§ Upon the motion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer the 164 House went into a Committee of Ways and means.
The Chancellor of the Exchequermoved a resolution for the continuance of the sugar duties, and said, that it was not the intention of her Majesty's Government to propose any alteration in those duties.
§ Mr. Ewartcomplained that there was to be no reduction in the sugar duties. He had hoped that some progress would have been made this year in the reduction of those duties, in compliance with the wishes and expectations of a large portion of the mercantile community. Considering how little had yet been done towards placing those duties on a proper footing, the subject called for the most serious attention of the House.
The Chancellor of the Exchequermust protest against the interpretation put by the hon. Member for Wigan upon what had been already done in the reduction of the sugar duties. He was old enough to recollect the proceedings in that House during the last twenty years, and unquestionably for sixteen years of that time there was not one subject more discussed or debated than the equalization of the duties upon East India and West India produce. He rejoiced that it had been in his power to propose an equalization of those duties, and though so long a matter of contest, it was now the settled law of the land. With respect to the bounty on the export of sugar, that also had been a matter of grave and serious consideration, and he had been enabled to introduce a measure which gave considerable relief on that subject. He, therefore, thought the hon. Member for Wigan had not fairly estimated what had been already done relative to the sugar duties.
§ Mr. Mark Phillipsthought there was great danger that we should be driven out of foreign markets, unless there was assimilation of the duties on sugar with the sugar duties of foreign states. He would recommend alterations in these duties. He thought that the state of trade with the Brazils particularly called for some alteration, since at present it was hardly possible to obtain a return for cargoes shipped to that country.
§ Mr. Ewartsaid, that he should at a future day call the attention of the House to the expediency of relaxing the duties on East India sugar, and of admitting it to come into competition to a much greater extent than it did at present with West- 165 India sugar. He should, also, call the attention of the House to the propriety of introducing foreign sugars.
The Chancellor of the Exchequerhad no hesitation in saying, that a reconsideration of the sugar duties might be entered upon advantageously to the state as a matter of revenue, and to the consumer in the price of sugar. But his hon. Friend must be quite aware of the difficulties which would attend the subject, arising, first, from the claims of the colonies of this country to a preference, on which he did not pronounce any opinion; and, in the second place, from the peculiar state of the Brazils, with respect to the slave-trade; because, when it was known that at the present moment the Brazils furnished a great market for slaves, and therefore gave encouragement to the slave trade, it behoved the House to pause before giving support to that trade by affording an additional market to the producer of slave labour.
Mr. Thornleythought it vain to expect that keeping up prohibitory duties on sugar could have any effect in putting down slavery. He thought it particularly absurd to use such an argument for excluding the produce of the Brazils, when this country was so largely dependent on the cotton and tobacco of the slave states of America. Resolution agreed to.