Such is the amount of _protection_ at present enjoyed by our colonists—a
protection which, be it remarked, is every year to decrease! In the
present, or second year after the passing of Lord John Russell’s bill,
we find that slave-grown sugar can be brought into the market at a cost
of production less at least by _five pounds per ton_ than that of our
own colonies! We can now easily understand how it is that, within a very
short period, Cuba has increased her exports of sugar from 50,000 to
more than 200,000 tons; and we can readily believe that, with such a
stimulus as has been given, she may, in as short a period, succeed in
doubling the latter quantity. No doubt, in order to effect this, the
importation of slaves from Africa must go on with corresponding
celerity; but that is a matter which we need not regard, as our present
rulers are actually giving an enormous impulse to the trade.
In a matter of this sort, in which the element of British honour is
largely implicated, it in reality matters not who the parties are, whom,
by an unjust and inconsistent course of legislation, we are thus
oppressing and defrauding. But if self-interest is at all to be taken
into view, it may be as well that we should know, that at least
three-fourths of the capital now jeopardized in our West Indian
colonies, is the property of fellow-citizens in this country. The
disastrous effects of the Mauritius failures, primarily caused and
frightfully accelerated by the abolition of the old, and the operation
of the new system in that island, were immediately felt by the
commercial circles here, and tended greatly to increase that depression
which has been experienced in every branch of our trade. If, as is now
seriously meditated, and as must be the case should the Whig Cabinet
prove equally obstinate as rash, our West Indian plantations should be
abandoned, and the capital already expended as completely sunk as though
it had been dropped into the depths of the ocean, we may look for
another crisis at home, which will assuredly appal the boldest. Let our
financial authorities tell us whether we can, under present
circumstances, afford to part with an invested capital of two hundred
millions, or to throw back into a state of nature and pauperism,
colonies which, a very few years ago, consumed annually no less an
amount than three millions and a half value of our manufactures? And yet
to such results, unless some strong remedial measure be immediately
applied, we are most decidedly tending. The depreciation of the value of
property in the colonies has been going on for years at a most alarming
rate, and we shall now state a few facts upon that point, which we think
will convince the most sceptical. We shall begin with Demerara.
In 1838, the value of the estates, owing to the want of labour, had
fallen from one-third to a half. The following is the account of some of
the estates:—
Price in Former
1838. Price.