or the ambiguous argument of the right have seen, had he done so, that for the hon. Gentleman be the cause, I am now year 1849, the proportions were five and a quite at a loss to know what he means to half millions of cwts. of free-labour sugar, do, and on what side he intends to vote. to half a million of ewts. of slave-grown He declared himself, as I understood him, sugar. It is, in fact, not the competition ready to support the Motion of my hon. of slave-grown sugar which is ruining the Friend, that Motion being a permanent West Indian planters, but it is the annudeclaration that it is impolitic and unjust ally-increasing competition of free-labour to expose the free-grown sugar of our co-sugar from other parts of the world; and lonies and possessions abroad to unrestrict- if my hon. Friend is prepared to give to ed competition with the sugar of foreign the West Indies that protection which he slavetrading countries. But the right thinks is essential to restore them to hon. Gentleman has not, as I understand prosperity, it must be done not by him, as yet so entirely thrown off the prin- confining the restriction to the slaveciples of free trade, of which he was once grown sugar of Brazil and Cuba, but by an able advocate, and in support of which extending to them the full protection which he has often rushed into the van at periods they enjoyed in former times against freeof great difficulty, and given his most labour sugar-a proposition which I am honourable support-the right hon. Gen- sure my hon. Friend would not advocate, tleman did not, as I understand him, aban- and a proposition which I am sure this don that doctrine, or accept the doctrine House would never entertain. It has been of protection. All he asks for is a limited often urged that we had only to exclude period of protection, to give time for those the slave-grown sugar from the market of remedial measures for the colonies for this country, and to draw an equal quantity which he is anxious. But if that is his of free-labour sugar from the market of only object, if he does not wish for the the world, in order to afford the protection permanent re-establishment of the princi- desired; but this would be only creating a ples of protection, then I ask on what vacuum which would be at once filled up principle of consistency can he vote for a by the slave-labour sugar of Cuba and the resolution which is permanent in its object, Brazils. The slaveowners in those counand which does not give a limited but a tries would laugh at your precautions, and permanent period for the continuance of would know that there were still markets protection to our colonies? I certainly enough open to them to induce them to go shall not vote for the Motion of my hon. on cultivating sugar and increasing the Friend. I am not either for limited or number of their slaves as before. But if permanent protection. I am convinced any man could doubt that the attempt that protection has done no good to the must be perfectly futile, I think those who West Indies, and will do no good. Now, heard the speech of my hon. Friend the it was under a system of protection that Member for Westbury, and attended to the the West Indies have been in former times manner in which he demonstrated that the in a state of continued distress and ruin; recent changes in our navigation laws have and it is not by recurring to that system added an insurmountable obstacle to the that we can restore them to that prosperity carrying out of any such arrangement, which, I trust, they are all destined to must have every shadow of a doubt removed. attain. It is by those remedial measures It is not measures of this kind for excludwhich the right hon. Gentleman alluded ing sugar of one kind, and laying heavier to-by a better system of cultivation, and duties on the produce of this country or by that stimulus which competition affords, that, by which we can extirpate the slave that we may hope to see them extricated trade, the object of which I know my hon. from the difficulties under which they com- Friend has most at heart. No doubt plain. Now, how my hon. Friend thinks that many hon. Gentlemen have protested this exclusion of slave-grown sugar would against the African squadron, and against put an end to the slave trade, I really can- our maintaining a maritime police as being not for a moment imagine. I cannot see insufficient to effect the suppression of the how such a measure would operate in the slave trade. But I have never maintained way he wishes to put an end to that traffic. that that alone was sufficient to put the Has my hon. Friend entered into the pro- slave trade down, though I have always portion of free-grown sugar introduced into contended that without this maritime police this country for home consumption as com- other measures would be fruitless. The pared with slave-grown sugar? He would House may rest assured that other mea

sures for this object are in progress, and barter abound; there is hardly anything
that we are, by treaties with native chiefs of value which cannot be found there to
in Africa, and by other exertions on the offer in exchange for the goods that we
other side of the Atlantic, pursuing mea- can supply. Cotton might be grown on
sures which, I trust, if properly continued, the western coast in infinite quantity and
in the course of the next year will enable of the best quality. And, recollecting how
us to entertain better hopes that the slave precarious is the source of supply which
trade will be, if not extinguished, at least we now derive from the United States of
very considerably diminished. Now what America-recollecting how the growing
is the state of the slave trade at the pre-manufactures of America herself are now
sent moment? There are now in Africa annually absorbing more of the cotton
1,500 miles north of the line entirely free which she produces-and recollecting what
from the slave trade-of the entire 2,000 a vast amount of our own population de-
miles north of the line there are now only pend upon the manufactures from that raw
about 420 in which the slave trade at all material for daily bread, it becomes a mat-
exists; and I trust the measures now in ter of the most extreme importance that
operation may lead to the extirpation of we should seek out other sources of supply.
the slave trade from that remaining por- Palm oil, an article also of great value
tion north of the line. I, this very day, and much used, is found in abundance in
received a despatch from one of the com- that country: there are also coffee, ivory,
missaries at Sierra Leone, stating that gold-in fact, hardly anything of value
during the quarter which had just expired, and utility might not be produced or found
he can assert that not a single ship had in Africa, and might not be received
left that place with slaves. South of the in return for our own exports. I say,
line there were 1,200 miles of coast in therefore, it is an object of great national
which the slave trade existed; but I be- importance, that by an end being put to
lieve it is no chimerical expectation to hold the slave trade, we should be enabled to
out that even there it will ere long be dis- enter into commercial intercourse with the
continued. And I hold it to be by no means vast population of that region. I will not
that chimeral expectation which Gentlemen follow the right hon. Gentleman into all
who sat in Committee have chosen to term those details connected with our West
it, that the combination of all the mea- Indian possessions upon which he thought
sures now being adopted may tend at no fit to enter. I confine myself solely to the
distant period to accomplish that end. Motion of my hon. Friend. I contend
And I must say that no object-I speak that it is not a method that can be of any
not now of those higher considerations avail in putting down the traffic against
which the right hon. Gentleman has ad- which the Motion is levelled. I contend
verted to, and which, I think, nevertheless that without accomplishing its purpose it
ought to influence a nation like the British would tend to inflict a great injury on the
in matters of this kind-but, independently comfort of the country, and would hold ont
of these higher considerations, taking even to the West Indians a delusive hope which
the most narrow views of temporal inte- might induce them to relax their energies,
rests, I must say that nothing can be and prevent them from adopting those
accomplished that would tend more to other measures by which alone they can
further the commercial interests and pros-recover their station and prosperity; and
perity of this country than the entire ex-
tirpation of the slave trade. No part of
the globe offers more scope for the com-
mercial enterprise of this country than the
interior and the coast of Africa. We
have a demand for the things which she
produces, and she stands in want of the
goods that we can supply. In many other
parts of the world, where there is a larger
population to consume what we can export,
there is a want of commodities to offer in
return. Our trade with China has been
limited to a certain degree by a want of
the commodities to exchange for our pro-
ducts. But, in Africa, commodities for

therefore, on every ground, both of expediency and principle, I object to the Motion of my hon. Friend. It is insufficient for the purposes of humanity for which he brings it forward, and it would tend to reinstate the principle of protection in our commercial relations—a principle, I maintain, of fatal injury to the country, and inimical to the prosperity of every community to whose affairs it may be applied.

SIR E. N. BUXTON, in reply, said, he would not detain the House at that late hour with any lengthened remarks. He felt very grateful to the Government generally for the measures it had adopted to

H

Plumptre, J. P.
Portal, M.

Powlett, Lord W.

Prime, R.

Pugh, D.

Reid, Col.

Repton, G. W. J.
Richards, R.
Rufford, F.
Rushout, Capt.
St. George, C.
Sandars, G.
Sandars, J.
Scott, hon. F.
Seymer, H. K.
Sibthorp, Col.
Sidney, Ald.
Smythe, hon. G.
Smollett, A.
Somerset, Capt.
Somerton, Visct.
Sotheron, T. H. S.
Stafford, A.

Stanford, J. F.

Stanley, E.

Stanley, hon. E. H.

Stephenson, R.

Stuart, H.
Stuart, J.
Sturt, H. G.
Sullivan, M.
Talbot, C. R. M.

Taylor, T. E.

Thesiger, Sir F.

Thompson, Col.

Thompson, Ald.

Thornhill, G.

Tollemache, J.
Townley, R. G.
Trevor, hon. G. R.
Trollope, Sir J.
Tyrell, Sir J. T.
Verner, Sir W.
Vesey, hon. T.
Villiers, Visct.

Villiers, hon. F. W. C.
Vivian, J. E.
Vyvyan, Sir R. R.
Vyse, R. H. R. H.
Waddington, D,
Waddington, H. S.
Walpole, S. H.
Walsh, Sir J. B.
Wegg-Prosser, F. R.
Welby, G. E.
West, F. R.

Williams, T. P.
Willoughby, Sir H.

Wodehouse, E.

Worcester, Marq. of
Wyvill, M.

Yorke, hon. E. T.

TELLERS.

Buxton, Sir E. N.
Evans, W.

List of the NOES.

Abdy, Sir T. N.
Adair, H. E.
Adair, R. A. S.
Alcock, T.
Anderson, A.

O'Connell, M. J.
O'Flaherty, A.
Ogle, S. C. H.

Morison, Sir W.

Morris, D.

Mostyn, hon. E. M. L.
Mowatt, F.

Muntz, G. F.

Grosvenor, Lord R.

Guest, Sir J.

Norreys, Sir D. J.

Hall, Sir B.

O'Brien, J.

Hallyburton, Lord J. F. O'Brien, Sir T.

Harris, R.

O'Connell, M.

Charteris, hon. F.

Hastie, A.

Ord, W.

Hayter, rt. hon. W. G.

Clifford, H. M.

Headlam, T. E.

Cobden, R.

Heneage, G. H. W.

Cockburn, A. J. E.

Coke, hon. E. K.

Colebrooke, Sir T. E.
Collins, W.

Corbally, M. E.

Cowper, hon. W. F.

Craig, Sir W. G.

Crawford, W. S.

Owen, Sir J.

Paget, Lord A.

Paget, Lord G.

Palmer, R.

Palmerston, Visct.

Parker, J.

Pearson, C.

Hobhouse, rt. hon. Sir J. Pechell, Sir G. B.

Hollond, R.
Howard, Lord E.

Howard, hon. C. W. G.
Howard, hon. J. K.
Howard, hon. E. G. G.
Howard, Sir R.
Hume, J.

Humphery, Ald.

Hutchins, E. J.

D'Eyncourt, rt. hn. C.T.

Hutt, W.

Divett, E.

Jervis, Sir J.

Douglas, Sir C. E.

Keating, R.

Duff, G. S.

Keogh, W.

Kershaw, J.
Kildare, Marq. of
King, hon. P. J. L.
Lascelles, hon. W. S.
Lemon, Sir C.

Lewis, rt. hon. Sir T. F.
Lewis, G. C.

Littleton, hon. E. R.
Loch, J.
Locke, J.
Lushington, C.
Mackie, J.
M'Cullagh, W. T.
M'Gregor, J.

Towneley, J.

Townshend, Capt.

Traill, G.

Trelawny, J. S.

Tufnell, H.

Turner, G. J.

Tynte, Col. C. J. K.

Vane, Lord H.
Verney, Sir H.

Villiers, hon. C.
Wakley, T.
Wall, C. B.

Walmsley, Sir J.
Watkins, Col. L.
Wellesley, Lord C.
Westhead, J. P. B.

Willcox, B. M.
Williams, J.
Willyams, H.

Williamson, Sir H.
Wilson, J.

Wilson, M.

Wood, rt. hon. Sir C.
Wood, W. P.

Wrightson, W. B.

Wyld, J.

Young, Sir J.

TELLERS.

Hill, Lord M.

Bellew, R. M.

SUPPLY-GRANT TO MAYNOOTH. Resolutions reported.

MR. FORBES objected to the new grant of 18,0931. for the college of Maynooth, and moved the reduction of 1,2411. for the purpose of making the vote 16,8521.

Amendment proposed, to leave out