§ Mr. Claypresented a petition from the persons connected with the sugar-refining trade, in the city of London, signed by every person in the trade, with one or two exceptions, and whose signatures represented a capital of between 2,000,000l. and 3,000,000l., on the subject of the Sugar-duties. The petitioners stated their conviction that the trade in which they were engaged, was making a swift progress to absolute ruin, and that it was fast leaving this country, and being transferred to foreign nations, in consequence of the non-renewal of the Act which expired in 1830, for permitting foreign sugars to be refined in this country. The refiners were unable to give employment to the same number of hands they had formerly employed; and not only was their trade in a state of great suffering, but also a serious effect had been produced on the trades of paper-makers, coopers, and the many others connected indirectly with the sugar-refining business. Without pressing particularly on the Government, it would certainly be gratifying to the petitioners to know, whether there was any prospect of the prayer of their petition being granted. 75 That prayer was for the immediate introduction of a bill, to allow foreign sugars to be refined in bond, until some permanent arrangement could be completed. The alteration in the trade of the country, by opening the commerce of China, which had been confined hitherto to the port of London, to the whole community, would do the latter a serious injury; and he thought it afforded an additional reason for pressing upon the Government the importance of encouraging so important a branch of the trade of the metropolis as the sugar-refining trade.
§ Mr. Ewarthad been requested to support the petition. The existing state of the law produced a serious effect, both on the imports and exports of the country, and was severely felt by the merchants of Liverpool and elsewhere. The noble Lord, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had the other night said, that the best way of giving relief to the people was to afford them employment; and he (Mr. Ewart) was satisfied, no branch of manufactures afforded such an opportunity of giving employment as the sugar-refining trade. If the same restrictions had been applied to foreign cotton as now existed on sugars, where, he would ask, would have been the cotton trade of Lancashire? And how much less would have been the power and consideration of this country over the commerce of the world? This was really a national, and not merely a commercial question, and one of interest, not solely to the petitioners, but to the country at large.
§ Mr. Morrisonconcurred in what had fallen from his hon. friend, the member for the Tower Hamlets, and had no doubt, that, were it not for the difficulties which now prevailed, this country would be able to supply the world with refined sugars.
Mr. O'Connellsaid, the present was a melancholy example of the effects of bad laws. The trade in Ireland had been annihilated by bad laws, and care should be taken that a similar result did not arise in this country. Before the Union there were no less than eleven sugar-refineries in Dublin, while there was not one at the present moment.
§ Lord Althorpsaid, that he rose merely to say, that he had not been inattentive to the prayer of the petition, and not with any expectation of being able to state anything satisfactory to the hon. Gentlemen who had supported the petition. He was aware that, under the present regulations the refiners were only supplied with a sufficient 76 quantity to employ them half the year, and this, he must admit, was certainly a situation in which the trade ought not to be.
Petition to lie on the Table.