MR. MACGREGOR LAIRD'S PROPOSED ALTERATION OP THE SUGAR-DUTIES.

IT is a common enough notion, that the interest on "the twenty millions" is the extent of the sacrifice paid by the British people to abolish slavery in the West Indies; the White distress arising from Black prosperity having, it is thought, been saddled on the planters. This, however, is an error: the "price of freedom" is considerably beyond the addition to the National Debt ; and, with- out some alteration, likely to remain so. In 1830-31, before the Anti-Slavery views were in course of realization, the medium price of sugar in London was 24s. 4d. ; in 1840-41, it had risen to 43s. 5d., or more than 2d. the pound. To have bought the same quantity of sugars in 1840-41 as the nation (less in numbers by two or three millions) consumed in 1830-31, would have required an additional outlay of four millions per annum : but the sugar was not there to buy. Still, for three years, (1839 to 1841,) the addi- tional sum actually paid by the hard-working British people, in the (primal) shape of wages to the dolce far nienk Negroes, was 2,900,0001. per annum. This, however, was during the extreme years of the Anti-Slavery party's rather costly experiment on the vile corpus of the "patient public." Mr. LAIRD'S calcula- tion for the whole period gives a total sum of eighteen millions and a half paid by the people of this country in the increased price of sugar. Add to this the 5,850,000/. for the interest on the Emanci- pation-money, and we have a total of nearly twenty-four millions and a half extracted from the British people, to supply the sleek " free labourers" with blue coats, white waistcoats, gigs, gay ladies, and all the other luxuries of life that delight the eye and inspire the tongue of the philanthropic traveller in the British Tropics. To which money-loss may be added, the privations of that rather large class of something like White slaves, which can get no sugar at all on account of its high price.

There are signs abroad that this will not be borne much longer. The Whigs have taken up the question as their contribution to Free-trade. The mercantile and manufacturing interest have seen that while Brazil and Cuba sugar could be bought for 18s. per hundredweight, the price of British " free labour" was 35s. ; and they feel that their business with foreign Tropical countries is slipping from them, in consequence of the West India protection. Oppor- tunity serving, they will "agitate " this subject with not less zeal and more reason than the Anti-Slavery people can oppose them by, and the protective sugar-duties are gone. The Premier knows this as well as anybody. He will not pledge himself to the continuance of pro- tection one session over another : he has given several broad hints that the question is one of time only ; and on the very last occasion that he spoke upon the matter, he was looking out for excuses to throw the unhappy West Indiana overboard, when it should no longer be convenient to carry their dead weight. When that time comes— and it might come next year—farewell to the British Tropical Colonies, and to the Anti-Slavery bubble, unless much care be used in the settlement. Circumstanced as they now are, neither Guiana nor the larger West India Islands can compete with Cuba and Brazil. Unless upon estates very favourably situated, cultiva- tion, at all events sugar-cultivation, must be abandoned. This vacuum will be filled up by increased supplies from Cuba and Brazil ; whose produce will be further stimulated by the consump- tion following a diminished price. Their increased exportation of sugar must and will be met by an increase of slaves, and an im- mense addition to the slave-trade; which no efforts can prevent.

Unwarned by Niger experience, Sir ROBERT PEEL, when he last spoke, had a couple of schemes iu reserve—we might have an ex- cuse-treaty with Brazil, and the Honourable Captain DENMAN bad invented a wonder-working blockade: but we suspect a treaty to make Portuguese Blacks freemen some years hence, is about as futile as a blockade of Africa from the Senegal to Cape Negro in the Atlantic, and from Corrientes to Cape Delgada on the Indian Ocean. The Foreign Office may draw treaties, Captain DENMAN or Lord DENMAN may plan schemes—" Master Shallow, my Lord Shallow, do what thou wilt ! "—but the laws of profit will hold their course, in despite of the parchments or projects of the Premier. And Sir FOWELL BUXTON may begin to meditate another book, de- scriptive of another philanthropic failure. To obviate the disastrous result of destroying our own Colonies, extending the slave-system of the Tropical Sugar-countries, and establishing it more firmly than before, (for abolition, failing with us, will probably have failed for ever,) is one of Mr. LAIRD'S objects in this publication. Another, and one of more home importance, is to place a second necessary of life within reach of the neglected masses of the British people ; increasing at the same time their work and their wages. Mr. LAIRD'S plan may require shaping and modification in its details to render it a working measure ; but it is simple—broad—practical ; and, large as is the principle avowed by the author, we think it contains one still larger and more important than he descries.

There are three plans, says Mr. Laren in introducing his own proposal, already suggested for dealing with the sugar-duties.

" The most prominent one, at present, is an equalization of the duties on Foreign and Colonial Sugars. Leaving out its injustice, as exposed by Mr. Deacon Hume, the practical effect of this alteration would be to diminish cultivation in our largest colonies, where it is confessedly only kept up by the monopoly of this market, and to raise the price and stimulate the production of sugar in Brazil and Cuba. The slave-trade, of course, would feel the benefit of such a measure : prices would rise, and a larger importation would take place,— for no one, except in Parliament or Exeter Hall, even affects to think any treaty could restrain that natural result of a high price of sugar. The average price of Colonial sugar in bond, now 35s., would probably be reduced to 25s., and that of Foreign raised from 18s. to the same level, or duty-paid to 50s. per hun-

dredweight, the price it was in 1831 ; and, supposing the ability to consume to

be equal to what it was then, the consumption would be 20 pounds per head. " The late Government proposed to reduce the duty on Foreign sugar to 36s. per hunl:edweight, leaving the duty on Colonial sugar at its present rate. This would have had the effect of keeping the duty-paid price between 55s. and 60s. per hundredweight; a reduction of id. to id per pound. " Mr. John Macgregor, of the Board of Trade, proposed, in his pro forma Tariff laid before the Import-duties Committee, to reduce the duty on Colonial sugar to 15s. and that on Foreign to 30s. per hundredweight. Mr. Macgregor adculated on gaining three millions of revenue by this measure; which supposes an increased importation of 100,000 tons per annum, at the 30s. per hundred- weight duty. This would have allowed sugar to be retailed probably at 50s. to 52s. per hundredweight; a reduction which would bring our consumption up to what it was in 1832, or to 19 pounds per bead. " Of these three propositions, I infinitely prefer the first : its adoption would put the question at once at rest, while the two others would keep it lingered on for an indefinite term : it boldly scouts all idea of the national responsibility to give free labour that fair play we have for so many centuries given slave- labour, and repudiates any notion of being bound to place our Colonies on that equal footing (from whence we removed them by our legislative interference) with the Slave-Colonies as to the command of labour, which Mr. Deacon Hume considered we are in common justice bound to do. " 1 freely admit, that the result of any of these alterations on the sugar- duties would be a great boon to the middle classes of our countrymen—to the great mass of the present sugar-consuming community : but the reduction in price that any of them would afford would not affect the consumption of the poor, or put sugar within the daily reach of the labourer. What is called a free trade in sugar, if established tomorrow, would not lower the price beyond that of 1831 ; a ratio of consumption less than two-fifths of our countrymen at the Cape, and little more than one-fifth of that of the Australian population. It would be legislating for a class, who, I admit, are the electoral class, and a re spectable and necessary one, but who do not form the real vital strength and power of the nation, or numerically amount to a fifth part of it. And this ob- jection holds good against all the differential duties that have yet been mooted: none have proposed to bring sugar within the reach of all classes of her Ma- jesty's subjects; they have been conceived in the spirit of shopkeepers, for a shop- keeping constituency."

The plan which our author proposes is founded on a principle we suggested in 1841, when discussing the expected reform of the Tariff—that " the Colonial trade should be placed on the footing of a coasting-trade, and all articles admitted duty -free, so far as our financial necessities will permit." * Mr. LAIRD would abolish the present duty on Colonial-grown sugar, substituting in its place a nominal registration-duty of one shilling per hundredweight ; and he would admit Foreign sugar at a duty of 20s. per hundredweight. The first economical home effect of this measure would be, he thinks, to reduce the price to about 4d. a pound,—placing it, if not freely within the reach of all, at least within the reach of many millions who now rarely or never taste it. The next effect would be to largely increase consumption ; the purchase of which increased supply would have to be paid for with British goods, that could only be produced by the employment of British artisans. Mr. LAIRD, with something of the zeal of a "friend of Africa," anti- cipates still brighter results to the British and Negro races from its foreign than its home effects. At present, he says, matters are at a stand-still in the West Indies : no one voluntarily invests capital there ; no enterprising young man of active habits and moderate means ever thinks of taking himself and his money to these colo- nies: and if Foreign sugar is admitted to competition with British sugar burdened with a heavy duty, the capital and industry they have will decrease, whilst the slave-trade industry of other coun- tries will be stimulated by British supplies. No acts of Parliament can prevent this result. "As water finds its level," says Mr. LAIRD, " so capital will flow to Brazil or Guiana, Ceylon or Cuba, Java or Bengal, as self-interest directs : no law can prevent Euro- pean or British capital being invested in Cuba or Brazil, if the rate of profit is greater than in Guiana or the East Indies." But if thei industry of the British Colonies be stimulated by admitting their sugar duty-free, and the planter be permitted "to procure and employ free labourers from all parts of the world," skill and capital would be as freely applied to the West Indies as to a speculation at home. Instead of an uncertain, sickly, spiritless industry, expect- ing ruin every session, and hopelessly inert from that expectation, vigorous life would be imparted to our Tropical agriculture from so favourable a change ; whilst the free admission of Foreign sugar at rather a less rate of duty than we now impose upon British, would prevent any rise of price consequent upon increased consumption or other circumstances, and secure a full supply of compara- tively cheap sugar to the millions. In the mean time, "free" would be fairly pitted against slave labour • and Mr. LAIRD antici- pates that in the long run it would triumph, and looks forward to the voluntary though gradual discontinuance of slavery because " it does not pay." He expects immediately a more extensive and a growing market in the free Blacks of our own Colonies than we should ever get from Foreign countries, at least till slavery be abolished ; from the greater means of purchase and variety of taste the free Negro possesses over the slave. The author has carefully " avoided saying any thing as to the relative value of a Colonial and a Foreign market"- " When the practical philosophers who compose the Political Economy Club have settled that question a tyro may venture to give a decided opinion. Meanwhile, in fairness to himself and his readers, he thinks it but honest to State that his own private opinion is, that a man who clothes himself in a shirt of Irish and breeches of cotton cloth is, creteris paribus, a better customer than a slave who works for his owner, with nothing but a romal round his waist."

The financial part of the subject is of course considered by Mr. LAIRD ; for it involves five millions of revenue, which has to be supplied. Part of this he would make up by our present surplus income, part by the duty arising from sugar under his proposed changes, and part by an increased percentage on the Income-tax. The details of these results must be considered in his publica- tion,—how he statistically estimates the increase that would take place in the consumption of sugar, and its use in breweries and distilleries, reserving the grain for eating instead of swilling; how he urges that the million and a half necessary to be raised by the Income-tax is already paid by the respectable part of the world to the grocer instead of the taxgatherer ; and how he magnani- mously resigns one-half of our estimated surplus income when the reduced interest on the Three-and-a-half per Cents comes into play, and excludes half a million that might be saved by abo- lishing the Preventive system on the coast of Africa. The follow- ing table exhibits the summary-

* Spectator, 31st July 1841, page 732.

Proposed direct taxation by Income-tax, (now paid indi- rectly in the price of sugar,) £1,500,000 Transfer from surplus revenue 1,500,000 225.000 tons Colonial sugar, at 20a. 225,000 125,000 tons Foreign ditto, at 201. 2,500,000 Total revenue to replace the present duty £5,750,000

When ripe for acting upon, the details of this scheme are of course matter for modification. If we were blessed with a surplus of three millions of revenue, we see no objection to apply the whole of it to effect so large a measure, instead of increasing the Income- tax to raise the same sum. The proposed duty on sugar is also open to consideration. Four shillings a hundredweight is not a farthing per pound, yet such a duty would raise a revenue of considerably more than a million ; although any movement in this direction

should be cautions, as tending to defeat one main object of the plan—the benefit of the British poor. All this, however, is matter of detail. The merit of Mr. LAIRD is in the broad and massy character of his plan, and its simplicity conjoined with practicability.

Yet, broad as it is, a larger principle is involved in it,—the feasibility of making, in an economical sense, every colony an in- tegral part of the British empire, and placing our Colonial trade on the footing of a coasting-trade. If sugar be struck out of the item of Colonial taxation, only coffee and rum remain as worth

a thought. The produce of coffee is about three-quarters of a million, and, subjected to the same operation as sugar, might in- volve a loss of half a million, or less; which Mr. LAIRD'S 750,000/. would cover—upon paper.

Thus, with a few special exceptions, (as spirits, or manufactured goods,) the staple of Colonial produce could be admitted at duties little more than nominal, and all smaller produce admitted free.

From Canada to Singapore, from the Southern Pacific to the Caribbean Sea, the industry of the " Britisher " or the British subject would be as free and as encouraged as that of the man of Kent. Wherever the Englishman cast his lot and carried his language, without throwing off his allegiance, he would be as little galled by checks upon the "means of making his industry fruitful " as if he had remained at home—and, looking at Excise and Stan- naries, perhaps a shade freer.

We are aware that the Colonies have no right to demand so large a boon. While we impose a heavy and vexatious excise on several of our home manufactures, it is quite fair that the raw produce of

distant possessions should be subject to the less vexatious customs- duty ; and, though we do interfere with Colonial free trade for

our own profit, we tax ourselves to protect the Colonies by our fleets and armies, besides the " credit they derive from the connex- ion." Still, John Bull is in the position of " the governor," who is expected to 'my for all, without scrutinizing items too closely. In return for which, he is " looked up to" by the family ; has " full and eternal privilege of tongue" upon any thing that occurs or

strikes him ; and is permitted to interfere in domestic matters—

which, sooth to say, John does do pretty arbitrarily and pretty igno- rantly in his Colonial family, besides freely carving out sundry provisions for the younger branches and scapegraces whom he will not have at home. We think, however, that an enlightened self- interest would find that a liberal course in this matter would be the most profitable, as it usually is. Discourse as learnedly as we will, trade and industry resolve themselves into an interchange of good things. Men do not manufacture iron, cotton, or broad-cloth, or grow sugar, coffee, cocoa, and rice, out of any love for such pursuits, or from any abstract sense of duty, but simply to get something which they want. The sciences of politics and political economy are all very fine, where the professors manage to explain their meaning ; but the grand result of colonial and home trade is to give the colonist something to wear, enjoy, or work with, and to enable the home population to sweeten their coffee or pudding, and to get the coffee or pudding to sweeten. If an additional million of taxation will do this to a large extent,—if it will cause a much larger pro- duction of Tropical good things, and a corresponding production of manufactured goods to pay for them,--we are foolish not to bear it ; especially when we consider how we do fool away millions in unprincipled and bloody wars, without any interest whatever. There is, too, a loftier object than a merely economical one. Knit thus together by the attractions of a mutually profitable business, no slight matter would dissolve the connexion; which would be safe till both parties saw that its dissolution was inevitable and for the best. Had the Southern States of the American Union en-

joyed a large trade with this country in 1770, on the liberal footing proposed, neither artful demagogues nor ambitious colonists, nor

hardly the folly and obstinacy of a King and Ministry, would have induced them to send delegates to Congress and plunge into a war with the Mother-country, when the stroke of a pen would have destroyed their trade.