The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-04-10 00:00:00

EQUALIZATION OP THE SUGA.R DUTIES,

(From lhe Grenada Free Press.)
The measures which have been threatened to be introduced
into parliament during the ensuing session, for equalizing the
duties on British free and foreign slave grown sugar, is one
which, if allowed to be carried into effect, will give a death
blow to the prosperity of these colonies, now happily reviv-
ing, though slowly, from the effects of the emancipation of
the labouring population, au event which one would have
thought of sufficient disadvantage to us, in competing with
foreign sugar growers, with the immense aids which slavery
affords them, it being to them a matter of no importance at
how great a sacrifice of human life their staples are raised.
Not satisfied, however, with our present- disadvantageous
condition, it is contemplated to whelm us with utter ruin, by
throwing down the only protection left us,- and not only
thereby destroying the remains of what prosperity may yet
be within our reach—not only closing up a great outlet for
English manufactures, but, as if blinded by an unaccountable
fatuity, the agitators of this measure would, by carrying their
scheme, throw back in the progress of civilization those very
persons--the uegroes—to advance whom in the social scale
such mighty endeavours have been made by England. That
such would be one effect we conscientiously believe, and the
failure of Great Britain in the experiment she has hazarded,
would but rivet the shackles of thousands and tens of thou-
sands of human beings now in slavery, whose sole chance of
release appears to bin the successful issue of the trial in
progress in these colonies. _ _

The causes which have produced the agitation of the mea-
sure are far different from those ostensibly assigned. This
cannot be thought either harsh or unfounded assertion, when
we consider that the interests of the individual who has shown
himself most active, are, in the advancement of the East, at
whatever cost to the West. To such men, private gain is
everything, patriotism a mere feather in the scales. Mr.
Ewart, one of the parliamentary members we believe for Li-
verpool, is deeply connected with eastern commerce, if report
speaks truth, and it becomes of course his duty to step for-
ward and provide the British consumer, sugar at a cheaper
rate than he can at present obtain it, even at the certainty of
reviving, in a tenfold degree, slavery and the slave trade, by
the direct encouragement which would thus be afforded ; and
this too when the temporary ise in price has been caused by
the deficiency in our colonial products, arising out of the
working of an experiment, over which the colonists have no
control, and which was brought on by the people of England
themselves. And if such are the real parties on whom the
just blame is to be thrown, are the unhappy West Indians to
be again and again made to suffer, as if from them proceeded
the evil of the high prices complained of, which as has
elsewhere been shown, might in a very few years, by a proper
course of fostering care towards these colonies, be reduced
.to an unexampled degree. Why in the name of all that
is honest or just, is not a reasonable time given to afford
the new system of free labour a fair trial? Why de-
stroy men who are but even now in time act of recovery
from former heavy blows? The subject of equalising the
duties on free and slave grown sugar—for it is nothing less—
is not one that exclusively concerns the class of planters
alone—all having the least stake in these colonies will equally
feel the effects of the contemplated measure. Not the aban-
donment alone of estates—not the ruin of the owners, the
merchants, the mechanics, the labourers dependent for the
necessaries of life and its comtbrts, on agricultural prosperity
—not the loss to the British manufacturers of an immense
and still growing market ; not all these calamities alone will
ensue, but the foreign slaves, toiling under the lash, will
have to throw aside all hope of liberty, the granting of which
the otherwise improved condition of the British colonies
might have made compulsory on their masters—they must
throw aside all thoughts of freedom, and, instead of blessing,
curse the nation which, having brought such. hopes into
existence, so recklessly dashed Ahem away, undoing' at a
blow the labours of many years. These would, we have too
much reason to believe, be the speedy results which would
follow the passing of Mr. Ewart's proposed .measure, and to
avoid calamities so great, are our utmost and combined ex-
ertions now called for.