II.R. BURRS RESOLUTIONS RESPECTING THE WEST INDIA COLONIES.
[To be moved on reesday the 26th May.]
1st. That the improvement of the agricultural resources of the British West India Colonies Is an object of great national importance, inasmuch as it would be beneficial to all her Majesty's subjects engaged in their cultivation, andadvantageons to the trade of the Mouser-country, as by increasing the supply of produce prices would be reduced, competition with the produce of slave labour would be increased, and this result would
• contribute in the best way towards the suppression of the Slave-trade. 2d. That the restrictive policy hitherto pursued towards these Colonies has not only failed to promote their prosperity, but has, by decreasing their resources, actually
im- peded its advancement ; and that, therefore, other measures ought injustice to be speedily adopted, to prevent their suffering still further injury.
. 3d. That all laws and regulations which interfere with the freedom of labour are alike injurious to the labourer and to the employer, as they prevent the former from ob- taining employment with the full benefit of his industry, and the latter from seeking Tree labour wherever it may abound, and from realizing that fair profit upon capital which but for these restrictions might be advantageously employed: that, therefore, all such restrictive laws and regulations ought to be abolished, and that in future all prac- ticable encouragement should be given to the introduction into these Colonies of such immigrants as are best suited to the climate.
4th. That all discriminating duties levied upon Imports into these Colonies Shedd be
abolished, and all unnecessary expenses therein reduced; that ruin Ihould he admitted into the United Kingdom at the same rates of duty as are chargedoithome-mtMe spirits; and that the use of sugar and molasses should be permitted in all manufactures in which these articles can be employed. 5th. That after the removal of the existing restrictions on labour, after the repeal of all discriminating duties on imports into the British West India Colonies, and after sugar and molasses shall be permitted to be used generally in the United Kingdom, then all discriminating duties in favour of the produce of these Colonies should, within a time to be limited, be repealed.
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