39° TlMEHRl. 
Government would be to impose countervailing duties of 
bounty for sugar imported into the United Kingdom, he 
thought they were more sanguine than the generality of 
people on this point ; but still, there was greater hope 
at the present moment than there ever was before. 
If the negotiations for a reciprocity treaty between the 
United States and these colonies failed, the Imperial 
Government would be thrown face to face with a difficulty 
which they must grapple with. If the question arose as 
to whether they should put on countervailing duties or lose 
the West India colonies, he thought there was no Gov- 
ernment, however averse it might be to the policy of im- 
posing countervailing duties, that would be able to stand 
against such a charge as that of the dismemberment of 
the empire, especially at this time, when a feeling that 
consolidation was desirable had been given expression to 
by many persons of note. If they got countervailing 
duties, the West Indies were all right ; if they did not 
get that, then he thought the only other way out of the 
difficulty was to enter into some kind of negotiation with 
Canada. If there had been any gentlemen present that 
would have gone into this question and attacked in detail 
the important questions as to the difficulty of lowering 
the duties, &c, he should have been very happy indeed 
to have listened to what was said, and to have met such 
arguments to the best of his power; but such not being 
the case, there was nothing that had occurred to him 
to explain or amplify. He had in this case merely taken 
hold of the question in the paper he read, and he should 
have very much liked to have heard the question of the re- 
mission ot duties in case of reciprocity treaties being made 
between the West Indies and America, discussed. With 
