570,461 752,027
1851 5,043,872 1,522,405
1852 7,203,631 799,942

The returns further specify that the annual average consumption of
_British colonial sugar_, in the five years ending 1851, was 5,124,922
cwt.; and in the five years ending 1846, was 4,579,054 cwt.; the
average consumption of British colonial sugar, has, therefore,
exceeded in the five years since the duties were reduced, in 1846, the
average consumption for the five previous years by 545,868 cwt. per
annum; or in the aggregate in the five years, the excess has been
3,239,338 cwt. The quantity consumed in the year ending December,
1852, was 4,033,879 cwt.[16] There can be no doubt whatever, that the
consumption of sugar in Great Britain is capable of very large
increase; moderate cost, and the removal of restrictions to its
general use, being the main elements required to bring it about. The
question of revenue must of course be a material consideration with
Government; but recent experience certainly leads to the conclusion
that it would not suffer under a further reduction of duty.

The revenue derived from sugar before the reduction of the duty, was
five millions per annum; in the past two years it reached nearly four
millions.

The reduction in duties which took place in 1845, may be said to have
answered the expectations formed of it, as regards the increase of
consumption, which there is no doubt would have even gone beyond the
estimate, if the failure in the crop of sugar in Cuba--that most
important island, which usually yields one-fifth of the cane crop of
the whole world--had not driven up prices in the general market of the
continent, and, in consequence, diverted the supply of free labor
sugar from this country. As it was, however, the consumption of the
United Kingdom, which in 1844 was 206,472 tons, in 1845 was not less
than 243,000--Sir Robert Peel's estimate was 250,000 tons--the average
reduction in price to the consumer during the latter year having been
20 per cent. The large increase in subsequent years I have already
shown.

The consumption of sugar we find, then, has been steadily and rapidly
increasing in this country, and if we add together to the refined and
raw sugar and molasses used, it will be seen that the consumption of
1852 amounted to 400,178 tons; which is at the rate of 29 lbs. per
head of the population per annum. Whilst the quantity retained for
home consumption in the U