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CHAPTER V.

GROUNDS FOR ESTABLISHING A PROTECTING DUTY ON WEST INDIA SUGAR.

Two grounds alone exist on which protection to a particular interest can be justified: justicepolicy.

By justice is meant the obligation imposed upon all legislatures to protect its subjects impartially, efficiently, and consistently, and to adhere to its solemn pledges, on the faith of which large investments of property have been made and are dependent.

By policy is meant such political regulations, as, after fulfilling the claims of justice, are calculated to draw most benefits to the aggregate interests of the empire.

Protecting duty on West India sugar is authorised on both grounds.

SECTION I.

Justice.

In the analysis which has been given, of impediments against which West Indians have to contend in their cultivation, it cannot have escaped observation that all the duties and restrictions are im

Grounds for establishing a Protecting Duty, &c. 165

posed for the benefit of some other class of British subjects. In shipments made to the colonies, the British manufacturer in woollens, cottons, and silk is protected by a duty of 20 or 30 per cent.; the Scotch and Irish linen bleacher is protected by an equal duty against his competitor in Germany. The provision merchant has 12s. per cwt. on his beef and pork. Not only all the interests in the United Kingdom, but those of our other colonies, step in for their share of advantage. The subjects of Newfoundland, and those engaged in the fisheries, enjoy indefinite protection. The Canadian farmer has 5s. a barrel on his flour. The timber-merchant, in a corresponding degree, is protected against the competition of the dealer in lumber in the United States. In all, we find strict illustration of the domestic reciprocity system. Are there any legitimate grounds to put the West Indians beyond the pale of the political compact?

But this is not all. West Indians either reside in the mother country, or they ultimately return thither. In their personal expenditure, in Great Britain, they contribute to the assistance of some other interest, and to the immediate support of government. As consumers, they defray part of the protecting-duty enjoyed by the silk and woollen manufacturers, and above all, by the agricultural interest. As consumers also of taxed commodities, they pay part of the interest of the national debt, and supply their quota for the naval and military

defence of this kingdom. In point of fact, not an estated gentleman in the land could adduce one solitary imposition to which the West Indian planter does not equally with himself contribute. Repeatedly the interrogatory has been put, but never has an answer been even attempted-What is the difference in regard to national effects between a Jamaica planter and a Scotch or Irish landlord of equal property, residing in London? Both equally draw their income from a distance, and both, out of that expenditure, pay the same amount of duty to the customs, to the excise, and to other branches of the revenue. When West India planters thus perform all the functions and obligations of British subjects; when, in the production of their com modities, they are subject to expenses and disadvantages, equally, nay more heavy than those to which any interest in England is subject; when, in spending the income derived from the sale of their commodities, they again pay every impost which is levied in this country, it is surely evident that, to compensate for all these charges, they are as much entitled to a protecting duty on their produce as any of those interests to whose benefit they, as consumers, directly contribute. And if, being unrepresented in the impérial legislature, and possessing no means of making themselves heard with effect throughout the British nation, a commercial experiment is made arbitrarily to deprive them of that protection, it will be a violation of justice with

out parallel in the history of commercial legislation. Few can be ignorant of the prodigious clamour excited when an attempt is made to put any interest at home on a more disadvantageous footing than its neighbours. The discussions on the silk duties cannot be forgotten. That manufacture was the least naturalized among us, and yet a protecting duty less than 30 per cent. never was for an instant contemplated. But even this regulation did not answer the purpose; for further protection had tỏ be subsequently conferred, by altering the duty from an ad valorem to a fixed duty on quantity, which, in some cases, amounts to nearly doublé that originally proposed.

These facts cannot be lost upon the legislature, and they deserve the fullest consideration, before it is contemplated to make experiments with the sugarplanter. But in this appeal to justice it would be unpardonable to stop here, and to overlook a theme which must nearly touch the feelings of the British public. What, let us ask, must be the effect of an alteration of duties on the foreign slave-trade?

Cheapness in price of every commodity of late years has been so warmly advocated by political writers, as constituting the sole object desired by the nation, that scarcely ever does a thought arise how that cheapness is occasioned. Dearness, on the other hand, has been described as so great an evil, benefiting the few at the expense of the many,

that any system which creates it is broadly de nounced, without the slightest examination into its merits. Hence, the ignorance evinced in many charges made against the system of West India cultivation. The improvident speculations, the extravagant expenditure of absentees, neglecting their business, and entrusting its management to agents, the unnatural system of labour requiring enormous sums to support it-these are alleged to be the legitimate causes which raise the cost of cultivation, for which high remunerating prices are demanded in return. It is presumed, that the plain statement of facts given in the preceding chapter, has effectually exposed this extravagant charge. The comparative high cost of raising sugar in our colonies is occasioned either by that generally excessive taxation with which British industry is, in every direction, burthened, or by regulations of the British legislature, having in view the promotion of British objects; and the comparative cheapness of sugar in foreign countries, so much coveted and eulogised by superficial inquirers, results from the continuation of the African slave-trade, with all its horrors, and after all the anxiety displayed by this country to have it terminated.

Can it be for a moment imagined that the British nation could deliberately supply a stimulus for the encouragement of this trade? At present a large quantity of British plantation sugar is shipped to