14 TEINIDAD. 



Here is, therefore, the fact, that whilst all other sugar countries 

 have greatly augmented their amount of produce since the year 

 1833, the British West India Islands have not been able, even at 

 the greatest sacrifices, to recover their lost ground. To this result 

 the free-trade policy has greatly contributed. Not that I mean to 

 say that free trade has acted as a direct check to the production 

 of sugar and coffee in the British possessions, but it has evidently 

 given a powerful impetus to the production of the same articles in 

 other countries, thereby creating a ruinous competition, and that, 

 particularly, in slave countries where the holders of property at 

 once began to make preparations for profiting by the advantages 

 thus tendered. 



Free-traders argue that, as a compensation, the emancipated 

 colonies have been admitted to all the benefits of free trade, and 

 that, if they lost on the one hand, they have gained on the other. 

 This I admit, only with restrictions ; for sugar is not treated in the 

 home market according to the principles of free trade, since the 

 colonists pay an ad valorem duty of 90 to 100 per cent. They are 

 not, besides, in a position to profit by the advantages offered, since 

 they are compelled to ship their produce to parties at home in 

 return for advances of money or merchandises at a usurious rate 

 of, at least, 25 per cent. Both from want of capital, and from 

 the precarious state of the colonial market, they cannot improve 

 their article, and, as a consequence, they must send their sugar to 

 those places where it can undergo the process of refining, since it 

 is too inferior for grocery purposes ; so that the commodity is, per- 

 force, sent to the cheapest market, and under the most unfavoura- 

 ble circumstances. These difficulties are also increased by the 

 influence of prohibitive duties in the foreign markets. Free- 

 traders may truly contend that their policy has had nothing to do 

 with this state of affairs ; but it cannot be denied that its ten- 

 dencies have greatly complicated the situation of the before-em- 

 barrassed West India Colonies. 



Nearly all our misfortunes, I readily admit, are the results of 

 our position ; but from what cause or causes did that position 

 arise ? And have the colonists had anything to do in the matter ? 

 They are evidently the sufferers, and have not within their own 

 power the means of redressing their grievances. Does any remedy 

 exist ? or does Great Britain need to be inconsistent in order to 

 afford them relief ? These are questions to which, I am perfectly 

 aware, some have ready answers ; but these are also complex 

 questions which require the closest consideration. 



Emancipation was not only a political, it was, above all, a 

 philanthropical act an act of reparation, intended as the means 

 of the regeneration of the oppressed race. As such, it ought 

 to have had its results ; and one of those results was surely to ex- 

 tend its benefits, as far as possible, to the whole African race, by 



