The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-07-08
BRITISH EMANCIPATION.

The following item of news was received by
the Niagara
In the British Parliament THURSDAY
petitions were presented from Jamaica Anti
qua, st. Kits British Guiana, and the Maur-
thus, complaining of the distressed condition of
those colonies and assigning the sugar act of
II $40 as the cause of their ruin"
Now it is well known that Cuba
Rico are prosperous although thel ions
are like those of the British WeS Net
the Spanish Islands have no protdUcye duties
In their favor, but on the contrary have to en-
counter high export duties. before their com
modities can go abroad, and then have to pay
high protective duties before entering foreign
ports. Yet the British colonists are too timid
or too stupid to avow Emancipation as the
cause of their ruin.-SOuthern Press.
We should like somebody to tell US when
these British Islands were not in distressed
condition. There are documents on record
which show that for twenty-five years preced-
ing the act of Emancipation they were on the
brink of ruin every year, just as they have been
every year since that act The original disease
of the Islands was Slavery which filled them
with unintelligent laborers, and concentrated
all labor and capital in the production of a few
staples, whereby the wealth of the colonies was
at the mercy of the seasons and those physical
commissions so common in the tropics; which
led to absenteeism and the wasteful system of
employing attorneys and oyerseers; generated
habits of prodigality among the masters and I'M
thrift among the slaves; and plunged the islands
in debt SO that before Emancipation there were
few estates which were not covered over with
mortgages. Bankruptcy and ruin would have
come inevitably under such system, and
nothing but the Emancipation Act with its
bonus of twenty millions prevented it. Since
then, labor has been more diversified, and the
women and children to a considerable extent
have been taken from the plantations, so that
a less amount of sugar is raised
This fact so far from telling against the
Emancipation Act, is an illustration of it's be-
nefcent policy
But the Southern Press overlooks very i'm.
portant consideration The British West India
Islands, under the system of slave labor, were
protected in the production of sugar by dis
eliminating duties almost prohibitory against
foreign sugars. We have before us a table of
duties on sugars imported into the United King
dom from 1920 to 1874 The duty on British
Plantation sugar for the five years ending 1924,
was, for Muscoyado, E Is per cwt on Clayed,
I'll l2s.,' foreign Muscovado, f3, Clayed, "a
IS. Sd. The next five years it was e Is on
both sorts OF British Plantation sugars f3 IS.
on both sorts of foreign. The next ten years,
1t was reduced to FL 4s on British Plantation
sugars, but continued at f3 3s on foreign
This was the state of things down to 1910,
two years after the Emancipation Act The
duties were then raised to FL S. 3D. on British
Plantation sugars, and f3 IS Id on foreign;
but in lS44 the foreign sugars were admitted
under duty of 81 | IS. Sd-being difference
of scarcely lis. in favor of the domestic pro
duct and in 1916, the duty on the latter was
reduced to lis Cd. per cwt., and on the former
to 2ls-showing discrimination of but IS. Cd
aud thenforward both classes of sugar were
subjected to a descending scale of duties until
1851, when it was enacted that the duty of IS
should be levied equally on British and foreign
An alteration was however
made in ls49, increasing the discriminating
duty between the domestic and foreign sugars
to S. Cd per cwtr and postponing the equal
zaton of the duties till the year 1854, when oil
Muscovado sugars without distinction OF coun'
try or origin are to enter the British markets
at los. per cwt. Meantime, according to
descending scale Of duties, the discrimination III
favor of the domestic sugars is now only So
and one year hence will be reduced to IS
The fact which our contemporaries have en-
tirely overlooked is this that with the system
of slave labor the planters Of the British colo
Mes under the operation OF high dlscrim'na-
ting duties enjoyed nearly monopoly of the
British markets; while under the system oil
s,ss labor this discrimination has been so near
~ abolished that they have been brought into
direct competition with the planters Of Brazil and
Cuba. They could not stand this competition
with the slave-labor system, much less could they
endure il with system Of free labor, requiring
n change in their habits and modes of life and
industry While their force was necessarily
and for good cause diminished on the plants.
tions, by the withdrawal OF the women ana
children TO great extent and by the reason
able limitation of the hours Of labor; and while
the work Of replsnishng their force TIL u VIZ