ulation of the sugar duties. On the 20th of July Lord
John introduced his plan, which he professed would meet the wishes
and expectations of the producer, the consumer, and the treasury. His
proposal was substantially a protective duty of twenty shillings the
cwt. upon all foreign Muscovada sugar, to be diminished annually in a
certain ratio, so that in 1851 it would be only fifteen shillings and
sixpence, and after that year permanently fourteen shillings. This was
a great advantage to the consumers as compared with the old prohibitory
duty of sixty-three shillings, and the protective duty of twenty-three
shillings and fourpence. Lord John met the objections of "the negroes'
friends," as to the admission of slave-grown sugar, by showing that the
exclusion of such sugar was impracticable, inasmuch as by treaty, states
producing slave-grown sugar were entitled to demand its admission
under "the most favoured nation clause." To conciliate the West-India
interest, his lordship announced that it was his intention to introduce
a bill giving the queen power to assent to any act of the West-India
legislatures, modifying or abolishing the differential duties
established there in favour of British goods. As these differential
duties were only five or seven per cent., the West-India interest
considered that his lordship mocked them by a show of concession. The
whole of that interest was "up in arms," as their parliamentary and
colonial opposition, moral and political, was described. This interest
had not joined the Conservatives in resisting the repeal of the corn
laws, but, nevertheless, it now supplicated conservative support in
impeding the measures of the ministry. The English landed interest was
anxious to strengthen itself by the aid of the West-India planters and
merchants, and therefore affected to be generous, and to repay evil
by good. Lord George Bentinck's boastful words were paraded before all
monopolists to induce their co-operation with his party--"If we are a
proud aristocracy, we are proud of our honour, inasmuch as we have never
been guilty, and never can be guilty, of double-dealing with the farmers
of England, of swindling our opponents, deceiving our friends, or
betraying our constituents." The West-India party was happy to gain help
from any quarter, and joined "the farmers' friends" in adopting
Lord George Bentinck as their leader. The premier had proceeded by
"resolution," as it is constitutional to do in al