, 1874-11-14

QefBtaDulnS Dy the DFltlSh pupHo OF the Gull
grafton question. A large space In q recent
letter is taken up by q most interesting ao;
count Of O visit to the British Guiana coolie
depot In Calcutta. The correspondent COM
mends the good management of the depot
IN terms that must be very gratifying to Mr..
Firth, the agent for the colony. The houses
are Ike a fa~ir-sized village and fitted up with
q regard to sanitary measures known in no
Indian village. The principal points Of tho
emigration-with which all readers Of the
EUROPEAN MAI are famillar-and O number
of facts showing the benefits of the system to
the coolies are referred to. This record Of The
impressions of an impartial observer, who saw
people In the depot ready TO start for the West
Indies, some of them a second time, and who
talked with people who had just come back to
India, ts very welcome after all the misrepro-
s~entation with which this system of emigration
has been clouded. A long extract from Mr..
Mitchell's last report, giving an account of The
career of Barath Sing in Trinidad, concludes
the notice. Emigration may now be consider
ed as q recognised means of dealing with the
evils arising from over, population in India.
The parliamentary paper just issued, CON.
tanning correspondence relative to the Sugar
Convention of 1864, is a timely publication.
From it we can gather with some distinotness
the present state of the question, and the fact
is apparent that our Government have not been
remiss in pressing for q satisfactory solution.
The paper comprises forty two pages, and
some important and instructive documents are
included. In February of the present year
Lord Lyons wrote to the French Government
expressing the opinion that 50 long as the CON
vention remained in force 1t should be faithfully
observed. At that time q mixed commission
was being arranged, to hold It's meetings In
London. The sittings took place, and the
English sugar refners attended and stated their
complaints. 1t IS not necessary to recapitulate
here the technical points that were discussed.
Animated debates in the National Assembly
were proceeding during this month, resulting
IN the resolution to establish refining in bond
In France in July, 1875, being referred to tho
Budget Committee. Lord Derby did not seem
to think that France could establish reGu-
ing in bond, while the Convention lasted,
without the consent of all the parties
to that Convention. This, of course. strength
oned the position of the French Government
In delaying the needed reform for above a year.
But under the circumstances it may be presUm-
cd that no other course was possible upon O
strictly legal view of the Convention but
then, on the other hand, it is equally indisputa-
bic that those countries which did not adopt
refining in bond at once were bound to observe
the terms Of The Convention. Otherwise that
muoh-discussed document was q piece Of waste
paper. The report of the French Budget Com.
mittee on the resolutions CT the Assembly was
very unsatisfactory, and settled nothing but,
on the matter coming again before the Assem-
bly,, the report of the Committee was overruled,
and NJ. Pouyer Quertier's amendment, declar-
Ing for refining In bond on July l, 1875, sat
the latest, was carried by a large majority.
Lord Derby then told the French Government
that they might adopt this system as soon as
they liked, without waiting till the date above
mentioned, and that if they did not do so they
must carry out the Convention as It stood.
Then the French Government proposed another
convention, binding all the Powers to refine in
bond, the only result of this proposition being
naturally further delay. The next point seems
to have been the settlement of the regulations
necessary for carrying out the new system, but
as this system was already In force in the
fa6riq@es all over France, Its extension to the
r~efneries might have been looked upon as a
very simple matter. Not So, however, The
question was found too difficult to be settled SO
rapidly. Then the abolition of the sugar du-
ties in England made NJ. Ozenne shake his head
and protest that this measure needed full con-
sideration. The month of May arrived. and the
regulations were still undecided. Belgium re-
maiOad mpraofIoobIo and 1ot1,, ~of,uod RI