ference in the case of coffee is so well summed up in the evidence given before the Select Committee in 1840 that I cannot resist quoting a portion of it. The witness under examination was Mr. McGregor, one of the joint-secretaries of the Board of Trade. The chairman was Mr. Hume.
'887. Chairman. Will you state what has been the effect of the high differential duty on coffee?—The effect of the high differential duty on coffee has been the legal evasion of the law, in principle, as to the way of bringing coffee to this country.
'888. Is there any coffee produced at the Cape of Good Hope?—No, I believe not; 57 out of every 100 pounds which were imported to England by way of the Cape of Good Hope was carried in the first instance to that colony from Brazil; 8 from Cuba; 12, I think, were sent from England of foreign coffee to the Cape, to be reimported to England; 6, I think, from Java; and 6 or 8 sent from Holland to the Cape of Good Hope, and the remainder from other countries.
'889. Mr. Thornely. From your evidence it appears that cargoes of coffee have been sent from the United Kingdom and from ports on the Continent of Europe, to be landed on the Cape of Good Hope, and to be brought back to the United Kingdom for the purpose of supplying the necessary consumption here?—Yes; from the 26th of April, 1838, to the 24th of March, 1840, it appears by the returns that eighty-one cargoes, importing more than 21,000,000 pounds of foreign coffee, had arrived in the United Kingdom from the Cape of Good Hope, the duty being on that mode of carrying coffee 9d. a pound; that is, 6d. less than if imported direct from foreign countries; the duty, if imported from the country of the growth of the principal part of the coffee, would amount to £1,750,000; the duty saved by the indirect importation would be £750,000, supposing all to he entered for consumption.
'890. Chairman. Then, is it to be understood that merchants, in order to evade the discriminating duty, have been to the expense of sending coffee from those different ports, and even from England, in order to obtain admission at the reduced rate?—Yes, and also upon other articles which pay differential duties, such as spices and nutmegs.
'891. In fact, does the Cape of Good Hope reduce the duty upon all those prohibitive articles?—Yes, from its being retained as within the limits of the East India Company's charter.
'892. Mr. Thornely. Has it not been absolutely necessary, for
