a third of its former amount; and such it will be totally abandoned, and these is the indolence of the black popula- noble colonies be consigned to total tion, and their general disinclination ruin.* to steady and combined industry, that oultivation is in general carried on in these islands at a loss; and the time is, it is to be feared, not far distant, when The following table shows the decline of colonial produce exported from Jamaica under the first year of the Emancipation Act: 32. It is in these measures that the real cause of the lamentable increase in the foreign slave trade is to be found; it is the multitude who forced on these Taking an average of these various sorts of produce, it is evident that, notwithstanding an uncommonly fine season, and the vigorous exertions of the stipendiary magistrates, the produce of the island fell off in one year nearly a fourth of its total amount! The parliament of Jamaica, in their address to the governor of the island on August 10, 1835, observed-"There never was a finer season or more promising appearance of canes; but, nevertheless, the crop is greatly deficient, and many British ships have in consequence returned with half cargoes, some with none at all. Our decided opinion is, that each succeeding crop will progressively become worse. In a few cases the apprentices do work for wages: but the opposite disposition so immeasurably preponderates, that no dependence whatever can be placed on voluntary labour. Knowing, as we do, the prevailing reluctance of the negroes to work of any kind, the thefts, negligences, and outrages of every sort which are becoming of frequent occurrence; seeing large portions of our neglected cane-fields overrun with weeds, and a still larger extent of our pasture-lands returning to a state of nature; seeing, in fact, desolation already overspreading the very face of the land, it is impossible for us, without abandoning the evidence of our senses, to entertain favourable anticipations, or divest ourselves of the painful conviction, that the progressive and rapid deterioration of property will continue to keep pace with the apprenticeship, and that the termination thereof must, unless strong preventive measures are applied, complete the ruin of the colony. Making every allowance for the passions and exaggerations of a tropical climate, the statement here made is too strongly borne out by the decrease in the official returns, and the example of the result of corresponding measures in St Domingo, to leave a doubt that they are, in the main at least, founded in truth. The following table exhibits the official returns of the exports of the West India Islands for the last fifteen years : Years. Sugar. Molasses. Rum. Coffee, Cocoa. Pimento, Shipping. Ships. lbs. lbs. Tons. 872 958 Cwts. Cwts. Gallons. lbs. 1827 3,551,218 392,441 5,620,174 29,419,598 549,688 2,225,943 243,731 1828 4,313,636 508,095 6,307,294 29,987,078 454,909 2,247,893 272,800 1,013 1829 4,152,614 390,626 6,634,759 26,911,785 684,917 3,585,694 263,328 1830 3,912,628 249,420 6,752,799 27,460,421 711,913 3,489,318 253,872 1831 4,103,800 323,306 7,844,157 20,030,802 1,491,947 4,801,355 249,079 1832 3,773,456 558,668 4,713,809 24,678,920 618,215 1,366,183 229,117 1833 3,646,204 686,793 5,109,975 19,008,575 2,134,809 4,470,255 248,378 1834* 3,343,976 650,366 5,112,399 22,081,489 1,360,325 1,389,402 246,695 1835 3,524,209 507,495 5,458,317 14,855,470 439,467 2,536,358 235,179 1836 3,601,791 526,535 4,868,168 18,903,426 1,612,304 3,320,978 237,922 1837 3,306,775 575,657 4,418,349 15,577,888 1,847,145 2,026,129 226,468 1838+ 3,520,676 638,007 4,641,210 17,538,655 2,149,637 892,974 235,195 1839 2,824,372 474,307 4,021,820 11,485,675. 959,641 1,071,570 196,715 1840 2,214,764 421,141 3,780,979 12,797,039 2,374,301 1841 2,151,217 430,221 2,770,161 9,927,689 2,920,298 • Emancipation Act. -PORTER'S Progress of the Nation, iii. 424, 425. 911 904 828 911 918 878 900 Nor has the effect of this most disastrous measure been less detrimental on the exports of Great Britain to the West Indies. These, as a matter of course, have declined with the earning, without either risk to themselves, injury to their masters, or increase to the demand for foreign slave labour. But now all these admirable effects of the abolition of the slave trade have been completely frustrated, and the humane but deluded inhabitants of Great Britain are burdened with twenty millions, to ruin, in the end, their own planters, consign to barbarism their own negroes, cut off a principal branch of their navaletrength, and double the slave trade in extent, and quadruple it in horrors, throughout the world. A more striking instance never was exhibited of the necessity of attending, in political changes, not only to benevolent intentions, but to prudent conduct; and of the fatal effect of those institutions which, by giving the inhabitants of a particular part of the empire an undue share in the general administration,† or admit measures, who have frustrated all the benevolent efforts of Mr Wilberforce and Mr Fox, and rendered the abolition of the slave trade in the British dominions the remote and innocent cause of boundless misfortunes to the negro race. The British slaves, since the slave trade was abolished, had become fully equal to the wants of the colonies; their numbers, without any extraneous addition, were on the increase; their condition was comfortable and prosperous beyond that of any peasantry in Europe; and large numbers were annually purchasing their freedom from the produce of their own industry. Here, then, was a stationary negro population, rapidly approaching the condition of the most opulent feudal serfs of Europe, and from which they might, in like manner, have been emancipated singly, as they acquired property, which all had the means of falling off in the produce of the West Indies, and the diminished ability of its inhabitants to pay for the produce of this country, as the following table demonstrates: BRITISH EXPORTS TO WEST INDIES FROM 1829 TO 1844. Such has been the effect upon the prices of all sorts of colonial produce, of this great decline in the production of the British West India Islands, that the annual consumption of sugar in Great Britain has declined since 1832 from 24 lbs. a-head to 16 lbs.; while, for this diminished quantity of 16 lbs., the price paid by the nation has been £8,000,000 annually more than it formerly was for the larger quantity of 24 lbs., -that is, the nation pays annually twice the amount nearly of the income-tax more than it formerly did for two-thirds only of the former supply! At the same time, the effect of the measure, on the admission of its warmest advocates, has been to double the slave trade over the globe, and increase its horrors in a still greater proportion! The history of mankind fortunately affords few similar examples of the disastrous effects of ignorant zeal and misguided philanthropy.Parl. Deb. June 9, 1843. Customs Return, Kingston, Jamaica, 22d August 1835; and Address of Assembly, August 10, 1835. The number of slaves now annually carried across the Atlantic, is double what it was when Wilberforce and Clarkson commenced their philanthropic labours."-FOWELL BUXTON On the Foreign Slave Trade, p. 72. + The British ministry who, in 1834, passed the measures of slave emancipation, are noways answerable for these consequences; on the contrary, they deserve the highest credit for the courage they displayed, in opposition to the wishes of many of their supporters, in carrying through the great grant of twenty millions to the planters-a relief so seasonable and extensive, that hitherto, at least, it has almost entirely, to the persons who received it, prevented the natural consequences of the emancipation from being fully felt. The torrent of public feeling was irresistible; all they could do was to moderate its effects, which, by the protracted period of apprenticeship, and the grant to the slave-owners, was done to a very great degree. The English people must answer for the measure, be its ultimate effects on themselves and the negro race good or bad. The reflection suggested is-What is the character of national institutions which permit a measure, likely to be attended with such cruel and disastrous consequences, to be forced against their will on a reluctant government? ting the torrent of public feeling to sway directly the measures of government, too often destroy prosperity the most extensive, and occasion calamities the most unbounded. An important change in the British system of finance was also made by the same administration, which, although not brought forward till the spring of 1807, may be fitly considered now, in order not to interrupt the narrative of the important military events which at that period occurred on the continent of Europe. reasonable prospect of being enabled to maintain it for a very long period. 34. "In considering our resources, the two great objects of attention are the sinking-fund and the system of raising the supplies as much as possible within the year, which has given rise to the present amount of war taxes. The first of these is a durable monument of Mr Pitt's wisdom: it had the support of his illustrious political opponent, Mr Fox; and, however widely these two great men were divided on most other subjects, it at 33. The foundation of this plan, least received that weight of authority which was brought forward by Lord which arises from their entire coinciHenry Petty,* on the 29th January dence of approbation. When this sys1807, was, that the time had now ar- tem was commenced in 1786, the sinkrived when it had become expedient ing-fund was only 1-238th part of the to make a provision for a permanent debt; whereas it is now 1-63d of the state of warfare; that the bad success whole debt, and 1-42d of the unreof all former coalitions had demon- deemed portion: a result at once strikstrated the slender foundation on which ing and satisfactory, more especially any hopes of overthrowing the military when it is recollected that it has been power of France on the continent of obtained in twenty years, whereof Europe must rest, while the hostile dis- fourteen have been years of war. The position and immense power of Napoleon war taxes, which have been raised to gave little hope that any durable accom- their present amount chiefly by the modation could be entered into with operation of the heavy direct taxes, him. "All nations," said his lordship, were, first, the treble assessed taxes in"that still preserve the shadow even troduced by Mr Pitt, and more lately of their independence, have their eyes the property tax, which has been subfixed on us as the only means of re- stituted in its room. The experience of gaining the freedom they have lost. the last year has amply demonstrated It becomes the government of Great the expedience of the augmentation of Britain, seeing the proud eminence on that impost to ten per cent, which it which they are placed, to take an en- was our painful duty to propose last larged view of their whole situation, year; for under its operation the war and to direct their attention to that taxes have now reached £21,000,000 future which, notwithstanding the sig-a-year, and the sinking-fund amounts nal deliverance they have hitherto ob- to £8,300,000 annually. tained, seems still pregnant with evil. Our present permanent revenue is above £32,000,000 a-year, being more than three times what it was at the close of the American War; and there can be no doubt that means might be found in additional taxes to pay the interest of loans for several years to come. But looking, as it is now our duty to do, to a protracted contest, it has become indispensable to combine present measures with such a regard for the future, as may give us a * Afterwards Lord Lansdowne, a distinguished member of the Whig cabinet of 1830. 35. "In the present state of the country, our war expenses cannot be calculated at less than thirty-two millions annually. To provide for this, independent of additional war taxes, which are now so heavy that we are not warranted in calculating on any considerable addition to their amount as likely to prove permanently productive, is the problem we have now to solve. To effect this, it is proposed in this and the three following years to raise a loan of £12,000,000; for the fourth year, or 1810, £14,000,000; and for the ten succeeding years, if the war should last so long, £16,000,000 annually. In each successive year in which these loans shall be raised, it is proposed to appropriate so much of the war taxes as will amount to ten per cent on the sum so raised. Out of this ten per cent the interest and charges of management are first to be defrayed, and the remainder is to constitute a sinking-fund to provide for the redemption of the capital. When the funds are at 60, or interest at three per cent, such a system will extinguish each loan in fourteen years after it was contracted. The moment this is done, the war taxes impledged for the redemption of that loan should be repealed. Thus, as the loan of £12,000,000 will, on this supposition, be paid off by 1821, the £1,200,000 a-year of war taxes now pledged to its redemption will in that year be remitted. Upon examining this system, it will be found that it may be carried on for seven years, viz. from 1807 to 1814, without impledging any part of the incometax; so that, if peace is then concluded, the whole income-tax may, without violating any part of the present system, be at once remitted-a most desirable object, as that is a burden which nothing but the last necessity should induce us to perpetuate beyond the continuance of hostilities. 36. "As, however, the ten per cent on the loan annually contracted is in this manner to be taken from the war taxes, means must be provided to supply that deficiency, which, if the war continues for a long tract of years, will, from the progressive growth of those burdens on the war taxes, become very considerable. To provide for this deficiency, it is proposed to raise in each year a small supplementary loan, intended to meet the sum abstracted for the charges of the principal loan from the public treasury; and this supplementary loan is to be borrowed on Mr Pitt's principle of providing by fresh taxes, laid on in the indirect form, or by the falling in of annuities, for the interest of the debt, and one per cent more to create a fund for its redemption. The loan so required this year will, from the excess of the war taxes above the war expenditure, be only £200,000; the annual charges of which on this principle will be only £13,333 and as annuities to the amount of £15,000 will fall in this year, it will not be necessary, either for the principal or supplementary loan, to lay on any new taxes at present. Taking an average so as to diffuse the burden created by these supplementary loans as equally as possible over future years, and setting off against them the sums which will be gained annually by the falling in of annuities, the result is, that it will only be necessary to raise, in the seven years immediately subsequent to 1810, £293,000 annually by new taxes; a sum incredibly small, when it is recollected that we are now in the fifth year of a renewed war, the most costly and momentous in which the country ever was engaged. 37. "Under the present system, with regard to the public debt framed upon the acts of 1786, 1792, and 1802, no relief whatever will be experienced from the public burdens till a very distant period, probably from 1834 to 1844; and during the later years of the operation of the sinking-fund, it will throw such immense sums, not less than forty millions annually, loose upon the country, as cannot fail to produce a most prejudicial effect upon the money market, while the sudden remission of taxes to the amount of £30,000,000 a-year would produce effects upon artisans, manufacturers, and holders of property of every description, which it is impossible to contemplate without the most serious alarm. In every point of view, therefore, it seems to be highly desirable to render the sinking-fund more equal in its progress, by increasing its present power, and diffusing over a greater number of years those extensive effects, which would, according to the present system, be confined to the very last year of its operation. The arrangements prepared with this view are founded on the superior advantage of applying to the redemption of debt a sinking-fund of five per cent on the actual money capital, instead of one per cent on the nominal capital, or will amount to the enormous sum of £193,000,000. The whole machinery of the new plan is cumbersome and complicated: the additional charges arising from that circumstance will amount to a very considerable sum. The ways and means intended to prevent the imposition of new taxes in future-viz. the expired annuities, together with the excess of the sinkingfund above the interest of the unredeemed debt-are equally applicable pro tanto to mitigate their increase, under any other mode of raising loans that may be decided on; and their application in this way would be more advantageous than in the other, inasmuch as it is better to avoid contracting debt than to gain relief by a remission of taxation. amount of stock. This is to be the system applied to the loans of the first ten years; and in return for this advantage, it is proposed that when the present sinking-fund shall have so far increased as to exceed in its amount the interest of the debt then unredeemed, such surplus shall be at the disposal of parliament. By this means a larger sum will be annually applied to the sinking-fund from henceforward than could have been obtained under the old system; the whole loans contracted in future during the war will be redeemed within forty-five years from the date of their creation; and this without violating any of the provisions of the act 1792, establishing the present sinking-fund. Parliament, during the years of its final and greatest operation, will be enabled to administer a very great relief to the public necessities, and obviate all the dangers with which an undue rapidity in the defray-gaging the war taxes for the interest of ment of the debt would otherwise be attended."* 38. In opposition to these able arguments, it was urged by Lord Castlereagh, Mr Canning, and Mr Perceval"This plan of finance proposes gradually to mortgage for fourteen years the whole of the war taxes for the interest of loans in wara decided departure from all our former principles, which were to preserve religiously the distinction between war and permanent taxes, and which would, if carried into effect for any considerable time, deprive the nation of almost all the benefit to which it is entitled to look upon the termination of hostilities. The new plan, moreover, will require loans to a greater amount to be raised in each year than would be required if the usual system of borrowing were adhered to. At the end of twenty years it appears, from the calculations laid before parliament, that this excess * The speech of Lord Henry Petty on this occasion is well worthy of the attention of all who wish to make themselves masters of the subject of the British finances during the Revolutionary war. It is the most distinct, luminous, and statesmanlike exposition on the subject which is to be found in the whole range of the parliamentary debates after the death of Mr Pitt. 39. "It is futile to say that the public necessities compel us to have recourse to the perilous system of mort future loans. It is here that the great danger of the new system consists: it is in breaking down the old and sacred barrier between the war and peace expenses, that the seeds of inextricable confusion to our finances in future are to be found. It is quite possible, as appears from the authentic calculations before parliament, to obtain the eleven millions a-year required for the deficiency of the war taxes below the war charges, without mortgaging these taxes, without the immense loans required under the new system, and without any material or unbearable addition to the public burdens. The mode in which this great object is to be attained is, by resolving that, when the loan of the year in war does not exceed the amount of the sinking-fund in such year, instead of making provision for the interest of such loan in the taxes, the same shall be provided for out of the interest receivable on the amount of stock redeemed by the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt in that year. Any excess of national expenditure above the thirty-two millions to be fixed as the average amount of war expenditure, to be provided for in the usual manner. The data laid before parliament prove, |