0^. 
 
 t> 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNI/^ 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 Is Cheap Sugar the Trmmph of Free Trade ? 
 
 SECOND LETTER 
 
 RT. HON. LORD JOHN RUSSELL, 
 
 ^c. ^c. ^c. 
 
 BY JACOB OMNIUM.(y:^- < y 
 
 . HicjoiNSf MsftliE^ J~fifM'S^J 
 
 '' A species of diplomacy which was the only specimen of the kind in 
 
 English history ; the only case in which an English minister negotiated in the 
 spirit of a pettifogging attorney, refusing to fulfil the obligations of a solemn 
 contract on pleas really so shallow and fallacious, that in private life they would 
 not have a very high opinion of a gentleman who endeavoured by such pleas 
 to avoid engagements between man and man." 
 
 Earl Grey in answer to Lord Aberdeen. Hansard, Feb. 22, 1848. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1848.
 
 ^SJV 
 
 HP 
 
 ao a second letter, 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 It is now nearly six months since I had the 
 honour of addressing to your Lordship a letter, 
 pointing out the disastrous results which must 
 o accrue to our sugar colonies, from the admission 
 into this country of slave grown produce on equal 
 terms with British plantation free grown sugar. 
 
 I had then recently returned from a visit to the 
 West Indies, and I described to your Lordship as 
 faithfully as I could, the actual state of affairs, both 
 in our own colonies and in Cuba. 
 
 I took the liberty of telling you that I believed 
 you were unconscious of the extent of the ruin 
 which your measures, if persisted in, would inevi- 
 tably inflict upon the British planters, that what 
 you probably meant but as a reasonable stimulus 
 to the wasteful and sluggish, would utterly destroy 
 the thrifty and enterprising ; that competition 
 U-, with the foreign slave driver, under the circum- 
 o stances in which you had placed your own colo- 
 
 Q
 
 nists, was simply impossible ; that if you meant to 
 relieve them, you must do so speedily, or relief 
 would come too late,* and that procrastination 
 would only render the task of ultimate assistance 
 more difficult and costly. 
 
 I then detailed to you the prosperity which your 
 Sugar Bill of 1846 had brought to the Cuban 
 slave owner, the increase of misery it had entailed 
 on his negroes, hurried, without regard to infir- 
 mity, sex, or age, from the lighter work of the 
 cafetal, and hired out, like cattle, to the deadly 
 toil of the Ingenio ; and I pointed out to you the 
 certainty of a resumption, at no distant day, of the 
 slave trade by Cuba, and of its actual known in- 
 crease in Brazil. 
 
 My statements, which at the time met with the 
 usual fate of statements made by an interested 
 party, and were considered, to say the least, highly 
 coloured, have since been confirmed, on every 
 point, by the most impartial and unimpeachable 
 testimony. 
 
 Governor Light of Guiana, Governor Higginson 
 of Antigua, Lord Harris of Trinidad, and Sir C. 
 Grey of Jamaica, have all concurred as to the 
 
 '" The self-same week that I wrote my first letter to Lord John 
 Russell, a despatch arrived from Lord Harris, expressing his 
 opinion as to the inevitable fate which awaited the richest colony 
 in the West Indies, if the present ministerial course was con- 
 tinned, in almost the self-same words 1 had myself used. Sinei 
 the fublicotion nf that letter eightee?i West IndiaJi Jirms have 
 been declared insolvent, — See Appendix, p. 27.
 
 results, predicted as inevitable by Governor Reid 
 of Barbadoes* (a gentleman promoted to that com- 
 mand from Bermuda, by Lord Grey himself), who, 
 after a tour through the neighbouring islands of 
 Grenada and St. Lucia, wrote to his Lordship 
 as follows, on the 28th of February, 1848, in answer 
 to certain queries propounded to him by the 
 Colonial Office :t — 
 
 "My opinion is, that sugar cultivation by free labour cannot 
 yet withstand competition on equal terms with slave labour, and 
 that freedom should be nursed by protection for a considerable 
 time to come. How long that time should be, you will under- 
 stand I cannot say. 
 
 "If there be no protection, the cultivation of sugar will 
 dwindle in all the windward islands excepting Barbadoes. 
 
 " Whilst travelling in these islands, and amongst estates falling 
 off in production, I felt a conviction, that without protection the 
 most serious loss for humanity would not be loss of sugar, but 
 that the consummation of the greatest act of human legisla- 
 tion, the abolition of slavery, will be retarded, and perhaps 
 endangered."! 
 
 * Compare the value of this mass of evidence with that relied 
 upon in preference by Lord Grey in his Speech of February 7th. 
 — See Appendix, p. 25 to 30. 
 
 t 7th Report. Committee on Sugar Planting, p. 282. 
 
 X Sir C. Grey has since declared, in reply to a deputation 
 from the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, on the 15th of April, / 
 1848, that " the present distress which has/alien upon the West 
 Indie-i, arises in a great measure from the ivithdrarval of capital 
 from onr colonies, and its investment in more lucrative employ- 
 ment in the foreif/n colonies, xchcre slavery exists in full force 
 and unmitigated atrocity." ^
 
 On the other hand, Lord Palmerston,* Mr. Ban- 
 dinel,t and Captain Birch, R.N.:[; (the latter of 
 whom has recently returned from a command in 
 the slave squadron), hore witness to the enormously 
 increased activity of the slave trade, subsequent 
 to the passing of the Bill of 1846. 
 
 Our Consul General, and our Slave Commis- 
 sioners in Cuba and Jamaica,^ wrote, first, that 
 upwards of 100,000 slaves— old people, women, and 
 children — had been removed from the culture of 
 coffee to that of the cane ; and, secondly, that vessels 
 had been despatched from the Havana, and from 
 Spain, to seek fresh supplies of new negroes on the 
 coast of Africa. 
 
 They further stated, that the culture of sugar in 
 that colony had become incredibly remunerative, 
 and that the slaves on the ingenios were habitually 
 worked during crop time eighteen hours out of the 
 twenty- four. 
 
 Their accounts were corroborated by Captain 
 Matson, R.N.,|| who, having been for the last two 
 years cruising oft' the coast of Cuba, declared that 
 when the news of your measures reached the 
 Havaiia, the prices of slaves and of sugar instantly 
 rose from fifteen to twenty per cent., and that 
 
 * 1st Report. C. S. P. p. 5. 
 
 t 1st Report. Slave Trade Committee. Ques. 3230 to 3459. 
 
 :J: 1st Report. S. T. C. Ques. 2229 to 2241. 
 
 § 7tli Report. C. S. P. p. 364 to 3/3. 
 
 11 1st Report. S. T. C. Ques. 1491 to 7—1691 to 3.
 
 slavers were at once prepared to resume the slave 
 trade.* 
 
 I believe, my Lord, I could adduce no more dis- 
 interested or worthier evidence to prove that the 
 information I tendered you, in my letter of October 
 last, was in every respect accurate, and that the 
 inferences I drew from it have since been fully 
 borne out by even more distressing results than I 
 at that time anticipated. f 
 
 * " The rumours which reach us of the revival of the slave trade 
 practices in these seas, are of too vague a nature to enable us to 
 report on them so specifically as we could wish ; but they are 
 nevertheless sufficiently definite to have induced Commodore 
 Lambert to detach two ships of the squadron under his orders 
 from the routine duties of the station, for the first time since the 
 establishment of the Court of which we are members, for the 
 special purpose of cruising against the slave trade. 
 
 " Jamaica, Jan. 1, 1848. (Signed) ^- Jurnbull, 
 
 ^ ° "^ A. B. Hamilton, 
 
 " H. M. Slave Commissioners ." 
 
 1st Report. S. T. C. Appendix. 
 
 " H.M.S. Alarm and Daring, and steamer Vixen, were to sail 
 from Kingston, Jamaica, on the 7th April, 1848, with orders to 
 cruise off the ports of Cuba and Porto Rico, for the interception 
 of slaves. It was said, information had been received of ten 
 slavers having some time since left Havana for the coast of 
 Africa, and it was considered probable some of them might be 
 fallen in with."— Tu/ie.?, Maij 6, 1848. 
 
 f The following Circular, sent round by Messrs. Burnley, 
 Eccles, and Co — to the entire truth of which every merchant ac- 
 quainted with their affairs, and every creditor of the firm will 
 bear testimony — stands out in sad contrast to the prosperity of 
 the Cuban and Brazilian speculators in slaves. In this case, 
 absenteeism and high mercantile charges cannot be alleged as
 
 ■•\ 
 
 I believe, moreover, that I am speaking within 
 bounds when I say that almost every prediction 
 
 having conduced to their ruin, for Messrs. Burnley's estates were 
 superintended by relatives in the Colonies, and they discharged 
 the duties of merchants themselves on this side of the Atlantic: — 
 
 "Glasgow, 3rd May, 1848. 
 "Sir, — It is with deep regret we inform you that we are 
 under the necessity of suspending payments. A sequestration 
 has been sent for with our concurrence ; and in a few days you 
 will be requested to attend a meeting of our creditors. For up- 
 wards of half a century we have steadily followed our business 
 of "West India merchants, never engaging in speculations of any 
 kind. Our assets chiefly consist of sugar estates in Trinidad 
 and Demerara. These estates are in excellent condition, capable 
 of making large crops ; but they have been rendered worse than 
 unprofitable, and of no value, by Acts of Parliament — the worst 
 of which being the Sugar Duty Act of 1846 — whereby slave- 
 made sugar was admitted to consumption in this country on 
 terms which the British Colonies are altogether unprepared to 
 compete with. — We are. Sir, 
 
 " Your most obedient servants, 
 
 " EccLEs, Burnley, and Co. 
 
 "Wm. and Jas. Eccles and Co. 
 
 "Rio de Janeiro, Feb. 9th, 1848. 
 
 " My Lord, — I have the honour to inform your Lordship, 
 that, according to the best estimation I have been able to make, 
 60,000 Africans have been imported as slaves into Brazil during 
 the year 1847. 
 
 " There is no doubt that this frightful number has been greatly 
 occasioned by the concentration of the English naval force in 
 the waters of the Plate ; at the same time I learn that never 
 have the slave dealers so perfected all the appurtenances and 
 appliances of their vile trade as at present ; never have they or- 
 ganized the whole range of shore signals from St. Katherine's to 
 Bahia, nor established such facilities for landing their cargoes as
 
 made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord 
 Grey in February last has been already disap- 
 
 now, and I am afraid I may now add with perfect truth, that 
 never was the toleration, not to say co-operation of this Govern- 
 ment, more open than at the present moment. 
 
 '' It is a well-known fact, that a vessel belonging to this port 
 made five voyages to the coast during the last year, and landed 
 in safety all her cargoes ; at a moderate computation this single 
 ship must have brought from 2000 to 3000 slaves. 
 
 " I have, &c. 
 
 (Signed) "Howden. 
 
 "To Viscount Palmerston, &c." 
 
 Mr. Acting Consul Westwood to Lord Palmerston. 
 
 "Rio de Janeiro, Dec. 20th, 1847. 
 " In conformity to instructions from Her Majesty's Minister 
 at this Court, I have the honour to inform your Lordship that 
 there are now two steam vessels regularly employed in the slave 
 trade between this port and the African coast, namely, the 
 ' Providencia,' and the ' Theresa,' both under the Brazilian flag." 
 
 Mr. Consul Porter to the same. 
 
 "Bahia, Dec. Slst, 1847. 
 
 " It appears from the slave returns which I have had the 
 honour to transmit to your Lordship that 3,500 slaves have been 
 landed in the vicinity of this city during the quarter ending this 
 day, being the largest importation that has taken place during a 
 like period for the last eight years. * * * 
 
 It appears that the slave trade is increasing in a great degree, 
 which may be accounted for by the great temptation now held 
 out to individuals to embark in this traffic, as small shares can 
 be obtained in the companies established here for that purpose. 
 
 "The American brig ' George,' which sailed hence for Africa, 
 on the 29th of August last, returned hither on the 16th inst., 
 under Brazilian colours, landing a cargo of 726 slaves in a miser- 
 
 JJ 
 
 •/
 
 10 
 
 pointed, and that the foundations on which they 
 condescended to base their arguments and assertions 
 have been shewn to be of the sandiest and most 
 unworthy description. 
 
 I think you will not be able to avoid admitting, 
 when the subject next comes before Parliament, 
 although you have hitherto shrunk from doing so, 
 that the question really at issue is, whether the cul- 
 tivation of the sugar-cane shall pass from the hand» 
 of the free-labour farmers of the British Colonies 
 into those of the slave-drivers of Cuba and Brazil 
 — whether the vast capital which you have so 
 strenuously urged our commercial adventurers to 
 invest in our colonies since 1833, shall be utterly 
 annihilated ; and whether England shall in future 
 depend for her saccharine supplies on the labour of 
 the free man or the slave. 
 
 able state of starvation, 1 1 1 poor creatures having perished on 
 the passage from deficiency of water and provisions." — 1st Re- 
 port, S. T. A. Appendix. 
 
 "Falmouth, May 9th, 1848* 
 " H.M. Packet Swift, Lieut. Lory, R.N., arrived this morning 
 about ten o'clock, with mails from the Brazils. 
 
 "The Firebrand steamer, was expected at Rio within a week. 
 By her. Lord liowden returns to this countiy, having failed in 
 effecting a treaty with Brazil. The slave trade is carried on to 
 an enormous extent, about 5000 slaves having been landed in 
 Bahia in two months, from thirteen vessels, and about 7000 more 
 in the neighbourhood of Campos, Rio Grande, and Rio Janeiro. 
 There are several steamers employed in that inhuman and de^ 
 moralizing tva,ffi.c." —Times, May 23, 1848.
 
 11 
 
 There can be no doubt but that you are now 
 alive to the cruel errors of which you have been 
 guilt}-, and that you would not be unwilling to 
 assist us in any way which would not infringe upon 
 the integrity of the Sugar Bill of 1846, and declare 
 the ignorant rashness of your legislation with regard 
 to the Sugar Colonies since your assumption of 
 office. 
 
 If your measures had been passed deliberately, 
 after due information had been collected respecting 
 the social condition of our various sugar growing 
 colonies,* — after a system of prompt and regular 
 immigration had been matured, and full preparation 
 made for immediately conceding to the colonies the 
 advantages as well as the disadvantages of Free- 
 trade — it would have been easier to account for the 
 morbid affection with which you so obstinately cling 
 to that premature and abortive measure. 
 
 But, subsequent events have shewn that none of 
 these precautions had been taken. 
 
 When you decided that the country should pay a 
 diminished price for our produce, you proposed, by 
 repealing the Navigation Laws,t by equalizing the 
 
 * Two years afterwards. Sir C. Wood declared that labour in 
 Jamaica was to be obtained at a much less cost than during 
 slavery ; and Lord Grey refuted statements respecting the high 
 wages required by the labourers in that island in 1848, by shew- 
 ing, "from an official authority," that a year before, wages had 
 been low in Tobago, which is exactly as distant and as differently 
 circumstanced from Jamaica, as Corsica is from the Isle of Dogs. 
 
 t The late Vice-President of the Board of Trade informed a 
 witness before Lord George Bentinck's Committee, that the ope-
 
 12 
 
 spirit duties,* and above all, by giving us an imme- 
 diate command of" labour, to enable us, nevertheless, 
 to realize a fair and reasonable profitfrom ourestates. 
 
 The assurances which you at the same time held 
 out to English capitalists, that our West Indian 
 colonies still offered a most favourable field for 
 investment, and the indignant manner in which you 
 disclaimed the possibility of a revival of the slave 
 trade being caused by any act of yours, clearly 
 prove that you did not anticipate the disastrous 
 results which have since ensued from your hasty 
 legislation. 
 
 Your bill passed. The price of British colonial 
 sugar fell one-half, that of slave gj'own produce 
 fully maintained the standard at which it had 
 ranged prior to 1846. 
 
 It then transpired that no arrangements whatever 
 had been matured by the Colonial Office for obtaining 
 immigration from Africa — no conclusive information 
 had been collected as to the points from whence it was 
 to be procured; it was then, and is, 1 believe, still, 
 a moot point, whether the Kroo Coast or Cape Castle, 
 could supply us with many or with any labourers. 
 
 ration of the Navigation Laws mulcted our West Indian colonies 
 jn the annual sum of 36500,000. If Mr. Milner Gibson's statis- 
 tics are to be relied upon, it was surely unjust to expose us to this 
 tax, in addition to the high duties already levied on our produce 
 for two years, before any attempt was made to revise those Laws ; 
 but I beg to add, that I hold myself in no way responsible for the 
 accuracy of the above calculation of that able Whig Minister. 
 
 * The duties on British and colonial spirits remain still uiie- 
 qualised.
 
 13 
 
 The Navigation Laws remained intact, the spirit 
 duties unequalized, whilst the slave trade instantly 
 doubled in amount. Not even a quarter of the 
 slaves captured by our cruisers since 184-6 have 
 been conveyed to the West Indian colonies.* And 
 when, after the lapse of nearly a year and a half. 
 Lord Grey had at length collected materials for his 
 famous immigration manifesto of November 2, that 
 statesman -like but tardy conception fell to the 
 "ground still-born. 
 
 Not only the colonists of Guiana and Trinidad 
 and Jamaica had been ruined in the interval, and 
 the mercantile houses connected with them in this 
 country driven into the Gazette, by the fatal delay 
 which had occurred, but no other adventurers 
 appeared anxious to take their places, in spite of 
 the tempting solicitations of Lord Grey, and the 
 
 * According to Sir C. Wood, 40,000 free immigrants have been 
 imported into Guiana, and 20,000 into Trinidad during the last 
 fifteen years, entirely at the expense of the colonists. 
 
 According to Lord Palmerston, 64,000 slaves were imported 
 into Brazil during 1846, and a like number in 1847, whilst from 
 1840 to 184.5 the number annually exported from Africa had 
 averaged but ;:{2,600. 
 
 The moment a slave lauds in Brazil his energies are concen- 
 trated in the cultivation and manufacture of sugar, until death 
 releases him. The immigrants into Guiana and Trinidad work 
 where, when, and as little as they please, their labour has thus 
 been of little value, and they have in many cases found the 
 meddling humanity of the Colonial Office as fatal to them as 
 the lash of the Mayoral has proved to the negro.— <See Lord 
 Harris'' s despatch to Lord Greij, 7th Tirport, S. C. P. p. 274.
 
 14 
 
 " firm convictions" of the Cliancellor of the Exche- 
 quer ; the public credit of the colonies was destroyed, 
 and the despatch which had been composed for their 
 regeneration, proved in consequence mere waste 
 paper. 
 
 A steady inset of labour, commencing with the 
 alteration of the duties in 1846, might have enabled 
 them to meet the subsequent fall of price by a re- 
 duction of wages, and by the increased production 
 consequent on more careful agriculture and manu- 
 facture — for the want of it — the planters have been 
 involved in an unequal contest with their labourers, 
 in which many of them have succumbed. Their 
 costly machinery is decaying in idleness, their drain- 
 age is choked, and their valuable cultivation fast 
 lapsing into bush. 
 
 Lord Grey, however, unmoved by the ruin of 
 hundreds of deserving and industrious men, which 
 need never have occurred had the Colonial Office 
 done its duty, appears to be resolved, that the wages 
 of the labouring population shall be reduced, no 
 matter at what cost to the planters. If he has not 
 had the time or the information necessary to ensure 
 them immigration, he can as certainly attain his 
 object by exposing them to ruinously low prices. 
 For it is very clear that by thus consummating the 
 bankruptcy of all connected with the colonies, the 
 negroes will not only not obtain the high wages they 
 have hitherto received, but they will obtain none 
 at all. 
 
 This, however, is but clumsy and cruel states-
 
 15 
 
 manship — on a par with the practice of a surgeon, 
 who, to save trouble, radically cures head-ache by 
 decapitation. 
 
 Lord Grey cannot, in the next debate, again 
 attribute our position to our own laches and un- 
 skilfulness. His own agents have declared that the 
 general conduct of the Cuban estates is inferior to 
 ours,* and that the planters of that island are but 
 now adopting improvements which have been in 
 general use in our colonies for the last 25 years, 
 whilst his Lordship has since admitted that " there 
 is no colony in which greater or more enlightened 
 endeavours have been made for the improvement 
 of agriculture and manufacture than in British 
 Guiana^f — Governor Light too, whilst pointing out 
 the improvements of which the sugar cultivation 
 is still susceptible, frankly states, that the colonists 
 are so reduced as to be unable to make any further 
 progress, *' without assistance from some quarter or 
 other." 
 
 Lord Grey cannot, as he has hitherto done, expa- 
 tiate on the evils of absenteeism, and on the inevitable 
 prosperity of residents, for it now transpires that 
 the very body of gentlemen to whom he alluded in 
 his speech on the 7th of February last, as affording 
 a practical proof of the advantages which awaited 
 men of science and capital residing on their planta- 
 tions, had actually placed in his Lordship's hands 
 
 * Consul-General Crawford's despatch, 7th Report, S. C. P. 
 p. 368. Mr. Overmann's statement, p. 373. 
 t 3rd Report, S. C. P. p. 34S.
 
 16 
 
 before he made that speech^ most convincing and 
 affecting details of the desperate nature of the posi- 
 tion, in which tlie hastiness and ill-faith of the 
 British nation had placed them.* 
 
 I trust he will not permit the time of the House 
 to be wasted, whilst gentlemen from Downing Street 
 lecture the West Indian body on their inefficient 
 machinery and imperfect cultivation. Let him be 
 assured that they are as anxious to grow heavy 
 crops, and to extract every particle of saccharine 
 matter from the cane, as the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer or Mr. Hawes can be to shew them how 
 to do it, and that the}' know how to conduct the 
 business to which they have been brought up, and 
 in which their fortunes are involved, better even 
 than those ingenious statesmen, if they conceived 
 they had a fair chance of doing so profitably. 
 
 It is not difficult, seated in a cool room in Down- 
 ing Street, supplied with the best pamphlets on the 
 subject, unvexed by mosquitos, dry seasons, yellow 
 fever, or Exeter Hall, abundantly furnished with 
 ideal capital, obtaining at will a continuous supply 
 of honest labour, to drain your cane-fields tho- 
 roughly, plough and cross plough them, until their 
 soil is absolutely pulverised, to cut and grind at 
 the most favourable moment, and manufacturing 
 your sugar by De Rosne and Gail's improved ap- 
 paratus, to obtain a much heavier imaginary yield 
 per acre of better and cheaper sugar than was ever 
 
 * See Appendix, p. 33.
 
 17 
 
 produced by the most skilful and inhuman slave 
 driver. 
 
 And if we could carry on our farming operations 
 in the colonies as easily as Mr. Hawes directs the 
 conduct of his tropical model farm upon paper, 
 we at once should set our shoulders to the wheel 
 with all our heart and all our soul. 
 
 But at this moment many of our best canes in 
 Guiana are still uncut in consequence of the strike 
 (they were ripe in December 1847, and have 
 been deteriorating ever since) ; our cultivation is 
 choked with weeds, and its yield, if we take it off, 
 will be proportionably diminished : yet when they 
 learn at the Colonial Office that we have made but 
 three-quarters of a ton per acre, the very clerks 
 will exclaim contemptuously, '* Why the Cubans 
 make nearly double that quantity, and Planter 
 Hawes, by his last calculations, got two tons and a 
 half from ratoons on our very worst soil upstairs." 
 
 Lord Grey can no longer reproach the British 
 West Indians with the inferiority of their produce 
 to that of the foreign slave colonies, after the lucid 
 explanation supplied to him by Lord Harris on that 
 score. His Lordship points out that the quality of 
 sugar depends on care in manufacture, which can- 
 not be obtained from the free labourer in our 
 colonies under present circumstances ; and that 
 the quantity raised per acre depends equally on 
 high and attentive cultivation, which the scarcity 
 and irregularity of our labour renders unattain-
 
 18 
 
 able.* Nor must it be forgotten that in drawing a 
 comjDarison between the merits of free and slave 
 labour, the intelligent free labour of civilized and 
 densely populated countries is improperly contrasted 
 with the unwilling toil of the debased slave, whilst 
 at present the free labour of the West Indies is neces- 
 V sarily of a very inferior caste to that of Europe. The 
 monopoly so long conceded to the Creole negroes, 
 and the absence of all competition in the labour 
 market since emancipation, has confirmed them in 
 habits of careless indolence, t and the majority of the 
 immigrants from Africa and India are, on their ar- 
 rival, incapable of appreciating the advantages to be 
 derived from regular and honest industry .J 
 
 Unless the opinions and statements sent home 
 by your colonial Governors be, as Lord Grey 
 appears to consider them, totally unworthy of atten- 
 tion and credit ; unless the report of the Committee 
 which has just concluded its labours deserves equal 
 
 * 7th Report, S.C.P. p. 2/2. 
 
 f Lord Harris describes the daily task of a negro in Trinidad 
 to be between 4 and 5 hours. He adds, the same man rarely 
 performs two tasks in the same day. The pay Hsts of the estates 
 shew that on an average each negro works about 10 days out of 30. 
 
 Therefore, during crop time, a negro in Guiana or Trinidad 
 works 45 hours per month. 
 
 Mr. Crawford, Consul-General in Cuba, declares that in crop 
 time the negroes there work 18 hours out of the 24 — 432 hours 
 per month. These are not the exaggerations of interested parties, 
 but the answers of official men to the inquiries of Government. 
 
 X The Kroomen form an exception to the general class of 
 j immigrants, and are remarkable for their thrifty and energetic 
 habits.
 
 19 
 
 contempt, there can be no doubt that if your pre- 
 sent polic}^ be continued, the supply of sugar from 
 our West Indian colonies and from British India 
 will rapidly disappear, and that from the Mauritius 
 will diminish. 
 
 Java, Manilla, Siam and China sent home but 
 105,000 tons of sugar last year. The best and 
 most recent authorities declare that the cultivation 
 of Java admits of no increase ;* and the supplies 
 from the other sugar-consuming countries of the 
 East were attracted to this country b}'- the high prices 
 which had ruled the year before, and not in con- 
 sequence of any increased cultivation. The baffled 
 speculators who imported them are not likely to 
 import any more to compete on even terms with 
 the produce of slave-importing countries. 
 
 The statistics of beet-root sugar which I have 
 collected from the most authentic sources, and 
 which you will find in the Appendix, will shew you 
 that Mr. Wilson's discoveries on that point, were, 
 as I predicted at the time, more effective during 
 the last debate than they are likely to be again. 
 I sincerely hope that that gentleman will not, in 
 his zeal for his new employers, embarrass us in the 
 next debate by any " maple sugar" notions from 
 the United States. Boldly put forward by such 
 an authority as the Economist, we could not upset 
 them under at least two months. 
 
 It therefore follows, my Lord, that we must, as I 
 have before said, look for our future supplies to 
 * Jukes' Voyage of the Fly. 1847. p. 193.
 
 20 
 
 Cuba and Brazil, and if you are prepared to declare 
 openly your abandonment of the policy which 
 England has pursued during the last forty years at 
 such a reckless expenditure of life and treasure, 
 and in which you yourself have borne no undistin- 
 guished share — if casting aside humanity, honour, 
 and justice, your only object be to obtain cheap 
 slave grown sugar, I have not a word more to say 
 on the subject — except that if you had brought 
 forward your Bill of 1846 in 1833 — the losses 
 caused by emancipation to the Planters of the West 
 Indies — and the cost of compensation to the people 
 of this country would have been spared, and the 
 cause of humanity would be in a far better position 
 than it now is. 
 
 If you are determined to admit slave grown pro- 
 duce into this country, with the information you now 
 possesSjit will be dishonest to urge private enterprize 
 to invest further capital in our own colonies — it will 
 be a sheer waste of public money to advance loans to 
 the various communities on the security of the estates. 
 So long as they are not on a par with their oppo- 
 nents as to labour, they cannot make sugar so 
 cheaply as Cuba or Brazil. There are no improve- 
 ments in manufacture or agriculture which we can 
 make, that slave coimtries are not equally disposed 
 and better able to adopt, for they have reaped rich 
 harvests during our last two years of ruin.* 
 
 And now, my Lord, I will in conclusion advert 
 to a point which I touch upon with extreme reluct- 
 * See Appendix, p. 64.
 
 21 
 
 ance, because I know how unequal is the coutest of 
 character between an obscure West Indian planter 
 and statesmen high in office. 
 
 I am aware of all the lofty sentiments which may 
 be successfully paraded in Parliament in defence of 
 very shuffling work, and of the obloquy which may 
 and probably will be cast on me by your supporters 
 for daring to point out what appears to me unpar- 
 donable dishonesty. "* 
 
 But on this question depends not only a great 
 portion of my own fortune, but also the fortunes of 
 many of my relations and friends, of men far more 
 deserving than myself, who, to my knowledge, have 
 been working earnestly and manfully for years in 
 unhealthy climates to ensure a provision for their 
 families; who having invested their capital on *' the 
 security of the national faith of Great Britain and 
 Ireland, pledged in the most solemn form in which 
 sucIl an engagement ivas ever made,"]' have been 
 one day baffled in their honest aim, because the 
 " no slavery'' and the "am I not your brother" cry 
 suited your Lordship's political friends, and who are 
 now consigned by you to hopeless beggary, because 
 " cheap slave grown sugar'' is a more popular slogan 
 amongst tlie politicians of the Manchester school. 
 
 I allude, my Lord, to tlie unfair manner in which 
 the late Sugar Debates were conducted, to the un- 
 founded assertions which were made by men, who, 
 
 * I beg leave to state that I use the word dishonesty in precisely 
 the same sense as Lord Grey used the word " pettifogging " — a 
 rarliamentary one. f See Appendix, p. t)2.
 
 22 
 
 if tliey knew no better, had at least no excuse for 
 their ignorance, to the unworthy evidence on which 
 the Ministers based their case, to the unimpeach- 
 able evidence which they suppressed. 
 
 It is possible that your view of this question may 
 be the correct one, and that I may be entirely mis- 
 taken, / do not think I am^ but it is not possible that 
 the line of conduct adopted in the last debate by the 
 Ministers of the Crown can be justified by any re- 
 cognized rule of right and wrong. 
 
 The Noble Secretary for the Colonies, after de- 
 claring in the commencement of his speech, that 
 he meant to deal with the question before the House 
 " with the utmost candour,*' produced a despatch 
 from a gentleman whom he had appointed to the 
 government of one of the most densely populated 
 of our colonial possessions. He pronounced that 
 despatch to be a most able and admirable docu- 
 ment, and said that, " every line of it deserved the 
 attention of Parliament." 
 
 He then read from it such sentences as established 
 the case he was attempting to make, but entirely 
 omitted to state that its writer's conclusions, formed 
 on the spot, were entirely different from his 
 Lordship's, and that they pronounced free labour, 
 even in populous Antigua, to be unable, for obvious 
 reasons, to compete with the forced and unrequited 
 toil of the slave. 
 
 No other person at that time had access to that 
 despatch. I ask you, my Lord, (and if you will cast 
 your eyes over the title page of this pamphlet, you
 
 23 
 
 will admit that I have a right to test Lord Grey by 
 the giiage with which he measures others,) what 
 would be thought of a gentleman who acted thus in 
 private life ? I know full well that my credit in 
 the City would be sadly shaken if I were shewn to 
 be thus capable of mutilating the sentiments of 
 other men to establish my own views, and so mak- 
 ing them appear to share opinions from which I 
 knew they entirely dissented. 
 
 I have too high an opinion of Lord Grey's inte- 
 grity to think that he has wittingly been guilty of 
 the acts of which I complain. 1 am rather inclined 
 to believe, that his Lordship is afflicted with a sort 
 of moral strabismus, which involuntarily but invari- 
 ably averts the vision of his mind's eye from all 
 evidence, no matter how worthy, which contradicts 
 his own pre-formed opinions, whilst its morbid retina 
 eagerly grasps and magnifies the importance of 
 the trashiest testimony which may chance to corro- 
 borate his views. It is this deplorable infirmity 
 which renders his Lordship*s acknowledged talents '^ 
 comparatively valueless to the country, and has U 
 hitherto made him a dangerous patron and an im- 
 practicable ally. 
 
 Surely it is not too much to insist, before an 
 important question, involving the best interests of 
 humanity, the ruin of thousands, and the annihi- 
 lation of many millions of property, be finally 
 decided upon by the legislature of this country, that 
 every source from which information on the subject
 
 24 
 
 can be derived, should be fairly and freely laid open 
 to all concerned on either side — that no official 
 evasions, no withholding or garbling of documents 
 should be permitted — and that before a Cabinet 
 Minister gives to evidence that weight which it 
 must inevitably acquire by the fact of its being 
 brought forward, and dwelt upon by a high officer 
 of the Crown, he should take reasonable precau- 
 tions to ascertain that it is trustworthy and true.* 
 
 1 have particularized the evidence, which is en- 
 tirely official, on which I have founded the asser- 
 tions made by me in this letter, and have given 
 the dates and numbers of the despatches from 
 which I have quoted, that your Lordship may readily 
 ascertain if you please, that I have been guilty of 
 no unfairness. If you persist in adhering to your 
 present course, every succeeding packet will demon- 
 strate to you the accuracy of the views I liave 
 hitherto expressed, as fully as the last six months 
 have placed the truth of the information I gave 
 you in October last, beyond either doubt or con- 
 tradiction. 
 
 I have the honour to be, my Lord, 
 
 Your faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 JACOB OMNIUM. 
 
 * The pernicious praise of Lord Grey has elicited a second " able 
 pamphlet" from Dr. Jelly, who now discovers that nothing but 
 protection can save, not only the sugar colonies of Great Britain, 
 but the mother country herself. Perhaps Lord Grey will inform 
 us whether Mr. Price's free-trade views have also been modified 
 by his second visit to Jamaica.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 " The public may fairly ask why Sir C. Wood did not inform 
 the House of the nature of the accounts given by Lord Harris of 
 the actual condition of Trinidad — of the tenor of Sir C. Grey's des- 
 patches from Jamaica — of Mr. Light's views concerning the pro- 
 bability of the continuation of the sugar cultivation of Guiana. 
 
 "The Government were well supplied with such information. 
 Two packets had arrived daring the previous week, and it is, to 
 say the least, a suspicious circumstance that, without alluding in 
 the most remote degree to the opinions of those able and zealous 
 servants of the crown — they preferred establishing their case and 
 defending the bill of 1846, on the testimony of trashy pamphlets 
 written by men of proved incapacity and avowed inexperience." — 
 J. Omniums Letter to the Times, Feb. 7, 1848. 
 
 Before the Christmas holidays Mr. Hume moved 
 for the publication of the despatches of Lord Harris, 
 Governor of Trinidad, to Earl Grey, They were 
 not however laid on the table of the House of 
 Commons imtil the i*th of February, five minutes 
 after the debate on Lord George Bentinck's motion 
 for a coinmittee had been concluded. Consequently, 
 although the Ministers well knew what they con- 
 tained, they preserved a strict silence as to their 
 contents, and the supporters of the West Indian 
 interest had no means of referring to them.* 
 
 * The Under Secretary for the Colonies, when questioned be- 
 fore Lord G. Bentinck's Committee as to the reason why these 
 important documents had been withheld, answered thus : — 
 
 Ques. 16572. — "All that I have to say upon the subject is 
 this ; that the despatches which were moved for were prepared 
 for Parliament, and ready to be laid on the table; but just before 
 the meeting of Parliament fresh despatches of very great im- 
 portance came, and a great effort was made to print them in time 
 to deliver them with the others ; but a delay arose over which 
 we had no control at all, and that was the only cause of their 
 being delivered the day but one after the meeting of Parliament." 
 
 The fact of despatches, which had not been moved for, not 
 
 C
 
 26 
 
 In a despatch to Earl Grey, dated 28th December, 
 184.6, Lord Harris, after expressing his conviction 
 that Coolie immigration was too costly to be any 
 longer desirable, adds : — 
 
 " It has undoubtedly had a most valuable moral effect on the 
 Creole labourer, and has shewn him that he cannot do quite as 
 he likes. I must say, when I consider the competition the 
 estates are now exposed to, the encumbrances with which they 
 are already burthened, and the expenses of cultivation, — and 
 these are sncli, that I possess a detailed account of the produce 
 and expenses of the same estate before and since emancipation ; 
 preLumsly siKjar was made for 55 cents (2.s 3tZ) the 100 Ihs. ; 
 it now costs 5 dollars, (or £l. Os lOJj, — that I think it is time 
 to pause, to look matters thoroughly in the face, and to have the 
 
 being ready, scarcely seems even a fair Whig reason for the non- 
 delivery of other despatches, which had been moved for, and 
 were ready ; but on referring to the Parliamentary Papers in 
 question, No. G2 of the present session, it appears that when de- 
 livered they contained no despatch which is not noted as having 
 been received by the Colonial Office nio7'e than a month before 
 Parliament met; and therefore the "despatches of great im- 
 portance, which came just before the meeting of Parliament," 
 alluded to above, are certainly not included therein. 
 
 Yet we further find that Mr. Herman Merivale, a month after- 
 wards, on the 8th of March, in furnishing Lord George Ben- 
 tinck's Committee with copies of all the despatches of any im- 
 portance received from the Governors of her Majesty's colonies 
 in the West Indies or the Mauritius, refers the Committee to 
 Parliamentary Papers No. 62 of the present session, for all the 
 despatches which had been received up to that date from Tri- 
 nidad, "which related to the present state or cultivation of 
 sugar or coffee in those possessions, or contained representations 
 of the distressed state of the Planters." What then can have 
 become of the important despatches to which Mr, Hawes attri- 
 butes the delay ?
 
 27 
 
 affair rigorously investigated before larger dtbt is incurred. In • 
 the mean time, it is to be hoped that the coast of Africa will be 
 opened so as to supply the gap which the return of the Coolies 
 to their own country will make in the numbers of the labouring 
 population." 
 
 On the 4th September, 1847, liis Lordship fur- 
 ther writes :— 
 
 " I would venture to hope that you will take into consideration 
 the propriety of rendering further assistance to these colonies 
 for immigration purposes. The introduction of from 500 to 
 1000 immigrants m each year can have no perceptible effect 
 upon the price of labour ; and unless that is reduced, and quickly, 
 / do not see how the cultivation of the cane can be carried on 
 with any pj^ospect of success. I can assure your Lordship, that 
 I have it from the best authoritij, that even tmder the most 
 favourable circumstances, the price of sugar will not repay the 
 cost of production ; and that the distress which in consequence 
 at present exists in this colony has never been equalled." 
 
 And, on the 18th September he repeats his 
 appeals to the Home Government in the following 
 energetic tone, at the same time enclosing a petition 
 from the colonists : — 
 
 " I have already mentioned to your Lordship the distress 
 existing at this time in the colony, and which is increasing 
 daily, and amounts to an unprecedented stagnation of business ; 
 the cases of which, constantly brought to my notice, viz estates 
 having the finest promise of a larger crop than was ever previously 
 produced being almost abandoned from the want of means to 
 pay for the necessary labour, are most distressing. * * * 
 Without entervHj into any of the details mentioned in the petition, 
 cither concerning anticipated concessions, or as applicable to 
 future remedies, I do not hesitate to express to your Lordship 
 my conviction, that if this colony is not to he left to subside into 
 
 c 2
 
 28 
 
 « state of comparative barbarism — which would result from the 
 ruin of its larger propTietors — some more than ordinary relief is 
 necessary to support it in the contest in which it, in common 
 with the other British West India colonies, is now engaged. 
 
 " Circumstanced as it is, I believe it incapable of successfully/ 
 competing in the British market with the produce of countries 
 in which slavery is still permitted, unless the advantages of free 
 trade are conceded to it as well as the disadvantages : and I 
 would add, that relief shoidd come speedily, if it is to produce 
 any effect." 
 
 It was not convenient for Earl Grey or the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer to quote the opinions of 
 unquestionably the most independent and able 
 public servant in our sugar colonies, and it was 
 still less convenient that they should be accessible 
 to their opponents ; therefore they were suppressed, 
 and the testimony of Mr. Scotland, a shopkeeper 
 in Jamaica, and of Dr. Jelly, a medical practitioner, 
 two persons utterly unknown even to West Indians, 
 and neither of them practical planters, were alone 
 adduced in support of Lord Grey's favourite fallacy, 
 that under all circumstances " free labour is cheaper 
 than slave labour." When taunted with the fact 
 that he had carefully abstained from citing the 
 opinions of the Governors of the various colonies on 
 that point, Lord Grey did hunt out an assertion made 
 nearly a year before by Major Grseme, the Governor 
 of one of the most insignificant of our tropical pos- 
 sessions, Tobago, an island producing 2,300 hogs- 
 beads of sugar with 13,000 inhabitants; who 
 wrote thus : —
 
 29 
 
 " Tobago, with some disadvantages, enjoys several superiorities 
 which Barbados and the more northerly islands do not possess. 
 In the first place, we are on the outer boundary line of hurri- 
 canes, are seldom or ever affected by earthquakes, and the sea- 
 sons are more equal and the rains more plentiful than is generally 
 the case elsewhere ; our forests, also, although (unlike those of 
 other colonies within the tropics) abounding in singing-birds of 
 beautiful plumage and insects of all kinds, are exempt from the 
 monkey tribe, whose depredations are much dreaded by the 
 planter : but what is still more singular, that destructive animal 
 the cane-rat is almost entirely unknown. 
 
 " It is an error to suppose that in Tobago we give a high rate 
 of wages. The price of field-labour varies from 6d to \s per 
 diem, according to age, for attached negroes, — that is, for such 
 as have houses and grounds ; but I5 4cZ is demanded on Satur- 
 days, which is still, I regret to observe, considered as a day of 
 exclusive freedom, and of exemption from estates employ. It 
 may not be here out of place to give a striking evidence of the 
 economy, laying other considerations aside, of free over com- 
 pulsory labour. The charge in slavery for preparing and open- 
 ing an acre of land in this island by the employment of a task- 
 gang was ^£8. sterling : the same amount of work was performed 
 very recently for £1. 19s lOd, and upon a Saturday too, when 
 the people, as stated above, demand the higher rate of wages." 
 
 Major Graeme appears to be as sanguine in 
 support of his theory, as the free-traders are in 
 support of theirs, if he is not as dishonest ; for 
 when, but a few months after writing the above, he 
 had to communicate to Earl Grey, October 14, 1847, 
 that the island had been " torn to pieces" by a 
 hurricane, that ** two-thirds of the houses and sugar 
 works had been razed to the ground," the Govern- 
 ment House gutted, many people destroyed, and
 
 30 
 
 himself and his family driven to take refuge, at the 
 imminent risk of their lives, in the cellars, he added, 
 *' I do not think the vortex of the whirlwind passed 
 over us, and 1 am still of opinion that Tobago is not 
 in the direct Line of hurricanes, and I hope this 
 visitation is an exception to the general rule." 
 
 And after quoting the above passage from Major 
 Grseme's silly despatch about singingbirds, monkeys, 
 cheap labour, and hurricanes, Lord Grey is reported 
 to have said that " those who objected to quotations 
 from pamphlets might see in that official authority^ 
 clear evidence of the truth that freedom was not 
 more costly than slavery ;" although he had at the 
 very time much worthier and more recent official 
 authority in his possession which testified to the 
 contrary. 
 
 His Lordship, in reading to the House of Lords 
 certain statements which coincided with his own 
 views, from what he termed " a most able and ad- 
 mirable despatch, every line of which deserved the 
 attention of Parliament," from Governor Higginson 
 of Antigua, passed over the following rather impor- 
 tant lines in silence : " It must be conceded, that for 
 obvious reasons, free grown sugar can 7iever yield so 
 lucrative a return as that produced by foreign 
 slaves'^ 
 
 Sir C. Grey, 2 1st Sept. 1847, p. S55, (3rd Report) 
 writes from Jamaica to Earl Grey. 
 
 " I think it my duty to mention that the low price to which 
 sugar has recently fallen in the London market, without any cor-
 
 31 
 
 responding reduction of duty, really threatens with ruin many of 
 the planters who have latterly been struggling hard to keep their 
 heads above water. 
 
 ***** There is a sincere apprehension amongst the persons 
 most thoroughly acquainted with the subject, that with the pre- 
 sent London prices of West Indian sugar, and the present rate of 
 duties, it will be impossible to carry on here, without loss and 
 ruin, the cultivation of sugar for exportation." 
 
 In a Speech to the Legislative Assembly of Ja- 
 maica, (3rd Rept. p. 36 1.) Sir C. Grey, after 
 pointing out the advantages which the reduction of 
 the duties on sugar and rum, in 1845 and 184'6, 
 might be supposed to have conferred on the planters, 
 said, he " freely declared his opinion that they had 
 a strong claim to relief by a further reduction of 
 duty, if the finances of England can sustain it." 
 
 Sir C. Grey forwarded a copy of this Speech to 
 Lord Grey, apologizing at the same time for " having 
 admitted too broadly, and to an inconvenient extent, 
 the claims of the planters to relief." (3rd. Rept. p. 
 360). — Lord Grey in a despatch dated 2':^nd. Nov. 
 1847, (3rd. Rept. p. 368.) reprimands him for 
 having indulged in, and expressed in so public and 
 formal a manner, expressions of relief being afforded 
 which it will not be possible to grant. 
 
 The contents of all these despatches were at that 
 time known only to the members of the Govern- 
 ment. They were accessible to no one else. 
 
 Surely Lord Grey ought, in candour, to have 
 stated that the opinions of Sir C. Grey, of Lord 
 Harris, of Governors Light and Higginson, all men
 
 3^ 
 
 to whose intelligence and zeal he has himself re- 
 peatedly borne just and spontaneous testimony ; all 
 practical men, forming their conclusions on the 
 spot, were entirely at variance with his own, which 
 were merely supported by a Jamaica doctor, by the 
 collecting constable of Annetto Bay, an insolvent 
 shopkeeper, and by the too sanguine Gramme of To- 
 bago, unconvinced even by the late disaster of the 
 liability of that island to hurricanes, before, after 
 imputing mismanagement, ignorance and want of 
 energy to the present race of planters, he invited 
 " men of science, energy, and capital," to repair to 
 our colonies, and embark in the cultivation of sugar, 
 assuring them, that in his opinion, " they could not 
 fail of perfect success." The speculators thus in- 
 voked would then have been better able to estimate 
 the actual value of his Lordship's " strong convic- 
 tion that a great prosperity was still in store for 
 those who engaged in such a course.''* 
 
 Would Lord Grey, in private life, have counselled 
 a tenant's son to emigrate to New Zealand, and 
 engage himself there in agricultural pursuits, on the 
 authority of passages in pamphlets, such as those of 
 Messrs. Jelly and Scotland, suppressing the fact that 
 at the very time he was giving such advice, he had 
 in his possession letters from the Governor of the 
 colony, and from every person of respectability, prac- 
 tically conversant with its affairs, declaring that ruin 
 awaited all who connected themselves with it? 
 * Times, Feb. 8, 1848,
 
 33 
 
 Lord Grey has on more than one occasion ex- 
 pressed himself very strongly against absenteeism, 
 observing that if he lived in Jamaica, he should not 
 expect to farm his estate in Northumberland to 
 advantage. Probably not ; but if he found he could 
 not farm it himself, he would expect to let it for a 
 good and well paid rent to a thriving tenant, or to 
 sell it for 30 or 32 years purchase. Towards the 
 conclusion of his speech, in February, he is reported 
 to have said, in speaking of Jamaica, " to believe 
 the business of planting could be conducted to a 
 profit by absentees was quite a delusion, and it was 
 evident that that truth was practically felt by some 
 planters, who had recently invested as much as 
 £142,000 in property purchased since the measure 
 of emancipation passed."* It would have been more 
 germane to the question before the House, if he had 
 stated how much had been purchased since the 
 bills of 1844 and 1846, and it would have surely 
 been but fair to the West Indians, and to the legis- 
 lative body whom he^was addressing, if he had com- 
 municated to their Lordships the following memo- 
 rial ; from the very gentlemen to whom he alluded, 
 resident planters in Jamaica, forwarded to him by 
 Sir C. Grey, and j received prior to the February 
 sugar debates, which would have shewn the nature of 
 their feelings as'^to the investment of capital which 
 they had made. 
 
 * Times, Feb. 8, 1848.
 
 V 
 
 34> 
 
 Memouiai. totlie Right Honourable the Earl Grey, Iler Majesty's 
 Principal Secretary of State for tlie Colonies, &c. &c. &c. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 We pray your earnest attention to the following facts. 
 
 We, the undersigned, are the owners of 1 9, and the lessees of 
 13 sugar estates in the west end of the island of Jamaica, on ; 
 which properties we employ daily an average of 2,898 labourers, } 
 who represent families numbering 14,490 people, lately redeemed 
 from slavery. Our sugar estates, 32 in number, are expected 
 to make this year 2,796 hogsheads of sugar and 1,354 pun- 
 cheons of rum, which will cost us, by accurate computation, 
 60,315/. 13s. 5c?. We have no hope of realizing more than 15/. 
 per hogshead and 14/. per puncheon (the maximum price of the 
 market at present), at which rate our produce will bring 60,896/. 
 leaving a balance over our expenditure of 580/. Gs. 7d. to go 
 against six per cent., the common I'ate of interest which money 
 bears in the colony, and which on 60,3)5/. I3s. 5d. would be 
 3,618/. 18s. 9d. Our capital invested on these 32 sugar estates in 
 live stock and implements of husbandry, amounts in live stock to 
 32,094/.; in implements, to 14,630/. upon which wear-and-tear 
 capital we receive no interest whatever. The 19 sugar estates 
 that we own cost us 95,784/. and we pay a rental for the 13 other 
 estates of 3,110/. per annum, which sunk capital is likewise 
 wholly profitless. 
 
 We are not so absurd as to expect that the British nation 
 should abandon the principles of free trade, now upheld by the 
 majority of the people, in order to afford us protection, but we 
 submit it cannot be consonant with the spirit of free trade to 
 give to the slave colonies a monopoly of the sugar market by 
 allowing them to cultivate sugar with means (slaves) denied to 
 us ; and we submit they must have that monopoly if the British 
 West Indies cease to supply the market with sugar, as your lord- 
 ship must have ascertained that a supply from the East Indies 
 cannot be obtained at the rates of slave grown produce.
 
 35 
 
 / 
 
 , Now we are resident proprietors, and all of us, with one ex- 
 / ception, have purchased aud leased our properties since the 
 1 Emancipation Act. It will be evident from the facts stated that y^^ 
 we cannct cultivate for another year ; indeed, we have not the 
 means, unaided, of taking off the present crop, and the British 
 West India merchants are now unable to assist us, and of course 
 disinclined, where there is no hope of profit or even of recover- 
 ing their advances. If we, being proprietors and lessees, living on 
 and managing our own properties, brought up to tropical agricul- 
 I ture, and availing ourselves of every practical improvement, have 
 i only such a result to exhibit as is set forth in the statement of 
 these facts, the inference is conclusive that the position of the ab- 
 sentee proprietor or mortgagee, represented by paid agencies, is 
 still more deplorable. It is evident that unless some mode of 
 suppressing slavery and the slave trade more effectual than that 
 hitherto pursued be adopted, and without immediate aid, in the 
 shape of money loans, sugar cultivation, upon which 300,000 of 
 the emancipated negroes are wholly dependent, must cease in 
 Jamaica. 
 
 But our object in submitting these facts to your Lordship is to 
 enable you to draw your own inferences, and suggest your own 
 remedies, and we beg you will consider our desperate position as 
 an excuse for troubling you with the statement. 
 
 We have, &c. 
 
 (Signed) H. A. WHITELOCK, 
 
 (and 15 others.)
 
 -3 
 C 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 C3 
 
 S cj 
 
 Ci. . . . « 
 
 
 Q; lO 
 
 
 
 Signatui 
 
 Proprieto 
 
 Lessee 
 
 .t: ® 
 <e2 
 
 
 O 
 
 EH 
 
 "" '^ H & u eu 33 H cj Q d ai yj ^ ^ ^ 
 
 
 0) !r ■ S" ~i _ .i oj 
 
 O CO 
 
 OOOOOOOOOO'OOOO 
 
 1 M 
 
 O (N 
 
 c-^cy3«o — oo^t^c»a>«tc 
 
 Ol 
 
 lO — 
 
 .-Ir-.™ (NTj<r-(MC> <M-^ r-* 
 
 ==, 
 
 ^«j,Oj C-= H 
 
 
 
 ' <N 
 
 a. . 
 
 O h 
 
 i s 
 
 u; o 
 
 iOOO(NOC>OCC;OiOiO-*C^ 
 
 ■^ 
 
 >. e3 
 
 — CO 
 
 OOOOC^iO'OiO— OiOr~CO— <t^ 
 
 lO 
 
 CJ 0; 
 
 3 3 
 
 (N 
 
 
 CO 
 
 T3 >H 
 
 a-2 
 
 a.« 
 
 
 
 
 m >- 
 
 c o 
 
 OOOOOCO— .OCOOCOiO-^ 
 
 CO 
 
 -S OD 
 
 M C^ 
 
 .-^•^OiOCCOO.— ocot-coo 
 
 CT) 
 
 '«3 ;-• 
 
 -5 3 
 
 Tf ,i. 
 
 1—^— M-^— i(N(N — '-<— i-i 
 
 l> 
 
 t2^ 
 
 = 03 
 
 
 
 cf 
 
 
 ^•o . 
 
 c o c coco 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 «; o 
 
 o o o o o o c 
 
 c 
 
 Arinu 
 Amouri 
 Rental 
 
 each Le; 
 
 • o • 
 
 O -OO '0000 
 
 o 
 
 «JO 
 
 O CO o o o >o o 
 
 
 ^o 
 
 »0 <0 1< <N (N — -^ 
 
 Co" 
 
 T^O o 
 
 ooooooo .oooc 
 
 o 
 
 
 ccooooo oooo 
 
 o 
 
 -s =^^ • 
 
 
 
 £ o o~ .CO 
 
 oo-*oooo 'COOO • • 
 
 •^ 
 
 3 3 S «S S 
 
 00«OCiO«0 COCO 
 
 CO 
 
 0^tO^I>^C^C__c-_^<0^ c_^c_o^o_ 
 
 c- 
 
 
 
 r~'~co'"'i<"cT'c<5"^'"-^'' . cc'"oj'c'"o'" 
 
 o* 
 
 1 
 
 — • _ rt • • 
 
 05 
 
 lount 
 iture 
 for 
 axes, 
 
 s, 
 &c. 
 
 
 OOCC-»I>COCCCOOOCO 
 OCOO(»^(NCOCOOOO 
 
 CO 
 
 Total Am 
 
 ofExpend 
 
 in 1847 
 
 Wages, T 
 
 Salarie 
 
 Lumber, 
 
 
 »— « i-H 1— 1 
 
 ^H 
 
 . ■* o 
 
 OCOOOOlCCWOOOOO'— 
 
 lO 
 
 
 CCfMOO-^OJIMOOOcOCOO 
 
 
 C^J_ !>_ O-^ TT^ CJ_ -- CJ, OO^ OD 0_ CO_^ 0)_ Ol 0_^ 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 COCvT 
 
 c-f !n" — ' I—*" co" oi' (n" ■<3>'~ ■* ~ co" n •*" 
 
 c" 
 
 CO 
 
 
 ^oo 
 
 coocoooocoooco 
 
 o 
 
 of 
 
 ^c o 
 
 cocococooooooc 
 
 o 
 
 o, 2 c o 
 
 
 
 
 3 3 1 - 
 
 o o 
 
 ooooccoooocooo 
 
 o 
 
 ■^ a 
 
 , • c c 
 
 occoooococcoooio 
 
 CO 
 
 ■h^O^iO 
 
 OCOiO-^050lO<OCJ^UO'n05(NCO 
 
 co^ 
 
 (N 
 
 CO ^'' -^" 
 
 ■^'~ 
 
 H; — ^ 
 
 ^•oo 
 
 occccoooococco 
 
 c 
 
 .S =« M " -T3 
 
 
 
 O a! -. to 
 
 c-O o 
 
 ooocooooccoooc 
 
 c 
 
 
 o o 
 
 coccomcoooiooootO'^ 
 
 ■* 
 
 . -^ o 
 
 COa>'0<NCOCOtOOC<305'OCO — (M 
 
 C5 
 
 tfiCOO 
 
 CO O C*_0__C-_ t--_^CO__CO_ CO^t^ 0_^ 0_^ lO o_^ 
 
 o_ 
 
 
 lO — 
 
 cT ^^ ^' CO co" -h" !n' — " <N ci C^ 
 
 crs 
 
 J) 
 
 m 
 
 03 
 
 coo t^r^cootocoor^eoto 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 •"3-r- co'vcoc^eieo'r.-iO 
 
 t^ 
 
 1-3 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 >o 
 
 o^ 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 
 ^ o 
 
 s 
 
 ol 
 
 o o 
 
 — oococcoo>oocor~05 
 
 00 
 
 "^ 
 
 ^o o 
 
 lO'TOOt^ — cocococoxioco-^co 
 
 1^ 
 
 3 
 
 
 to ^ 
 
 CO-^ — COO^CN'- C<<N ^ 
 
 o_ 
 
 » 
 
 
 
 •^'" 
 
 t. S >> » 
 
 
 
 5 S .a . u 
 
 
 
 of Esta 
 rented 
 Sub- 
 scribe 
 
 o 
 
 O O O flj m oj O 
 
 CO 
 
 
 & & S 3 C C ^ 
 
 H .HH .OOOH 
 
 
 1 ^%^ . u 
 
 • . 
 
 
 
 Numb 
 of Esta 
 owned 
 Sub- 
 scribe 
 
 
 «> f II 
 
 OJ 
 
 
 
 '^ 
 
 E-O 
 
 Or-OOHHO OOHO 
 
 
 P-. 'S
 
 An attempt having been made by the planters of 
 British Guiana to reduce the wages of their labour- 
 ers twenty-five per cent, in December last, a general 
 cessation of work ensued throughout the colony, 
 just at the time when the latter part of the crop 
 was fit to be taken off. The packet which arrived 
 on the 3rd of February brought to every merchant 
 and proprietor letters descriptive of the loss which 
 they were sustaining, and of the danger to which 
 the colonists were exposed by the idleness, violence, 
 and acts of incendiarism of the Creole negroes. 
 
 Mr. Wilson, however, much to the surprise of 
 every one acquainted with the actual condition of 
 the colony by the latest accounts, declared to the 
 House of Commons that he had received by the 
 very same packet intelligence " that the negroes had 
 " met this reduction of wages without any strike, 
 "or sulkiness, or manifestation of ill-feeling ; that 
 •' this had taken the colonists by surprise ; and that 
 *' thouo^h in wages the free labourers had been re- 
 " duced twentyper cent. yetincharacterthey had been 
 " raised in the opinion of the planters fifty per cent. 
 "Such," said the Hon. Member, "was the 
 " account received by the last packet with regard 
 " to the colony which had been represented to be in 
 " the very worst possible condition."* 
 
 Earl Grey, in the House of Lords, on his part, 
 
 in alluding to the alleged strike, averred, that 
 
 " he had seen a local newspaper which stated that 
 
 " a reduction of twenty-five per cent, had since 
 
 * Times, Feb. 5th, 1848.
 
 38 
 
 " taken place, and had been met most cheerfully, 
 " and with good humour, by the negroes, who 
 " knew that the planters could not help it. Thus 
 " had been obtained, all at once, without any 
 " expensive immigration scheme, the great advan- 
 " tage of one-fourth to the supply of the labour of 
 " the colony, (hear, hear.) 
 
 *' Could there be a more direct proof of the 
 " truth of the argument he had brought forward ? 
 " This behig the case, then, would any man tell him 
 " that the system of protection had been of advan- 
 " tage to the planters ? He held, on the contrary, 
 *' that even if protection were admissible on the 
 " ground of the general interests of the country, 
 '■ the interests of the planter himself demanded that 
 " Parliament should adhere to the determination 
 " it came to in 1846 — to put an end to it."* 
 
 But unfortunately, this was not the case ; and 
 had Lord Grey not chosen to place more confidence 
 in the editor of a local newspaper than in Governor 
 Light's despatches, he would not have been be- 
 trayed into such a cruel misstatement. 
 
 The despatch which arrived by the same packet 
 as the local newspaper quoted from (dated 31st 
 December, 1847, J^^nd received Feb. 3, 1848), con- 
 tained the following passage : — 
 
 " As affairs y.oiv stand, one half the sugar estates will he 
 unable to carry on the cultivation, unless the price of labour is 
 reduced, and the labourers will learn the truth of my doctrines." 
 
 Governor Light had previously (on the 3rd June 
 1847), written thus to Lord Grey. 
 
 * Times, Feb. 8th, 1848.
 
 39 
 
 " I have h.id the honour to express my sentiments on thorough 
 drain«age in this country, and I would gladly see the introduc- 
 tion of the improved mode of agriculture which would be the 
 result of the drainage sought. 
 
 " Without help from some <juarter, these improveinents cannot 
 he made, which I have often said would convert this into one of 
 the greatest sugar producing colonies in the world." 
 
 These documents had not at that time been 
 brought to light by the exertions of Lord George 
 Bentinck ; and the Houses of Parliament — unwill- 
 ing to give ear to the interested assertions of the 
 West Indian interest, — had no alternative but to 
 place credence in those of Mr. Wilson and Lord 
 Grey. 
 
 When the English papers, containing the sugar 
 debates of February, reached Guiana about the 
 middle of March : the strike which Lord Grey 
 had assured the House of Lords, had ceased at the 
 end of the previous year, still existed, and the 
 colonists, amidst rotting canes, choked drainage and 
 rank weeds, read with astonishment and dismay the 
 astounding assertions of the Noble Secretary for the 
 Colonics. 
 
 The following observations were made in conse- 
 quence in the Colonial House of Assembly by the 
 Hon. Peter Rose, one of the ablest of that body, in 
 the course of a speech, pointing out the utter in- 
 capacity of the colonists to raise the usual supplies. 
 
 " I do not wish to take up the time of the Court ; but before I 
 resume my seat, I beg to say, and I believe the other members of 
 the elective section will bear me out, that we have no desire to do 
 any thing that wouldembarrass your Excellency. We are compelled 
 by dire necessity to adopt a line of conduct which we should be
 
 40 
 
 glad under other circumatances to forego. It would nfFord ua 
 great satisfaction to be enabled to raise the supplies. IVe are con- 
 vinced that your Excellency has laid before the Government a 
 true statement of the condition of the colony, and that if they 
 had listened or paid any attention to the despatches which you 
 furnished — if they had not been deaf to reason and justice — 
 things would have been otherwise ; but what are the statements 
 which Earl Grey mahes in the House of Lords ? He tells them 
 that great reductions have taken place in the wages of the 
 labourers ; and he quotes an article in the Royal Gazette in 
 confirmation, perhaps, of what your Excellency wished should 
 take place. He quotes an article from the Gazette, which, 
 according to his version, states that a reduction of 25 per cent, 
 has absolutely taken place in the wages of the labourers, and that 
 they are working cbeerfuUy. 
 
 " Governor. — 1 did not viahe that statement. 
 
 " Mr. Rose. — No. I say that your Excellency's statements, 
 so far as his Lordship has given them, are perfectly correct and 
 satisfactory ; but by way of supporting his views, he read an 
 article whicli he said he found in a local paper containing a state- 
 ment that the labourers were working cheerfully at a reduced 
 rate of wages by 25 per cent., which, in his opinion, was at least 
 equal to so many additional labourers, I wish his Lordship better 
 information in future." 
 
 All the subsequent letters, newspapers and des- 
 patches from Guiana have corroborated the accuracy 
 of the state of affairs described by the Governor on 
 the Slst December, 1847- 
 
 The following packet brought these extracts of a 
 Despatch from Governor Light to Earl Grey, dated 
 Deraerara, Jan. 18, 184-8, (marked private). 
 
 " The end of the year closed the manufacture of sugar and 
 employment of Creoles who held out against any dimunition of 
 wages ; and to this moment whatever is done, and very little is 
 doing, is performed by the Portuguese and Coolies, who are, 
 however, often driven from the field by the Creoles, It is in vain 
 that the ministers of religion tell the Creoles that the planters are
 
 41 
 
 reduced to such a state by the low prices as not to be able to 
 afford, without absolute ruin to themselves, the same rate of 
 wages as before ; they stubbornly refuse to work at any reduc- 
 tion of price. * * * » 
 
 " Within one fortnight three fires, incendiary, have occurred ; 
 a return of which I annex. 
 
 't' •?■ 'P »t» Jfl 
 
 " Under these circumstances, and if unhappily the Creoles 
 continue determined in abstaining from work and in revengeful 
 mood, it be found that incendiarism proceeds, I respectfully 
 submit that some stringent law should be passed, as is I believe 
 enforced in England, to make the district or parish contribute to 
 the payment of the value of property destroyed byincendiarisni : 
 it will be a wholesome check on those who while they hold back 
 from actual crime do not discourage it, or give information so as 
 to secure double vigilance on the part of the police as well as the 
 well-disposed. 
 
 " Although some three or four Creoles have been imprisoned 
 for threatening and ill-treating emigrants who have chosen to 
 accept of lower wages, yet the intimidation still continues. 
 I have directed the inspector-general of police to use every dili- 
 gence in arresting the progress of intimidation, and to employ 
 the swiftest mode of conveyance of strong bodies of police, 
 whenever he is called on to support the peaceable and well- 
 inclined against their more turbulent comrades. 
 
 " As I stated, the planters wish either to have a fourth more 
 task for the same wages, or to pay a fourth less wages for the 
 working task of last year ; the labourers, by being more indus- 
 trious, may still obtain the same wages. 
 
 " I have thought it my duty to make your Lordship acquainted 
 with what is passing ; I most earnestly hope that I may shortly 
 be able to write more favourably of the state of the colony." 
 
 A fortnight afterwards Mr. Light writes thus : — 
 
 *' I regret to say, that on the 19th instant the logics of plan- 
 tation Melleville, Mahaica River, east coast of Dcmerara, were 
 burnt down ; that about the same time an attempt was made to 
 set fire to the dwelling-bouse of Blairmont, a plantation on the 
 west bank of river Berbice ; and that a few nights later, a 
 dwelling-house belonging to a respectable inhabitant was fired at 
 
 D
 
 42 
 
 the four corners and in the interior, and burnt to the ground, 
 at New Amsterdam ; the family escaping with the greatest diffi- 
 culty, with the loss of all they possessed. 
 
 " Every exertion is made by the police to discover the offenders ; 
 and rewards arc offered for their apprehension or discovery. 
 
 " I have, &c. Henry Light. 
 
 "P. S. — February 4th. I regret further to report, that on the 
 31st ultimo the megass logics of plantation Zorg, Arabian coast, 
 Essequibo, were fired and burnt down at 10 a.m. ; making the 
 sixth fire in the month of January. — H. L." 
 
 Enclosure in No. 4. 
 RETURN OF ELANTATIONS 
 On which Fires have occurred since the 31sf December, 1847. 
 
 Name of 
 
 District. 
 
 County. 
 
 Date of 
 
 Property 
 
 Opinion of Stipendiary 
 
 Plantation. 
 
 Fire. 
 
 Destroyed. 
 
 Magistrate of the District. 
 
 Palmyra 
 
 (F.) 
 
 Essequibo 
 
 IJan. 
 
 Two megass lo- 
 gics. 
 
 The act of an incendiary, 
 almost certain ; the 
 police on the traces of 
 a fugitive negro. 
 
 Montrose 
 
 (B.) 
 
 Demerara 
 
 15 — 
 
 An entire range 
 of megass 
 logies. 
 
 Idem. — In the middle of 
 the day, in three dif- 
 ferent places at once. 
 
 Lusignan 
 
 (B.) 
 
 Demerara 
 
 16 — 
 
 Overseer'sdwell- 
 ing house. 
 
 Idem. — At night found 
 on fire at different 
 parts, to the great 
 danger of the lives of 
 the inmates, who lost 
 everything; and one 
 most seriously hurt in 
 escaping in his shirt. 
 
 A most rigid inquiry is now in progress. 
 
 H. L. 
 
 On the 14h February, 1848, Governor Light 
 writes : " AUhough the country is tranquil, the ces- 
 sation from labour continues.* There were six in- 
 cendiary fires in January, the last on the 31st, 
 happily none have been reported this month." 
 
 * The Report of Lord George Bentinck's Committee, pub- 
 lished on the 2Gth of May, declares that up to the latest accounts, 
 the Creole negroes of Guiana were still inactive.
 
 43 
 
 BEET-ROOT SUGAR, 
 
 " In considering the question of the comparative value of slave 
 and free labour, it is well worth our while to advert to what is 
 passing in a neighbouring country. In the French West Indian 
 colonies they have still slave labour as in former years ; but, 
 instead of being able to compete with the beet-root sugar grown 
 by free labour in France, they require protection for their sugar 
 grown in a climate better fitted than any other for producing 
 sugar, and on estates cultivated by slave labour. In 1843 a law 
 was passed in France, imposing a duty on beet-root sugar rising 
 at the rate of 5f. per kilogramme" (^200. per ton !) "in each 
 year, until in August, 1848, the duty will be equal to that on 
 colonial sugar. I find, on turning to Mr. M'CuUoch's Com- 
 mercinl Dictionary of 1844, that the effect which was antici- 
 pated from this arrangement was that the beet-root manufacture 
 must ultimately be destroyed ; that it would be annihilated in 
 France as effectually as if the plantations had been rooted up. 
 So far, however, from the growth of beet-i'oot being destroyed, 
 the production of beet-root sugar has increased in a most remark- 
 able manner. The cheap slave grown sugar of the French 
 colonies cannot compete with the free grown sugar of France." 
 — (Speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the 3rd of 
 February ; republished as a pamphlet.) 
 
 " A change had taken place with respect to the cultivation of 
 sugar, of which few persons were probably aware. The quantity 
 of sugar at present produced on the Continent, amounted to more 
 than two-thirds of the whole amount produced in our West 
 
 D 2 
 
 /
 
 44 
 
 Indian islands not longer than twenty years ago. The total 
 produce on the Continent at the present time was 100,000 
 tons, and that production took place, not only in competition 
 with slave labour, but under other disadvantageous circum- 
 ■stances." * * * «' This was a competition to which the 
 West Indian interests were exposed, and which it was impossible 
 for Parliament to control. The competition, too, was one which 
 promised to be permanent, and was rapidly increasing." — 
 (Speech of Mr. J. Wilson, M.P., on February the 4th, 1848.) — 
 The Times. 
 
 Such were what the French term the *' Statis- 
 tiques hasardees" of heet-root sugar supplied for the 
 guidance of the House of Commons and the confu- 
 sion of the West Indian interest by the Chancellor 
 of Exchequer and his new colleague Mr. Wilson. 
 As the subject had for obvious reasons been very 
 little attended to in England, their unscrupulous 
 adaptation of fact to argument stood them in good 
 stead for the moment. 
 
 The truth is as follows : — 
 
 Beet-root sugar grown in France, paid in the year 
 1843 a duty of about £l^. per ton. The conclusion 
 to be deduced, therefore, from the figures given by 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he corrected 
 and republished his Speech as the Ministerial case 
 with regard to the sugar question, appears to be 
 that all French sugar, colonial and indigenous, will, 
 on the first of August next, pay an equal duty of 
 2.5,300 francs, or £1012. per ton ! ! ! 
 
 Well was it observed by a public writer the other 
 day, that it was impossible for the most licentious
 
 45 
 
 journalist to overstate the ignorance of the present 
 Ministers on all matters connected with commerce 
 and finance. 
 
 It is therefore only necessary to deal with the 
 ingenious inventions of Mr. Wilson on this su])ject. 
 
 If his statements and arguments mean anything, 
 they mean that Europe has been supplied, and is 
 likely to be supplied in future with beet-root sugar 
 at a cheaper rate than tropical countries using slave 
 labour, can contrive to produce it from the cane ; 
 and that Europe now produces annually a quantity 
 equal to two-thirds of the whole amount grown in 
 the British West Indian colonies twenty years ago. 
 
 The latter assertion is unimportant, except as 
 another instance of the excessive latitude which Mr. 
 Wilson permits to himself in adapting fact to argu- 
 ment. In his own paper of February 12, but eight 
 days after the delivery of the speech from which 
 the passage at the head of this letter was extracted, 
 the Economist, in order to support another theory, 
 averred that the production of sugar in the British 
 West Indian colonies in IS'^S, had been 198,400 
 tons, conveniently forgetting that in the House of 
 Commons, on the 4th of February, he had declared 
 it to have been under 150,000 tons. A statesman 
 who indulges in such a broad margin to his facts 
 is indeed a formidable antagonist, and, until he is 
 found out, a useful ally. 
 
 In 1828 about 4500 tons of beet-root sugar were 
 grown in France.
 
 46 
 
 In 1888 the quantity produced in France had in- 
 creased to 80,000 tons. 
 
 Up to that date no duty whatever had been 
 levied on French beet-root sugar, whilst that pro- 
 duced by the limited and mitigated slavery of the 
 French colonies, paid I85. per cwt. on raw sugars, 
 and ^35. per cwt. on refined sugars, and that of 
 slave importing and slave killing countries, like 
 Cuba and Brazil, and all other sugars whatever, a 
 duty of 325. per cwt. with an increase of 85. per 
 cwt. if imported in any but French bottoms. 
 
 In 1838, a duty of about 85, per cwt. was first 
 imposed on French beet-root sugar. 
 
 In 1840, the production, according to official re- 
 turnsy had fallen down to 25,698 tons. 
 
 In 1843, the production having continued nearly 
 stationary, the duty was again altered, an annual 
 increase of about 2s. per cwt. being imposed upon 
 beet-root sugar until August 1848, when the duties 
 on French colonial and home-grown sugars will be 
 00 a par — about 20s. per cwt. ; the high excluding 
 duties on all foreign sugars, European and tropical, 
 remaining undiminished. 
 
 The beet-root sugar crop of 1847^ of France, 
 amounted, according to official returns, to 51,000 
 tons, the inability of Guadaloupe, Martinique, and 
 Bourbon, to meet the increasing demand of her 
 increasing population, the large sums spent amongst 
 her labouring classes in railways, and the very 
 heavy protection given against all other sugars, and 
 more especially against those of slave importing and
 
 47 
 
 slave killing countries, having afforded a stimulus 
 to the home manufacture, which had previously 
 declined, according to official returns, from 80,000 
 tons in 1838, to '25,698 tons in 1840. 
 
 This decrease and subsequent increase, however, 
 has not been nearly so great as it appears to have 
 been from the official returns. So long as beet-root 
 sugar was grown duty free, the quantity produced 
 was readily avowed — but as soon as a duty was im- 
 posed, enormous frauds were, until very recently, 
 perpetrated on the excise, by the beet-root manu- 
 facturers, which have been during the last two years 
 obviated by new and stringent regulations. In 1843, 
 the Agricultural Society of Valenciennes, fully 
 proved that out of 35,000 tons of beet-root sugar ma- 
 nufactured in France, only 23,000 tons had paid duty. 
 In the Zollverein, in Belgium, and in Austria, 
 beet-root sugar has also, as in France, owed its 
 existence entirely to the protection which it has 
 received ag^ainst cane suerar. 
 
 Again, Mr. Wilson stated, as a proof of the pro- 
 gress which beet-root was making against cane, 
 that seventy- two new manufactories had been estab- 
 lished during- the last twelve months in the ZoUve- 
 rein. He omitted, however, to enumerate how 
 many had, during the same period, been abandoned 
 in that commercial confederacy : the truth being, 
 that whilst the cultivation of beet-root was pro- 
 gressing, under protection, in Prussia, Brunswick, 
 and Saxe-Cotha, it had been almost entirely aban- 
 doned, in spite of protection, in Bavaria, Saxony,
 
 48 
 
 Wirtemburg, Baden, Hesse, Frankfort, Lunen- 
 burg, and Westphalia. In Belgium also it has 
 fallen off in the last ten years from 15,000 tons (Die- 
 trici) to 4000 tons, (Matthysens Antwerp, 1848.) 
 
 Therefore, notwithstanding the seventy-two new 
 refineries established according to Mr. Wilson so 
 recently in Prussia, it appears, that the states of the 
 Zollverein and Belgium, which in 1838 produced 
 •21,500 tons— in 1847 produced but 18,000 tons; 
 his statement on the subject being as deceptive, as 
 if, in support of a theory that the sartorial art was 
 on the increase in London, he were to point out that 
 three new tailors' shops had been opened in Bond 
 Street, carefully suppressing the fact, that four 
 much larger establishments had simultaneously been 
 closed in Clifford Street. 
 
 We will now examine whether beet-root sugar 
 has, as the Economist avers, increased at all in 
 Europe, not " under the most disadvantageous," but 
 under the most advantageous circumstances, during 
 the last ten years. 
 
 According to Professor Dietrici, in 1838, 
 
 The states of the Zollverein produced about 6,500 tons. 
 Russia . . . 7,500 
 
 Belgium . . . 15,000 
 
 Austria . . . 2,300 
 
 31,300 
 France, (according to McCulloch) 80,000 
 
 111,300 
 The Economist avers that the pi'oduc- 
 
 tion of all Europe, in 1 84 7, amounted to 100, 00(V 
 
 Decrease 1 1 ,300
 
 49 
 
 Shewing by his own figures in 1847, a decrease 
 of 11,300 tons as compared with 1838. The best 
 French authorities, however, state the production 
 of Europe to have been in 1847 but 85,000 tons, 
 and estimate the probable produce of all Europe, 
 for 1848, but at 90,000 tons. 
 
 Therefore, there is every reason to believe that 
 the actual decrease from 1838 to 1847, of beet-root 
 sugar, grown annually in Europe, is much nearer 
 25,000 tons than 1 1 ,300 tons. 
 
 The public may now judge of the value of Mr. Wil- 
 son's assertion " that beet-root sugar had increased 
 not only in competition with slave grown sugar, but 
 under other discouraging circumstances :" the actual 
 facts being, that in no country in Europe where it 
 is manufactured, has it yet been exposed to open 
 competition with any description of slave labour 
 produce at all ; that instead of increasing, it has 
 during the last ten years decreased considerably, 
 and that McCulloch was perfectly right in asserting 
 that if it were thrown unprotected into the open 
 markets of Europe, to compete with the sugar of 
 Cuba and Brazil, it would be annihilated as effec- 
 tually as if the beet plantations had been rooted up.
 
 SIR C. WOOD AND LORD GLENELG 
 
 COMPENSATION. 
 
 Sir C. Wood, in opening his speech on February 
 3, 1848, after announcing that he meant to state 
 the case with " the greatest fairness," affirmed that 
 the West Indians had themselves valued their entire 
 property, land, machinery, stock and slaves at 
 £15,000,000 ; that the House of Commons had 
 paid them £20,000,000 ; and that " after this coun- 
 try had paid over and above what the estimate of 
 the interested parties had indicated as just and 
 reasonable, it could not be asserted with any show 
 of reason, that the West Indian body had any claim 
 to further or more ample concession."* 
 
 Whether any West Indian or West Indians did 
 ever at any time estimate the fee simple of the 
 property invested in all our sugar colonies at 
 £15,000,000, I am unable to say — moreover, before 
 such an estimate obtains any credence, it is necessary 
 to know by whom and on what data it was made — 
 but this I do know, and Sir C. Wood knows it too, 
 that the value of the slaves alone in the British 
 * Times, Feb. 4.
 
 51 
 
 sugar colonies, calculated not by the West Indian 
 interest, but by the Commissioners of the Crown at 
 the average of the prices which they had fetched at 
 forced auction sales during the preceding seven 
 years, amounted to £4^,000,000, and that 
 £20,000,000 was adjudged to the planters in 
 compensation for their emancipation, together with 
 an apprenticeship of seven years. 
 
 When Sir C. Wood further adverted to the acts 
 of the Whig Government, by which the planters were 
 subsequently deprived of that portion of the com- 
 pensation awarded to them, which was comprised 
 in four years' apprenticeship, he observed that " in 
 several instances he believed the change had worked 
 beneficially, and it was admitted generally by the 
 West Indians that the old system of apprenticeship 
 had not worked serviceably (" no, no"). At any 
 rate, in many cases, the curtailment of the period of 
 apprenticeship had given every satisfaction.'** 
 
 In two small islands, Barbados and Antigua, the 
 labouring population was indeed so dense as to render 
 apprenticeship unnecessary ; but in every other of 
 the West Indian sugar colonies its premature 
 abolition proved a source of heavy loss to the 
 planters, as their diminished crops testify, and the 
 following table of the cost of manufacturing a cwt. 
 of sugar, during an average of the last three years 
 of slavery, the period of apprenticeship, and the 
 first three years of freedom clearly shews. 
 * Times, Feb. 4.
 
 ,52 
 
 Colonies. 
 
 Average 
 
 of 
 Estates. 
 
 Slavery. 
 
 Appren- 
 ticeship. 
 
 Freedom. 
 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s, d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Jamaica 
 
 22 
 
 10 5i 
 
 9 2i 
 
 29 2 
 
 Grenada 
 
 13 
 
 9 2^ 
 
 9 
 
 24 9 
 
 St. Vincent , 
 
 3 
 
 7 3i 
 
 7 1 
 
 21 6 
 
 Guiana 
 
 9 
 
 6 6i 
 
 8 2 
 
 24 11 
 
 Tobago 
 
 2 
 
 8 5i 
 
 11 2 
 
 27 10 
 
 Trinidad 
 
 2 
 
 9 5 
 
 8 3 
 
 32 6^ 
 
 The above average cost is inclusive of rum and 
 molasses, but exclusive of interest on land and 
 plants. 
 
 Many transfers both of estates, whose value, as 
 the table shews, consisted mainly in the services of 
 the apprentices attached to them, and of the services 
 of apprentices alone, took place ; and to the 
 vendors and purchasers, Lord Glenelg, the then 
 Whig Secretary for the Colonies, wrote thus, in a 
 circular despatch dated October 1% 1835, when he 
 heard that some doubts had been expressed by those 
 parties, relative to the probability of the fair and 
 just fulfilment by the mother country of the bargain 
 she had forced on the unwilling colonists : — 
 
 " The purchaser of a claim under the Slavery 
 " abolition act does not incur the slightest assignable 
 " risk of losing his money ; he has for his security 
 " the national faith of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 ^''pledged in the most solemn form in which such an 
 " engagement was ever yet made. — If the seller sup- 
 " poses that any danger really exists, he labours
 
 53 
 
 " under an illusion so gross, as without further proof 
 '* to demonstrate that he is not in a state of general 
 " information to deal on equal terms with the 
 " speculators to whom his right is transferred.'' 
 
 Little more than two years afterwards the 
 British Government compelled the unfortunate colo- 
 nists to surrender more than half the apprenticeship 
 uncompensated for the loss they thereby incurred ; 
 and vet Sir C. Wood declared that the West Indians 
 had been overpaid for their property, that they 
 had been bought out stock and block, and there- 
 fore have no right to interfere with what the Free 
 Traders choose to do with their own. — The most 
 charitable supposition to make, by way of 
 accounting for Sir C. Wood's statements, is, what 
 actually was the case, that he was entirely ignorant 
 of the subject, and merely spoke from a brief 
 prepared for him by the clerks in the Colonial 
 Office, in the absence of any other member of the 
 Government better acquainted with the matter, for 
 Lord John Russell was at that time unwell, Mr. 
 Hawes in abeyance, and Mr. Labouchere too scru- 
 pulous to condescend to make the requisite misre- 
 presentations.
 
 " When orators are not particular as to their facts — when they 
 condescend to suppress good evidence, and to build brilliant 
 arguments on what they must well know to be unworthy found- 
 ations — it is easy for them to obtain a temporary triumph." — 
 J. Omnium's Letter to the Times, Feb. 7, I848. 
 
 The following analysis of a few " points'* made 
 W J. Wilson, Esq. M. P., (the Editor of the 
 Economist, and author of a paper therein about six 
 months since, headed " Cheap Sugar, the triumph 
 of Free Trade") in a speech in the House of Com- 
 mons, in support of Sir Charles Wood's views, will 
 shew that gentleman's ability and audacity in 
 adapting fact to argument. 
 
 " The Noble Lord alluded on the previous night to Colonel 
 Flinter's account of Porto Rico, and said he did not place much 
 confidence in that gentleman's statement with regard to the 
 labouring population. — He (Mr. Wilson) could say, that having 
 referred to a great number of other sources, he had upon the 
 whole found that gentleman's statements perfectly correct, and 
 his representation respecting the proportion of the slave to the 
 free population in Porto Rico was borne out by all the recent 
 accounts. In the chief part of the island he stated that the 
 cultivation was nearhj all carried on by free labourers" — {Speech 
 of J. Wilson, Esq. M. P.— Times, Feb. 5th, 1848.) 
 
 The entire production of sugar in Porto Rico is 
 under 50,000 tons. The population of the island 
 is 500,000 souls, of whom 50,000 are negro slaves.
 
 55 
 
 — In Cuba, Mr. Tolme, our late Consul, reports 
 that each slave on an Ingcnio is computed to raise 
 and manufacture on an average three tons of sugar; 
 his statement is corroborated by that of Mr. Over- 
 mann, a planter of Porto Rico, in a paper published 
 in the 7th Report of Lord George Bentinck's 
 Committee — supplied by Mr. Wilson himself. 
 
 If therefore only one -third of the slaves in Porto 
 Rico are employed on the sugar estates, it will be 
 seen that there is no necessity of calling in free 
 labour to account for any portion of the crop. 
 
 Let us however look to the indisputable evidence 
 now recorded on this point. John Lindegren, our 
 Consul at Porto Rico, writes 24th February, 1848, 
 in answ^er to certain queries sent to him from 
 the Colonial office : 
 
 " There is a great deal of uncultivated land in the island, but 
 nearly if not quite as much is now under cultivation as can be 
 effected with the present number of slaves. The annual pro- 
 duce of sugar may be considered at about 100,000 hogsheads of 
 1000 lbs. each, for home consumption and exportation, and it 
 cannot be much increased, unless they can get the free people to 
 work viore readily than they do at present^ for the number of 
 slaves in the island is about 50,000, and if from them are deducted 
 those employed on cotton, coffee, looking after cattle, in the towns, 
 &c. and the old and useless persons, as well as children, there 
 will not remain more than from 25,000 to 30,000 able slaves 
 for the cultivaiion and manufacture of sugar y * * * 
 
 " Perhaps it may be fairly estimated that from a fourth to a 
 fifth part of the cultivation and manufacture of sugar is done by 
 free people.'' 
 
 Mr. Wilson " could not resist the evidence'' pre-
 
 56 
 
 sented by the contrasted condition of the British 
 West Indian colonies, and Cuba and Porto Rico. 
 
 " In Porto Rico 47 new brick or stone bridges, 130 wooden 
 bridges, and 134 miles of good roads had been made within 
 the last six years. Could any such improvements be found 
 in the British West Indian islands? Upon the authority of Sir 
 R. Schomburg it appeared that no less than 800 7niles of rail- 
 road had been constructed in Cuba, while in the whole of the 
 British West Indian islands there were only twelve or fifteen 
 miles of railroad formed. * * * 
 
 " In Cuba and Porto Rico, at least 400 per cent, of the whole 
 population were white — 70 per cent, were freemen, and only 30 
 per cent, were slaves in the two islands."— (Speech of J. 
 Wilson, Esq. M.P. Feb. 4, 18AS.— Times.) 
 
 In Porto Rico, until very lately, there were no 
 roads at all ; consequently it has been more neces- 
 sary to make them in that island than in Jamaica, 
 Antigua, Demerara, and Barbados, where very good 
 ones have long existed ; in Cuba, an island 2,500 
 miles in circumference, there are none, excepting 
 the railways runninix into the suofar districts, and as 
 those colonies have been prospering on the downfall 
 of the British sugar planters, the means of future 
 improvement have been taken from the former and 
 given to the latter. 
 
 Mr. Wilson's friend, Mr. Overmann, declares, 
 (7th Report, p. 373), that in Porto Rico, so far from 
 being ahead of our colonics in manufacture, they 
 make their sugar " in the most common way, 
 by cattle mills, and he does not think there are 
 more than about twentv steam mills in the island.
 
 57 
 
 They have likewise few wind, and still less water- 
 mills." 
 
 Mr. Crawford, Consul-general in Cuba, in 
 answer to queries sent out by Earl Grey, states, 
 21st February, 1848, that " latterly in Cuba, 
 steam mills have been substituted for cattle mills," 
 (they have been in use in the British colonies 
 upwards of twenty-five years), " in addition to 
 which, the use of the Jamaica trains of boilers, 
 has materially increased the quantity of sugar ob- 
 tained from the juice, whilst improvements in the 
 furnaces have diminished the consumption of fuel ; 
 so that that process of sugar making, is likely to 
 continue in preference to the system of Derosne and 
 Cail, which, although found to be most perfect, the 
 apparatus is more costly, is far from being the most 
 profitable, and the sugar so made, whether because 
 of the contact of animal charcoal with the vegetable 
 substance of the cane juice, or from whatever other 
 cause, more easily loses its sweetness and other pro- 
 perties for the after process of refining."* 
 
 They have, however, labour at command. They can 
 weed their fields when they require weeding— they can 
 plant when the weather is favourable — they can cut 
 and grind their canes when they are ripe ; and, more- 
 over, as they work during crop time night and day, 
 " making no Sundays," a twelve horse steam engine, 
 and a single set of coppers and vacuum pans, will 
 take off as large a crop in Cuba, Porto Rico, or Brazil, 
 
 * 7th Report, C. S. P. p. 3fiS. 
 E
 
 58 
 
 as a twenty-four horse engine, and f.wo sets of cop- 
 per and vacuum pans in Jamaica or Guiana, where 
 the utmost the planters can do will not keep the 
 mill going above twelve hours out of the twenty-four ; 
 competition with them is thus rendered impossible. 
 
 In Cuba there are exactly I70 miles of railway, 
 not 800, as Mr. Wilson wished the House to believe. 
 
 Mr. Wilson, in order to demonstrate that the 
 riches and prosperity of Cuba were owing to the 
 number of its white inhabitants, massed its popula- 
 tion, of which more than one half are negro slaves, 
 with that of Porto Rico, an island comparatively 
 insignificant as a sugar producing colony, vvhere 
 nine-tenths of the population are white and coloured 
 freemen, and then informed the House that in the 
 two islands, seventy percent, were freemen, and but 
 thirty per cent, slaves — that there were four white 
 men to one nesro. 
 
 It would be scarcely a more unprincipled distor- 
 tion of truth to strike an averaoe of the white and 
 black population in Barbados and the Isle of 
 Wight ! A million of people, one half slaves, 
 make in Cuba 255,000 tons of sugar ; half a mil- 
 lion in Porto Rico, of whom but one-tenth are 
 slaves, make but 45,000 tons, which is moreover, 
 made almost entirely by slave-labour, and Porto 
 Rico is then cited as an example of the advantages 
 of free over slave-labour. 
 
 " Perhaps the most conclusive evidence of the greater economy 
 of free labour over slave labour, was to be be found in the progress 
 of sugar cultivation in the East.
 
 59 
 
 " Twenty years ago Java, now one of the most considerable 
 markets for the sugar supply of Europe, barely produced as much 
 of that article as its own inhabitants consumed ; the whole ex- 
 ported produce in 1826, did not exceed 1000 tons. Since then, 
 in open competition with Cuba and Brazil, and with the slave 
 labour of their own Surinam, the production of Java had increased 
 to 75,000 tons last year. He (Mr. Wilson) did not mean to say 
 the labourers in Java were freemen, but, as far as he could learn 
 from Dutch Ministers who had resided officially there, they were 
 as free as any labouring people in the world." — Speech of J. 
 Wilson, Esq. M.P., Alh Ftb. 1848. 
 
 In 181'7, Capt. Francis Blackwood returned ft*om 
 a surveying expedition in the Indian seas, in H. M. 
 S. Fly. A gentleman who accompanied him as 
 naturalist, Mr. Jukes, has written an account of 
 the expedition, and having on two occasions during 
 the five years it lasted spent some time in Java, he 
 turned his attention especially to the sugar culti- 
 vation, of which ample and most interesting details 
 will be found in the second volume of his work. 
 The Dutch authorities gave him every facility for 
 conducting his inquiries, in which he was assisted 
 by an English gentleman long resident in the island. 
 The following extracts will shew the mode in which 
 " frje labour" in Java has been enabled to compete 
 with slave labour elsewhere. 
 
 " The coolies, or work-people are supplied (i.e. compelled to 
 work) by the Government both for cutting canes and for the work 
 in the mill. From the natural indolence of the Javanese, great 
 diliiculty would be experienced in procuring work people without 
 the assistance of Government.
 
 60 
 
 " Fifteen doits (2^(1 English) is paid a daily labourer by fabri- 
 cants who have old contracts, 20 doits {3d.) by those of later 
 date. Daily coolies are obliged to work from six in the morning 
 to six in the evening. For night-work they generally receive 
 double wages.'' 
 
 Mr. Jukes adds in a note, " The meaning of this is, that the 
 people are compelled to work hy their riders, native and Dutch, 
 and to receive sttch wages as they may choose to order them. 
 If not a system of slavery it is one of the most complete serfdom." 
 —Jukes Voyage of H. M. S. Fbj, vol. 2, p. 191. 
 
 Mr. Crawford, a gentleman of high character, 
 long resident in Java, who was examined before 
 Lord George Bentinck's Committee, corroborates 
 Mr. Jukes's statements on every point as to the com- 
 pulsory nature of the labour by which the Java 
 sugar is made, 
 i A paper appeared in the Economist of the 12th of 
 ^ February, in which Mr. Wilson attempts to prove 
 that the distress of the British West India colonies 
 is caused, not by competition with slave grown sugar, 
 ) but by the enormous increase of free labour sugar 
 j during the last twenty years in the East, and in Eu- 
 rope "altogether irrespective and independent of 
 the acts of the British Legislature, cither as re- 
 gards slavery or protection against foreign pro- 
 ducers." He gives the following table in support 
 of his theory, and confidently announces that we 
 are in future to look eastward and to Europe for 
 the means of suppressing the Slave Trade by means 
 of free-grown sugar. 
 
 A-
 
 61 
 
 1828. 
 
 1847. 
 
 
 SLAVE LABOUR. 
 
 FREE LABOUR. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 British West Indies . 1 98,400 
 
 British West Indies . 
 
 145,000 
 
 Mauritius . . 18,000 
 
 Mauritius 
 
 65,000 
 
 Cuba and Porta Rico 65,000 
 
 East Indies 
 
 70,000 
 
 Brazil . . . 28,000 
 
 Java 
 
 75,000 
 
 
 Manilla, Siam, China 
 
 30,000 
 
 Total, Slave sugar 309,000 
 
 Europe, Beet-root . 
 
 100,000 
 
 FREE LABOUR. 
 
 
 East Indies . . 7,800 
 
 Total. Free labour 
 
 485,000 
 
 Java . . . 15,000 
 
 SLAVE LABOUR. 
 
 
 r^iiHn fiTifl Pnrtn T?ipri 
 
 •^O'l 000 
 
 Total . 332,000 
 
 Brazil . 
 
 112,000 
 
 902,000 
 Mr. Wilson did not appear to have been aware at 
 the time he wrote this passage, that the sugar cul- 
 tivation of British India and the Mauritius, so long 
 as it did not share the protection conceded to the 
 British West Indies, was entirely unable to com- 
 pete in the open markets of Europe with Cuba and 
 Brazil — that when that protection was conceded to 
 it, the Mauritius nearly quadrupled her produce — 
 and the export of sugar from India increased ten- 
 fold, stimulated as it was by the crippled state of 
 the British West Indies ; these circumstances, about 
 which there can be no doubt, were surely not " in- 
 dependent and irrespective of the acts of the British 
 Legislature, either as regards slavery or protection," 
 any more than the subsequent fact, that the culti- 
 vation which had thus been forced by the English 
 Government in our Eastern possessions is now ut- 
 terly destroyed by the admission into this country 
 of slave grown produce from slave importing coun- 
 tries. If we deduct from the 340,000 tons of fo- 
 reign and Eastern free grown sugar by which the
 
 62 
 
 West Indian colonies have, according to Mr. Wil- 
 son, been demolished — the sugars of Mauritius 
 and British India, those of Java, which are not 
 free grown, and beet-root, grown under high pro- 
 tection — there will only remain 30,000 tons of a 
 very inferior sugar from Manilla, Siam, and China, 
 sent to England, not in consequence of increased 
 cultivation in those sugar consuming countries, but 
 in the hope that the high prices which ruled 
 about eighteen months ago would have continued. 
 The speculators who imported them arc not likely 
 to try the experiment again. 
 
 V In 182S the British West Indian slave colonies, 
 
 not however importing slaves, produced 198,400 tons 
 of sugar, Cuba and Brazil importing annually, 
 according to the accurate and well informed Mr. 
 Bandinel (First Report of Mr. Ilutt's Committee 
 on the Slave Trade, p. 220), 94,000 negroes— but 
 
 / ■ 93,000 tons. As Great Britain at that time was 
 not permitted, in consequence of the high duty 
 levied upon sugar, to consume the entire production 
 of her own colonies,* the price of sugar in England 
 was more or less regulated by the continental mar- 
 kets, and notwithstanding the advantage enjoyed by 
 the Spaniards and Brazilians in an unlimited supply 
 of slaves, the superior intelligence, capital and 
 industry of the British planter enabled him to 
 compete successfully with his rivals. | 
 
 * An average of 37,000 tons of British plautation produce 
 was annually exported to the markets of Europe prior to 1833. 
 
 ■f The drawback on the exportation of sugar used to afford a 
 slight advantage to the Uritish planter, which, however, did not 
 nearly compensate for the advantages derived by the Spaniards
 
 63 
 
 In 1848, it appears that whilst the produce of the 
 British "West Indian colonies have diminished one- 
 fourth, as compared with 1828, Cuba and Porto 
 Rico have increased their production nearly six- 
 fold, and Brazil four-fold. Yet in no other branch 
 of commerce have those nations been able to hold 
 their own with British enterprise. Is not this 
 startling increase on the one hand, and falling 
 off on the other, to be rather attributed to the acts 
 of the British Legislature, both as regards slavery, 
 protection, and pseudo-humanity, than to the sudden 
 imbecility of the West Indian planters since 1828. 
 Cceteris paribus — if they had been dealt with 
 fairly and rationally, there can be no reason why, 
 if up to 1828 the British sugar growers had been 
 able to compete with the Cubans and Brazilians, 
 they should not have continued to do so — and if 
 they had increased their production in the same ratio 
 that the Spaniards and Brazilians have increased 
 theirs; if the acts of our Legislature had been just to 
 the Englishman, instead of favouring the foreigner, 
 the British West Indian colonies, producing in 
 18'28 194,400 tons of sugar, would in 1848 have 
 grown sufficient for the supply of the whole world, 
 at as low a cost as it is at present grown at in any 
 part of the globe. 
 
 and Portuguese in the constant influx of labour from Africa, 
 which the English were denied after KS07, and for the disad- 
 vantages to which the latter was subjected by the various modi- 
 fications of slavery, and the agitation which preceded the Act of 
 Emancipation in 1833.
 
 G4 
 
 Perhaps the most convincing answer to the asser- 
 tion that Britisli Colonial property is only depre- 
 ciated in common with all' other property by the 
 circumstances of the times, is contained in the fol- 
 lowing extracts from the " Trade Circulars "' of 
 Messrs. Drake, Brothers, and Co., the leading 
 merchants of the Havana, themselves extensive pro- 
 prietors of sugar estates in that island : — 
 
 In 184i, they stated that, 
 
 " They had no expectation of the price of sugar being improved 
 except by having the English market opened to the produce of 
 the island, where, if this could be effected at a rate even of 
 50 per cent, above the duty on English colonial sugar, still they 
 should obtain for their produce double the amount they can ob- 
 tain at present." 
 
 On the 8th of Jan. 1848, they say, 
 
 "The production of 1847 has far exceeded that of any pre- 
 vious year, and the prices obtained by planters have been so 
 highly remunerative, that they are enabled to adopt every means 
 for the further extension of their crops." 
 
 Another joncecMrreTi^, subsequent in date, adds, 
 "During the past year, the prices of sugar in our markets 
 were supported at high rates, with but slight and temporary 
 fluctuations, notwithstanding the large crop. This was mainly 
 owing to the unprecedentedly heavy shipments ^to the United 
 States and to Great Britain, aided by a well-sustained enquiry 
 from Spain, with a fair demand from other parts." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 NOnMAN AND SKEEN, PIUNTEUS, MAIDEN LANK, COVENT OARDEN.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 This Ijook is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 f 5 ^m' 
 
 JUL 27 «S3 
 
 7 '^ 
 
 m^ 
 
 
 Form L-0 
 207(1-1, '41(1122) 
 
 S.wTsnms 
 
 wt. 

 
 id 
 
 A- 
 
 .{iiii iiii iiii II ililii 
 
 S7l 58 00575 1010 
 
 HD 
 
 9111.6 
 
 H53i 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACIUTY 
 
 AA 001 147 799 9
 
 ^^^c