while they nearly sacrifice the revenue upon an ination founded on a new principle has been intro article of large importation, not subject to contra-duced. Under the act of last year, the duties stand band.* thus, until the 5th of July, 1846.

session,

labor,

Do. foreign, the produce of slave la-
bor,

14 0 per cwt.

23 4

63 0

RUM is likewise admitted at a discriminating duty of nine shillings per gallon, while the duty on foreign spirits has been 22s. 6d., which the tariff-act of this session reduces to 15s. The excise duty on spirits made in England is 7s. 10d. per gallon.

The Cape of Good Hope was acquired by Eng-Brown sugar, produce of a Brit. pos- s. d. land in 1795, and finally annexed to the crown in 1806. Unfortunately for us, the cultivation of the vine had been introduced into this colony by Do. foreign, not the produce of slave the Dutch, through the assistance, it is said, of French refugees, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. It seems as if nature had nearly limited the making of wine to Europe. In spite of the later fables concerning the Indian origin of Bacchus, he was essentially a European deity. Nor have the settlements of modern states, or their improvements in the arts of cultivation, much extended his domain. Except Asia Minor and Persia, Madeira COFFEE imported from foreign countries is now and the Canary Isles, with some districts in Mexi- subject to a duty of 6d. per lb.; if imported from co, the Cape is the only place out of Europe British possessions, to a duty of 4d. Previously, where wine is made. And it seems from the de- this discrimination had been as great as 1s. 3d. and scription of Dr. Henderson, in his History of An- 6d., with a duty of 9d. for coffee imported from cient and Modern Wines, to be thoroughly unsuited any British possession within the limits of the East to this production. The vineyards which yield the India Company's charter, not being the produce Constantia wine have a natural fitness for the grape; thereof. Under this regulation a singular practice but the soil of the colony is in general unfavorable arose. As the Cape of Good Hope was within the to the growth of wine. Moreover, the culture is limits of the East India Company's charter, large unskilful, and the processes of the vintage are ill quantities of coffee were sent to it from Brazil, conducted; so that, according to Dr. Henderson, a Cuba, and other foreign countries, in order to be large proportion of the wine is "execrable." Dur-" colonialized," (as it was called,) and then importing the war, however, and the existence of the anti-ed into England; in other words, in order, by this commercial system of Napoleon, it was thought by circuitous navigation, to obtain the benefit of the our government that the supply of wine from the lower rate of duty. The quantities of coffee imcontinent might be interrupted, and that it would ported from the Cape, and admitted for home conbe a prudent policy to rely on the produce of a sumption in the two years, 1830 and 1842, stand British colony. Accordingly, a proclamation of thus:the governor, in December, 1811, offered great encouragement to the growth of wine at the Cape of Good Hope; and by an act of 1813, (53 G. III., c. 84,) Cape wines were admitted into the United kingdom at a third of the duty on Spanish and Portuguese wines. With this protection, the produce rose in ten years from 859,195 to 2,249,910 imperial gallons, (or 7335 to 19,230 leggers.) The importation of Cape wines into the united kingdom, in the year ended 5th January, 1845, was 423,336 gallons; while that of French wines was only 725,308. The duty on Cape wine is 2s. 9d. a gallon, on other wines 5s. 6d.

1830, 1842,

lbs. 189 6,149,489

This costly system of smuggling, (similar to that mentioned above with respect to timber,) was suppressed in 1842, by rendering foreign coffee so imported liable to the high duty. The discrimination has, moreover, been since mitigated, and amounts now only to 2d. per lb.*

A very different feeling, with respect to the encouragement of colonial coffee, prevailed in the reign of Charles II. The Lord Keeper Guilford, The British West India Islands have long en- being consulted by the government in 1679, as to joyed a preference in our market for their sugar. the legality of coffee-houses, gave it as his opinion, During the existence of slavery, the sugar produced that "as the coffee-houses are nurseries of idleness in our islands was equal to the demand of the mo- and pragmaticalness, and hinder the consumption of ther country, and the discrimination had not much our native provisions, they may be treated as comeffect. But since the emancipation of the slaves, mon nuisances." A proclamation was accordingly the supply of sugar has fallen off, and the exclu- issued for shutting up all coffee-houses, and forbidsion of foreign sugar has begun to operate. The ding the sale of coffee in the metropolis; but it led quantity of sugar imported from the British West to so much complaint, especially among persons Indies into the United Kingdom, was 4,103,800 connected with the foreign and colonial trade, that cwts. in 1831, and 2,508,910 cwts. in 1842. In it was soon recalled.† 1836 the duty on colonial sugar was 36s. a cwt., on foreign sugar 63s. Since that time, the duty on colonial sugar has been reduced, and a discrim

*Concerning the timber duties, see this Journal, vol. xliii., p. 341. M'Culloch's Commercial Dict., Art. "Timber." Porter's Progress of the Nation, vol. ii., p. 122. Merivale's Lectures on Colonization, vol. i., p. 202. + In California and the Mexican province of Cuihuela adjoining Texas, wine is made to a considerable extent, though not sufficient for the consumption of the country. This wine is strong and full-bodied, but the culture is unskilfu.. Some wine is made in the State of Ohio, but of poor quality.

See Montgomery Martin, British Colonial Library, vol. iii., p.2 236.

CORN was admitted from the British possessions in North America at a discriminating duty, by the 31 Geo. III. c. 30. passed in 1791. This act imposed a simple sliding-scale of duties, consisting of only three degrees; viz., a high duty of 24s. 3d. Per quarter, and two low duties of 2s. 6d., and 6d. per quarter. By the arrangement of this scale, a small preference was given to North American corn, as will appear from the following table :

*On the coffee duties, see Porter's Progress of the Nation, vol. ii., p. 118; vol. iii., p. 42.

+See Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, vol. iii., p. 455.

54 CLASS I.-Duty on the foreign article combined with free importation of the colonial article.-An

tion to the general principle of commercial freedom; | its market, by restrictions and discriminating duties, and in retaining, for the supposed benefit of colonial and all the perverse follies which the union of industry, a system of monopoly which it renounces national jealousy with false systems of political in behalf of its own producers.

For this purpose, we must begin by ascertaining the view which is to be taken of the advantages derivable, in the present circumstances of the United Kingdom and the world, from the possession of dependent colonies.

economy has engendered. If the colony were independent, it would, supposing it to understand its true interest, admit the goods of the mother country upon the same terms of equality as it does when dependent. It would do voluntarily what it now does under compulsion. But looking to the estabThe colonies and dependencies of England yield lished errors on the subject of trade, to their geneno tribute or revenue to the paramount state. No ral currency, and to the strength and speciousness payments are made by any of our colonies into the of the prejudices with which they are associated, British Exchequer. Instead of lightening our fiscal we may be certain that such would not be its conburdens, they are sources of expense. Their pro- duct. It would, however small in extent, attempt to tection against actual or apprehended attacks is costly. set up a separate industrial and commercial system. A large part of our military and naval expenditure Certain bodies of producers and traders would raise is incurred on their account. The late hostilities in a cry about native industry; and the public, partly Afghanistan, China, and Scinde, with the recent from simplicity, and partly from national antipathies, campaign on the Sutlej; the insurrection in Canada, would yield to the interested delusion. Some of and the preparations for the defence of Oregon; the Oriental countries, too, (as China and Japan,*) afford obvious instances of the onerous obligations which extensive empire imposes upon the ruling state. Moreover, the fortification of colonial possessions is a further source of expense. With the exception, too, of Gibraltar and Malta, and the newly-acquired post of Aden, they cannot be said to increase our military and naval strength; inasmuch as they scatter our forces, and extend our lines of operation over half the world. And not only do they create the necessity for larger military and naval establishments in time of peace, but they involve us in wars to which otherwise we should not be exposed. Beyond the very questionable benefit of apparent power, (which may lead to jealousy as well as to fear,) we derive no advantage from the mere supremacy over remote provinces; from our being able to say that the Queen of England has so many million subjects, and that her dominions include so many thousand square miles; that the sun never sets on the British Empire; that the English language is spoken in every clime, and that the flag of England floats in every latitude. That we do, however, in the present state of the world, derive much substantial advantage from our Years. To all the World. To British Colonies.

colonies, cannot be doubted: but that advantage, as it appears to us, consists, not in the barren attribute of sovereignty, but, principally, in the facilities which they afford for commercial intercourse.

At the time of the peace of Amiens, Bonaparte had conceived the wildest schemes of colonial aggrandizement for France; he was to establish a chain of dependencies in America, Africa, and Asia, by which the influence of France would predominate over the whole world. Everything, in his mind, assumed the form of conquest and military encroachment; and he could imagine no other foundation for the greatness of France than the ruin of England. That two independent countries could simultaneously flourish that they could even derive benefit from each other's prosperity; were, to his mind, propositions so evidently false as not to require refutation. Even Napoleon, however, accustomed as he was to look at everything as a general, and not as a civil governor, was captivated with the commercial prospects of colonies; and constantly associated with them the ideas of a mercantile marine and an

extension of external trade.

prohibit nearly all commercial intercourse with foreigners. If the obstacles opposed to our trade with these countries, are contrasted with the facilities which we enjoy for trading with Hindostan, we perceive the commercial advantages which our territorial sovereignty may confer. For these reasons we have, in the present state of the world, a substantial interest in the dependence of our colonies. We can secure an open market and a free trade, so long as we can procure a safe passage over the seas, and maintain the allegiance of the subject territories.

Notwithstanding the limited population of most of our colonies, and their contracted means of purchase, the extent of our colonial trade is considerable, as compared with our trade with foreign countries. The following table will show the proportions for the three years 1839-41.

Declared value of British Manufactures exported

In round numbers, about thirty per cent. of the exports of England are sent to the colonies. Considering the great wealth of the European countries, and the United States, and the proximity of the former, it is remarkable that the colonial should bear so large a proportion to the foreign trade; and the extent of the exports to the colonies can only be explained by the freedom of intercourse with them, which we owe to our political ascendancy.

Generally, therefore, the advantages which we derive from the possession of colonies may be said to consist in this :-that, in consideration of the

*On the rigorous exclusion of foreign traders from gasacki" and an interesting volume on The Manners Japan, see M'Culloch's Dict. of Commerce. Art. “Nanand Customs of the Japanese, published at London in 1841.

+ Setting aside the territories of the East India Company, the only two dependencies of the British crown da and Ceylon. which contain a population exceeding 400,000, are Cana

In what, however, do the commercial advantages of colonial possessions consist? They consist simply, as it seems to us, in the power which the mother country thereby enjoys of securing a fair and open market to her goods. They consist in her power See Porter's Progress of the Nation, vol. iii, of preventing the colony from excluding her from

p. 433.

responsibility and expense of superintending their | another, so that the entire confederation ray be government, and defending them against hostile surrounded by a single custom-house line. 2. The attack, we require them to trade freely with us. custom-duties must be collected for the common They are separate political communities, each with account, be paid into a single fund, and afterwards its peculiar, though not sovereign, government- divided amongst the separate states. 3. There managing its own public revenue and expenditure, must be such a similarity of circumstances and levying custom duties of its own, and maintaining interests, as to render the continuance of the a distinct system of taxation-but not permitted arrangement probable; and to induce the members to use its power so as to impose restrictions to acquiesce, without serious dissatisfaction, in the and disabilities upon the trade of the mother joint management and collection of the duties, country. and their subsequent division according to a fixed scale.

of this leading argument for the maintenance of the corn-law.*

raised to the same a nount as if the duty upon all the imports stood at the maximum rate. For exBut, even if a colonial customs' league is im- ample, if coffee is imported at two duties; viz., possible for England, if the custom-duties of our foreign coffee at 6d. and colonial coffee at 4d. per vast and scattered empire cannot be centralized lb., the price to the English consumer is the same into one uniform system, is it not just and politic as if there were an uniform duty of 6d. per lb. to give a preference to colonial imports into the The revenue loses the difference between the sum United Kingdom? If the mother country must received on the colonial imports, and the sum retain a customs' tariff distinct from the tariffs of which would have been received if an equal quanits colonies, ought it not to establish a discrimina- tity of coffee had been imported under the high tion of duties between goods imported from colo- duty. The English consumer gains nothing by nies and from foreign countries, in favor of the the discrimination, inasmuch as the price paid in former? In order to answer this question, we will England is regulated by the price at which the revert to what has been already said with respect coffee subject to the high duty can be sold. The to the commercial advantage derived by a mother effect of the discrimination is simply to cause a country from the possession of colonies;-viz., larger quantity of colonial coffee to be imported. that it consists, not in assuming the monopoly of But although the quantity of importations at the the colonial market, but in securing its freedom: low duty may be greater than it would be if there not in excluding the rest of the world, but in pro- was an uniform rate, the profits made by the growtecting yourself against exclusion. If the com-ers and importers of the colonial article are not mercial policy of England was managed on this raised above the average rate-in as much as the principle, the colonies would not be entitled to ask trade is open, competition lowers them to the for compensation in the shape of a monopoly of the general level. With respect, therefore, to the home market. They would not be subjected by mother country, a discriminating duty raises the the mother country to any commercial disadvan-price to the level of the high duty; and deprives tage which would call for indemnity. They not the revenue of the difference between the sum paid only have no substantial interest in a system of upon the colonial importations, and the sum which isolation, in duties for protecting their native in- would have been paid if an equal quantity had been dustry; but they ought, if they understood their imported from foreign countries. With respect true interest, to be most grateful to the mother to the colony, it merely directs a larger amount country for saving them from the introduction of of capital into the protected trade; which capithis ruinous folly. So long as England avowedly tal yields, however, only the average rate of maintained a colonial monopoly for her own benefit, profit. so long as she regulated the trade of the colonists to their detriment and her supposed advantage, the case wore a different complexion. There was a sacrifice on the side of the colony, which might give a claim for a corresponding sacrifice on the side of the mother country. England, however, has now abandoned this restrictive system, and allows the colonists to trade freely without giving her goods the preference. Nevertheless, she retains the discriminating duties against herself, which were intended to serve as a counterpoise to the loss suffered by the colony. She makes a sacrifice as a compensation for an injury which she no longer inflicts. In an excess of devotion, she expiates by an enduring penance a sin which she has ceased to commit.

Let us consider the effect of the system of discrimination in favor of colonial produce, with respect to the interest of the mother country and its consumers, and of the colony and its producers.

When a discriminating duty on colonial produce is in operation, the effect is this. If importations take place regularly under both rates of duty-that is to say, if the article is imported as well from foreign countries as from the colonies-the price is

The distinction between a dependency of the crown, and a district of the United Kingdom, with respect to commercial legislation and custom-duties, is well explained by Lord John Russell in his speech on the Canada corn-law, 22d May, 1843. It had been stated in debate, that the colonies are integral parts of the empire, and ought to be governed as an English county. Lord J. Russell observes, that Canada is indeed an integral part of the empire, but that, commercially speaking, it cannot be governed on the same principles as an English county. Canada, he remarks, does not share our fiscal burdens, or contribute to the common defence of the empire. Moreover, it imposes import duties upon our manufactures. This is not the case with an English County Lincolnshire does not impose duties on goods imported from Yorkshire.-(69' Hansard, 742.)

Now, looking to the colonial side of the question, it is to be observed, that in a newly settled country, containing large tracts of unoccupied or half-occupied land, there are in general abundant facilities for the profitable employment of capital. The field of enterprise is large, but capital and labor are scarce. In such a territory, capital, if fiscal laws do not create a fictitious motive for a different employment, will be attracted to those investments which are most profitable to the individual, and most advantageous to the colony. It is no advantage to a colony such as Canada, that its capital should be diverted from agriculture to wood-cutting. The effect of such an interference with the natural course of improvement, is well described by Mr. Lyell, in the following passage :-" I heard,” he says, speaking of Nova Scotia-" frequent discussions on the present state of the timber-duties, both here and in Canada; and great was my surprise to find the majority of the small proprietors, or that class in whose prosperity and success the strength of a new colony consists, regretting that the mother country had legislated so much in their favor. They said that a few large capitalists and shipowners amassed considerable fortunes, (some of them, however, losing them again by over-specu such merchants was naturally greater than that of lation,) and that the political influence of a few a host of small farmers, who could never so effectively plead their cause to the government. But, on the other hand, the laborers engaged during the severe winter at high pay, to fell and transport the timber to the coast, became invariably a drunken and improvident set.

Another serious mischief accrued to the colony from this traffic;-as often as the new settlers reached the tracts from which the wood had been removed, they found, instead of a cleared region, ready for cultivation, a dense copsewood or vigorous undergrowth of young trees, far more expensive to deal with than the original