18 TRINIDAD. 



this, at least, I can safely undertake to assert, that if they fail, 

 it will not, in the majority of instances, be for want of exertions 



on their part I derive no small hope for the future from 



the spirit of enterprise and intelligence in which the sugar plan- 

 tations that remain are carried on." 



This assertion of one who has had, as he says, " more oppor- 

 tunities than most persons n of observing the earnestness of the 

 colonists to introduce new machinery and to improve manufac- 

 ture, must have, in the eyes of impartial judges, more weight 

 than the allegations of those who prefer to echo the accusa- 

 tion brought against us, of " wanting the spirit of progress and 

 improvement/' instead of examining into the merits of the case. 



Undoubtedly " skill and capital are needed to render the 

 West Indies a remunerative field of production." Skill, I dare 

 say, we will always be able to procure ; but how can we expect 

 to allure capital to these islands when our staple produce has 

 become a drug in the market ? when we are compelled to com- 

 pete with countries which actually do grant protection to their 

 own article, and are admitted into the British market on terms 

 of equality with us ? when these islands are pointed out as pre- 

 carious and worthless fields ? Let those who take an interest in 

 these colonies and their inhabitants listen to the disinterested 

 appeal of the noble Governor of Jamaica : — " Be it their task to 

 encourage our efforts by every means legislation can present, and 

 to smoothe, as far as lies in their power, the inevitable difficulties 

 of a competition which, aggravated as it unfortunately is at the 

 moment by extraneous circumstances, threatens to prove more 

 formidable than could have been previously anticipated/' 



The present difficulties, created by unfair European competi- 

 tion, are greater, and our position more precarious, than they 

 were forty years ago, unless the British Government consent to 

 interfere ; and the only interference we solicit is this : — That 

 foreign sugar be not admitted to compete with our own produce 

 on terms which are not equal, on account of the protection which 

 it receives in the shape of bounties or drawbacks on exportation. 

 The effect of such protection — but too real, though indirect — is 

 to depress the value of colonial sugar to an unremunerative level, 

 that, as we believe, would not exist under the conditions of fair 

 international free trade. Bounties are granted in France, 

 Belgium, Prussia, Austria, Hungary, Russia, and Holland. 

 These drawbacks are supposed to represent the rates levied on 

 the beetroots or the juice ; but as the quantity of sugar extracted 

 from the roots is actually larger than the quantity assessed, any 

 sniping thus obtained is a clear profit to the exporters. 



All persons interested in the production and the commerce of 

 cane-sugar have energetically remonstrated against this bounty 



