The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-12 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.
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HOUSE OF LORDS, April 11.
The Loan CmaxcaLLea took his seat on the Woolsack
at Five o'Clock.
Petitions were :presented' against the union of the sees of
Bangor and St. Asaph.
The Bishop of LICHFIELD presented several peti-
tions, none of which ware worthy of notice.
MAYNOOTH.
A number of petitions were also presented against the
grant to Maynooth, by the Earl of Eglinton, the
Bishop of
London, and the Duke of Hamilton. Those presented by the
Duke of Hamilton referred to the feelings of the people of
Scotland, who he stated were against the grant.
The Bishop of Chester, the Bishop of Bangor, the Bishop
of Lichfield, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord Denman, and
several other Noble Lords, presented petitions against any ad-
ditional grant to Maynonth.
The Earl of MIDDLETON presented a petition from the
board of guardian; of Bromley, in the county of Worcester,
praying that the owners of small tenements should be made
liable for poor-rates instead of the occupiers.
The Duke of BUCCLEUCH presented a petition praying
their Lordships to take steps to ameliorate the condition of

Scotch schoolmasters.
Lard CAMPBELL gave notice that on Monday he intended
to present to their Lordships a petition of some importance
respecting the custody of Lunatics in Scotland.
THE GAME-LAW:.
The Earl of HA DDINGTON presented petitions from the
tenant-farmers of Essex, complaining of the great extent to
which game was now preserved in this country.
CUSTODY OF SUSPECTED CRIMINALS—MR.
WAKLEY AND THE POLICE.
The Marquis of NORM AN BY sail he had intended to put
a question to a Noble Lord connected with the Govern-
ment concerning a somewhat unseemly conflict which
had lately taken place between two authorities as to the cus-
tody of persons suspected of having committed the crime of
murder. Since he had intimated this intention the opinion
of the Home Secretary on the subject had been com-
municated to the public in a letter to the Co-
roner for Middlesex. A decision involving one particular
part of the question had also been gone into before a judge at
chambers, and he also further understood, that it was the in-
tention of the Coroner to make a further appeal to the Court
of Queen's Bench. Under these circumstancee, reserving
altogether any expression of opinion on his part, he thought
it was desirable that he should postpone for the pre•
sent any question relating to this subject.
IRISH RAILWAYS.

The Marquis of CLANRICAR DE gave notice of his in-
tention, on Monday, to put a question to the President of the
Railway Department of the Board of Trade, on the subject of
the Irish railways. It was to ascertain if the promoters of the
present Irish railway schemes had all complied with the pros;
sions of the Registration Act.
The Bastardy Bill then went through Committee.
THE SUGAR DUTIES BILL.

Lord MONTEAGLE presented a petition from the Cham-
ber of Commerce of Manchester against the Sugar Duties
Bill. The petition was one of considerable importance, and
as their Lordships were not in the habit of printing petitions,
he would take the liberty of suggesting that the Noble Lord
who had the care of the Sugar Duties Bill in that House,
should carefully peruse its contents.
The Earl of DALHOUSIE ro'e to move the third read-
ing of the Sugar Duties Bill. He said he would on that
occasion confine himself simply to a statement of the views
of her Majesty's Government in bringing forward the pre-
sent measure. It would be probably in the recollection of
the House, that in introducing the Bill of last year before
their Lordships' attention, he had referred to the necessity
of adopting some alterations with respect to the supply of
sugar for the consumption of the country. He had said that
although the produce of the East Indies and the Mauritius had
very considerably increased, it was not yet sufficient to meet.
the deficiencies of the supply from their other colonies, and he
then stated the general result of the falling off that had taken
place in the whole supply available for the consumption of the
country in late years. During the year 1843 the supply was
204,00 tons, whilst the consumption had reached 302,1,00
tons : the demand, therefore, was greater than the supply.
Although there was no probability of a falling off in the coming
year, it appeared to the Government to be desirable, in case
there should be a recurrence of so disastrous a contingency,
to introduce the present Bill for the purpose of meeting it, by
allowing the introduction of sugar at a lower rate of duty
from certain countries named in the Bill, being countries in
which sugar was raised entirely by free labour. The Noble
Lord then entered into a statement of the provisions
of the Pill, and proceeded to say that it would be right,
before asking their Lordships to give their assent to its
third reading, to advert to one or two objections which had
been urged against the measure during its progress through
Parliament. It had been stated that in order to justify the
sacrifice of so large an amount of duty, they were bound to
show that substantial good would accrue to the consumer. The
Noble Lord entered into a statement to show that the con •
sumer would benefit to a considerable extent by the reduc-
tion of the duty on sugar—that such benefit would be felt
more especially by the middle and lower classes ; and,
moreover, that the consumption of the article would be so
greatly increased by the diminution of the price, that the
sacrifice would, in a great measure, be retrieved. As to
the objections which had been made to the classification of
sugars, he could only say, that such a practice existed in
France, in the United States of America, and in Sweden,
and that in Java there were no less than eighteen different
classifications. The system of classification worked well in
each of these countries, and he could not see any reason
why it should not answer the expectations of the British Go
vernment. As to the objection that foreign slave-grown
sugar would be smuggled into this country, it appeared to
him that the certificates of origin would afford sufficient pro-
tection against such a practice ; besides which, it ap-
peared, from returns for the last ten years, that the
price of sugar at New Orleans and New York had been
such that it would not be the interest of the Americans to
send their sugars to this market. It was clear that the
sugar of Louisiana could not be imported at a price sufficiently
low to come into competition with the sugars of this country.
Upon the general question of the admission of the sugar of all
countries at the same rate of duty, he contended that such a
measure would be most unjust to the British colonies, which
tho Government was bound to protect, and that, therefore, it
was not merely a question of sound commercial and financial
policy, neither had it been so treated. After all that had been
done many years ago for the abolition of the slave trade, and
subsequently for the abolition of slavery, at the most costly
sacrifice—after the innumerable treaties into which this country
bad entered—after the enormous force employed in all parts of
the world—he asked how it was possible to adopt a
course of legislation which must have the effect of intro-
ducing the staple produce of slave-labour into this country ?
So long as it was the declared opinion of Parliament—the echo
of the declared opinion of the nation, that it ought to be the
policy of Great Britain to discountenance slavery, it seemed
to him that Government was not allowed a choice, even if it
were disposed to make one. In such a case, what appeal could
ever again be made to foreign countries, or what pretence could
there be to enforce the regulations under existing treaties?
Other States would have a right to say that the practice of
Great Britain gave the lie to her professions, and she would be
told, not only that she had deserted her principles, but that she
had adopted a shuffling evasion of the consequences of the policy
she had pursued. He, therefore, requested their Lordships to
give a third reading to the Bill upon the table.
The Earl of CLARENDON wished to make a few remarks
upon what he conceived would be the practical operation of
theßill, as well as upon the principle it involved. The more
it was examined the less calculated it would be found to
effsct the objects in view ; and it would introduce new
intricacies into our fiscal system, instead of that sim-
plicity by which it was important that it should be
characterised. Not a cargo of sugar would arrive, in
which either the merchant would not unintentionally defraud
the revenue officers, or the revenue officers the merchant.
However well satisfied the West India interest might be
with the present protection, they would not be satisfied with
this Bill, and mainly because they saw that the inevitable
consequence must be a further change. Confusion must
inevitably arise out of the enforcement of the distinctions de-
pending upon colour, grain, and saccharine matter, and no
uniformity could be expected in the practice of the outports.
The attempted classification must be a failure, and ere long an
ad valorem duty, as in the case of tea, must be adopted. If
classification had been possible, it might have been carried into
effect while the East India Company had the monopoly of the
tea trade ; but even then it was soon discovered to be oat of
the question, and the general duty of 2s. Id. per lb. was esta-
blished. The experiment now once more to be made had been
tried over and over again, and it had always been followed by
an increase of crime, and of loss to the revenue. Another
change in the law must, ere long, be made. The market would
be thrown into confusion, and great individual hardships
would be inflicted. By the treaties of reciprocity, the
sugars introduced from other countries where it was cultivated
by free labour, was to be imported into this country were to
bear the same duty as those from China, Java, and Manilla
By the 19th Clause of this Act, it was decreed that the duty on
refined sugar from foreign possessions, which had hitherto been
Bd. a too, should be reduced to Is. Id. ; and that on sugar of
the same quality from British Colonial possessions, which had
heretofore been :255. 9d., was reduced to 14s. ; that on Musco-
vado, which had been 355. 9d. was reduced to 235. 4d. Since
the introcn'tion 01 the difference made between refined sugar
and Muscovado, a third class bad been introduced,
termed white chi* sugar. The duty laid on
this vas 28,, while that imported from the British
Colonies, which had been 16e. 4d. was reduced to 14s.
It appeared that the whole of the produce of the British pos-
sessions and Mauritius would vary from 250,000 to 230,000
tons ; that from Manilla and Java, and China, was estimated
at 20,000 tons, the stock in hand at about 45,000
tons,
making the total available for consumption an aggregate of
315,295 tons. The reduction of duty was shown by the cir-
cumstance that for 1845-6 the whole amount estimated was
3,916,0001., that for 1844 was 5,216,0001., showing a decrease
of 1,300,0001. It was known that a decrease of duty led to a
decrease of price, and an increase of consumption. The quantity
usually consumed was at the rate of 17Ibs. per individual per
annum, making a proportionate consumption of one-third of a
pound per week, and ca using a saving to a labouring man of
id. per week per family. This, though small, was equal to one-
fourth of the whole expense. The Noble Lord then went into
a series of returns for the years 1830 to 1844, to prove that
the price affected the consumptionanidn theandifficultyinvariable
th
at had proportion.b eei
Aith respect to the clansificat
alleged as likely to attend on the distinguishing qualities in this
country, it was said were not felt at
United States, where this mode of Gratz
i classificationaweewleans, aadopted,
extended to 1R qualities.
or in Java, where the classification
It was said that it was impossible to mae a listinction in this
euuntry between slave and free-grown sugar,but, at all events,
to inoperative,
if they did make the distinction, it would be
besidLouisiana. tally
i Bute i
because the Americans would manage to import
Eur
he denied the practicability of this, and,
Ameri-
cans founds a better market for their produce than"
in
Only twelve years ago, the term property in man was a Europe.
can
venient term, and he believed that other countries would not.
be guided by our schemes of morality. Brazil and other coun-
tries might say—" we have read Blue-books, and while you
talk of kindliness and charity, we ere aware of the excess of
labour to which your artisans are exposed; we know the im-
morality to which your people are subjected in consequence of
men and women working together in mines, and we will not
?wive your manufactures unless you repeal the laws by which
these enormities are authorised." They would to a certainty
directly or indirectly carry this into effect. The whole of the
attempt to repress the slave trade was perfectly useless, for it
was well known that the attempt to obliterate it from human
commerce was perfectly futile. If they said to the people of
Cuba that they would take none of their sugar
while they were opiite ready to receive their
coppar ore—( Hear)—the extraction of which was
ten times more deadly and onerous to the slave than the pro-
du lion of sugar. The very same thing held with regard to
the sugar of America. They objected to receive the sugar of
slave labour, and yet they were quite ready to receive the
tobacco and the cotton of the United States, which wasp ro-
duced by the cultivation of a set of slaves, who from their
early lives, and their after experience, had a far more acute
sense of the evils which they had to endilre, than the slaves
of Africa or of any other slave country. They refused also
the sugar of Louisiana when they were ready to encourage
the sugar of other places precisely in the same condition as
Louisiana. It was indeed very evident, that the only object in
this Bill was the protection of our West India Colonies, and
be did hope, that before the time arrived for the conclusion of
the income-tax, that they would propose some other
substitute for that most odious impost, and that
they would net =7 kuier have the country W suppose that