“Our consumption of sugar last year was 3,876,465 cwts., at a cost of 65_s._ per cwt. (wholesale price), and, consequently, at that rate, the country paid for sugar £12,598,511. Now, there is every reason to believe that, if sugar were cheaper, the same sum would still be expended upon it, and a correspondingly increased quantity consumed. In this opinion we are supported by the very extraordinary fact that the annual consumption of sugar, which, in 1811, averaged 23¼ lbs. per head on the whole population of Great Britain and Ireland, was reduced, in 1842, in consequence of the restriction of quantity, to the rate of 15⅞lbs. per head, while the paupers in our workhouses are allowed at the rate of 23¾lbs., and the seamen in her Majesty’s service 34 lbs. per head. “Well, then, assume that the duty on foreign sugar were reduced to 24_s._, the same as we now pay on colonial sugar, the price of sugar would be lowered thereby to 45_s._ per cwt. instead of 65_s._; then the sum of £12,598,511, which we last year expended on sugar, would command 5,599,338 cwts., in place of 3,876,465 cwts., being an additional consumption, at precisely the same entire cost. Now, at present, all the revenue which is derived from sugar is from the duty of that on 24_s._ on that of colonial grown (the high differential duty excluding all other), and on the quantity consumed last year yielded the sum of £4,651,758. By the proposed equalisation of duties this sum would remain untouched, but an additional quantity (which at present gives no revenue at all) of 1,722,873 cwts. would, at the rate of 24_s._ per cwt., raise the revenue to £6,719,205. “The result, therefore, would be, that for the same sum of money which the country expended last year in sugar, an additional quantity of 1,722,873 cwts. would be enjoyed by the community, which would only restore the average consumption of 23¼ lbs. per head of 1811, an additional revenue of £2,067,447 would be given to the State, and an increase of trade amounting to nearly £4,000,000 annually would be experienced by the dealers, merchants, and carriers of sugar.”