exercise, and protection"-the only instance, he believed, of Earl Grey being a "Protectionist.' And the surgeon-superintendent is to promote singing and dancing: "The people should have every encouragement to take the air on deck, especially while their berths are being cleansed and ventilated, and the surgeon will be careful to promote dancing and singing. They are on no account to be called on to do any work on board, except cleaning their own deck and sleeping places, or receiving at the hatchways fuel, provisions, and water; and he will be particularly careful that they be not placed to draw water from the sea, or otherwise employed in any situation in such a manner as to endanger personal safety. "He will use every exertion to promote clean liness among the people. In suitable weather, bathing may be enjoined on the emigrants." -" to teach Lavolta's high and swift couvantos." This instruction was founded upon the principle, he presumed, that "The man that hath not music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, sick or sound every forty-eight hours or oftener; and this was to be done at the expense of the planters! Just imagine such a regulation applied to agricultural labourers in this country? What farm could be carried on? Was that the way they were to encourage competition of free against slave labour? The right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Trade had doubted whether "he were serious in proposing to distrain Cuba for the debt due to British subjects.' The right hon. Gentleman must have been living in Ireland-where it is reckoned quite unreasonable to think of asking any man to pay his just debts-and must have got his mind imbued with lessons learned in Tipperary. For his own part, he did not for nearly twenty years had asked in vain see the injustice of the mortgagees, who for the payment, either of capital or interest of their debt, of forty-five millions land of Cuba which had been mortgaged sterling, calling upon Spain to cede the for that debt. The right hon. Gentleman should consult his noble Friend the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, whose speech at the end of last Session he must have overlooked. To show what was thought in America of the justice of our claim, the noble Lord read an extract from the Boston Atlas :— "The fact cannot be disguised, that there is a party in the United States which looks to the annexation of the island of Cuba to this country as a thing highly desirable. The question has yet only been broached publicly by a few presses, but those presses are known to represent the views of a large and influential class of citizens. That the scheme meets with favour in certain quarters cannot be doubted. Indeed, whatever scheme may be proposed, however absurd and unwhich the slave power of the country can be constitutional it may be, if it be a scheme by strengthened, it is sure to find favour and friends. We therefore consider the matter as settled, that one of the issues likely to be presented to the peo and, by teaching the immigrants singing and dancing, his noble Friend at the head of the Colonial Department imagined, it might be presumed, that he would ensure their loyalty when these Coolie immigrants arrived in the West Indies. He would like to know from his right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, unless it were a breach of the Privy Council oath, to divulge whether Her Majesty, when in a fit of playful malice, knowing that the noble Secretary of the Colonies was not what is commonly called "a good sailor," took him with her on her late trip to Scotland, insisted upon his Cuba to the United States. And if we are not performing during his qualms of sea-sick greatly in error, there are causes at work in Euagony the part of "the Swedish Night-rope which will precipitate the decision of the ingale;" or before he had got what seamen called "his sea legs," commanded him to perform a pirouette-the polka, or more probably a reel? The next was not so comical a regulation, but it was more expensive to the unfortunate planter. When the Coolies did get to the West Indies, it was one of the ordinances in the persecuted Crown colonies, that a medical officer was to visit all the immigrants, whether they wanted him or not-whether they were ple, within a few years, will be the annexation of question. 66 The conclusion to which we have come is, that there is a determination on the part of Great Britain to get Spain to cede to her the island of Cuba, in payment of the seventy millions of pounds which she owes to British subjects. If Spain refuses to make the cession, then to seize the island by force and hold possescion. This could easily be done by England, with her immense army and navy, and boundless wealth. "This, we know, is but supposition on our part, but we think it is plausible. It also explains the attack which Lord Palmerston made upon the States of North America,' and the studied si they would leave Africa clear and free, unpolluted by slavedealing and slavetrading, to the enterprise of British merchants and British West India planters honestly seeking by the inducements of good wages and bettered fortune to entice the sons of Africa to cross the Atlantic, and as freemen and free labourers create wealth for themselves, at the same time that they would be saving at least, if not adding wealth to, the British sugar planting colonies in the West Indies. In conclusion, he would truly say, no man felt more strongly than he did the necessity for immediate relief to the British colonies. Those colo lence with which the British Government has beheld our conquests in California, and of the Mexican States in the valley of the Rio Grande. Remember, also, that Mr. Polk, in his message, last December, argued at much length, that the United States would have been justified in taking forcible possession of Mexican territory, or, in declaring war against that nation, because of their neglect to pay one of the instalments of the money due to this Government. The British Government can use the same argument in justification of the seizure of Cuba, whenever they decide upon doing it, and upon far more solid grounds; their claims are larger an hundred-fold against Spain than ours ever were against Mexico, and they have long remained unpaid. Another and a more powerful reason which England could urge for taking such a step would be, emancipation. By abolishing slavery in Cuba, you at once strike a death-blow at the Afri-nies might well exclaim in the language of can slave trade. Close the port of Iavannah to the slaver, and Brazil alone remains to him as a market for his cargo. "England has never acknowledged herself a convert to the continental policy' of Mr. Polk, any more than she did to the continental policy' of Napoleon Bonaparte. Every one can imagine the excitement which a step like the seizure or purchase of Cuba by Great Britain would create in our own country. We are naturally jealous of the encroachments of that Power; and Cuba is the key to the Gulf of Mexico, and is larger and of more value than all the other West India islands combined. We should be restless, for we would ill brook this nigh approach of John Bull upon our southern border, with the key of the Gulf in his pocket. The southern States would cry aloud against it, because of the near neighbourhood of a colony of liberated slaves, a thing for which they have a lively dread." The Times newspaper contained a few days ago an account of the capture of a bran new Portuguese brig by one of our cruisers. This brig had made four trips; in the first it had carried 500 slaves, in the second 1,000, and in the third 500 slaves. The fourth voyage, the captain said, would have been his last if he had not been taken. He had made twenty-five trips altogether during eighteen years, and had only been taken three times. The House might judge how far our blockading squadron answered its purposes when, out of twenty-five voyages, this slave captain had been captured only three times. His share of the spoil-though he had none in the captured cargo-had he taken his brig to Brazil, would have been 6,000 dollars. He repeated the advice he gave to the Government last night, to put an end to the slave trade by seizing Cuba, in repayment of the 45,000,000l. sterling due to British subjects by the Spanish Government. If they did this, then by an easy blockade of the coast of Brazil, they would effectually abolish the hideous traffic now carried on in human beings on the African coast, and having once accomplished this, the heroine of Sheridan Knowles' play- Thou ought'st, thou must. So choose betwixt my rescue and my grave, The hour of sacrifice is near." Motion agreed to. DISTILLING FROM MOLASSES. The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHE- House resumed. Report to be received. HOUSE OF LORDS, Monday, February 7, 1848. MINUTES.] Took the Oaths.-Several Lords. DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH THE COURT OF ROME BILL. The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNE said, that in the exercise of the privilege which had always belonged to Members of that House, he proposed that evening to lay upon the table a Bill, and to move that it be read a first time. He hoped that they would permit him to dispense with any notice on the subject, and not require him on that occasion to enter into any lengthened statement. The object of the Bill which he intended to bring in was to enable Her Majesty's Government to open and carry on Diplomatic Relations with the Court of Rome. The Bill, which was very short, would be printed, and in the hands of every noble Lord to-morrow, and he hoped their Lordships would not object to give it a second reading on Friday. The noble Marquess concluded by presenting the Bill, and moving that it be read 1a. that House had gone into its discussion on several previous occasions, and had expressed decided opinions on the matter. He considered that fixing the second reading for Friday next was not demanding any very great facility; there were no great difficulties in legislating on the subject; the Bill was a very short Bill, and would not require any extraordinary time for its discussion. To-morrow, when the Bill came before them, they would be better able to judge how soon they ought to proceed to its discussion. The DUKE of RICHMOND hoped Her Majesty's Ministers would not fix such an early day for the second reading. The question was one of immense importance, and the Bill ought, therefore, to be well considered. He believed that not any part of the people of Scotland were aware that it was the intention of Her Majesty's Government to bring in such a Bill. For himself he could say, until that moment he had no idea that it was the intention of Her Majesty's Ministers to bring in such a Bill. It was a Bill which the greater part of the people of England would think offered violation to their religious feelings. EARL FITZWILLIAM did not think that the Bill could be characterised as offering any violation to the religious feel LORD STANLEY conceived that the measure proposed by the noble Marquess ought to contain such guards and restrictions as would satisfy the reasonable scruples entertained by the great body of the people of this country: assuming the policy on which this Bill was founded to be in the highest degree expedient and desirable, he still should say that such a measure ought not to be allowed to proceed with precipi-ings of the people of England. If he untancy. It was directly contrary to what were understood to be established principles, that the Sovereign of a free Protestant country should hold any sort of intercourse with the temporal Head of the Church of Rome. The question was one of great difficulty, and one respecting which there was great danger of misrepresentation; and he confessed it appeared to him a very rapid course of proceeding that such a Bill, introduced on a Monday, should be read a second time on the following Friday. He wished to know whether there was any reason for this haste and precipitancy-any urgent necessity for such a departure from the ordinary course of proceeding? He trusted that the noble Marquess would reconsider his proposition, and permit the ordinary interval of a week to elapse between the one stage and the other of his intended measure. The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNE replied, that he felt no desire for an undue precipitancy in such a case as the present; at the same time he should be permitted to observe, that the question did not come before the House as a perfect novelty; on the contrary, he and other Members of derstood his noble Friend's Motion corrcctly, it was to obtain leave to introduce a Bill for the purpose of allowing Her Majesty to establish a direct diplomatic correspondence with the Potentate who held sway over the Italian States. He could not think so ill of the mass of the people of England as a nation, notwithstanding what might be said to the contrary, to suppose that they would conceive their religious prejudices were interfered with in this matter. Every one who knew the state of Europe, and especially of Italy, at this time, was of opinion that it was desirable that diplomatic relations with one of the most important rulers of the Italian States should no longer be interrupted. He hoped, therefore, his noble Friend would fix an early period for the second reading of the Bill. The EARL of EGLINTOUN said, ninetenths of the people would be taken by surprise, as he had been, by this Bill. He must beg leave to say, as far as that part of the United Kingdom was concerned with which he was intimately connected, it was morally impossible that the people of Scotland could have time to look over the Bill before the second reading had taken place. He trusted that Her Majesty's Ministers would pay some regard to the situation of that distant part of the United Kingdom, and consent to postpone the second reading to a later period. The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNE would name as distant a day as possible. The Bill was to establish direct relations with the temporal Sovereign of the Court of Rome, the absence of which power had hitherto been felt to be a great inconve nience. Bill read 1a. THE WEST INDIES. LORD STANLEY said: My Lords, four petitions have been placed in my hands; and I think it will be the course most convenient to the House that I should, in presenting those petitions, not only lay before your Lordships the statements which they contain, but endeavour, at the same time, to bring some other circumstances connected with the subject under your notice. I am desirous of stating as fully as I can the state of the West Indies, and the condition of the sugar trade- the alarming condition of both-and the remedies which the parties interested suggest for the relief of the evils under which they suffer. I will state those remedies; and I think it further my duty to state the extent to which I concur with the petitioners, so far, at least, as I have been able to form any opinion. The first of these petitions is from the members of the West India Association at Liverpool; and that petition does, to a certain extent, exhibit the reasonings and the statements contained in the other petitions. All the petitioners concur in representing the state of the sugar trade as most depressed and alarming; and they all concur in representing this state of things as induced by the acts and policy of the British Government, more especially by the operation of the Bill of 1846, admitting the importation of foreign slave-grown sugar into this country in competition with the free-labour sugar of our colonies. The Liverpool Association conclude by a statement that the ruin of which the petitioners complain, is now in active progress; and, unless relief be speedily afforded, there is every reason to apprehend that that ruin will soon be finally consumated. The petitioners impute much of the sufferings and difficulties under which the colonies now labour, to the inconsistent course of legis lation by Parliament; and that, in consequence, the petitioners were utterly at a loss to know what course to pursue. They threw themselves on the consideration of Parliament, and implored their Lordships at the earliest period to let them know what measures were in contemplation with reference to the colonial possessions in the West Indies. They said, if it was deter. mined to persevere in the course Government had been advised to adopt, that they hoped, in mercy to them, Government would let them know their fate at once, and say whether it was their determination to pass an irrevocable sentence by which the British colonies were to cease to produce free-labour sugar; and that henceforward this great necessary of life was to be obtained from the produce of slave labour. Such a course would, in their opinion, inflict a less severe blow on their interests than the protracted agony of inconsistent legislation. I concur for the most part in the allegations of the petitioners; I doubt not that most men would do so who looked into the details and documents with which I have been furnished; and it is my settled conviction that any man who looks into the subject will agree with me that the state of the West India colonies is most embarrassing and alarming. I concur with the petitioners in the belief that the unfortunate state of these colonies has been brought on by the legislation of Parliament; and I concur with the petitioners when they say, that, having surmounted a great difficulty, cast on them by the Legislature-of which difficulty I should be the last to complainbut after they had overcome this difficulty, and had the greatest reason to rely on the continuance of protection from the British Legislature-at that moment, when they believed the extent of their trials was known, and the extent of their difficulties ascertained-at that moment, when they received the greatest amount of encouragement, when they had been induced to embark yet larger amounts of capital upon the good faith of British legislation, there came a sudden change in the course of that legislation, which in the highest degree aggravated the evils by which they were surrounded. That is a case which the West Indian interest can substantiate-of that they demand remedy and redress. I propose to state their case, and to substantiate it. On such a question I hope to be permitted to enter a little more at length into the evidence, for I feel that this is a question PLANTATION, No. 1. 500 hhds. sugar ... ... Disbursements of estate in Showing a loss to the es- ... ... £6272 9 11 3250 0 0 £9522 9 11 £11,000 0 0 PLANTATION, No. 2. of vital importance. With regard to the in the price of sugar took place simultaneallegations of the petitioners as to the pre- and previous to the monetary crisis. ously with the admission of slave-grown_sugar, In the sent state of the West Indian colonies, I extract I send you from my account book, I give feel it is hardly necessary to trouble your you the current expenses alone, and omit all Lordships with any statements in proof casualties, although they ought to be considered, of their accuracy. The West Indian Com-as each year there are some :mittee have sufficiently proved that the condition of the colonies is the effect of past legislation. All classes are embarrassed the merchant and planter find themselves in similar difficulties. Each feels reluctant to abandon his property, and yet all feel, under the present wasting conflict, unless some remedies are proposed, that ruin would be the result. That, my Lords, is a general statement made by persons perfectly competent to give it on this subject. But, my Lords, it may be possible that individual cases may have more weight with your Lordships, and give you a better idea of the distress that exists at this moment in the West Indies, than any form of general allegation which I could adduce. And, my Lords, I hope I may be permitted on the present occasion to read a statement which I hold in my hand to your Lordships, in reference to an individual case of this description. It is made by a gentleman of the highest respectability, now resident in this country, and ready to substantiate it, if necessary. The noble Lord then proceeded to read the statement in question, which was to this effect:: 400 hhds. sugar £1478 0 0 The difference (proceeded the noble Lord) he accounts for, by stating that the sugar raised upon the one was sold by previous engagement, made before the period at which the Legislature had lowered the duty, and along with it the price of sugar in this country: the other was sold at the current rates. My Lords, that is the statement of an individual case, and I have connected with the West Indies, that neibeen assured this morning by a gentleman ther in Demerara, Jamaica, nor Trinidad, the great sugar-producing colonies, is it possible to raise 1,000l. on the security of any property situate there. That is the state in which the West Indian proprietors represent themselves as being placed; and this they attribute to your legislation. My Lords, I must, with your permission, to do My estates descended to me from my father, and have been in our possession upwards of seventy years: thirty-two of these years they have belonged to me, and I have great experience of their capabilities. My nephew, the eldest son of the family, has for many years resided on the properties, with his wife, and manages them most ably. The estates are situated in the most fertile part of the east coast of Demerara, and the land yields more than 14hhd. of sugar per acre. They are free from mortgage. They have the finest machinery both for the drainage of the lands and for manufacture of sugar, and have three steam-justice to my case, go back to a period engines at work upon them. They have a fine somewhat earlier than the present; and I people residing upon them, who, from being part- hope I may be forgiven, if, with the recolners in the profits of the estates, and from long at- lection of the part I took in the settlement tachment to the family, work willingly and steadily of the slavery question, 1 am anxious to The weather this last year has been most propitious to the cultivation, and the land has yielded place the state of the West Indies, before well. The one estate has produced 500 hogsheads and subsequent to the Emancipation Act of sugar, and 250 puncheons of rum. The other of 1833, before your Lordships on this estate 400 hogsheads of sugar, and 200 puncheons occasion. The Act of 1833 declared the of rum. The hogsheads on both estates are what are called heavy hogsheads, averaging a ton weight gross, or 1,600 cwt. net. From the 1st January to the 1st July, 1847, the prices of sugar ranged from 211. to 18. per hogshead; from 1st July, 1847, to 1st January, 1848, they ranged from 137. to 117. per hogshead, the last price I received being 117. 148. per hogshead. By the periods named you will perceive that the great drop |