CO129-003 - Foreign Office - 1843 — Page 11

I would observe first that unless great circumspection be used in the Announcement of it, the Government will cease to be free Agent, on the spot. It is perilous thing to enter into any engagement, express or implied, with mercantile people, without first weighing most maturely the terms of it. Secondly, why should a Freeport have Customs duties at all, even on Articles imported for local Consumption. Duties on thoughing such as Opium, Spirits, Opium, &c., consumed there would probably produce an ample Revenue, without any real hindrance to Trade. There will be great difficulty in getting revenue from other sources if there is not a Customs Revenue; there can hardly be an effective Counter Revenue. I doubt whether there is in the world a port so free that no duty whatever is payable on imported Article. It is not so at Gibraltar, at Malta, nor at St. Thomas's, not as I believe, at Singapore. We shall have great need of money, great difficulty in obtaining it from the House of Commons.

You are aware, I suppose, that one great source of foreign Revenue, viz., Spirit and Tobacco Duties are especially dependent on prohibiting or restricting importation — a prohibition which should be proclaimed without a day's delay, if it is determined to restrict the freedom of the Port in the sense and to the extent which I have mentioned.