The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-02-16 00:00:00

The difficulties are glanced at in the petition, and
are, briefly, the injury that might result to our colonial
possessions and trade, and the opening of a hitherto
prohibited traffic in a commodity so notoriously the
produce and manufacture of slave labour, as the sugar
of Brazil. The latter of these obstacles, in our mind,
is much the more serious of the two; because, with
regard to the first, the proposed reduction, even to the
amount required, would still leave our colonial trade
not without protection. We do not coincide in the
argument that parliament has a right to deal with West
India produce ad libitum, because the planters have
been paid the sum of twenty millions as compensation
for the emancipation of their slaves ; that is a stretch-
ing of the terms of the agreement much beyond its
original intendment ; and we conceive that West India
has just as much right now to insist upon an equitable
consideration of her interests as she had before the boon
in question was' granted or accepted.

The solicited arrangement is not an equalisation of
the duties on colonial and Brazilian sugars and coffee,
but a reduction on the duty of Brazilian from 635. to
365. per cwt., and on coffee from 15d. to 9d.,—the
colonial duties of 245. and of 6d. respectively remain-
ing unaltered. Now granting, for argument sake, that
the adoption of this scale would not cause any great
derangement of colonial interests, and should be
deemed a safe experiment,—the next, and the very im-
portant question then is, can we, after all that we have
done for the suppression of slavery, both by precept
and example, abroad and at home, open a new course
of dealing with, remove restrictions from, and favour
the operations of, a country which retains its establish-
ment of slavery in unmitigated severity—and this with
respect to that identical article for whose production
and manufacture, above all others, she seeks the ser-
vice and employs the labour of slaves ? if this ob-
jection can be got over. there is no other of any great
moment, comparatively, in the way. Looked at in a
commercial light merely, it is probable we should de-
derive much advantage from removing the existing re-
strictions. Mr. M'Culloch, in an article on the sugar
duties, written five years ago, speaks of the colonial
duties as being much too high. "To lay a tax," he
says, "of 245. on a necessary of life, costing from 245.
to 355. [this was in 1835] including Bs. per cwt. freight
and charges, is obviously a most oppressive proceed-
ing. Indeed, there does not seem to be much room
for doubting that the consumption, and, consequently,
also, the revenue, would be very greatly increased, by
reducing the duty to 16s. or 18s. This may be pretty
confidently inferred from the increase of consumption
that has invariably followed every fall in the price of
sugar. During the three years ending with 1808,
when the price of brown or Muscovado sugar, inclu-
sive of the duty, was about 665. a cwt., there were, at
an average, 2,640,741 cwt. retained for home con-
sumption. During the three years ending with 1816,
the price was about 935., and the average quantity re-
tained for home consumption fell off to 2,038,373 cwt.
But during the three years ending with 1829, the
price having fallen to about 575., the average quantity
retained for home consumption rose to 3,267,581 cwt.;
being an increase of more than fifty per cent. upon
the quantity consumed during the previous period !"
This as to the reduction of the colonial duties; but
we return to Brazil, and the grand objection to the
prayer of the petition on the score of encouraging the
abominations of slavery.

It is suggested, as an answer, that we take cotton
from Brazil and other slave-dealing states on the most
unreserved terms, and, therefore, have no right to talk
of "principle" when the taking of any other article
from the same countries is proposed to us. This re-
sembles that medium of settling a dispute which is
commonly called the argument to quoque. However,
the point really in dispute is not whether any existing
duty, arrangement, or regulation be wrong or right;
but, strictly and simply, to what category we are to
reduce a newly proposed one,—and whether, under all
the circumstances, we can, consistently, or honoura-
bly, or rightly, remove restrictions hitherto fully en-
forced on the slave-raised and slave-manufactured su-
gar of Brazil ?

For our part, we are no advocates for extravagantly
squeamish or superhunianly purist notions in the ad-
justment of commercial transactions ; and are far from
contending for so great an absurdity as that we are
bound, in all cases, to inquire, or, in some cases, at all,
how or by what hands the articles that we take from
foreigners are produced or manipulated. If buyers
were always so prying and so fastidious, we cannot
conceive how the commerce of the world could pro-
gress; but this is a different and peculiar case. Here
our attention is specially and inevitably called to the
productive process, and it is quite impossible for us to
overlook it. We have made exertions and sacrifices of
no ordinary kind for the extinction of slavery and its
various inhuman and murderous barbarities. Our re-
clamations against it have been heard throughout the
world ; and we have, in short, placed ourselves in a
position—call it an inconvenient one, if you please,
but placed ourselves in it we have—in which we have
a high and dignified character to maintain. Can we,
then, a nation so slavery-hating and slavery-extermi-
nating, now go to Brazil—fresh from all our well-
fought battles and well-won victories in the cause of
human liberty—now go to Brazil, we say, and assure
her that she is welcome to use our market for her
slave-raised sugar; that we have relaxed the restriction
of our laws in her favour ; and that, much as we have
said and done against slavery, we have not the smallest
objection to sweeten our colfe with an article which
the toil, and sweat, and blood of her miserable lash-
driven negroes have been taxed to the uttermost to
produce ? Can this be done, we say ? Would not
such an act be a practical disclaimer of all our high
and honourable doings ? Have we put an end to sla-
very in our colonies only to encourage it on the south-
ern continent of America? Are our sentiments al-
tered? or, after all that we have endured, are we now
conquered by a little temporary dearth of sweetening
matter for our conserves or punch ? Reall)j, we do
apprehend that this hankering after the fleshpots of
Egypt must be given up, and that, if we would reap
the full harvest of all our great victories in behalf of
the suffering African, we must persevere a little longer
in the thorny path of virtue. Doubtless there is a
present privation in resisting the temptation now thrown
in our way, and that an effort of national self-denial is
called for; but a great ultimate advantage will assu-
redly reward our endurance, and we may console our-
selves with a confident expectation that we shall " reap,
if we faint not."

The series of letters published in the Times, on the
subject of Sir R. Peel's speech on opening a literary
institution at Tamworth, has excited a good deal of
attention, not more from the ability displayed by the
writer than the great and vital importance of the clues-
' tions which he discusses. We inserted in our last
number one of these remarkable compositions, and
our readers will have observed that the author, though
professing a profound respect for the right honourable
baronet, is not led on that account to make any com-
promise with, or withhold the free expression of his
own mind upon, what he conceives to be error. Those
who watch for disunion in the Tory camp as a last
resource in the sinking fortunes of Radicalism, will
probably seize upon the publication of these letters as
conclusive evidence upon the point; but if every dif-
ference of opinion among men were to create an abso-
lute schism in their body, how could the Whigs them-
selves have hung together so long ? or how could any
party, body politic, or society, preserve its consistency,
or continue efficient for any length of time ? There is

beyond all doubt a great and able statesman—virtuous
and disinterested—much more capable of directing the
councils of the Sovereign than those by whom her
Majesty is at present surrounded ; but still not infalli-
ble : and it is right that he himself should know what
great and able men think or hird. - He will have his
own natural and acquired talents to conduct him; but
he is not placed beyond availing himself of the advan-
tages which may he derived from attending to those
opinions which others entertain of his separate acts
and proceedings." Perfect liberty to speak the mind
freely is an element of strength, and not of weakness,
to a party whose general principles are sound and te-
nable; and the member for Tamworth may, and pro-
bably does, regard it as a pledge of that powerful and
efficient support which an administration conducted
by him would receive, that its supporters were not
bound servilely to adopt his opinions upon all subjects.
The writer of the letters alluded to has pointed at-
tention to what we believe to be the true source of that
degree of weakness or liberalism, of which many of the
Conservative party complain, in the policy of Sir R.
Peel. He has made it manifest from the Tamworth
speech, that, though a churchman, the right honoura-
ble baronet is not by any means an ecclesiastical poli-
tician,—that is to say, does not conceive that the reli-
gious principles taught by the church should be all-
pervading, and everywhere predominant. This he has
made evident ; and whoever will take the trouble to
study the subject, will find that such a negation of the
supremacy and universality of the religious principle
inevitably opens a door to consequences of which Li-
beralism takes all the benefit. The " Tamworth Lite-
rary Institution" excludes all books of " controversial
divinity," and, we may infer, all controversy respecting
divine things. The religious principle is, in fact, and
in direct terms, excluded from it ; and it is the main
purport of the inaugural address to shew how well
people may do—how learned, and wise, and happy,
and good they may become—without it. Now trans-
fer the author rnd speaker of that address from the
lecture-room at Tamworth to the floor of the House
of Commons, and, to be consistent, he must there also
maintain the same doctrine; and there, if it be not in
effect " Liberalism," it is separated from that false
theory by so obscure and evanescent a confine, that
there is great difficulty in discovering it.
We do not here enter into the question so ably dis-
cussed in the letters, but merely contend for it that the
individuals or party, who adhere to or inculcate a doc-
trine different as to the importance and ascendancy of
religion in political affairs from that taught by the
right honourable member for Tamworth, are not to be
looked upon as adversaries to his accession to office,
or disturbers of the Conservative peace. According
to our view of the matter, all the essential strength
and power of Conservatism lie in the truth and pro-
mulgation of the doctrine which this party contend
for; and our calculation is, that that union which is
" strength" may be Much better obtained and pre-
served by the democracy standing firmly to it, and
urging their leaders by a little gentle pressure from
without to adopt and act upon it, than by the same
democracy becoming silent, and acquiescent in doc-
trines, and consequently in measures, which are not in
themselves sound and true.

The equalisation of the duties on East and West
India rum has been carried in the House of Commons
without a division, and a severe injury is thus
threatened to the West India proprietors. Basely as
this great body of capitalists have been used on several
occasions, and much as they ought now to be fami-
liarised with the most tremendous sacrifices of property,
they have still great reason to complain on this occa-
sion. Here they have been taken completely by sur-
prise, and we may say treacherously dealt with,—for
not only have they had no warning of the blow in-
tended to be inflicted upon them, but the proceeding
is in the very teeth of a recommendation from a com-
mittee of the house of Lords, which they might reat
sonably have calculated would have prevented so sud-
den and unexpected a catastrophe.
Mr. Goulburn, in his spirited defence of the West
India planters on Friday evening, repeated the fact
that their opposition was only against the immediate
adoption of the ministerial proposition. They asked
only time to prepare for it—time to make arrangements
,against those inevitable effects which it must produce.
They invited attention to the existing transition state of
the West Indies, to the deficiency of labourers to cul-
tivate the soil which has resulted from the act of negro
emancipation, and the experiment now in course of
being made to supply that deficiency by free labour;
and on these grounds remonstrated, and justly re-
monstrated, against the sudden infliction of new trials
and fresh difficulties, to which they must be subjected
by the proposed equalisation. But remonstrance has
been in vain. Simple justice to the West Indies was
not " liberalism," and therefore had little to recom-
mend it to the Whigs. The speciousness of " free
trade" was not on their side, and accordingly they are
sacrificed.

But perhaps it may be said that this is only one in-
terest against another, and that what the public at
large might suffer by any derangement caused on the
one side, will be more than compensated by the ad-
vantage which will accrue on the other. Such, how-
ever, is not the case. Here a gross attack is made
upon vested rights of immense magnitude and im-
portance, without the slightest prospect of gain to the
public, either immediate or remote; for we cannot call
the drugging and deluging of the country with such a
compound as the nominal rum, or rum-shrub of India,
and its substitution for home-made spirits, or the ge-
nuine article of Jamaica, or other of the West India
islands—an advantage, but rather an injury to the
community. By the way, it is curious to observe,
that in the course of a long discussion of this question,
not one word was said with regard to its morale, as if
the best interests of the community—its moral interests
—had nothing whatever to do with it, or were entirely
lost sight of. We do not happen to belong to the tee-
total abstinence, or any of the other intemperately
temperate societies ; but we do at the same time say
that the habits of the people of this country in general
are not such that we can feel any desire to see East
India ruin added to the catalogue of British, Irish, and
foreign spirits, and swelling the list of their tempta-
tions. We have drunkenness enough without it, and
could well dispense with the boon. In this respect
the paternal government of the imperial " brother of

the sun and moon" is certainly far more worthy of
praise than our own, and ought to make us a little
ashamed. Of small use is it, truly, to have a com-
mittee of the house reporting upon the " evils of in-
toxication," and appalling us with its descriptions,
whilst the house itself thinks of nothing but equalising
duties—increasing the amount, and reducing the price
of the inebriating material.

But it is said, in this case, we must take the sweets
with the bitter, and that if we want the sugar of India,
we must take the rum and the rum-shrub also. This
proposition has been taken for granted; but really we
do not see any physical impossibility of making the
necessary discrimination. If the manufacture of su-
gar would not quit cost without the manufacture of
spirits also, that is manifestly a state of things which
arises from fiscal regulations; and why could not these
be altered in such a way as to do away the alleged
necessity ? However, It is not our business to solve

the enigMa. All we desire to advert to is the very
questionable benefit which the community at large is
likely to derive from the meditated invasion of the
vested interests and rights of the West India planters.
This aggrieved body have raised no question upon the
principle of showing equal favour to all our colonies,
and, with regard to the identical proposition now car-
ried, their request was merely postponement, not nul-
lification ; and as to the grounds which they put for-
ward for soliciting this small favour, we cannot conceive
anything more substantial. They were stated, briefly
but forcibly, by one of the honourable members for
this borough; and with a short extract from his speech
on the occasion we shall conclude :--

" I confess," said his lordship, " that neither of the pro-
positions now before the committee for the immediate or
gradual equalization of the duty on rum exactly meet my
views of the justice and policy of the case. In my opinion,