17 



the same direction, will convince the People of Canada that 

 the Course which we have pursued has been dictated by no 

 unfriendly Feeling towards the Interests of Canada, and es- 

 pecially of Canadian Agriculture. 



The Steps which have been taken, so far as they go, have 

 been decidedly in favour of those Interests. By the Law, as 

 it has hitherto stood, Canadian Wheat and Wheat Flour have 

 been admissible into Great Britain at a Rate of Duty estimated 

 at 5s. per Quarter, until the Price in the lMii<lish Market 

 reached 07s., at which Amount the Duty fell to 6d. By tho 

 Bill which is now before Parliament the Duty of 5s. is leviable 

 only while the Price is below 55s., and at 58s. falls to Is. 

 only. But, in addition to this Reduction in the Amount of 

 Price at winch the lower Duty becomes payable, it is proposed 

 to take oft' the Kestrict'on which has hitherto been imposed 

 upon the Importation of Canadian Flour into Ireland, iind 

 thus to open a new ^larket to that which may be justly con- 

 sidered as one of the Manufactures of Canada. 



In the Measures which they have adopted, not without the 

 most anxious Attention to the various Interests involved. Her 

 Majesty's Government have been desirous, while they gave a 

 general Facility of Admission to the British Mi.rket, of dis- 

 turbing as little as possible the relative Aivantajies possessed 

 by the Colonial and Foreign Suppliers of that Market. In 

 this Sense, while they have continued to the Channel Islands 

 the Facilities which they have heretofore enjoyed, of a free 

 Importation of their own Produce (liuiiied as it necessarily is 

 in Extent) into Great Britain, together with the Means which 

 they at present enjoy of having their own Supplies furnished 

 from the neighbouring and cheaper Market, they have not felt 

 themselves called upon to remove fioin the Isle of Man the 

 Restrictions which have been recently imposed on that Island 

 as to its Foreign Imports, while it possesses the Advantages 

 ©fan unrestricted Commerce with (^reat Britain. The same 

 Principle has guided Her Majesty's Government in the 

 Course which they have felt it their Duty to pursue with 

 regard to Canada. 



It is impossible to be more fully convinced than are the 

 Members of Her Majesty's Government of the Importance to 

 the Interests, both of the Colony and of the Mother Country, 

 of Maintaining between the Two the most unrestricted Freedom 

 of commercial Intercourse. Even a cursory Examination of 

 Facts and Figures must demonstrate the Value to be attached, 

 in a commercial and much move in a moral and political point 

 of view, to the Continuance and Improvement of that rapidly 

 increasing Intercourse: and Her Majesty's Goverument would 

 have had much less Difficulty in approaching the Question of 

 an unrestricted Admission of Canadian Wheat and Flour into 

 the British Markets, if it had been in their Power to look at 

 that Question as one of Intercourse between Great Britain and 

 her most important Colony, and independent of all Considera- 



