§ Lord Monteaglemoved for a return of the amount of duty received in the three years previous to the equalization of the Sugar Duties in 1835 and 1836, and in the three years subsequent to that period. Up to that period there was a discriminating duty on the produce of East and West India sugars; and by the latter it was regarded as a privilege essential to their psosperity. It was his good fortune to abolish this discriminating duty; and though there were some complaints made as to the change, he was happy to find that many of those who at first condemned the measure afterwards warmly approved of it, and many of the West India proprietors actually embarked their capital in raising East India sugar. The Committee which sat on the subject reported,—
It is highly gratifying to the Committee to remark how considerable has been the increased importation of East India sugar. The state of this branch of the trade for the three years antecedent and subsequent to the equalisation of these duties is exhibited in the following table:—It had since increased much more in 1841, 1,065,000, and 1842, 935,000. The Committee to which he had referred broadly laid down the principle that there should be a perfect equality between sugars the produce of the East and West Indies. The Report stated,—
Cwt. Duty. 1833 111,000 £1 12 0 1834 76,000 1835 100,000 1836 152,000 £1 4 0" 1837 296,000 1838 498,000 It appears to the Committee that the general principles on which commercial regulations affecting the intercourse between the United Kingdom and the Colonial dependencies, and the mutual intercourse of those dependencies, should rest, should be that of perfect equality, subject to exception only where the permanent interest of the whole Empire, or the temporary circumstances of any part of our foreign possessions may seem to 925 render such exceptions necessary or expedient; that no partial favour should grant to one colony any advantage over another, either in the Colonial ports, or in those of the United Kingdom. Colonial possessions scattered over the four quarters of the globe, and legislatively dependent on the acts of a distant Government, can only be maintained in peaceful and willing obedience by making strict justice and impartiality the sole guides of every legislative proceeding by which they may be affected.If, after the experience we had had, any attempt was made to adopt a discriminating scale of duties between sugar the produce of the East and West Indies, it would not only be a departure from the principles of legislation we had hitherto observed, but it would be acting in entire disregard of the success of that experiment.
Lord Stanleysaid, that so far as the Papers which were moved for were concerned, there was no objection on the part of the Government to give to that or the other House of Parliament all the information in their power. He agreed that it was a fit time to require such information when Her Majesty's Government were proposing a great alteration in the Sugar Duties, and a great reduction of the duties on sugar the produce of our own Colonies, and of the free labour of foreign states. He would not have said one word more on the subject if his noble Friend had not seemed to infer that it was the intention of Her Majesty's Government to recede from that principle of perfect equality of duty between different parts of Her Majesty's possessions in the East and West Indies, which had worked so well. The object of Her Majesty's Government, whatever the reduction of duty might be, was to adhere to the principle of entire equality of duty between similar sugars of the different possessions of the Crown. At the present time it was the more important that there should be no discouragement given to the growth of sugar in the East Indies, because it was most desirable that the consumption and the amount of duty should increase. If they excluded, as he hoped they would do, sugar the produce of slave labour, they ought not to throw any discouragement, but rather they ought to give every encouragement, to sugar produced within the dominions of the British Crown. He did not know whether he was regular in 926 discussing this question when the measure itself was not before the House; and he would not have done so had it not been for the inference drawn by his noble Friend. The Government did mean to reduce the duties on sugar the produce of the East and the West Indies, and they did intend to apply the same quantity of reduction on the sugars produced in the East as in the West Indies. What they did propose was, to make a difference in the duty applying both to the East Indian and the West Indian sugars, affecting not only the quality of the sugar but the process it had undergone. Some sugar had undergone no process, whilst other had been subjected to many scientific processes; and happy was he to say that science was constantly introducing new processes, so that a different value was often given to the same article, even when it was the produce of the same Colony. The duty on Muscovado Sugar was now 25s. 4d. per cwt., for his noble Friend would recollect the 5 per cent. added to the duty, and it was thought that the duty on this should be somewhat different from sugars of a higher class; that there should be a diminution of duty on the lowest, the poorest, and the least manufactured class of sugars, whether they were the produce of the East Indies or of the West; and the Government thus gave an increased advantage to the lowest class of consumers, by imposing a somewhat higher duty on the better class of sugars. He knew his noble Friend would say that sugars the produce of the East Indies were of this higher class; but when his noble Friend saw the proposal of Government—and it would be wise till then to reserve any comments—he would see that it was not intended to increase the duty on the East Indian sugars, but only to raise the duty on such sugars as had undergone a process not only to give a degree of whiteness but of fineness to the sugars, which would apply equally to the West Indies. To the Return moved for he had no objection.
§ Lord Monteaglewas certainly obliged to his noble Friend for the explanation he had given, especially as he admitted that thore should be an equality of duty. If it should turn out that the change would apply exclusively to that description of sugar which was produced in the East Indies, and which at the present time was subject only to the same duty as 927 West India sugars, and that after the change it would be subjected to a relatively higher duty, the equalization would be more nominal than real, and the present state of the law would be preferable to the intended change.
§ Return agreed to.