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 something extremely wrong in the laws which regulated that supply. Such being the state of things from 1810 to 1844, he would next direct the attention of the House to what had occurred from 1846 to the present time. An objection had been taken to the statement of the right hon. Chancellor of the Exchequer the other night on this subject. He (Mr. Wilson) could see, that while the right hon. Gentle man was speaking, some of his supporters behind him were discussing the subject among themselves, and seemed to think that the year to which the right hon. Gentlemen had referred was an exceptional year, and that it was unfair to take a single year's importation of an article so fluctuating in regard to quantity and subject to such exigencies in regard to its crop as the tropical article of sugar. His (Mr. Wilson's) attention had been drawn to that point by the West India Association of Glasgow, marking the following passage in a pamphlet they had sent him : "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 tons. From the Mauritius, during the 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 {DEC. 9, 1852} derived his information; nor would he impute to the gentlemen from whom he derived that information the slightest wish to exaggerate the true state of the Colonies in which they lived; but he thought it was hardly safe to rely altogether on the views of particular persons, who perhaps from circumstances independent of the law were in a state of suffering and distress. The noble Lord in that pamphlet put forward this argument, that although the consumption had increased, yet we were indebted to the East Indies and the Mauritius for the increased production and supply, and that we had been obliged to resort there to make up the deficiency in the supply from Jamaica. The whole tenor of the noble Lord's remarks, indeed, went to show that, so far as regarded the West Indies and the more important of our Colonial possessions, 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 The produc their share of the increase. In If importation of slaves into the Brazils was 50,324. It was not pretended that the importation of slaves in 1846 could in any way have been the consequence of the Act passed towards the close of that year; but the importation of slaves had dwindled down in the year 1851 to 3,287. It must be a most consolatory reflection to the right hon. Gentleman to think that, notwithstanding the Act of 1846, which at the first blush might be supposed to give encouragement to the slave trade by encou raging the production of slave sugar, the number of slaves imported into the Brazils had during the last five years sunk from 50,324 to 3,287. He did not find either that there had been any reduction in the quantity of sugar produced; on the contrary, the production in the Brazils had increased. In Cuba, he had reason to believe, down to a recent period, there had been a sincere anxiety to put an end to the slave trade, and it appeared that in 1851 only 5,000 slaves were imported into that island. It was not his duty to show that the Act of 1846 had had any effect whatever in reducing the slave trade. He did not pretend it. All that he wanted to show was that it had had no a fate to which the present Government | would account for the increased production had decided they should be submitted. of sugar. It appeared that in 1846 the He would go to the time of slavery, when they had the advantage of the slave trade and the advantage of an absolute monopoly of this market, and he would show them that the average production was considerably larger now than during the last five years of slavery and protection combined. From 1831 to 1835 the average production of the whole British possessions was 221,000 tons, while the average production of the whole British possessions in the last five years of free trade was 266,000 tons. So that, whether they viewed the sugar possessions belonging to this country as subsisting under a state of slavery, with the advantage of protection and absolute monopoly, or whether they viewed them under a state of free labour, with the advantage of the monopoly prior to 1846, they found that in either case the production of those Colonies had enormously increased, and that during the last five years, under unrestricted competition and free labour, that increase had been greater than at any former period under slavery and strict monopoly. It was said by the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for the Colonies, that the Act of 1846 had had a prejudicial effect in encouraging the slave trade. He would do the right hon. Gentle-effect in increasing the slave trade. man the credit to say that among numerous arguments, such was the reason which he urged for the line he took, and he was quite willing to admit that the view the right hon. Gentleman adopted was sympathised in by this country, and had for its object motives much larger and more defensible than ever were connected with commercial restriction. They were told, that although the production of sugar had increased in the British possessions, yet they had given a great impetus to production in the Slave Colonies, and thereby contributed, most inconsistently with their professions, to the encouragement of the slave trade. But what were the facts? It was true that while in 1846 the production of sugar in Cuba, Porto Rico, and Brazil, amounted to 342,000 tons, it had increased in 1852 to 406,000 tons, or 18 per cent. But this increased production was not the result of any increase in the slave trade, because there was reason to believe, from a paper which was laid before the House at his (Mr. Wilson's) request, in March last, that no increase of the slave trade took place during the period to which he had referred, at least to such an extent as He said the slave trade had diminished, but he did not say it was in consequence of the Act of 1846. At the same time that he moved for the paper to which he had just referred, he moved for another paper which threw some light on the subject. It was a return of the quantity of machinery of various descriptions which had been shipped from this country at two periods, namely, in 1845 and 1851, to those slaveproducing countries, for facilitating the production of sugar. In 1845 the official value of the machinery, the wood, iron, and copper, exported to Cuba and the Brazils, was 50,7001.; and in 1851, instead of 50,755l., it was 158,771. All that he wanted to show was, that although there had been a considerable increase in the production of sugar, it was not owing to an increase of slaves, but to the more legimate influence of an increase of machinery from this country. Then it was said that the planters of the West Indies had not had the same advantages as the planters of Cuba and Brazil with regard to capital; but the reverse was the fact, because any one who looked at the Reports, in 1848, of the Committee on which he and the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary for the | acteristic of that energy which marked the Colonies had the honour of serving, would British people, that while the slave-prosee that the whole evidence of that Com-ducing colonies had increased their producmittee went to show that in Cuba and tion 18 per cent, the British possessions had those countries where slave labour pre- increased their production 38 per cent. It vailed, the interest of capital was about 12 was quite obvious from the first, when per cent; and while those planters were they embarked in this controversy, most increasing their production by the employ-interesting and hardly fought as it had ment of capital on which they paid 12 per been, that it was impossible not to put cent, our planters were charged by their in the van of consideration the inteagents in this country not more than 5 per rests of the consumer at home. He had cent. Turning to the quantity of machinery shown that for years they had pursued a shipped to the British possessions, he found policy which confined the consumption of the official value in 1845 was 225,000l., so necessary and common an article of and in 1850 only 138,000l. He thought food as sugar to the same quantity for that return would have given a very dif- thirty-five years. It would have been quite ferent result if the British planters had impossible, and if possible unfair and immade up their mind to the change in the politic, to have allowed such a state of law, if they had not been deluded by falla- things to exist. What had been the effect cious hopes, by Motions made continually, on the consumer of the alteration of the year after year, in that House, which led law in 1846? In 1845, the amount conthem to believe they would recover some sumed was 207,000 tons a year, which at part of that protection which they had 60l. a ton, would represent 12,420,000. lost. He thought if they had, like the expended in the article of sugar. Suppeople of Porto Rico and Cuba, applied posing the duties to have remained the more machinery they would have improved same, and the supply the same, what would the quality and increased the quantity of have been the difference to the consumer? sugar more than they had done. These Taking the 382,000 tons purchased this few facts demonstrated that the increased year at the same price, it would be no less production of the slave colonies was not than 22,920,0007., so that the consumer by the bone and sinews of the slaves, but was at the present time enjoying an absoby the encouragement of English artisans lute advantage equal to 10,000,000. a making machinery in which they invested year by the alteration of the Sugar Duties. capital, and were enabled to improve the But then they were told, perhaps, the revequality and increase the quantity of their nue had suffered. When duties were reproduction. Although the advantage of duced, the inference was that the revenue machinery was on the side of foreign coun- would suffer; but he would here call attentries, he was prepared to show the in- tion to a fact which must afford a great encreased production of the British posses- couragement to Her Majesty's Ministers to sions was even larger than theirs. He pursue the policy which, he thought wisely, found, as he had already stated, that in they had marked out for themselves. În 1846, the production of Cuba, Porto Rico, 1846 the duties paid on sugar were at the and the Brazils, was 342,000 tons, and in rate of 25s. on colonial, and 63s. on fo1851, 406,000 tons. The production of reign, and 5,000,000l. was the amount of the British Colonies was, in 1846, 220,000 revenue produced. The duty on rum waз tons, and by the last Report, 305,000 tons. 9s. 10d., and it produced 981,000l., So that, while the increase in those five king a total of 5,981,000l. After reducyears in those foreign countries was 18 per ing the duties from 25s. to 10s., and from cent, in the British possessions it was 38 63s. to 15s., the revenue for the present per cent. Therefore, notwithstanding the year, on the 5th of July last, stood thus: disadvantage of an unsettled state of the Sugar, 4,346,000l.; rum, 1,100,000l.; law by continual agitation out of the making a total of 5,446,000l., as comHouse, and by continual Motions in the pared with 5,981,000l. before the duties House, under all the difficulties with which were altered. So that during this short they had been surrounded-and he did not period, excepting 500,000l., the whole redeny those difficulties, but he was ready to venue had recovered, whilst they had contrace them to their right cause, if he ferred on the consumers of the country thought he was justified in inflicting such the real advantage of 10,000,000l. annua statement on the House-it was highly ally. Taking into account the increased to the credit of those men, and highly char- supply from the plantations, the planter ma found his receipts larger at the present di- | Committee of 1848 as to the cost of prominished price than at the former higher ducing sugar, and it was stated at about prices. A fair average price previous to 20s. per cwt, or 20l. per ton, in the Mauthe introduction of slave-grown sugar was ritius. He (Mr. Wilson) had been informed 351. a ton, at which rate 207,000 tons lately by, he believed, the largest planter would amount to the gross value of in Trinidad, that the cost of producing 7,245,000. The present price might be sugar there, had been reduced to 13s. per taken at 251. per ton, and the present pro- cwt. now; and with regard to the Mauduction, 309,000 tons, would amount to ritius, he had been informed, within the the gross value of 7,725,000l. So that, last month, by a gentleman who believed, as far as the planter was concerned, the in 1848, that without protection Mauritius gross price he received for his sugar was was doomed; that he believed the whole larger by more than 500,000l. than what crop this year would not average more he received with the higher price and than 10s. a cwt. But sugar was not the smaller production. But then it was said only article in which the West Indians he did this at a much greater cost. He were interested; there were other producbelieved, as the noble Lord (Lord Stanley) tions, if not equally important, yet very pointed out in his pamphlet, that the plan- important to them. Now, during the five ter had not only the advantage of a reduc- years preceding the adoption, in 1846, tion in the price of labour, from a more of "that fatal policy which was to ruin continuous supply of labour, but a reduc- the Colonies," the production of coffee in tion in the prices of a number of articles the British possessions was not quite with which he supplied his estate. He 27,000,000 lbs.; in the last five years it (Mr. Wilson) met the other day with a was above 38,000,000 lbs. No doubt, paper, with which the right hon. Gentle- if the noble Lord (Lord Stanley) took man the Colonial Secretary was doubtless the case of the West Indies alone, he conversant, containing the evidence taken would find a large falling-off, and a in the island of the Mauritius, upon a question relating to the currency of that island, which had disturbed the equanimity of the people there, and was not easy of solution at home. He found in that evidence which, or exclude any part of our possessions was laid before Parliament about two years from all fair advantages. Of cocoa the or eighteen months ago, a very singular production in the five years preceding admission, which was so extremely perti- 1846 was 2,400,000 lbs., while in the five nent and apt, as showing those advantages years following that date, there had been of reduction in the price of general arti- an augmentation of production to the excles, that, being very short, he would read tent of 3,028,000lbs. In rum, also, the it to the House. Mr. Robinson, a large increase had been very large. In the five planter in the Mauritius, and a merchant of years preceding 1846, the production great eminence, whose opinion was very amounted to 3,859,000 gallons, while in valuable, talking of the currency of the the last five years it had reached 5,324,000 island, and adjusting the exchanges, said-gallons; and all this had occurred under the "I conceive that the balance of trade is 600,000l., and we are realising 50,000l. in paper. The cost of raising sugar is at least 167. or 177. per ton. The cost of all articles imported from England is now so low, that if we require only the same quantity of goods, then the balance is in our favour." In rice alone he estimates the saving at 800,000l. last year and this year, as compared with preceding years. Now, here was an article, a first necessary of life, with which the planter had to feed his labourers; 800,000 dollars, upon a crop of 60,000 tons, gave a saving of about 18 per cent upon the value of the whole crop of the island in rice alone. There was a great deal of evidence offered before the proportion of this increased production was from Ceylon; but the question must be viewed as a whole, and you could not separate one Colony from the rest, fatal" system of free trade. Whatever view, therefore, was taken of the facts— whether the enormous increase in the production of sugar or rum was looked to-or whether hon. Members looked to the great diminution which he had shown to have taken place in the cost of production, it was to his mind a plain and clear fact that these Colonies, if they were not now prosperous, were at least more prosperous than they were before. Whatever ground, therefore, there might be for the allegation that the West Indies were in a state of distress, that distress could not be traced to the Act of 1846, or to the consequences of that Act. The three great complaints made against that Act were, in |