The Sun.
London, England, 1821-08-13 00:00:00

rlnnaer

•• i s is the Mere qallicking part of the subject that we have
to 4e,e4:ss. Tile precise nattire of the request or the appli-
but,i,n, of West India 31.,..rchantl, or, rather, Planters, .1 am
of. Eut, it ie. char, that they want an additional
iJiity on East India ingar, in order that theirs may not be de-
yte;etU- i nl.-,rize by the Eaet India importation. Now, at first
ee c. little mere unreasonable even than the
ot' the Af:riculturasses ; but, a$ will presently
tho vz•tv differr:t indeed. The light which you
,"4:s ce-ztite:..ef the West Indians in is extremely odious,
otiox of that of a desire to cultivate their lands
ty the hririaofide‘.7es,,ariel these brought from Africa too.
Pail:gm-ph 6 eon taiiit this base imputation, and that con-
artfitl. a, ".inaant. as need be. 4lt may fairly be
entl,• then 4.0 u go on, till you come to the
s: conch- Dton ; overlooking all tne weighty reasons that.
iiivOur of the West India Planter's application, and
teaders to believe that there are no disadvantages
tt.itt; nawral ones, that the West Indies are sub-
ttied to mac than the east Indies. It is, according to yen, a
open competition between the two countries ; and the West
IFOrtr, ar,L.wantinq; a monopoly, because, without that, they
cannot carry on tfic cultivation.

this fair play, friend Ceoppe-r. ? Is this fairly ask-
lagtlee cfaesticen 1' It is not known to tne Nation at large, the
a.;planae of whom it was your intention to catch ; but it is very
ki.:.v.s-71 to yon, that'a West India Planter is little bet-
ter than a Slave himself, though he, in general willingly
enough, eontainutes. in wish as well as in net, to keep us in
a:every at home, Vett know well, that he cannot ship his pro-
to any country in Europe but this ; that he must send it
in ani English ship ; that he cannot sell his produce to go to
tee Unitesa States. except it go in an English ship ; that ha
get buildinL, materials or provisions (absolutely =es-
aary to aim) froin the United States, except in English ships ;
anti, you.k.nown that he has thus lost, in great part, his best
nnyer and beet scare !" For, the Americans; in the way of
retaliation, have shut out the English ships trading be-
tween their country and West Indies, while the colonies of
arher nations sena their produce, and receive their supplies in
Arnerinet: ships
" The English %test Indians must, in consequence of these re-
strictions, get fettir provisions from Ireland and Canada, and
bui,6ng mate-jails from the latter. All at once, (quality
te.:-.ar in 7i?Al at double or triple the price. The injury to the
b :sit Inthe plantee arising from these restrictions is too mani-
fest to be insisted on. Suppose the Hop-growers of Surrey, for
insantic.e, were compelled to purchase their poles and a great
part of their food In Hampshire, to send their hops fcr sale no-
14ns:re bet into Rulandahire, or, if they send them elsewhere,
L?-ild them only in ilutlandshire waggons, driven by Rut-
latecshire men ; suppose, besides this, the poles and provisions
ive.-r three times tta price in Rutiandshire that they were in
iv.iddleser ; supT.,oe that, while this was going on with reined
ta :Ile ricer plan teas in Surrey, those of Kent were allowed- to
fiend their hops just where they pleased, and by waggons and
men of any country, that had more than a sufficiency of poles
;nncl peovistors at home. Now, suppose this case, and you have
set y nearly the relative situation of the West and East India
sfla:ar powers. And Will any man living say, that it would.
in. such a case, be fair towards the Surrey slates to suffer Kentish
stops to come into the market in Rutlandshire ? Would you,
fair,nd Cropper, if yon; were a Surrey Planter, hold thy tongue !
rAulde.ot thou r. man in ' the quiet ?' AVeuldst thou say,
that tune `scut :air play ?' And, if thou becamest ruined,
ananideat ent-no gay, eisa. it bad been by fair competition ?"
4ir You, in the clue 4. your letter, seem to condemn all re-
;naleeanl. upv..l 1,11 A• t. run. iliUi y,ctiing
Ir,te; nittzt:•::4 c:-annel in con sequence the removal of all
reannclions. 'l'i;n is to say, of course, all restrictions that
:tams in your way ; foe you say not a word about the West
nrlia rntrictions. Aye, it all be removed ; and, as you well
not an titer ounce of sagnr, rice, or cotton would come
horn the Beset I_'- lies, And your ships might be as well sold to
make paddeaar-fences for the fund-lords, as toile and rot in the
water. Take away tine West India restrictions, and we might
have good nagar at abont three halfpence a pound. Leave use
trade P...± free with those; Islands as it is with the East Indies,
tus4 t!ee West India Planters will ask for no protection, I war-
rant them.

" Your saying, tiler:gore, as you do, in paragraphs 8 and 10,
that the (Vest Indians propose to tax the people or this country
kr'p up Cie price of their produce, and to support an infe-
r:l,4in traiUak in slaves, is at once false and Malignant. Now,
• Leon' not a rr.an of them. And Ido know, that they
-trays, and are, amongst the supporters of that systcm,which has
• rendarad England miserable and disgraced. But, give the devil
daa, friend GroppOr. They do not want the people of Eng-
land to pay ally t•nc at all on any stia7ar. It would be much better
for thaiii, if there tvuc no tax at all on sugar. (Jive them leave
a4i to wham thsy pl.eas, and to buy of whom they :lease,
are they want noresLrretioos upon Any body in any market in
the world. And this, you well know too; all the time that
you are insinuating, arm, indeed, asserting, that they want to
sisve. tu tpcsri, , in ordt,r Char they may carry on an advanta-
grim4 r,,1 in fsarnsus tra
" The West Indians say (or, I supposeso, for I. ha. e,
aft..n. no: ::I?.acci. a; ;a2pii.,:ation before) Yon compel us to
nbra:!.. Lo a cntair. nrode of buying and selling winch must
• ortr total ruin, rf:' you leave the market open to the sugar of
the 1-:1,:t fediee.' Is. thli asking to have the people cf Eng-
land taxed ? Is this an endeavour to keep the price of
strar ? Is thiS'aekar.i7c.lging,that thev cannot raise sugar so
crif.ap as it Can be raised iu the East Indies ? If the fiovera-
ment do not one eJcut the ruin of the West Indians, it should
alone; the 'y would take care, of themselves I war-
rant it. ,-

" But, no: the Covernment say.this : We are well aware
' that your property., and all the whole of your concerns, are
'-greatly iniuren. by our policy; by our cutdrig off your free
tre•lc with j the United fi..ates • by compelling you to send away
" your produce in none but English ships, and to receive your
suppiies, so necessary to you, in none but ships of the same
description. WI are weL aware of all this. But, we have
contethiar to think about beside your immediate interests.—
' A'r; have the interest and safety of the whole nation to think
And, we -are of opinion, that the employment of Eng-
'Ts..., ships is an object of great importance on the qne panel,
and that the Frew:a:lag of other natives from increasing their
rrisritbne means by trsding with you is an object of great im-
portnnec cn the other linnd.. In short, we see, that, to leave
vi.t with a f,ee tra=ce ttrctild be to render you worse than use-
' 'frtn.4 as t,ie kinsein at laige.' Indy
: But ~...jurbig us, you injure the kingdom at large:
for, in whatever (1-z :ea you crump our trade, you compel the
".00lsomers of Our sugar to purchase of us at a higher price
'than they otherwise trould purchase.' The Government
would. reply : We are aware of thatalso; but this high price of
sugar, givcain order to maintain our - shipping, is a part of
the price which the nation pays for securing to itself that
' power and that ss.fety,whia4 it cannot have unless it takecare,
its navigation lsw i, to secure a Superiority over other
'actions at sea.'

" New, 616, friecd Cropper, is the true state of the case.-
7rhethrr the policy Ty.; sound or not, is another question,
anet one whin nothing at all to do with the qustion
bpfire ns. Though it may be obVirved that the outcry
iszai7y.t all rrstrictions is cuite new-fashioned., and leas its
ffnirlatirn only in the trLfac.lcing, notions o the Scotch econo-
irdsts, aided, just at this time, by the -di S'Z.T.IS 7!S of the Mer-
fylanufactur:;rs,. 14-hather the -policy be e'eund or
uns:.Y.ind, it is clear that the high price of Vircst tndia produce
is, in a great measure, to he ascribed to the restrictions on the
trade ; and, it is also dear, • t!lat those who are
r;anters 410? Wkst flidics must he wholly-ivin,A, if others,
w;a3 are exc.n..fLd from such restrictions, be allowed to bring
the same, of similar, produce into the sole mark t, on the same
t:rrns as to tax. For the East Indians (of whoth yea are one)
to demand this, is something monstrous. To tail: of competi-
tlon in such a case, is brute folly or sheer knavery ; and to you,
is f%is instance, one or the other of these may ue much inwe
feirly impltal than you }rive imputed to the West Indians the
to p.-rp2tilate an infamous traffiek,' by a tax on the
Nople of .F.iislawl."
C:.) P,BF4TT then comes to a separate branch
GT the 5,11)4-ct of Mr. CROPPEIOS fetter: his asser-
t " that sugar is raised in the East Ladies
01)). free ILI e ; that the West fradiatis wake.

" duties put on the East India Sugar, that they
C 4 may continue an infamous traffic in slaves ;
" that the refusing of their request would dis-
" courage that slavery by means of which they
" wish to cultivate their lands; and that the mo-
" tive that indiked Mr. Caoarra to embark in
" the India trade, was that of putting an end to
" negro slavery;" on which last point Mr. COB-
BETT observes, " this is false, or you are the
" foolishest man that ever walked about without
" a keeper." Mr. CORBETT concludes by pro-
mising another letter " on the influence of
" the proposed measure as to the Slave Trade,
CC and to show what pretty freemen the poor
<cEast Indians are ;" but has deferred this let-
ter till he receives some farther materials. In
the mean time, I address myself to you, in order
to lay before the public some documents upon
this subject, which may possibly escape Mr.
CORBETT'S researches.--I shall however first
correct an error into which Mr. CORBETT has
been led by Mr. CROPPER; who declares, "that
" the measure likely soon to be brought before
" Parliament was an increase in the duty on
" East India Sugar." The fact is, that the bill
alluded to proposed no alteration of the existing
duty, but merely contained enactments intended
to guard against.two abuses, which had long been
practised, and of late had. greatly increased, and
were of a nature highly- injurious to the revenue,
as well as to the interests of the West India
Planters. The first of these is the importation of
sugars, the produce of ChinaiCochin-China,Ma-
nilla, Siam, Java, and other foreign countries, as
if they were the growth of the British Presiden-
cies in India. This is a manifest imposition
on the revenue, as these sugars, so imported,
were admitted into the home-consumption of Great
Britain, at about half the daty imposed by law
on foreign sugars, as well as an injury to the
West India Planters, whom it deprived of that
protection which Parliament has given them
against the interference of foreign sugars in the
home market. The other abuse was the admis-
mission of clayed Sugar from India into home
consumption, without the payment of any addi-
tional duty. Clayed sugar, if imported from the
West Indies, is subject to an additional duty of
five shillings per cwt., and refined sugar to a
duty of eight guineas per 'cwt. The latter is in-
tended to operate, and does operate, as a total
prohibition; being imposed, upon the principle
adopted by Great Britain, of obliging her Colo-
nies
to ship all their produce to her market in a
raw state, and take from her all the manufac-
tures necessary for their own consumption. For,
some time past, sugars, as white as refined
sugar, have been imported from India at the
duty on common Muscovados ; and the operation
of this new act goes no farther than to subject
them to the additional five shillings per cwt. im-
posed upon clayed sugars from the West Indies.
It may be proper to observe, in explanation of
this subject, that clayed sugar, or sugar from
which the molasses is extracted, ought to pay an
additional duty,because, if worked by ourrefiners,
it gives a larger portion of refined sugar than
can be obtained from Muscovado sugar, in which
the molasses.. is left, and consequently a greater
sum is paid in bounty on the export of the refined..
produce than is received in duty on the raw
commodity. The policy of imposing an addi-
tional duty on clayed sugar is justified on ano
thee ground ; that by extracting the molasses the
bulk of the commodity is diminished, and less
freight given to British Shipping. The paramount
object of Great Britain, in all her Colonial re-
gulations, has ever been to increase her carrying
trade as the foundation of her naval power; and
Parliament would have disregarded all consider:
ations, both of revenue and naval power, if they
had not enforced the payment of an additional
duty on clayed sugar from India.—lf the West
India Planters had moved for a clause in this
to increase the duty on all sugar; from India, as'
Mr. CROPPER 3.511111eS to have been their inten-
tion, they might have justified the measure by
the following arguments :—Thatin consideration
of the double monopoly imposed by the Mother
Country upon the West India Planters, of taking
all their supplies from her, and shipping all their
produce to her in British ships, the supply of
her home consumption has been given to them for
more than a century and a half, by the imposition
of such high duties on all other sugars as were
intended to amouet, and except under very pecu-
liar circumstances always did amount, to a prohi-
bition.—That so far from the importation of
East India sugar, for home consumption, having
been originally contemplated either by the
East India Company or by the British Legisla-
ture, sugar was not included in the tariff o(corn-
moditiea to be admitted from those dependencies;
and that in the year 1792, when a temporary
high price of sugar was occasioned by the devas-
tation of St. Domingo, and made it an object to
procure the admission of East. India 'sugar into
home consumption, the only mode in which that
could be accomplished by the importers was by
entering it its one of the non-enumerated manu-o
facturpti -articles, at the ad valorem duty- -of
331. Gs. 811. per cent. That when the high
price of sugar subsided, the entry of East
India sugar for home s consumption was dis-
continued ; but that. the great advance In the
duty on British Plantation sugar, which, be-
tween l 792 and 1806, rose from 145..t0 275. per
cwt., with an additional duty of 3s. mere when-
ever the average price exceeded a certain rate,
while no alteration whatever took place in the
ad valorem duty on East India sugar, gave the
latter ate unexpected advantage over the former,
and brought the two duties within about 3s. of
each other. In 1813 this became the subject of
regulation ; and previously -to the trade being
opened, after much discussion with fits MAJESTY'S
Ministers, the present rates of duty were esta-
blished, which allow the West India sugais
protection of 10s. per cwt. over the East India
sugars, to be reduced is. per cwt. for every shil-
ling that the average price of West India sugar
shall exceed 605., thus admitting the principle of
colonial, protection, without losing sight of the
interests of the consumer. That at the time
when this arranaemant was made, the rate of
freight from the East Indies was 18s. per cwt.,
p.nci that from the West Indie=s 40s. per cwt. ;
but that now the
,freight &Om the cast Indica?

cannot he rated at more than 65., and that from
the West Indies at 55., reducing the difference
from Bs. to ls. per cwt. ; and that, under these
circumstances, the West India Planters are de-
prived of a considerable part of the protection
they enjoyed in 1814. That it has been provei,to
the satisfaction of His I".TAJESTY'S Ministers. that
the lowest price at which sugar can be afforded
by the West India Plerriter is 50s. per cwt., ex-
clusive of duty ; and therefore the conditional
duty of 3s. only attaches when the average ex-
ceeds that price ; but, to the great loss and dis-
tress of the West India Planter, the average
price at present, and for nearly two years past,
has been from 355. to 385.; partly owing to the
vasteincrease of the produce of Cuba and the
Brazils, countries where the slave trade is still
carried on, and which inundate every market in
Europe with their sugars, and partly to the in-
creased importation of sugar from India. Not-
withstanding the force of these claims, the Wrest
India Planters did not urge any additional duty
on East India sugar, but contented themselves
with the correction of those abuses which at-
tended their importation under the existing
system. The preference granted to the West
India Planters, by the protecting duty of 10s.
per cwt. imposed upon East India sugar, has
been represented as a great hardship on the
British consumer ; but the truth is, that the
monopoly to which the West India Plan-
ter is subjected is real, and absolute, while
that given to him in return is not only quali-
fied, bat imaginary. ; and this is admitted
in the petition presented to the House of
Commons by the Liverpool Merchants interested
in the trade to India, • who state, (speaking of
the West India Planter,) " as his supply exceeds
" the home consumption, and he is obliged to
" export a large quantity of his sugar, he must
" be met by East India sugar on the Continent;
" and the home price for his sugar mast be re-
cc gulated by the general market of Europe."
This reasoning is conclusive; and proves that
sugar would not be cheaper than it now is, un-
less the duty which constitutes half the price
were lower, if foreign Sugars of every description
were admitted into home consumption ; but then,
say the East Indians and the advocates for free
trade, why do the West Indians wish to ex-
clude sugar of any description from home con-
sumptions In the first place, they object to it on
principle ; because they ought not to be inter-
fered with, in the possession of that for which
they pay a valuable consideration, in the restric-
tions imposed upon them in return. They also ob-
ject to it, because opening any new market for
the consumption of foreign sugar would proba-
bly tend to increase the cultivation and the ship-
ments of that commodity to Europe ; and these
increased shipments, in whatever market they
were sold, would depress the general price, and
consequently effect the interests of the West
India Planter. The consumer would also be in-
jured in his turn, for one extreme of price natu-
rally leads to another, and an over supply would
soon lead to an under supply, by discouraging
the growth of the commodity.
I shall conclude this part of the subject by
adding, that, the growers of sugar in the East
Indies are at liberty either to ship it to any part
of the world, or to sell it, to the buyers of any
countries, to all whose flags their ports are open,
and with whom they enjoy a free trade. .The
West India Planters are prohibited from all these
advantages, and compelled by law to ship their
produce to the Mother Country only. The at-
tempt of the former, therefore, to interfere with
the 'latter, in the only market which is open to
them, and for the exclusive supply of which they
pay a valuable consideration, is highly unreason-
able. To sum up the merits of this case in one
word, those who are not subject to colonial re-
strictions, •have no right to expect colonial privi-
leges, and ought not to interfere with colonial
protection. [To be continued.]

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.