The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-03-12 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORMNG, MARCH 12, 1844.

The debate, on the motion of Mr. Labouchere, for
the equalisation of the sugar duties, has done little
which is calculated to strengthen the Whig oppo-
sition and their ally, the Anti-Corn-law League, in
the country; but it has effected, nevertheless, one
or tw,) very important results. It has disclosed, in
the first place, our real position, with respect to our
commerce with Brazil, and the nature of the propo-
sitions made to us by that country in the recent nego-
tiations for a settlement of its tariff ; and, in the
next place, it has aflorded an opportunity for the
puritan portion of the free-trade party to throw
boldly from them the mask of affected philanthropy,
(from behind which they canted and gesticulated,
from anti-slavery platforms, and rained down tears
of compassion for the woes of the negro,) and to
stand before the world the apologists of slavery, and
the abettors of the slave trade. We are now plainly
told that it is no part of the policy of Great Britain
to attempt the amelioration of the condition of the
slave in Brazil or elsewhere ; that the object of go-
vernment ought to be solely to procure cheap sugar,
even at the risk of the total ruin of our own free
colonies_ and the aggravation of the horrors of slavery
and the slave trade throughout the world.
Let us see then what is our position, and what
the future prospects of our commerce with Brazil.
We were threatened by that country, upon the expi-
ration of the existing treaty, with a restrictive tariff,
by which the duties upon British manufactures were
to be raised, from the present maximum rate of 15
per cent, to a minimum one of 60 per cent. Last
year an attempt was made to negotiate upon the
subject. Mr. Ellis was accredited on the part of this
country to treat with the Brazilian government; and
how was he met ? It was proposed by them that
Great Britain should agree to receive the produce of
Brazil at a differential duty of 10 per cent. upon that
levied upon the produce of British colonies ; in other
words, that, if the duty on British plantation sugar
is 255. per cwt. the maximum duty on Brazilian su-
gar should be 275. 3d. And this, moreover, was to
be irrespective altogether of the question of slavery
or the slave trade, it being distinctly stipulated that
sugar raised by slaves sent from Africa should be
admitted into this almost equal competition with the
produce of our own free-labour colonies. To such
terms, of course, Mr. Ellis could not agree ; and
from the absurdly ridiculous notions, which had been
instilled into the Brazilian government by Whig-
Radical speechifying, in Parliament and elsewhere,
as to the vast importance to this country of the
commerce of Brazil, he was led at once to the con-
clusion that to treat with it to any advantage was

hopeless.
The next attempt of the two countries to come to
terms was the visit to England of Senhor de Ribeiro.
By that gentleman the same demand of a differen-
tial duty of one-tenth was made, together with other
important claims. And what was the magnificent
offer of Brazil in return ? We were to throw open
to her our markets, without restriction, and irre-
spective of any stipulations upon the subject of sla-
very ; and she would generously consent to impose
no higher a duty upon our woollen goods than 30
per cent. ; and upon our cotton goods, which con.
stitute three-fifths of our trade with her, she would
impose on& 40 per cent. ! With respect to the du-
ties upon all other goods, she was to be under no
restriction whatever, but to fix them as high as she
might choose. We were thus, in fact, to give all,
and receive nothing; and it is therefore no matter
of wonder that the mission of Senhor de Ribeiro
effected nothing. _ _

Yet, in the face of this abundant evidence of the
indisposition of the Brazilian government to treat us
in a fair and honest spirit, we are urged by the
Whig-Radical party to give up even more than is
demanded, and to stipulate for nothing in return !
We are to involve productive colonies in ruin. We
are to consign large consumers of our manufactured
goods to poverty. We are to permit some hundreds
of thousands of emancipated labourers to fall back
from the light of civilisation into barbarism. We
are to give new activity to the slave trade, and added
torture to the whip and the branding iron. And
fot what object ? That the Brookses and Brights
may receive their remittances in Brazilian sugar,
and the consumers of England save possibly a far-
thing a pound in the commodity of sweets. Yes,
for such a boon it is that England is to make sacri-
fices so fast; and, in addition, is to abandon that
vantage ground which she now occupies, and which
will ultimately, if preserved, enable her to dictate
the terms upon which the curse of slavery shall be
swept from the face of the earth.
We are not blind to the value of our export trade
to Brazil, although we cannot place that extreme va-
lue upon it at which it is estimated by the League
millowners of Manchester, or the Anti-monopoly
Association of our own town. It is a trade in arti-
cles upon which a minimum portion of labour has
been bestowed. It is less valuable, in proportion to
its extent, than the trade with our own East India
or West India colonies. Suchjas it is, however, we
would gladly make some sacrifices to retain it; but
putting aside the claims of our own free labour co-
lonies, and their superior value to us as customers—
leaving out of consideration altogether the question
of slavery and the slave trade—supposing even that
England was content (which she is not, despite the
testimony of self-constituted provincial cliques,
calling themselves branches of the Anti-Slavery
Society) to stultify herself—to abase herself in the
eyes of the world—by invigorating and perpetuating
that horrible trade in human flesh, which she has
made such vast efforts and such unparallelled sacri-
fices to put down, the mind of the Brazilian people
and the temper of the Brazilian government are not
prepared at the present moment, and may not be
prepared for years to come, to meet our advances
for a fair and equal commercial intercourse. Expe-
rience of past negociations, as we have already
shewn, has demonstrated this to be the fact; and
what, we ask—and we put it earnestly to our fellow-
townsmen who are just now being wrought upon by