the pro tinent of Europe, the East-Indian trade, the British empire in India, and the people of the united kingdom, ought to be relieved from the burthen of the protecting duty that, when tecting duty was granted with a view of securing a preference in the home market to the West-Indian planters, the main argument employed in defence of the measure was, their being excluded from foreign markets (with the exception of ports south of Cape Finisterre, under certain regulations); and consequently since the range of the world had been afforded them for the sale of their produce, and the purchase of their supplies, that preference should cease-that, continuing to the West-Indians the virtual monopoly of the home market, whilst their sugars are allowed to enter into direct competition with East-Indian sugars in foreign markets, confers an undue advantage on the former, at the expense of the latter-that the retention of the protecting duty was an injury to the people of the united kingdom, by its obvious tendency to enhance the price of sugar, an article of such general use amongst all classes of the community; and would also prove injurious to the revenue, by narrowing the consumption that it was further highly injurious to the merchants, manufacturers, and ship-owners, engaged in the trade between this country and India, by crippling their means of successfully prosecuting their commerce-and that the use of sugar, as a dead weight to ships returning from India, was essential to the existence of the trade with that country. It was likewise asserted, that the demand for British manufac tures on the part of our Indian population had greatly increased; that its further increase was limited chiefly by the difficulty of procuring returns; and that the privation of so material an article as sugar was one of the chief causes of this difficulty, and tended decidedly to check the increase of what promised to become one of the most valuable branches of British commercethat the protecting duty, moreover, inflicted a serious injury on the great body of the people of Hindostan, who were entitled as British subjects to a fair participation in the home market, and who possessed this further claim, that they provided for their own protection and civil government; and, instead of proving a burthen to the united kingdom,increased its wealth and added to its resources-that in estimating the comparative importance of the two branches of British commerce, thus brought into competition, the immense difference in the population of the East and West Indies should not be overlooked; as the trade with the East Indies was to meet the growing demand of a population of one hundred millions, whilst that with our West-Indian colonies was confined to a population of seven or eight hundred thousand-that the opposers of the protecting duty asked for no exclusive favour, preference, or protection, but required only to be placed upon an equal footing with the West-Indians, both in the amount of duties, and in the classification of qualities; so that, if British India could produce cheaper sugar, her numerous population, placed under British protection, might not be deprived of the best means of exercising their industry, or forced to divert their trade to foreign countries; and that the united kingdom might not lose the inestimable advantage of the exchange of its manufactures for the productions of India. These arguments were enforced by the influence of those who were connected with the East Indies: they were, on the contrary, violently resisted by the West-Indian interest, who regarded the proposed equalization as pregnant with their ruin. And it must be confessed, that this measure, whatever may be its intrinsic merits, was brought forward at a most unseasonable moment. The West-Indian proprietors and planters were involved in deep embarrassments, which might yet rise to a still greater height: was it at such a crisis that we ought to adopt a change of policy, which could not fail to augment the present difficulties of a large and important branch of the community, who were already greatly depressed? Surely prudence recommended to wait till they were in their ordinary state of prosperity, before we adopted a course which might operate to their disadvantage. On the 22nd of May, Mr. Whitmore moved for the appointment of a select committee to inquire into the duties payable on East and West Indian sugar. In support of his motion he showed, that the trade between Europe and India, from the earliest periods down to the day on which it had been rendered open, had always been of the same description. Drugs, spices, and silks, were imported into Europe from India, and bullion was invariably exported in return for them from Europe into India. The opening of the trade with India had, however, created a most extraordinary revolution; for the consequence had been, that a mart had been discovered for British manufactures, on which nobody could have calculated, before it was actually found to exist. The exports of woollen goods from Europe to India amounted in 1815 to 183,430l.; in 1822 they amounted to 1,421,649/. But the most extraordinary circumstance was, the change that had occurred in the cotton trade between India and this country. Formerly we had imported certain cotton goods from India; now we were actually supplying the natives with those articles at a lower price than that for which they could afford to manufacture them. In 1815, the export of cotton goods to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope amounted to 109,480l.: in the year 1822, they had increased to 1,120,3251. Reflecting on the distance at which we were from that country, and the low price at which labour could be obtained in it, he considered the fact of our being enabled to import the raw material into this country, to change it into a manufactured article, to export it back again to India, and then to sell it at a lower price than that at which the natives could afford to sell it in their own markets, to be one of the most extraordinary triumphs of skill and industry that had ever been recorded in the annals of commercial enterprise. We had thus annihilated, at least in the neighbourhood of the presidencies, the trade which had existed there from the earliest periods. That event might prove to be either a blessing or a curse. It would prove a blessing, if parliament should enable the natives of India to employ, in another channel, the industry which it had diverted from its former objects; but it would prove a curse indeed, if, after destroying their manufac tures, we should be guilty of an act of such gross injustice, as to refuse to take from them such articles of commerce as their industry enabled them to produce. Our commerce with Hindostan was as yet only in its infancy. There was no assignable limit to it, if we would only permit our merchants to take from India those articles which she was enabled to produce. But great as was the avidity of the natives to purchase English goods, they would be incapacitated from doing so, if they were not allowed to give their own articles in exchange for them, and consequently our commerce with them would not only not be increased, but would not even be enabled to continue in that successful state to which it had arrived. In former times there was a great importation of bullion into India, in return for the drugs and spices which she sent to Europe. Now, that importation had in a great degree ceased; and without staying to inquire what would be the effect of withdrawing more bullion from India, it must be ob yious to every man, that as India did not produce bullion, all trade with it must be stopped, if it were not permitted to export its own produce. He therefore contended, that, as far as our empire in India was concerned, we were bound, by not only a sense of justice, but of individual interest, to abolish the restrictions with which the importation of East-Indian sugars into the home market was at present fettered. He then proceeded to consider the question with regard to the interests of the West-Indian islands. It had been said, that the present timewas exceedingly adverse to the motion; for that it was hard to bring it forward at a moment when the West-Indian interests were suffering so much distress. He lamented that distress as much as any man, but it was necessary here to look a little at the cause of the evil its cause was not the competition of East-Indian sugar, nor its cure the more rigid enforcement of the monopoly enjoyed by West-Indian sugar. By one mode only could the distress be relieved, by a general change of the whole system in the West Indies. As long as slavery existed, as long as the poor lands were made to produce sugar, as long as freights continued so high in consequence of overcharge, so long would the West Indies be distressed. The great grievance was the slavesystem, which increased so largely the cost of production. The West-Indian planters, he added, seemed to assert, that they had a right-nay a chartered right to the continuance of these protecting duties. In vain did he look for this charter amid acts of parliament and grants of the Crown, But though he could not find this charter, he found, by the search for it, a fact that was scarcely less important-namely, that the duties on East-Indian sugar had sometimes been the same as those on West Indian sugar, nay, that they had sometimes even been less. Previously to 1803, the duties on EastIndian sugar were ad valorem duties, and though generally higher, were, whenever the price of sugar was considerably depressed, really lower than the duties on West-Indian sugar. Mr. Whitmore then gave an historical detail of the various measures, by which the West-Indian planters had obtained the imposition of extra duties of 10s. and 15s. on East-Indian sugar, and con tended, that, though they might have some claim to protection when the colonial system was flourishing in full vigour, they had none now that it was relaxed. The motion was resisted by Mr. Ellice, and Mr. Marryatt, who argued, that the West-Indian colonies, though freed from some restrictions, were still fettered by many regulations imposed with a view to the benefit of Great Britain, and therefore had a right to some protection in the home market. They remained subject to all the restrictions regarding the supply of British manufactures, By the intercourse bill of last year, the trade was limited strictly to some articles before permitted to be imported. Nothing was lost to the British manufacturer in point of protection-nothing gained to the West-Indian planters in point of restriction. The protection to the farmers, and provision-merchants of Ireland was the same as formerly -that of the British fisheries remained untouched, and the British ship-owners were still allowed the exclusive carrying trade: restrictions which were extremely onerous to the West-Indian planter, and for which he had a title to compensating privileges. The result, it was further argued, of an equalization of duties would be a great fall in the price of sugar, and the ruin of our colonies and all the population depending upon them. Mr. Ricardo, on the contrary, contended, that the effect of the proposed alteration would be, not to lower the price of sugars to any considerable amount, but to prevent them from rising above their value. Mr. Huskisson opposed the motion. He Ricardo, that, so long as a surplus. of West-Indian sugar was annually imported into this country, the price of it in the market must be regulated by the markets of the world: and the East-Indians were now contending for a measure, which either would not alter the quantity of sugar imported: or if it did, would be injurious in the end to the growers of it. They had already the continent of Europe and the United States to which their sugar might be sent, and the largest export from the East Indies to all parts of the world (excluding England) in any one year, was about 4,000 tons, and (including England) about 11,000 tons. would ask, what prevented those countries of Europe, which had no colonies of their own, from having been supplied before now with this cheap East-Indian sugar: It was notorious that France had supplied those countries from St. Domingo; and the real fact was, that, on a comparison of the prices, it was found that the supply from the East Indies would not have come cheaper into the European market. He admitted that, considering the question abstractedly, and without reference to the state of things which had grown out of the colonial policy of this country for the last century-the only point was, where, as consumers, could we get our sugars at the cheapest rate? But he denied that the question ought to be so abstractedly considered. It was to be looked at with reference to a number of complicated circumstances; and far was he from agreeing that the House might press hard upon a West-Indian, because that WestIndian happened to be an owner of slaves. That the West-Indian was an owner of slaves was not his fault, but his misfortune and if it was true that the production of slavery was more costly than that of free labour, that would be an additional reason for not depriving him of the advantage of his protecting duty. As for the benefit expected to accrue to India, in the shape of employment for her population, from the removal of the duty in question, Mr. Huskisson believed that those advantages were altogether imaginary. Supposing what he did not believe would be the case that the removal of the protecting duty would lead to an increased production of sugar in India, still the persons, who had been employed in manufacturing muslins, would not turn their hands to the cultivation of sugar. Such a transfer of labour from one course of action to another would be difficult in any country; and in India the system of castes rendered it almost impossible. But whatever effect the reduction of duty might have upon the East Indies, it would have no operation upon the price of sugar, as regarded the consumer in this country: for as long as-whether from the East Indies or the West-we had a surplus of sugar, the price in the market of England must be regulated by the prices in the general market of the world. Whether the East-Indian sugar came to this country, or went at once to the Continent, was a matter of no importance to the home consumer, as long as there was a surplus of production. The right hon. gentleman then went into a comparative statement of the quantities of sugar produced by the old colonies in the year 1789 and at the present time; and also into an account of the different consump tion of this country at the same two periods. The produce of sugar in the old colonies-those ceded to England before the year 1763-had been 90,000 tons in the year 1789; and the home consumption in the same year had been 70,000 tons. The present production of those same colonies was 140,000 tons a year; and the consumption of England now was 140,000 tons a year. If we had retained only the old colonies, therefore, our supply at the present moment would just have equalled our demand. He denied that the abatement of duty would bring any considerable additional supply of sugar from the East Indies. Bengal, at the present time, imported more sugar from China and from Java, than she sent to Europe. Much of the sugar, almost all indeed which now came from the East Indies, came free of freight as ballast to vessels. But if c we were to look to any thing like a considerable supply, we must freight ships with the article in a regular way; so that a considerable addition would be made to the price. Mr. Huskisson concluded by stating, that he was willing to take off the duty of 5s, which had been imposed two years ago upon a particular sort of sugar coming from the East Indies, which was thought to be equal to the clayed sugar of the West Indies. Considerable difficulty was found in appreciating this particular sugar: The best judges were often unable to say, whether it was a clayed sugar or not. To obviate the inconvenience which the East-Indian planters suffered from having to send that sugar, uncertain whether the protecting duty charged upon them would be ten shillings or fifteen, he was disposed to do once |