The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-21 00:00:00

auspices.
Sir R. PEEL said that every argument was so exhausted
by previous speakers, that he should not have risen were
he not convinced that he had no alternative but to deliver
his opinions before the debate was brought to a close. He
must say, then, that it would neither be for the honour nor
the interest of the country to open the markets of the country
to slave grown sugar; and being of this opinion, lie would
give his vote for the motion of his right hon. friend (Lord
Sandon), totally apart from his opinions upon the corn laws
or any other question. He took this course, not from any
overwhelming moral principle which be thought connected
with the subject, but from enlarged prudential considera-
tions, which led him to the conclusion that it was better to
continue the exclusion of foreign sugar. Any advantage to
he derived in a financial point of view, would be.more than
counterbalanced by the injury to our colonies, where a
measure of change was in operation, which hitherto had
been more successful than any great change that had ever
been attempted in civilized society, and the completion of
which might be materially interfered with by the proposition
of the government. The right hon. bart. then read several
passages from a pamphlet written by a Mr. Greg, which
pamphlet was transmitted to him by a deputation from the
Chamber of Commerce of Manchester, on purpose to con-
vince him (Sir R. Peel) of the propriety of carrying out the
principles of free trade. The various passages of the
pamphlet supported the views of the question taken by the
right hon. baronet, and concluded by insisting that the only
way to discourage slavery was by the continuance of the
existing discriminating daties on sugar. Thus the very
pamphlet, which the deputation intimated would he certain
to convince him, actually advocated the very opinions which
he himself entertained. The right hon. baronet referred to
some dreadful pictures, which bad been drawn from authen-
tic sources, of the distress which sometimes pervaded the
lower classes in India when the rice crop failed, and con-
tended that the cultivation of sugar would tend to give ex-
tensive employment in those regions under our own do-
minions, to which it was the duty of this country to attend,
before it took into consideration the advancement, of the
prosperity of the slave-owners of Cuba or Brazil, to the
destruction of the free-labour sugar of India. He confessed
his astonishment at the altered tone which prevailed in that
house upon the subject of slavery, and his still greater
astonishment at the argument that, by opening our ports
to the competition of slave-grown with free-labour sugar,
we were taking an efficient means of abolishing slavery.
Upon these grounds he should vote for the motion of his
noble friend (Lord Sandon), and in so doing he denied that
he was actuated by anything like factious motives. If gen-
tlemen on his side of the house had been actuated by fac-
tious motives, the noble lord's (Lord J. Russell) position as
a minister would have been far less secure than he had
hitherto found it. The only ground for imputing faction to
him (Sir R. Peel) was, that he was then pursuing the same
course which the noble lord himself
.pursued last year, upon
the same question, when brought forward by the hon. mem-
ber for Wigan (Mr. Swart.) If, indeed, he had proposed
a resolution that no measure could be proposed that could
prove satisfactory without the admission of a principle, which
it was not possible to carry--then,indeed, he might be deemed,
although profiting by experience, factious to the last degree.
He would be frank with hon. gentlemen on the other side of
the house, and tell them that he was not adopting a course
then, which, if called to office, he should next year repudiate.
If in office now, he would take the course of encouraging in
every way sugar the produce of free labour; and such, under
any circumstances, would be his future policy. The right
hon. baronet then adverted to the distress in the manufactur-
ing districts, the details of which no one could listen to
without feelings of deep pain and commiseration ; and it
would give him the greatest satisfaction if some remedy could
be devised. Still, however, he did not see any reason for
desponding, or becoming hopeless of the revival of our com-
mercial prosperity, which, he believed, had been only tem-
porarily depressed by the commercial difficulties prevailing,
and which had for some time prevailed, in the United States.
With respect to what were called the principles of free trade,
although he would not apply them without considering well
the circumstances under which they were to be so applied,
yet he would say, that from no man in the House of Com-
mons had Mr. Huskisson received such warm and cordial
support as from himself (Sir R. Peel) in carrying out those
principles. But then they were to be carried out soberly and
cautiously, and with the power of enacting the changes pro-
posed. With respect to the corn laws, he would not hesi-
tate to state his opinion upon them. He still adhered to the
opinions he expressed last year, and preferred the graduated
sliding scale to a fixed duty, though he believed that the
prosperity of our manufacturing interests was more advan-
tageous to the agricultural interests than any system of corn
laws. He did not mean to be understood as pledging him-
self to all the details of the present sliding scale ; he only
meant to say, as he had said last year, that to the principle
of the graduated scale he gave his adherence. He should
oppose the proposition of the noble lord for a fixed duty,
under the conviction that it could not be maintained. With
. respect to the timber duties, he would reserve to himself the
unfettered right of action ; but h 3 would ask the noble lord,
in the first instance, to give him the information which he
was in possession of from the Governor-General of Canada.
He could not pronounce an opinion upon those dtlties with-
out considering not only the financial but the political bear-
ings of the question also. The Government, he contended,
was mainly responsible for the financial crisis in which the
country was now placed, but instead of coming forward with
an acknowledgment of incapacity they came down to the
house representing themselves as martyrs to the principles
of free trade, and called upon him (Sir R. Peel) to furnish
them with a budget ; and this after they had had their own
way for five years, and had all the advantage of what they
called cheap government. Notwithstanding all this they now
found themselves with a deficit of over seven millions, and
Were calling upon him to extricate them from the difficulty.
The right hon. baronet then referred to the various attempts
that had been made in the course of the debate to draw from
him his opinions as to the propriety of meeting the financial
difficulties by means of a property tax, or by any other means,
but he declined to give any opinion on the subject, destitute
as he was, from his long absence from office, of the informa-
tion requisite to enable him to form a judgment. He would
demand, if in office, from the House of Commons, an ex-
pression of confidence by not forcing him to give any prema-
ture opinion. He would ask for time to consider, giving to
the house the pledge that he would turn his attention to the
snbject, admitting the principle that in the time of peace the
revenue ought to be fully equal to meet the expenditure.
The right hon. baronet concluded a speech of two hours and
a half duration amidst the most enthusiastic cheering.
Lord PALMERSTON contended that throUghout the debate
the weight of argument was most triumphantly on the side
of ministers. So tar was his right hon. friend the Chancellor
of the Exchequer from asking the right hon. baronet for a
budget that he came prepared with one to supply the finan-
cial deficiency, not by means of fresh taxation, but by means
of relieving the people from a portion of their present bur-
dens. The real question at issue was one between reason
and prejudice—a question as to whether they were to allow
the springs of the industry of the country to be choked up
by the interests of private classes. The noble lord ridiculed
the hypocrisy, as he called it, of excluding slave-grown sugar
from our markets, on principle, while we made no scruple of
refining it, and still less about allowing it to he freely con-
sumed in our West India n colonies ; of course because it
was assumed that the negroes had no consciences to deter
them from using it.
Lord J. RUSSELL entered into some explanations of some
misconceptions formed relative to what he had said on a for-
mer occasion, and stated that after the division on the mo-
tion before the house, he would then move the resolution of
which lie had given notice, to the effect that it was possible to
meet the deficiency in the revenue, by a judicions alteration
of discriminative and protective duties, without laying any
additional burdens on the people.
On a division, the motion of Lord Sandon was carried by
a majority of 317 to 281.
Lord J. RUSSELL'S motion was then put from the chair,
and negatived without a division.
The house adjourned at four o'clock until Thursday.