Lord George at this time watched with great interest a novel feature in our commercial transactions. He wrote on the 29th May (1847), to Mr. Burn, the editor of the ‘Commercial Glance,’ and an individual of whose intelligence, accuracy, and zeal he had a high and just opinion, ‘Can you inform me how the raw cotton purchased for exportation stands in the first three weeks of the present month of May, as compared with the corresponding periods of ‘46—5—4—3?
‘I observe from a cotton circular sent to me the other day, that seven thousand five hundred bags of cotton had been purchased for exportation between the 1st and 21st of May. If with reduced stocks of raw cotton we are commencing a career of increased exportation, it appears to me to involve very serious consequences for our cotton manufactures as growing out of the existing monetary difficulties of the manufacturers.
‘If you could answer me these queries within the next three or four days, I should feel greatly obliged to you.’
Again, on the 22d of July, on the point of going down to his constituents, he was still pursuing his inquiries in the same quarter.’ I want particularly to compare,’ he says to Mr. Burn, ‘the export of the last ten weeks of raw cotton with the corresponding ten weeks of ‘46 and ‘45, and at the same time to compare the importations and deliveries into the hands of the manufacturers during these same periods.
‘Pray address me, Lynn, Norfolk, where I go on Saturday, and shall remain till after my election on Thursday.’
He writes again from Lynn, with great thanks for the information which had been accordingly forwarded to him there. ‘Might I ask you to give me an account of the cotton wool imported weekly into Liverpool, and also the quantity sold to dealers, exporters, and speculators, in the three corresponding weeks of ‘45-46.
‘This information by return of post would greatly oblige me.’
On the 23d of July, 1847, the last day of the second Parliament of Queen Victoria, Lord George went down to the House of Commons early, and took the opportunity of making a statement respecting the condition of our sugar-producing colonies, which were now experiencing the consequences of the unjustifiable legislation of the preceding year. He said there were appearances in the political horizon which betokened that he should not be able to obtain a select committee in the present session, and therefore, if he had the honour of a seat in the next Parliament, he begged to announce that he would take the earliest occasion to move for a committee to inquire into the present power of our colonies to compete with those countries which have still the advantage of the enforced labour of slaves. The returns just laid upon the table of the House could leave no doubt, he thought, on any man’s mind on that point. Since the emancipation, the produce of sugar by the colonies, from ‘31 to ‘46, had been reduced one half, and of rum and coffee had been reduced to one fourth. When the act of last year which admitted slave-grown sugar was introduced, the allegation of the English colonies, that they could not compete with the labour of slaves, was denied. The proof of that allegation was, that they were already overwhelmed.
When one recalls all to which this speech led, the most memorable effort of that ardent, energetic life to which it was perhaps fatal, one can scarcely observe the origin of such vast exertions without emotion.
The Under Secretary of State replied to Lord George, making a cry of cheap sugar for the hustings which were before everybody’s eyes, but making also this remarkable declaration, that ‘the Island of Mauritius was in a state of the greatest prosperity.’ While Lord George was speaking, the cannon were heard that announced the departure of her majesty from the palace.