WAYS AND MEANS—SUGAR DUTIES. (Hansard, 3 August 1846)

§ SIR R. PEEL
said, he did not quite understand one part of the plan laid down by the noble Lord. They were all aware that the duties on the import of several articles of subsistence, and of the first necessity, and on such articles as staves and certain kinds of timber, were greatly reduced by the Tariff of 1842, and that this was done uniformly by imperial legislation. The noble Lord had proposed, and he thought wisely, to make a still further reduction in the duties on other articles of first necessity—they were not many—the duty on wheat flour and several other articles still remained. Now was it not inconvenient that different rules as to those duties should prevail in different Colonies? What he did not understand was, why the noble Lord did not propose by imperial legislation to reduce in 1846 the import duties on those articles which were not reduced in 1842.

LORD J. RUSSELL
had no objection to reduce the import duties on those articles of provisions, &c., to which the right hon. Baronet had referred; and he had no doubt the Colonies would be ready to accept such an act of imperial legislation as a boon. It appeared to him that when they said they would introduce the flour and corn of other countries on the same terms as the flour and corn of Canada, and that they would admit sugar from Cuba and Brazil on the same terms as from Jamaica; the colonists were entitled to say that there were articles from the continent of Europe, or from other parts of the world, which they should like to have on the 288 same terms as from England; but, at the same time, they might be of opinion that some differential duty was necessary for the purposes of revenue, just as in this country we had to keep up duties on silk and other articles; therefore, he thought it was better to give the Colonies the power of proposing the alterations of the duties themselves. He thought it better that the Colonies should say for themselves what reductions of duties they would propose, allowing Her Majesty in Council to give her consent to those reductions. He thought that while they were gaining for England all the advantages of free trade, there were none of those advantages which ought not to be conferred upon the colonists; and if they proposed measures conferring such advantages, they would not be refused by Her Majesty's Government.

§ MR. HUME
observed, that what he wanted was to relieve all the Colonies from imperial legislation on such matters, and to leave them to be judges of their own affairs.