| Encouragement of Brazilian Coffee and Cotton. | Refusal of Brazilian Sugar. |
| Admission of cheap Slave-grown Sugar, to be refined in England and supplied to the Continental nations. | Prohibition of the selfsame cheap Sugar to our own working people. |
| Encouragement of the United States Slave Trade. | Discouragement of the Brazilian Slave Trade." |
The Budget excited great interest among the free traders. An aggregate meeting of the League was held in Covent Garden Theatre on the evening of February 19th. Wm. Brown, Esq., of Liverpool, occupied the chair, and introduced the proceedings by a short commendatory notice of those parts of the new ministerial measures of finance which were founded on free-trade principles. The speakers were Messrs. James Wilson, George Thompson, and Jno. Bright. The speech of Mr. J. Wilson was principally on the proposed new sugar duties, and the wrong that would be inflicted by them on the consumer and the revenue in consequence of the increased amount of protection given to the West Indian interests. He said:—"In order to illustrate the effect of a differential duty, I would take the proposal of the right honourable baronet (Sir R. Peel) on Friday night. The right honourable gentleman seeks to establish four different rates on the quantity of sugar which it is supposed will be imported in the course of the year. He has one rate for 160,000 tons, another for 70,000 tons colonial, another for 5,000 tons foreign, and another for 15,000 tons foreign. On the 15,000 tons there is a duty of 28s. per cwt. It is clear, that before this class comes into consumption, 28s, per cwt. will be added to the first cost; and being sugar which is used equally in all continental Europe, and fetching the same price of 24s. per cwt. at Hamburgh and Antwerp as it does here, our consumer would have to pay, with the duty, 528. per cwt. It is equally clear, that any sugar of the same quality is worth the same price. Therefore, if any sugar is brought
