16 



THE PASSING OF THE ACT OF 1843. 



Our next consideration is the passing of the Act of 1843. 



Fur many years tho Canadians had sought to obtain a 

 remission or reduction of the duty on their Wheat and 

 Flour imported into th9 United ECingdom, but they did not 

 attain their object until the year 1843. 



From Parliamentary Papers of the last Session, we gather 

 the followinj; particulars. It appears that the Canadian Le- 

 o-islalurc had, up to the year 1842, declined laying a duty oil 

 the importation of Foreign Wheat. On the 21sl February, 

 1812, Sir C. linrrot, the Governor of Canada, forwarded to 

 Lord Stanley, the Colonial Secretary, a Petition to the 

 Queen and Parliament, from merchants of Montreal, and a 

 memorial from the Board of Trade at Montreal, praying for 

 a repeal of the duties on the importation of the produce of 

 the soil of Canada, into the United Kingdom. In the 

 Petition it was stated that from the great distance from 

 which the Wheat and Flour were transported, the remunera- 

 tion afloided to the Canadian Farmer was not sufficient to 

 allow evej) the smallest impost — that the expense of inland 

 transit and freight across the Atlantic was greater in pro- 

 portion to the produce of the soil in C'anada — than were the 

 rent and taxes paid by the Farmer for the produce of the 

 soil in Great Britain to tlie produce of the soil thereof — and 

 that Canada took almost exclusively British manufactures. 

 Lord Stanley replied that the Petition would, by command 

 of Her Majesty, he presented in the House of Peers by 

 Earl Ripon, and in the Commons by his Lordship (Stanley.) 



On the 2nd March, 1842, Lord' Stanley addressed the 

 following dis})atch to Sir Charles Bagot, which is the doc- 

 ument so frequently referred to during the Parliamentary 

 discussions in 1813. 



Lord SxANLbY to the Right Honourable Sir CharlEI 



Bagot, G.C.B. 



Sir, Do-*nin|,' Sircet, 'l\ M.iroti IS 12. 



In the anxious Consideration which it has been t!ie Duty of 

 Her Majesty's Government to give to the important and com- 

 plicated Question of the Importation of Corn into this Country, 

 they have, of course, not overlooked the Interest which is felt 

 in this Question by the Province of Canada, and which has 

 been expressed in Memorials from the Legislative Body, and 

 from other Parties, addressf d to Her Majesty and the Legisla- 

 ture of this Country, and although, in present Circumstances, 

 Her Majesty's Government have not felt themselves justified 

 in recommending to Parliament a compliance with the general 

 Request of the various Memorialists, that Canadian Corn and 

 Flour should be imported at a nominal Duty into the United 

 Kingdom,! trust that the Steps which we have taken, and the 

 Grounds upon which we have declined to advance further io 



