The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-19 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, MAY 19, 1840.

We have been politely favoured with a file of the
Guiana Times to the 20th of March—two days later
than the arrivals by the last pacl:et. These papers were
brought by the Union, Capt. Jones, which sailed from
Georgetown on the 23d of March.
It is gratifying to find from these papers that num-
bers of immigrants were continuing to arrive from
Barbadoes, of whom the Guiana Times remarks, " they
may be said to have come to make their own fortunes
and to improve ours."
With reference to the opposition of Messrs. Sturge,
Scoble, Pease, and Co. to the schemes proposed for
supplying British Guiana with immigrant's, the Times
remarks, that " there is no sane man who knows any-
thing of human nature, and of the internal condition
of that country, that can allege that the large and
speedy importation of immigrants would he produc-
tive of anything but national greatness and individual
happiness."
The Times complains, with much reason, of the ap-
parent duplicity practised by Governor
.Light, in his
despatches to the Colonial Secretary, and deplores the
inattention of the home government to the interests of
the West India colonies in general.

The mischievous combination against the prosperity
of our West India colonies is extending its ramifications
in every direction. The parties engaged in this infa-
mous scheme, for plunging the most valuable of the
colonial appendages of Great Britain into irretrievable
ruin, are as unscrupulous in the choice of means, for
effecting their nefarious and selfish purposes, as they
are recklessly oblivious of the truth in their language.
The tortuous course which they pursue on all occa-
sions, is worthy of the knavish ends they have in view.
Among the most recent of the plans set on foot for
precipitating the ruin of the West India planters, we
must instance a petition, which was published in the
Morning Chronicle of Saturday last, " from the whole-
sale and retail grocers, confectioners, and others, of
London and its vicinity," praying the House of Com-
mons to sanction the admission, for home consumption,
of other sugars than those of British possessions, at the
same duties as British plantation sugar. It is some
consolation to find that even the Morning Chronicle has
so much sense of justice as to denounce a scheme so
fraught with ruin to the interests, not only of the West
Indies, but also of this conntry.
The petition to which we have referred, the under-
stand, has been extensively circulated in a printed
form, and will, no doubt, be placed upon the counter
of every peddling huckster in the kingdom, with a view
of obtaining signatures. It becomes, therefore, an im-
perative duty that we should attempt to expose the
gigantic fraud which it contemplates, and to point out
the ruinous consequences which a compliance with its
prayer would entail upon all but the sleek-faced cock-
ney grocers and confectioners by whom it has been
concocted.

The anti-colonial petition under notice states, that
the importation of sugar from the British possessions
in the West Indies, has decreased to the extent of
40,000 tons, as compared with the average import of
the ten consecutive years, from 1830 to 1839, and
50,000 tons as compared with that of the ten pre-
ceding years, from 1820 to 1829, and that it is now
ascertained that the deficit during the present season
(1840) will be much more important. Hear that, Mr.
Scoble, and venture again, if you have the audacity, to
" gull the natives" by your absurd mis-statements re-
specting the prosperity of the West Indies. With such
a tremendous and almost unparalleled defalcation in
the importation of the staple commodity of sugar, we
would ask the sages of Aldermanbury, what founda-
tion have you for asserting that the Negroes have
manifested the most exemplary diligence since they
have been admitted to the full enjoyment of freedom ?
How are your inflated 'accounts of the industry and
good conduct of the Negroes to be reconciled with
the lamentable results indicated in the petition of your
cockney friends ? We venture to say that this is a
nut too difficult to crack by any one of the anti-slavery
agitators, even though his jaw-bone may be as strong,
as that with which Samson did so much execution
upon the Philistines.

The petition then goes on to state that the cultiva..
tion of sugar in the island of Mauritius appears to have
reached its maximum, and that the expectations of the
public have been disappointed in the cultivation of
sugar in Bengal. It then proceeds to say, that sugar
is " an article of great importance in culinary purposes,
and essential to the comfort" of the population—(a
piece of information for which our profound thanks are
due to the cockney grocers)—that " a high price for
sugar is an abatement of the comforts of the mass of
the population"—and that " by encouraging a more
extended use of an article so generally agreeable to the
taste as sugar, the consumption of tea, coffee, rice, &c.,
will be essentially promoted." It further informs us
that the stock of West India, Mauritius, and Bengal
sugar now on hand does not exceed one month's con-
sumption, notwithstanding such sugar has ceased to be
refined for exportation since October, 1838. The last