Ships, Colonies, and Commerce. ApRiL, 



and a comparison of the result of various successive vintages, and modes of 

 treatment, the quantity produced rose from about 7,500 casks to nearly 

 20,000 casks, of an improved quality, in 1824, the capital embarked 

 by the cultivators and wine merchants in Cape Town, was computed to be 

 upwards of a million and a half sterling ! Having thus entrapped people 

 into a large investment, government in 1825 suddenly, and against the 

 earnest remonstrances of those interested, lowered the protective duty to 

 about 11 per pipe, to continue until 1830, and to 8 5s. after that 

 period. The consequence of this measure was the immediate ruin of 

 some of those largely engaged in the trade, and a necessary depreciation 

 of a capital which, once embarked, could not be withdrawn ! On the 

 pressing representation of these circumstances to Sir George Murray, and 

 Mr. Goulburn, who were then in office, they, by the Act of 10 Geo. IV. 

 ch. 43, agreed that until the 1st January, 1833, the duty should be con- 

 tinued at 2s. 5d. per gallon, affording the diminished protection of 11, 

 as above mentioned, and that the reduction of protection to 8 5s. per 

 pipe, should not take place till after that period. Reposing on the faith 

 of this Act of Parliament and following the impulse which had been 

 previously given to vine cultivation, the settlers continued to extend in 

 a slight degree their establishments, and the property embarked is now 

 nearly two millions sterling. To their astonishment, however, the new 

 ministry, disregarding not only all former promises, but in the face of this 

 Act of Parliament, proposed to raise the duty on colonial wines from 2s. 

 5d. to 5s. 6d. per gallon, and to lower the duties on Foreign wines ! 

 thus, by a double operation, to do away with all protection to Cape wine, 

 and consequently ruin the colony, and every one interested in this, its 

 staple commodity ! One circumstance connected with this proposal 

 appears to us to be worthy of remark, namely, that at the period when 

 government pledged themselves to support vine culture at the Cape, 

 Lord Goderich, (then the Hon. J. F. Robinson) was Vice President of 

 the Board of Trade ! In 1825, when the first breach of faith was com- 

 mitted, Lord Goderich (the Hon. J. F. Robinson) was Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer ! and now in 1831, when it has been proposed to depart 

 entirely from every former pledge, Lord Goderich is Colonial, or rather 

 Anti- Colonial Minister !! 



With regard to the quality of Cape wine, we think the very unjust 

 prejudice against it is gradually decaying. We believe the genuine 

 average quality to be more wholesome than the ordinary qualities of port 

 and sherry, or such stuff as is usually sold under these denominations. 

 The consumers of Cape wine are a new class of wine drinkers, entirely 

 distinct from the consumers of the old established high-priced wines. The 

 additional duty proposed would deprive the present consumers of a cheap 

 and wholesome beverage, and force them to return to ardent spirits. It 

 would crush the trade altogether, and besides all the other mischiefs to 

 " ships, colonies and commerce," might cause a positive defalcation of 

 revenue benefiting only the wine growers of Kings Louis Philippe, 

 Ferdinand, and Miguel. And although Lord Althorp has consented to 

 fix the duty at 2s. 9d., for the next two years, yet if at the end of that 

 period, all protection is withdrawn, it will be entirely destructive of the 

 property of the colonists ; and also of all faith in the wisdom and justice 

 of the mother country. 



We would finally observe, that although the cases of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and the British North American Colonies are somewhat dissimilar, 



