INTRODUCTION. 19 



system ; a remedy has become urgent, for, under such conditions, 

 we must succumb in the unequal struggle, and leave an undis- 

 puted field to the beet growers. If it be intended to give us any 

 relief, let it be afforded immediately, or it may come too late. 

 Let us all join in the prayer of the West India Committee, and 

 demand that the British West India colonies may not look in 

 vain for redress to Her Majesty's Government. These colonies, 

 in their painful efforts to restore themselves by means of free 

 labour, and their long-continued struggle to hold their own 

 against the slave system of Cuba and Brazil, possess, we con- 

 ceive, a strong claim for consideration. This is not asking for 

 protection for ourselves, but simply objecting to protection being 

 allowed to our antagonists. 



I cannot say what may be the position of the sugar-planters 

 in the other colonies ; but I can affirm, as regards Trinidad, that 

 the following estimates are correct : — The expenses for carrying 

 on a sugar estate making 500 hogsheads, or 900,000 lbs. net, of 

 muscovado sugar, may be calculated at £5,500 sterling ; value 

 of the estate, £1 2,000 sterling; at 18s. the hundredweight — the 

 actual price of the article in the home market — £7,231 the 500 

 hogsheads. I do not reckon molasses, which generally go to 

 pay interests, land-taxes, &c. Deduct £5,500 from these £7,231 

 sterling, there remains a sum of £1,731 ; interest on the value 

 of the property, £1,000; amount available for contingencies, 

 improvements, &c, £731. 



Now, as a sugar-planter cannot turn his estate into a cacao 

 or other plantation without great loss, he must struggle on, 

 hoping even against hope, till ruin overwhelms him ; the estate 

 is then in an abandoned state. This process, which has been 

 going on in Jamaica, Dominica, &c, and which has rendered these 

 colonies nearly worthless, must, I fear, commence in Trinidad 

 and Demerara, for sugar selling at 2 dollars 50 cents the cwt., 

 here, as elsewhere, the result must be the same. Let me, there- 

 fore, state, in the words of the Economist, that u it is clearly not 

 the interest, even of the consumer, that prices should be lower 

 than the fair relation of supply and demand justifies, inasmuch 

 as such a state of the market would discourage those necessary 

 supplies which may be hereafter required. - ''' 



The condition of the sugar-market in the United Kingdom 

 is far from encouraging ; we cannot go on long producing sugar 

 at the actual low price. The danger is different from what it 

 was thirty years ago, but it is as great. Now, should our ruin 

 be achieved, will not the consumer be exposed to deception, and 

 suffer in turn ? 



Can we expect that Parliament will ever agree to imposing 

 a counteracting duty on sugars imported into the United King- 



