The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-03 00:00:00

PRICE OF SUGAR.

EFFECTS OF MONOPOLY.

London, Sept. 2, 1842.
The following average prices of Brown, or Mus-
covado British Sugars, will be published in the
Gazette of this evening :
West India
East India
Mauritius ~

. 355. 3id. per cwt
. 38s. Id. „

335.

Total average price of the three descriptions,
355. sid. per cwt.
The actual quantities sold on account of the im-
porters, in the week ending the 30th of August,
according to the returns made upon oath, by the
sugar brokers in conformity with the Act of Parlia-
ment, and on which quantities the above prices are
computed, consisted of 13,631 cwt. of West India,
4,153 cwt. of East India, and of 5,125 cwt. of Mauri-
tius Sugars.
About 150 cwt. of Maur sugar have been sold in
the same week at 255. per cwt., which being classed
as East India, unfairly depresses the average price of
that kind of sugar.

Foreign .Muscovado Sugars, equal in quality to the
average of West India, may I,e bought at 16s. per
cwt. ; the monopolists are therefore continuing to en-
rich themselves on this one article, as described last
week, at the rate of four millions sterling per annum.
The Government will surely not allow the consumers
of West India Sugars to be fleeced after this fashion
much longer.
Dutch Refined Sugars may be purchased at 225.
per cwt., and foreign treacle at 7s. per cwt.
The West India proprietors residing in this country
declare, and there are no grounds for suspecting in
this particular instance that they declare to be true
that which they do not themselves believe, that Sugar
cannot be produced upon their estates profitably for
less than 355. per cwt. equivalent to 60s. per cwt.
duty paid ; that is to say, the costs of labour and of
necessaries essential to the cultivation of the canes,
of making t!,e sugar, of packages for its reception, of
freight to this couatry, and of various other charges
incurred, previous to the sale of the sugar in Mincing-
lane, amount to very nearly 355. per cwt. ex duty.
Although it would he a difficult task to disprove this
assertion, yet the fact of sugar of equal quality being
freely sold at 16s. per cwt. in the same market with
the West India, both sugars having had the same
quantum of labour bestowed upon them, leads natu-
rally to the conclusion, that the charges above enume-
rated under different heads, amounting in the aggre-
gate to 355. per cwt., are either exorbitant, or grossly
inistated. Assuming them, however, to be actually
paid, we propose, with a view to show how they may
be reduced within a moderate compass, to examine
each class of charge separately, taking them in the
order in which they are placed above. The cost of
labour, both as regards the cultivation of the canes,
and of making the sugar, stands first for consideration.
The proprietors complain that there are not
in the sugar colonies a sufficient number of hands to
work the soil ; that the demand for labourers conse-
quently being greater than the supply, wages are so
high that the negroes can live comfortably on them,
and work but three days in the week. To meet this
difficulty two methods present themselves; either im-
migration to a considerable extent must be encou-
raged and secured, or the worn out plantations must
be thrown out of sugar cultivation. It must be con-
fessed that the chance of success, through the means
of extensive immigration, is remote. The West In-
dians have tried for years to increase the number of
their labourers by that plan, and have signally failed
in their endeavours ; and well they might, for when-
ever a few unfortunates have been- enticed to enter
their service in the colonies, they have been so abomi-
nably ill used, that those who were not actually de-
stroyed by the harsh treatment they encountered, or
by the effects of the climate, have been too happy to
run from their employers the first opportunity which
offered for their escape. Not many, probably, have
reached the homes from which they were induced to
depart by misrepresentations of the climate, of the
nature of the work to be performed, and of, the laws
under which they were to live ; but those who have,
have described, in the language of truth, to their
neighbours, the misery of emigrating to the West
Indies. After the exposures of this description which
have occurred, the West Indians can entertain no
hope of recruiting in Europe; they should declare
that. European constitutions are not suited to the cli-
mate, that the Hill Coolies are hardy, accustomed to
heat, and willing labourers ; on their credulity they
might practise ; but the British nation, in a potential
voice, will say " No" to their application to be al-
lowed to entrap these simple-minded people. No !
you have already abused the confidence we reposed
in you. What has become of the deluded creatures
we permitted you to export from the East Indies to
the Sugar colonies a few years since ? The West
Indians themselves have defeated all expectation of
assistance by immigration. We shall, therefore, next
week turn to the other alternative, and examine what
the effect of throwing out of sugar cultivation those
plantations which have become exhausted, would have
on the labour market in the West Indies.

EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL IN
FRANCE.

The Court of Assizes of the Puy-de-Dome, on Sa-
turday last, decided a case of murder after a hearing
of six days, during which the deepest interest pre-
vailed, not only in the Court, but also in the whole
department. The person charged with the crime was
Jaques Besson, a farm servant, 34 years of age, who
had been discharged for misconduct by his victim,
M. de Marcellange, a gentleman of property, living
in a state of separation from his wife, the daughter
of the Count de la Rochenegly de Chamblas. The
sensation created by this trial was heightened by
the almost admitted fact that the prosecutors, who
were the nearest relations of the deceased, attri-
buted the murder to the instigations of his wife and
of her mother, the Countess de la Rochenegly, and by
the circumstance of one of the witnesses, a man
named Arzac, a farm servant of the deceased, having
been tried for perjury in this cause, and sentenced to
ten years' imprisonment, and exposure in the pillory.
The prisoner Besson was arraigned in March last,
but the trial, after a long hearing of witnesses, was
ordered to stand over in consequence of the committal
of Arzac for perjury. On the former trial several
witnesses, amongst whom were the uncle and aunt of
Arzac, deposed that he had confessed to them his
knowledge of the guilt of Besson, that he had
previously been offered a sum of 600 francs by
him to poison M. de Marcellange, that a box of white
powder had been found in his (Arzac's) possession,
which he said was the poison that he had intended
to put into his master's soup, and that, after the mur-
der of M. de Marcellange, he confessed to having
been offered a recompense by the widow and mother-
in-law of the victim, on the condition of his denying
on the trial all knowledge of the murder. Various
facts and conversations were also sworn to, which
established a presumption that he had been privy to
the murder, and had even favoured the deed by pre-
venting the yard dogs belonging to M. de Marcel-
larrge from barking at the approach of the assas-
sin. Arzac having on the trial in March denied all
this, he was taken into custody, and was subsequently,
as above stated, tried for and convicted of perjury.
The circumstances of the murder, as stated in the
act of accusation were as follow :—ln the year 1835,
M. de Marcellange was married to Mademoiselle Theo-
dora de la Rochenegly de Chamblas. This union,
founded on an equality of family, fortune, and edu-
cation, appeared to present all possible prospects of
happiness, but the union was not long undisturbed.
Scarcely had the father of Madame de Marcellange
ceased to live, when his widow went to reside with
the young couple, who had fixed themselves at
Puy, and at once the harmony of this house
was troubled. The stepmother and the wife
testified more than indifference and coolness to-
wards the unfortunate Marcellange. The exist-
ence of children imposed on them a certain reserve,
but death soon broke through these last ties, for M. de
Marcellange had the misfortune to lose his two chil-
dren in the same week. From that period grave dis-
putes arose in the family circle, and a fatal dis-
like sprang up between the husband and the wife.
M. de Marcellange complained bitterly of the in-
sulting contempt with which he was treated in
his own house. He confided his daily grievances
and annoyances to some of his friends, and pointed
out to his relations the painful influence exercised
over Madame de Marcellange by Madame de Cham-
blas, her mother, and by the servant Jacques Besson
and Jeanne Marie Boudon. Sinister thoughts and
strange fears took possession of his mind. So strong
were his impressions that one day, on his return from
a journey, being seized with violent colic, he thought
himself poisoned by some food placed before him in
presence of his wife by the servants of the house, and
he even thought his children had been poisoned by
their mother. His family shared in his uneasiness
and his sad presentiments. As he had been long ab-
sent without writing they became alarmed, and his
brother wrote to Madame de Marcellange, that she
should be held responsible for the disappearance
of her husband. should he not be found.
Thus their happiness had not only ceased, but it
had become impossible for them to live together. A
legal demand for separation of property was made by
Mme. de Marcellange, but, no just ground for it being
assigned, it was refused. M. de Marcellange had
quitted his house, and retired to the estate of Cham-
blas, situated at some distance from Puy, in the com-
mune of St. Etienne-Lardeyrol, where he lived in
great retirement, engaged in agricultural pursuits,
and breeding cattle. Weary of this kind of existence,
and not any longer hoping for a reconciliation, which,
although anxiously desired by him, was become
more and more difficult, and terrified by seeret in-
forroft 04. which he had received, he was taking mea.
sures_ .
" let his property at Chamblas, and return
to his own country, near his father, and prepara-
tions were commenced for his reception at his
domain of Brandons, near Moulins, when, on Sept. 1,