Lords Sitting of 24 March 1824

MONOPOLY OF TEA—EAST INDIA COMPANY.
Lord Clifdenpresented a petition from a parish in Wiltshire, for the abolition of slavery, which he stated was signed by all the inhabitants, some of the clergy excepted. The noble lord said, he concurred in the object of the petition, which was, to bring about the cultivation of sugar by free labour; and, as sugar was germane to tea, he took that opportunity of adverting to the enormous enhancement of the price of the latter necessary of life. The extortion occasioned by the monopoly of the East-India Company had been well exposed in the last number of the Edinburgh Review, and he hoped that Mr. Hume, or some other active member of the House of Commons, would speedily take up the subject, and bring it before the notice of parliament.