Difference per ton in favour £12 0 0 of the slave market, In other words, slave-grown sugar can be produced at _twelve shillings per cwt._ less than in free colonies, besides the additional advantage of uncontrolled and unlicensed transport. The above probably may be taken as the extreme case, because the cost of production has always been great in Demerara, owing to the smallness of the population; but the general hardship will be sufficiently shown and understood, by the following extract from the resolutions of a meeting of St David’s parish in Jamaica, on 2d October last. “The great influx of slave-grown produce into the home markets has, in the short space of six months, reduced the value of sugar from £26 to £14 per ton; while, under ordinary circumstances of soil and season, the cost to us of placing it in the market is not less than £20 per ton.” “From many calculations,” writes a highly intelligent and experienced correspondent, “the lowest rate at which sugar _can_ be produced, is about twenty shillings per cwt. on the average, or twenty pounds per ton. No doubt some estates may, and do, grow it cheaper than others. They may have advantages of situation both in regard to weather and command of labour, but one thing I am certain of, that no number of estates taken collectively, can grow it much under twenty shillings.” With regard to the additional argument against the navigation laws, which certain free-trade journals have adroitly contrived to extract from the statement of the planters’ grievances, our correspondent writes,—“A long article has been written to show that we have got all that was demanded some years ago, with the exception of the abolition of the navigation laws. This I hold to be a very minor consideration, as, even were these abolished to-morrow, a saving of one shilling per cwt. freight would be the very outside. No doubt a letter appeared in the _Times_, stating that last year’s freights were six shillings per cwt. from Demerara, which was quite true,—but what are they now? The great rise was caused by every bottom being employed to import grain, which raised freights in America to nine shillings per barrel for flour, which are now one and sixpence,—so that shipping of every denomination was dear. These men forget, or will not remember, that we asked for measures which we hoped might benefit us, at a time when we could reasonably calculate upon this country keeping faith with us. But had we _then_ been told that in 1846 slave sugar would be introduced at a _nominal_ differential duty of seven shillings per cwt., to decrease annually till all sugars were admitted at the same rate, our demands would have been very different. Indeed I have no doubt that many would at once have abandoned their estates; and, though a desperate course, it would yet have been the wisest, and those who might have pursued it would have saved a further loss.