many, it would have been perfectly easy to say that they would cease to be mediators, and would become belligerents; but that was not a course which it was deemed advisable to adopt. They accepted the mediation at the request of Denmark, and with the consent of the other party; and so long as they saw any prospect of settling the question amicably by negotiation, he thought that was the best course to pursue.

sense of the absolute necessity and paramount importance of bringing about, without further delay, a satisfactory settlement of the armistice, and, as resulting from it, a settlement of the Schleswig question. With regard to the guarantee of England, what he had endeavoured to point out on a former occasion was, that the present position of matters could not bring that guarantee into operation. In the first place, England was at present acting in some degree in the capacity of a mediator; and Her Majesty's Government could not combine the functions of a mediator with those of a party in the cause, which they would do if they undertook to act in pursuance of their guarantee. In the next place, the question at issue was not whether Schleswig was to be wrested from the King-Duke to whom it belonged, it was a question complicated in its nature, but of a different kind-namely, what should be the internal administration of Schleswig-whether it should be, as the Danish Government wished it to be, a constitution combined with that of Denmark, or as the German party wished, a constitution combined with the Duchy of Holstein? It was not therefore a question of conquest, or of the forcibly wresting of a territory from a sovereign, but of the internal organisation and administration of the duchy. He trusted, however, that the good sense which he hoped animated all the parties concerned, would lead to a satisfactory settlement of the question without bringing into operation the guarantee, the existence of which he did not deny, but which, in his opinion, did not at present bear upon the practical question at issue.

MR. DISRAELI said, the noble Lord had informed them that, under his advice, the Crown of England had accepted the office of mediator. This being the case, he (Mr. Disraeli) wished to know how it was that, during that mediation more than 40,000 men, being different contingents of the German empire, had arrived at the seat of war-a circumstance which had led to the renewal of hostilities and to the revival of the blockade? He thought that, the moment such a hostile demonstration took place, the noble Lord was perfectly free to drop his position as a mediator, and to enforce the stringent character of the guarantee.

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON Undoubtedly, if Her Majesty's Government had thought fit to declare war against Ger

MR. COBDEN happened to be one of a deputation from Manchester who waited upon the noble Lord (Viscount Palmerston) some months ago upon this subject. They stated the vast importance to them of the trade with the Baltic and Hamburgh, and they urged the noble Lord to act the part of the mediator, and not to change this character for that of belligerent; and the noble Lord would best meet the wishes of the manufacturing community if he could with honour maintain his present pacific posture of mediator. Now, as to the vote before the House, this was, after all, a little loan; disguise it as they might, call it selling stock or issuing Exchequer-bills, still they were going to add to the permanent debt of the empire. But they would not act thus as individuals; individuals, if they had not the money to spend, would retrench, and diminish their expenditure. A reduction of 800,000l. had been made since framing the estimates; was it not possible to retrench a little more, rather than increase our debt? He measured the strength of this empire more by our finances than by our armaments or number of ships; and he must maintain that if we added 2,000,000l. more to our permanent debt, then, in spite of all our military and naval force, we should present ourselves in a crippled position before the world. Nor was he sure that the Chancellor had told the House the whole case for the next year in regard to expenditure; and that all these marchings and countermarchings in Ireland, all these encampments and increased fortifications, would not end in a very heavy bill being brought in next spring. It was very well to say that the Caffre war was a casual expense that would not occur again; but we had an Irish war and an Irish famine staring us in the face. But if we spent all we could get, and ran into debt besides, we should always be finding some casualty arising and telling against us. The Chancellor of the Exchequer stated that he was insolvent, and yet he could make loans to

of interest not exceeding 5 per cent,"thereby leaving to the country the opportunity of taking advantage of the future. state of the money market.

Trinidad, to Tobago, New Zealand, and to the gentry of Ireland to improve their We were just running the career which other nations had run, and which in the case of another nation we should condemn, but to which, in our own case, we seemed blind, and ready to treat England as if it had a charmed existence. That majority of the House, which in the spring refused a reduction in our armaments, and passed a vote authorising the expenditure, was bound to resolve to raise the money to raise it during this Session, and to raise it by an additional tax, whatever discontent it might create. Resolution agreed to. House resumed.

House adjourned at a quarter to Two o'clock.

HOUSE OF COMMONS,

Saturday, August 26, 1848.

MINUTES.] PUBLIC BILLS.-1° West India Colonies and Mauritius; Exchequer Bills; Consolidated Fund.

20 Post Horse Licenses, &c.; Postage on Newspapers (Channel Islands, &c..); Lock-up Houses; Drainage Certificates.

Reported.-Diplomatic Relations with the Court of Rome; Battersea Park, &c.

PETITIONS PRESENTED. By Mr. Maxwell, from the Parish of Killersherdiney, in the County of Cavan, for Encouragement to Schools in Connexion with the Church Education Society (Ireland).-From the High Sheriff and Grand Jury of the County of Mayo, for an Alteration of the Poor Law (Ireland).

WAYS AND MEANS.

Resolutions reported.

MR. HUME, referring to the resolutions, and to that part of the Government proposition which related to the raising the 2,000,000l. on Three per Cent stock, said that he objected to all borrowing, which, in itself, was a proof that the country had reached the ne plus ultra of taxation. Various additions had now been made to the debt of the country during past years, in time of peace; though that was the period when they ought to be considering how to lessen the charge. Had the House adopted his recommendations in favour of retrenchment, there would now be no necessity for the present loan. Moreover, he thought that one of the proposed modes of raising the required sum was ruinous, for borrowing on Three per Cent stock would be binding the country to pay 100l. for every 861. lent. He should therefore move to strike out of the last resolution all the words relating to that part of the proposition, and to insert in lieu of them the following words" on debentures at a rate

The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER could by no means assent to the proposition; all who had preceded him in the office which he had now the honour to hold, had taken the course which he now proposed to take-all loans had been raised upon similar principles, and he saw no sufficient reason for departing from the existing practice.

MR. HUME merely wished to place his opinion on record, and he did not desire to do more than to divide upon the Bill. Report agreed to.

The House adjourned at Eight o'clock.

HOUSE OF LORDS,

Monday, August 28, '1848.

MINUTES.] PUBLIC BILLS. -1a Dublin Police; Poor Law Auditors Proceedings Restriction; Battersea Park, &c.

2a Sheep and Cattle Importation Prohibition; Sheep and Cattle Contagious Disorders Prevention; Labouring Poor (Ireland); Sugar Duties.

3 and passed:-Poor Removal (No. 2); Petty Bag, &c. Office (Court of Chancery); Commons Inclosure (No. 2); Poor Law Union Charges (No. 2).

SUGAR DUTIES BILL.

Order of the Day for Second Reading read.

EARL GREY rose to move that the Bill be now read the second time. One of the objects of the measure which he now intended to bring under the notice of their Lordships was to alter the Act of 1846; and the necessity for making such a change had been very greatly strengthened by the constantly-increasing distress of our sugargrowing colonics. It was not his present purpose, however, to occupy their Lordships' attention by any lengthened discourse; though, if he had been called upon to address them upon this subject at an carlier period of the year, he should, perhaps, have not thought it unfitting to enter into the question of the sugar duties much more in detail than he had now any intention of doing. Looking at the protracted duration of the Session -- remembering how few Members of either House still remained in town-considering, also, how much discussion had already taken place on the subject of those duties-he should abstain from saying more upon the present occasion than was absolutely necessary,

He felt that it was scarcely requisite for him to go over any very great portion of the ground that had already been travelled in making known the evidence upen which the provisions of the Bill were foundedit had been shown, as he conceived, beyond any doubt, that the policy hitherto pursued with regard to those duties could no longer be safely continued. It had been proved, as he believed in the clearest possible manner, that wages which had been raised to an excessive height by an artificial system of duties had proved deeply injurious both to the planter and the labourer. As far as he had been able to ascertain, the condition of the negro had not been in the least improved by the great increase of payment which he now received. In one of his despatches, dated the 3rd of May, the Governor of British Guiana said

“Estates worked by advances from England were a lottery, in which every one struggled to obtain a prize at the expense of his neighbour. Hence, labourers were seduced from one estate

to another; higher wages were the result, which, in the end, have absorbed the resources of the employers. The labourers are enriched; the owner has been left penniless. Had the diminution of wages taken place in 1847 rather than in 1848, many estates now jeopardised would, perhaps, have escaped; for the crops were large enough to have given profit, had expenses of labour not aborbed it. I consider it a great disadvantage to the progress of civilisation that the Creoles, young and old, have hitherto been enabled to earn, by two or three days' labour of six hours or seven hours each per week, more than

sufficient maintenance; they are thus induced to irregular habits; they shoot, fish, and lead a wandering life. Planters cannot regulate the work on their estates as farmers do in Europe: they are subject to the caprice of the negro-continuous labour cannot be had-the crops fail, while the liabilities increase-and there are not a few of the nominal possessors of property who are ground to the earth by the debts accumulated annually, from the enormous interest which the habits of West Indian dealings have introduced." From these despatches, as well as from the evidence adduced upon the subject of the sugar duties before the other House, it was clear that high wages had not been conducive to the welfare, but had greatly increased the demoralisation of the negroes, and that that evil state of things had been greatly aggravated by cultivation extended beyond its legitimate limits, and by competition carried on to a mischievous excess; and, what was worse, carried on upon borrowed capital, and at such inordinate charges as were wholly inconsistent with a sound mercantile system, or with legitimate mercantile profits. The effect of

to

the protecting duties had been to stimulate artificial production in a manner that was most injurious to fair and legitimate trade; and for the proof of that, he might refer to the papers which had been laid upon the table of the House. From those it appeared that in the Mauritius during the five years which elapsed from 1820 to 1824 inclusive, the produce had been 22,000,000 of French pounds; that in the subsequent five years it had risen to 42,000,000 lb.; that in 1830 it was 68,000,000 lb.; and in 1832, the year before the emancipation, it rose 73,000,000 lb.; and since the emancipation of the negroes, it had risen still more rapidly. In 1840-1, it had advanced to 76,000,000 lb.; and last year, 1847, it had reached the great amount of 133,000,000 lb., being an increase of sixfold in twenty-five years. Then there had been a great increase in the rate of wages, in spite of increased immigration; and, after all, the labour market was by no means well supplied-the employers were bidding against each other, and the necessary consequence of that condition of affairs was most injurious to the great body of the planters. It was impossible that this state of things could go on; and he found in the despatches of Sir W. Gomm, the Governor of the Mauritius, that he had foreseen the calamity. The report of the Committee of Council, dated February 19, 1845, stated, that " the crops of the five years from 1820 to 1824, averaged only 22,000,000 lb.; those of the subsequent five years, only 42,000,000 lb.; in 1830, the crop had risen to 68,000,009 lb.; and, in 1832, to 73,000,000 lb." In a despatch dated August 24, 1846, Sir W. Gomm wrote "I cannot be blind to the facts that, with the supply of labour in the colony, 80,000,000 lb. were with ease gathered in from the crop of 1844-5; that 100,000,000 lb. and upwards have been in like manner shipped of that just completed; and that many look with a full confidence to realising 120,000,000 lb. from that already in progress. Nor can I be without my apprehensions that, should a dark day arise, in succession to these consecutive seasons, the ever-increasing cultivation of the soil, supported, and indeed set on foot exclusively, by foreign aid, must bring extensive embarrassment. had read these extracts to prove that it had been foreseen at the time by Sir W. Gomm that the great increase which had taken place in the produce was not a healthy

"He