Russell) it was generally supposed, was to meet cases of this kind. The petition was worded, as far as possible, so that it should not be regarded as an election petition, nor was there any thing in it, as far as he saw, that could affect the seat of the sitting Member. There could be a Commis sion issued to inquire into the facts, and place them before the country, exposing the violence and contravention of the law which had taken place. MR. HILDYARD begged to remind the House of a petition presented in the last Parliament of a similar nature, in which precisely the same question was raised. That petition, which had reference to the then recent election for the Falkirk burghs, alleged that treating had been carried on to an alarming extent, and prayed for inquiry; but the then Attorney General (Sir A. Cockburn) held that the allegations of the petitioner were such as, if proved, would amount to those of an election petition; and that as no election petition had been presented within the prescribed time, it was not competent for the House to deal with the question; and according to that view the House decided. Now, with this decision before them, it was impossible, he thought, for the House to entertain the present petition. MR. HUME would ask if he was to understand that complaints of infractions of the election law, were not in future to be inquired into by that House, except when brought before them by means of the costly process of an election Committee? If any mode was pointed out by which an inquiry could be obtained, he was ready to adopt it. MR. T. DUNCOMBE said, that the question before them was, whether this petition referred to matters that could be inquired into in the ordinary way before an election Committee, or under the Corrupt Practices at Elections Act? It appeared to him that the complaint was against certain individuals who had spent their money at the election in favour of a particular candidate, and not generally against a constituency. If the petition charged the constituency in general with corruption, then no doubt, under the Act he had referred to, it would have been open for his hon. Friend to move an Address to the Crown to institute an inquiry; but, as far as he understood it, it did not. MR. HUME said, he was only anxious that some investigation should take place, VOL. CXXIII. [THIRD SERIES.] and was willing to be guided by the authority of the Chair. MR. SPEAKER: Then my opinion is that the petition should be withdrawn. THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT-THE BUDGET. MR. HUME said, he begged to inquire whether the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer would detail the course which he intended to pursue with regard to the public business of tomorrow? By the paper which he held in his hand, he saw that the right hon. Gentleman proposed to bring forward-first, the question of the Inhabited House Duties; second, that of the Tea Duties; third, that of the reduction of the duty upon Malt; and, lastly, the Property and The House must vote separately upon all these propositions, and he wished to know whether one vote was to decide the fate of all. Income Tax. The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER said, he desired that the decision of the House should be taken upon the whole of the financial scheme. He understood that to be the wish of the House, and it was certainly the wish of the Government. It was for that reason he had placed all the Resolutions upon the table. It would of decision of the House upon the first Resocourse be necessary formally to take the lution, but he would look upon that decision as conclusive of the general policy they had recommended. SIR JOHN SHELLEY begged to give notice that he would move, as an Amendment of the right hon. Gentleman's Resolutions, that the whole subject should be postponed until after the Christmas recess. The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER begged to state that with respect to the Committee which he should move the House to resolve itself into, it had been a question whether it should be a Committee of Ways and Means, or one upon the Bill. He had consulted the highest authority upon that subject, who was of opinion that it might be either. It was his intention, therefore, to propose with respect to the first Resolution, that the House resolve itself into a Committee of Ways and Means, and upon the Tea duties he should move that the House go into Committee SIR DE LACY EVANS said, as he observed a difference between the Financial Statement and the Resolutions which were laid upon the table of the House, he should wish to know whether the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer had abandoned his original intentions? The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHE- THE AUCKLAND ISLANDS- MR. MILLER said, he would beg to ask the right hon. Secretary for the Colonies whether Mr. Enderby had been recalled from the Auckland Islands; if so, the circumstances under which his recall had taken place; and whether the right hon. Baronet had any objection to place upon the table of the House the Correspondence relating thereto, together with a Copy of any graut, lease, or charter made in relation to the Auckland Islands, either to Mr. Enderby or any other person or persons; also whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to appoint any other Governor in the place of Mr. Enderby, or to take any steps with a view to the colonisation of the said Islands? was expected from Sir George Grey, under whose jurisdiction the Auckland Islands were, and, pending the Report, Mr. Enderby's resignation had not been accepted. Under these circumstances his answer must be, that the Government had no intention of sending out any Governor in place of Mr. Enderby, or of taking steps to colonise these Islands. THE SUGAR DUTIES. But MR. J. WILSON said, he wished to call the attention of the House to the effects of the Sugar Acts of 1846 and 1848 upon the British Sugar Colonies, and upon the Sugar Trade of the United Kingdom. It might, perhaps, be objected that, after the speech made the other night by the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he ought not to persevere with this Motion; but he felt it his duty to draw the attention of the House to this subject, not for the purpose of placing the Government in an unpleasant position, but in order that the anxieties of the Colonists might be put an end to upon this most important subject. On Friday last the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer stated what he intended to do with regard to the Colonists, and if he had confined himself to that statement, he (Mr. Wilson) should have been satisfied to have let the question rest where it was. the right hon. Gentleman, not merely content with stating what he intended to do, thought proper to impugn the acts of that House, on this question during the last four or five years, as acts of injustice and harshness towards the West Indian Colonies. Now, he thought that if these acts thus stigmatised were capable of vindication, they should be vindicated, and if they were not, that justice should be afforded to the Colonists; and it was because he took the former view of the question, that he determined to persevere with this Motion. The exact position in which the question now stood was this. It might be recollected that about a year ago they had information that the great battle to be fought between the two great parties in that House would be upon the question of the Sugar Duties. And they were aware that a very extensively organised systemhe did not say that the right hon. Gentleman was connected with that organisation SIR JOHN PAKINGTON said, in the first place Mr. Enderby had not been recalled from the Governorship of the Auckland Islands, therefore, he could not state the circumstances under which that recall took place. He would beg to remind the hon. Member of the circumstances under which Mr. Enderby came to the appointment of Lieutenant Governor of these Islands. In 1848 a lease was granted by the Crown to a Company for the purposes of the whale fishery, and Mr. Enderby was sent out by that Company as their Commissioner, and it was in compliance with the Company's request that Mr. Enderby received from the Crown the Commission as Lieutenant Governor that he might preserve order in the Islands. At a subsequent period the Company became dissatisfied, and sent out other Commissioners, who prevailed on Mr. Enderby to send in had been established throughout the his resignation. The whole of the circumstances had been brought to the notice of the Governor of New Zealand, and a report whole of the Sugar Colonies, by petitions to Parliament and otherwise, for the purpose of repealing or arresting the descend 1158 When classes of Her Majesty's subjects." [3 Hansard, cxix. 1036.] ing scale of the Sugar Duties. Parliament met on the 3rd of February, the result of this agitation manifested it. self. On the first night of the Session, the right hon. Baronet the Secretary for the Colonies came down to the House and At the same time the noble Lord at the head of the Government said in the other House on the 10th of June "Whatever other alleviation might be afforded put a notice upon the books, asking the House to go into a Committee upon the Sugar Duties. A change of Government took place, and the notice was changed from the 21st of February to the 27th of the same month, and it was ultimately al-sisted between British and slave-grown sugar." lowed to drop. Soon after the new Minis to the distress of the planters, they could only be enabled effectually and permanently to meet the competition of foreign countries by some measure which should have the effect, if not of establishing the old differential duties, at least of preventing the further reduction of those which now sub try was formed, he (Mr. Wilson) put a As a matter of course, all persons interestquestion to the right hon. Gentleman-ed in colonial matters were greatly anxious then become Secretary for the Colonies- to know what the views of the Government whether he intended to persevere with the Motion of which he had given notice? The right hon. Gentleman's reply was this :— "Sir, I felt it to be my duty, as a member of the Opposition, to press upon Her Majesty's Ministers what I believed to be the disastrous effects of their own acts. I refer to the Act of 1846, modified by the subsequent Act of 1848, regulating the duties on sugar. Sir, as a member of Her Majesty's present Government, which is in an acknowledged minority in this House, I conceive it to be no less my duty to take whatever course I may think best for the promotion of the object we have in view; and we do not think that it would tend to the relief of West Indian distress might be after the general election. It if we were, during the present Session, to press bury has alluded. But, Sir, I must beg leave to the great question of slavery and the slave trade, have undergone no change whatever. On the contrary, I am now receiving, almost daily, the most painful proofs of the distress which has existed in the British Colonies; but, without being at all indifferent to that distress, we have determined that those questions, like others of the same nature, ought to be kept for the consideration of a future Parliament, reserving distinctly to ourselves the right hereafter to deal with this question, if we shall be in a position so to do-to deal with this question in such a manner as we shall consider to be required by the justice of the case, and by a due regard to the interests of all therefore highly expedient, the Government having virtually given up this question, which they had so long sustained, that the Government should state to the House, and to the public, and to the colonists, why it was that, upon further reflection, they had changed their views, and given thus, so far, a vindication of the course which the Legislature had lately pursued on this subject. He would, in the first place, call the attention of the House to the circumstances in which the sugar trade stood in 1845, when the law was first altered. It might appear a very remarkable fact, but nevertheless it was a fact, and a fact of great significance, that for thirty-five years preceding that time the consumption of sugar in this country might be said to be entirely stationary. In 1810, according to a Parliamentary paper which he held in his hand, the consumption of sugar in the United Kingdom was 196,000 tons. From 1810 | the three years ending 1852, it was to 1830, during which period the planters 382,000 tons. But he might be told by had the advantage of slavery, so far as the noble Lord opposite (Lord Stanley), labour was concerned, and of an exclusive that although there had been that large monopoly of the markets of this country, increase in the consumption of sugar, yet the consumption never reached the amount it was a poor consolation to the West Init was in 1810. In 1830 it was 202,000 dies if it happened that the largest portons, and from that period to 1844 it re- tion of the increase was in foreign slavemained almost stationary, being, in 1844, grown sugar. So far, however, from that only 206,000 tons. It was impossible for being the case, during those three years the Government of the day to look at that preceding the alteration of the law, the simple fact that the supply of so neces- importation of sugar from the West Indies sary an article as sugar remained stationary was 127,000 tons, and in the last three whilst the population was rapidly increas- years, under the Act of 1846, 147,000 ing-without being convinced there was tons. From the Mauritius, during the something extremely wrong in the laws first three years to which he had referred, which regulated that supply. Such being the quantity was 30,000 tons; during the the state of things from 1810 to 1844, he last three years, 48,000 tons. From the would next direct the attention of the East Indies, during the first three years House to what had occurred from 1846 to the quantity was 49,000 tons; during the the present time. An objection had been last three years, 68,000 tons. Taking the taken to the statement of the right hon. aggregate of the British possessions, the Chancellor of the Exchequer the other total importation during the three years night on this subject. He (Mr. Wilson) preceding the Act was 209,000 tons; and could see, that while the right hon. Gentle- during the last three years, under the Act, man was speaking, some of his supporters 264,000 tons. So that, taking the sugar behind him were discussing the subject productions of the British possessions, examong themselves, and seemed to think clusive of foreign, there had been an inthat the year to which the right hon. Gen- crease of 50,000 tons in the average of tlemen had referred was an exceptional the last three years, compared with the year, and that it was unfair to take a three years preceding the Act of 1846. single year's importation of an article so And if they took the first and last year, fluctuating in regard to quantity and sub- they would find a much more striking reject to such exigencies in regard to its sult. In the first of those years, the concrop as the tropical article of sugar. His sumption of British Colonial sugar amount(Mr. Wilson's) attention had been drawn ed to 216,000 tons, and the last year of to that point by the West India Associa- all it amounted to 309,000 tons. tion of Glasgow, marking the following was a conclusive proof that the consumppassage in a pamphlet they had sent tion of sugar in this country had increashim :ed nearly fifty per cent during the last six "With reference to the year 1851 [the year to which the right hon. Gentleman referred], the above comparison shows moreover most clearly that any inference unfavourable to the claims of the West Indies founded on 1851, must be untenable, and that in such a complicated question no safe conclusion can be based on the returns of any single year." He admitted the force of that argument, and, perhaps, the right hon. Gentleman's reference to 1851 might be open to that remark. But he would take the consumption of sugar during the three years preceding the alteration of the law in 1846, and the consumption during the last three years since that alteration. They would then have a fair average, to which that objection could not possibly apply. The consumption of sugar during the three years ending 1844, was 207,000 tons; during years, That the preceding thirty-five years. By the and had remained stationary during Act of 1846, an immense amount of sugar had been released for the benefit of the consumers, which had been excluded before, and the British possessions had shared a portion of that advantage larger than that of Foreign Colonies. The noble Lord the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs published last year a pamphlet on this subject, and deserved infinite credit for the industry and trouble with which he had collected facts with regard to the West Indies; but on those facts he could not so completely rely as on official returns made to that House. He would not for a moment impute-on the contrary, he knew it was not the case-that the noble Lord had been careless or indifferent as to the sources from which he had The produc In derived his information; nor would he im- their share of the increase. pute to the gentlemen from whom he de- tion of the East Indies during the five rived that information the slightest wish to years under protection, was 58,000 tons, exaggerate the true state of the Colonies and in the first five years of free trade in which they lived; but he thought it was | 71,000. In the Mauritius in the first five hardly safe to rely altogether on the views | years, it was 32,000 tons; in the last five of particular persons, who perhaps from years 50,000 tons. Those two facts were circumstances independent of the law were consistent with the noble Lord's argument; in a state of suffering and distress. The but taking the West Indies, he thought noble Lord in that pamphlet put forward the House would perceive the conclusion of this argument, that although the consump- the noble Lord was not consistent with tion had increased, yet we were indebted to fact. In British Guiana the average prothe East Indies and the Mauritius for the duction of the five years under protection increased production and supply, and that was 24,000 tons; in the five years under we had been obliged to resort there to free trade it had risen to 30,000 tons. make up the deficiency in the supply from Trinidad the average production of the Jamaica. The whole tenor of the noble five years under protection was 16,000 Lord's remarks, indeed, went to show that, tons, and the average production of the so far as regarded the West Indies and the five years under free trade was no less more important of our Colonial possessions, | than 20,000 tons. In Jamaica, the most the produce of sugar was rapidly declining, and the state of those Colonies altogether degenerating. Now, here again he was most desirous to treat the subject fairly, and, in order to do so, he should avoid the fault of selecting particular years for the purpose of making comparisons. The Sugar Act was passed in 1846, and it might well be supposed all its effects would be visible in the five years succeeding. The fair way was to take an average of the result during those five years as compared with the five years immediately preceding the passing of that Act. He was referring to Parliamentary Paper No. 53 of the last Session, which gave the production of sugar for a series of years, from 1831 upwards, for each of the British Colonies separately and for the whole in the aggregate. From that Paper he collected the following facts, which were exceedingly interesting, and calculated to reconcile the West Indies to the Act which that House had thought right to pass, and which Her Majesty's Government most rightly and wisely intended to uphold. In the five years preceding the Act of 1846, the average importation of sugar from the British possessions was 216,000 tons; in the last five years, beginning with 1847, the average had risen to 266,000 tons; the average production of the British possessions had therefore risen 50,000 tons during these latter five years as compared with the five years preceding. But the noble Lord would perhaps tell him, as he had told the public, that this increase was attributable to the supply which had been obtained from the East Indies and the Mauritius. Now, it was quite true that these colonies had had In important Colony of all, which was the If |