Lord Derby received on Monday a very large deputation of
sugar refiners and Members of Parliament who wished to repre- sent the state of the sugar industry. They say they are over- matched by the beetroot-growers of France,—who receive nearly a million a year in bounties,--and the slave-owners of Cuba. The trade has increased 1,200,000 tons in sixteen years, and of this 775,000 tons is beet sugar and 340,000 tons from Cuba. So great is the increase in the import from France, that if it continues the whole sugar trade of this country will be in the hands of aforeign monopoly. This would be entirely unobjectionable, if it were certain that France would go on making us a present of sugar below cost price, but as the Times has pointed out, France may kill our own sugar trade, and then instead of giving bounties charge us a monopoly price. Lord Derby entirely admitted the bad position of the sugar trade, but thought that as the bounties rapidly increased, those classes in France who were not interested in sugar would begin to complain. That is, we fear, a slender reed to rely on, as the bounty, though nominally given to the refiner, really goes to the grower, and so interests every cultivator in France. Of course a differ- ential duty is not to be thought of, and the only thing to be done is to point out to the French Government that it is spending a million a year which it can ill spare on an industry for which the country is ill fitted, and this Lord Derby apparently is doing.
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