18 



tions of Foreign Trade. But it was impocsible for Her 

 Majesty's Government so to regard it; it was impossible that 

 they should not advert to the geographical Position of Canada 

 in reference to the great Corn-growing States of the West of 

 America ; it was impossible not to see, that, however desirable 

 it might be even to encourage the Transit through Canada of 

 the Produce of those States, with the Advantage to Canada 

 of any manufacturing Process which it might undergo in the 

 Transit, a Relaxation of Duty to the extent of free or nearly 

 free Admission would have been a Relaxation not limited, as 

 in this Case it ought to be, to the Produce of a British Colony. 



It is true that the Imperial Parliament, at the Time that they 

 admitted Canadian Produce at a Nominal Duty, might con- 

 stitutionally have imposed a corresponding Duty |upun the 

 Import of American Wheat into Canada, and might thus have 

 placed a Check upon the undue Influx of Foreign under the 

 Name of Canadian Produce ; but looking back to the Proceed- 

 ings in the last Session of the Legislature of Canada, I find that 

 such an Impost was considered and ultimately rejected ; and 

 whatever might be the view taken by Her Majesty's Govern- 

 inent under a different State of Circumstances, in which a Tax 

 imposed by Colonial Authority, and of course receivable into 

 the Colonial Treasury, upon Wheat imported from the United 

 States, might secure the Agriculturists of England against 

 the Competition of Foreign Growers, they have been unwilling 

 to impose such a Tax by the Authority of Parliament upoa 

 a raw Article which might be required for Home Consumption 

 in Canada, and in the Absence of such a Tax have felt it im- 

 possible to propose to Parliament a further Reduction than 

 that which they have submitted in favour of Wheat and Wheat 

 Flour shipped from the Ports of Canada. 



I have to request that you will take an early opportunity, 

 after the assembling of the Provincial Parliament, of laying 

 before them so much of this Dispatch as may put them fully 

 in possession of the Principles on which Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment have proceeded in reference to Wheat and Flour imported 

 from Canada in the general Consideration which it has been 

 their Duty to give in the most Impartial Spirit, and with an 

 earnest Desire to consult and conciliate alt conflicting Interests 

 to the Amendment of the L\ws regulating the Importation of 

 Com into the British Islands. 



I have, &c» 



(Signed) STANLEY. 



On the 28th April, 1842, Sir C. Bagot forwarded to Lord 

 Stanley a petition from " sundry merchants, millers, agri* 

 culturists and others of the florae District, West Canada," 

 in which it was stated, that as the law then stood the average 

 price of grain in England was such as generally to subject 

 the Wheat of Canada to a duty of 5s. The quantity of 

 bread required for England, was so immense that what 



