§ Mr. Burgerequested the noble Lord to postpone the bringing up of the Report on this Act until Wednesday next, as the attendance of Members was at that moment much too small to allow the motion on this important subject, of which he (Mr. Burge) had given notice, to receive adequate consideration. He hoped, however, that, after what had already taken place, the noble Lord would not persist in pressing the Bill.
§ Lord Althorpsaid, he had already declared the subject was under inquiry, and that the Bill was to be in force for but 491 one year. The Government did not intend to abandon it.
Mr. Robert Gordonsaid, the West India planters understood, that this Act was not to be renewed until they had received official notice. Frauds were constantly committed under it, and foreign sugar brought into the market for home consumption, whereby the revenue, as well as the planters in the colonies, sustained injury. It was said, an experiment had been tried at Liverpool which proved the accuracy of this statement.
§ Mr. Poulett Thomsonsaid, he had received no notice of this experiment, but it might have been tried without his being yet aware of it; but if it had not been tried yet at Liverpool, he could assure the hon. Gentleman it was about to be tried in London.
§ Mr. Robinsonsaid, he considered the commercial and colonial policy of the Government most absurd, and he would take care, at all events, to bring forward the whole question relating to sugar refining next session. It was proper they should come to some understanding as to the application of the general principles of the doctrine of free trade, and not apply them in one or two instances, and keep up a system of restriction on some of the most important branches of traffic. If it was intended that the colonies were to be abandoned, let it be done before they were thoroughly ruined.
§ Mr. John Weylandsaid, this was a most pernicious Act, as it injured our own colonies, and gave an advantage to the sugar grown in foreign colonies, where the slave-trade was still carried on. The application of the principles of free trade to our West-India colonies was most objectionable. For the interests of humanity too, the slave-trade ought by all means to be discouraged, but this Act offered a premium to it.
§ Report postponed.