The act of 1846, as we have already said, provides a differential scale of duties on the imports of sugar, by which, for the present year, the colonist has to compete with the slave-master at a nominal advantage only of six shillings, and at the expiry of four years the duties will be entirely equalised. Here, then, are the final results of that _sympathy and protection_, which were promised by an official of Lord Melbourne’s Government to the deluded West Indians in 1834! Here are the fruits of that agitation, and toil, and sacrifice, which Britain cheerfully undertook, in the cause of Christianity and truth, and, to the honour of our race, for the emancipation of the negro, and the utter suppression of the odious traffic in human flesh and blood! Here is the denouement of that series of international treaties by which Britain proclaimed herself the champion paramount of freedom, and the vindicator of the African liberties! Was there ever, we ask, upon record, a similar instance of defalcation of principle and of perfidy? Of violated principle, because, disguise it as they may, the results of the late measure must tend, and have already tended, to an enormous increase in the exportation of slaves from Africa; and Britain, so long as this law remains on her statute-book, dare not again claim credit on the score of her vaunted humanity. Of perfidy, because, in carrying out emancipation in her own colonies, then utterly free from the imputation of participating in that unholy trade, a distinct pledge was given on the part of Britain, that, whatever might be the result, free labour should not be subjected to undue competition with the compulsory efforts of the slave! View the case in any light you will, and the inconsistency and treachery of the authors of the measure become more odious and apparent. In order that we may understand the true position of the colonies, and the situation in which they have been placed, confessedly by no fault of their own, it will be necessary to ascertain what is the present cost of production of sugar there, under the curtailed and crippled system of free-labour, as compared with that of the slave-growing colonies. We apprehend that it will not be denied by any, that the soil, climate, and natural position of Jamaica and of British Guiana are in no way inferior to any in the known world for the growth and cultivation of the sugar-cane. No statement to the contrary has ever yet been hazarded; and so far as the application of capital can go in rendering production cheap, the British colonies have unquestionably the advantage of the others. Let us look then to the matter of cost. According to one authority, the Planter of British Guiana, it would be as follows,— Cost of production in slave £13 0 0 countries per ton, Cost of production in British 25 0 0 Guiana,