in pocket interests.—( Hear,
hear.) What were
.the grounds on which they claimed to
levy this tax upon the consumers of sugar in this country ?
No doubt, the same as those advanced in this country in favour
of the landlord's monopoly. The lion. Member for Sheffield
had given notice of his intention to move for a Select Com-
mittee to inquire into the burdens which pressed upon the landed
interest, but it would not be granted. No, the Hon. Landlordss
were afraid to bring their especial burdens before
planters.
House,.
and the same might be said of the sugar
he speeeh of the
he was looking that morning over
be madet what he called
r Right Honourable Baronet when
his financial statement. found the whole amount of sugar
which may be expected
the West Indies, in the coming
year, was stated to be 140,000 tons, from the East Indies
70,000, and from the Mauritius 40,000 tons, making a total of
050,e00 tons. Now the flight lion. Gentleman the late Pre.