20 



Cuiiada us an ititf gral p.irt of tlic empire, cuiild only be dune 

 t»y rciuovitig all duties oa jjrain and flour, llie produce of 

 tlio Province, duty free into the United Kingdom, and that 

 when tiidt was done, so soon as the linances of the Province 

 for the support of the Government and its enj^agemeuts for 

 the security of the public debt would admit, it was ro- 

 «ommende»l to remove all duties on the manufactures of the 

 mother country when admitted into the ports of Canada 

 from sea.* — that the Petitioners were confident that the 

 revenue from Foreign commerce, and tolls on canals, would 

 enable the Government to make the reduction tn a few 

 years after the great leading commtmications to the Ocean 

 were opened. They also stated that to secure the transit 

 of tl»e Western States of America through those waters it 

 was indispensable to allow a drawback on all grain and flour 

 shipped to Great Britain from the ports on the St. Lawrence, 

 whenever the price exceeded 30s. sterling per barrel at the 

 ports of Montreal and Quebec. 



To these documents was appended the evidence of several 

 gentlemen engaged in the forwarding trade, given on the 

 iiOth September, 1842. Amongst other matters, it was 

 stated in this evidence, that the average price of Wheat io 

 England must be 60s. per quarter, to ensure the trade by 

 the St. Lawrence; when over that, the Americans could send 

 their own Wheat more advantageously to England via 

 New Vork — that there was not a suHjcient quantity of bread 

 stuff' grown in Canada to supply the consumption of Dritith 

 North America, and that Wheat could not be exported from 

 Canada when the price was so low in England us to 

 bring a duty on Colonial. 



In these papers we And the Canadians claiming to be 

 put on a level with Ireland so far as regards the exportation 

 of their own produce to the mother country. This may be 

 very reasonable and just, but the great difliculty has been to 

 give full encouragement to Canadian procluve without giv- 

 ing a large bounty for the importation oi' American Wheat 

 into the United Kingdom, to the great injury of the 

 British Agriculturists: this was the problem to be solved. 



On the 20th March, 1843, Sir C. Bagot wrote a dispatch 

 to Lord Stanley, stating that he had received an application 

 from the Council of the Quebec Board of Trade on the 

 4th of March, requesting information as to the fate of the 3s. 



•The duties on imported goods levied in Canada are imposed partly by the 

 authority of the British Government, and partly by that of llie Colonial Lef^is. 

 lature. Thecrown duties are principally on wmes,spiriis,cofrt'c, cocoa, sujjar, 

 and tobacco. They appear to have been framed rather for forcing trade into 

 particular channels than for revenue. The Provincial duties have only th«- 

 •l)]ect cf revenue. 



