The false policy of the system of bounties has, however, operated in Belgium, as it has invariably done elsewhere, to give an unreal air of prosperity to the trade, whilst it opened a door to fraud, the never failing concomitant of such unsound expedients. To such an extent was this the case, that on its recent detection and suppression, a reaction was produced in the manufacture, that for the moment threatened to be fatal. The duty on the importation of raw sugar amounts to 37 francs per 100 kilogrammes, and a drawback was paid down to 1838 on every 55 kilogrammes of refined sugar exported. This proportion was taken as the probable quantity extractible from 100 kilogrammes of the raw article, but the law omitted to state _in what stage_ of refinement, or of what precise quality that quantity should be. The consequence was, that sugar which had undergone but a single process, and still retained a considerable weight of its molasses, was exported, and a drawback was thus paid upon the entire 75 to 80 kilogrammes, which, had the process been completed, would only have been demandable on fifty-five. The encouragement designed to give a stimulus to improvement, thus tended only to give an impulse to fraud, and vast quantities of half refined sugar were sent across the frontiers, and the drawback paid, only to be smuggled back again for a repetition of the same dishonest proceeding. The attention of the government being, however, awakened by a comparison of the relative quantities of raw sugar imported, and of refined exported, on which the drawback was claimed, a change was made in the law in 1838, by which the drawback was restricted to a per centage on nine tenths only of the raw sugar imported, thus securing a positive revenue upon the balance, and at the same time some practical expedients were adopted for the prevention of fraud for the future. These latter were found to be so effectual, that four establishments in Antwerp discontinued the trade altogether immediately on the new law coming into force, and this example was followed by others elsewhere. There are still between 60 and 70 refineries in Belgium, and in 1837 and 1838, the importations of raw sugar and the exports of refined were as follows: RAW SUGAR IMPORTED. In 1837. 20,128,618 kilogrammes. In 1838. 16,814,940 kilogrammes. REFINED SUGAR EXPORTED. In 1837. 8,484,097 kilogrammes. In 1838. 8,113,897 kilogrammes.