368 
SUGAR IMPORTED INTO ENGLAND IN 1792. 
can it be credited that the British policy 
in India led to the neglect of so im- 
portant an article of trade, of such essential 
importance to the public revenue, and not 
merely for use in the state in which it was ex- 
ported hence, but as a material for the great, 
opulent, and valuable body of sugar refiners, 
with reference to whose interests it ought to 
have been chiefly viewed. The quantities 
of sugar imported into England for a 
series of years previous to 1792, the period 
to which we are now adverting, prcv'e that 
nearly two hundred and seven millions of 
pounds weight passed through the hands of 
the British sugar dealers yearly ; and it was 
demonstrated that, on an average, one third 
of the whole of that quantity has been con- 
sumed within the British islands, one half 
of the ether two thirds, exported to depend- 
encies, and the other third, after undergoing 
the expensive operations of refining, wholly 
exported. So that, supposing no more to have 
been refined than the complete one third, ex- 
ported in that state, how necessary was it for 
the administration here, and particularly the 
merchant, to have known that the sugar of 
India was not of sufficient strength through 
the defective manufacture, and that it opened 
the markets for the direct and circuitous 
introduction of the more rich and yielding 
sugars of the French and the Americans. 
But this was not all ; the Chinese and the 
Dutch took advantage of this want of fore- 
sight in the Indian Government. The in- 
dustry and ingenuity of the former especial- 
ly, brought the manufacture of sugar to a 
state of the highest perfection and supplied 
the deficiency. Without occupying much 
space, we have endeavoured to prove 
that the Government of this country 
shut its eyes to a means within its power of 
enlarging its own resources, and of giving 
occupation and wealth to its peasantry, by 
a profitable exportation at a moment when 
a concurrence of unusual events in the West 
Indies and in Europe threw open the British 
markets with considerable and unprecedent- 
ed advantages to the East India speculation j 
when, in fact, the failure of the French sugar 
colonies, the abatement of the produce in the 
British, together with the popular prejudices 
raised by the numerous advocates for the 
■abolition of slave ti’ade, had caused East 
India sugar of a very inferior quality to 
meet a reception and sale. 
But a new era has now dawned on India. 
Mr. Bell has already shewn that England 
will be under the necessity of drawing upon 
India for new supplies of sugar. The poli- 
tical aspect of our West India colonies tends 
to strengthen this impression. The ship- 
ments, during the last year, of nearly nine 
thousand maunds of sugar from Calcutta to 
North America, is evidence of deficiency 
somewhere; and, as Mr. Bell justly says, it is 
obvious that free labour in the West Indies, 
without taking into account the immense 
sacrifice already made to rescue it from the 
stigma of slavery, can never be brought low 
enough to compete with that of the Hindoo. 
Hitherto the people of England have been 
made to pay an enormous sum, to indemnify 
the West India planters for the loss of their 
slaves, and in return for this boon the people 
have been compelled to purchase the produce 
of the East at a much higher rate. 
The monstrous injustice, however, to 
which Mr. Bell alluded when his work was 
published, of bolstering up the interests of 
one country at the expense of another ; the 
maintenance of the unnatural price of sugar, 
by means of unfair restriction, now no longer 
exists ; and the day has arrived when England 
must look to this country for her only 
source of supply. 
We shall now proceed to examine the 
various reports before us to prove that 
the quality and manufacture of sugar may 
be brought to a state of the highest perfec- 
tion in this country. Mr. Bell shews satisTac- 
torily that the Otaheite or Mauritius cane 
does not degenerate in India under common 
care, the produce of which is quadruple that 
of the indigenous. He states that, under 
the direction of the Agricultural Society, 
it is expected that within four years the 
