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chants, the assistance of Government is called for by any class ⚫ of traders or manufacturers, it is usual to make the most splendid display of the importance of that particular branch to the nation at large. The West and East India interests, the shipowners, the manufacturers, the American merchants, &c. &c. have all made these representations; but it should be recollected, that it is contrary to sound policy to advance one beyond its natural means, and still more so when that must be done at the expense of the others. If every law of regulation, either of our internal or external trade, were repealed, with the exception of those necessary for the collecting of the revenue, it would be an undoubted benefit to commerce, as well as to the community at large. An avowed system of leaving things to their own course, and of not listening to the interested solici'tations of one class or another for relief, whenever the impru'dence of speculation has occasioned losses, would, sooner than any artificial remedy, reproduce that equilibrium of demand and supply which the ardour of gain will frequently derange, but which the same cause, when let alone, will as infallibly

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If any thing besides the distress and misery of which it has already been so productive, were wanting, to induce us to abandon our prohibitory system, and to consent gradually to recur to the sound principle of a free trade, it would be found in the effect which it has had on the policy of other nations. Instead of ascribing the commercial superiority of Great Britain to its true causes-to the comparative freedom of our constitutionthe absence of all oppressive feudal privileges, and our perfect security of property, our foreign rivals have re-echoed the sentiments of ministers, and contend that it has resulted entirely from the protection granted to our merchants and manufacturers, and urge our example to stimulate their respective governments to secure them against the effects of British competition. Nor have these applications been without effect. In 1817, the American legislature passed an act, copied to the very letter from our famous Navigation Law, with the avowed intention of its operating as a retaliatory measure against this country; and they have just passed another act prohibiting, under heavy penalties, all intercourse between the United States and the British West India Islands, because, as one of their orators expressed it, Great Britain would not allow a cock-boat, or any vessel belonging to

*Inquiry into the Causes and Consequences of the Orders in Council, by Alexander Baring Esq., M. P. p. 135.

Such are the

an American subject, to enter her colonies.' natural fruits of restrictive regulations! It is seldom that a year passes without some complaint from the West India planters about the depression of trade, and the want of a demand for their produce; and yet, by a singular exertion of legislative wisdom, we prohibit American vessels from entering their ports! This would have been all vastly well, had the Americans chosen to pocket the affront. Had they, as our practical statesmen believed would be the case, employed British ships to export the flour, timber, &c. of the United States to Jamaica, and to bring back our sugars, rums, &c. in return, our shipping interest would have been materially benefited. But these wise persons unluckily forgot that the Americans had a shipping interest as well as ourselves; and we cannot be surpris ed at their endeavouring to defeat a measure so obviously found ed on the worst principles of a grasping and avaricious policy.

It would have been well, had the retaliatory measures of the Americans stopped here. But the Orders in Council and the Non-intercourse Act, having for several years nearly put a total stop to the intercourse between this country and the United States, a manufacturing interest grew up in the latter. Had the Americans acted wisely, they would have left this new interest to depend on its own resources. But, in humble imitation of the wisdom of their ancestors,' they immediately set about fostering and dandling the rickety bantling; and, to save it from the effect of foreign competition, increased the duties on imported cotton and woollen goods from 12 to 25 per cent. This increase of duty, or, which is the same thing, this addition of 12 per cent. to the price of all the cotton and woollen cloths made use of by the American people, not having been found sufficient to protect those rash and improvident speculators who had engaged in a branch of industry which they must have been certain could only exist by means of a monopoly, Congress have favourably entertained a proposal for making so very large an addition to the present duties as will go far to render them prohibitory! Now, we feel perfectly assured, that nothing but the example of Great Britain could ever have induced the American Legislature to listen for one moment to so monstrous a proposal. The boundless extent of fertile and unappropriated land in that country, must, for ages to come, render the raising of raw produce the most profitable species of industry in which her citizens can possibly engage. And any attempt to "encourage the premature growth of manufactures, by forcing the investment of a very large proportion of the capital of the country in a less productive employment, must occasion a VOL. XXXIII. NO. 66. Z

proportionable diminution of the power to accumulate stock, and of the wealth and riches of the community. But the American practical statesmen, (for we have no absolute monopoly of the breed), without attempting to answer the objections of speculative reasoners and theorists, content themselves with referring to our example. "Sec," say they, " to what a pitch of power and of commercial grandeur England has attained; and will she, they triumphantly ask, import any one commodity from abroad, if it can be raised at home, at four or five times the price it might be bought for from foreigners? Why then should not America profit by this example? and, like England, secure the home market to her manufacturers, by prohibiting the introduction of every species of manufactured goods, that may chance to come in competition with her own?" It is thus that the example of this country is quoted against itself. And, most unquestionably, as has been justly remarked by the merchants of London, in their petition to the House of Commons, "if the reasoning upon which our restrictions have been defended is worth any thing, it will equally apply in be half of the regulations of foreign States against us.

As we owe infinitely more than any other country to com merce, we may be sure that this is, on our part, a very unequal contest.-Nothing indeed but an immediate recurrence to a more liberal system can save us from absolute ruin. A prohi bition against the importation of the manufactured produce of other countries, supposing it could be made effective, would, in a country like the United States, only cause a faulty distribution of the national capital, and a less rapid progress in the accumulation of wealth. But, in an overpeopled country like England, where soils of the fourth or fifth degree of fertility are already under cultivation, and where a very large proportion of the population have long been engaged in manufacturing for foreign markets, any considerable falling off in the demand for their produce, must be attended with the most disastrous consequences. It is obviously impossible, however, that foreigners can continue to purchase the commodities of any country that will not consent to accept of theirs in exchange. The extraordinary zeal of our practical statesmen to exclude every thing which is not of domestic origin, from our markets, would almost induce us to suppose that they are desirous the manufac turers of England should furnish cottons, woollens, and hardware gratis to all the world! But the merchants of Great Britain, like those of other countries, will, notwithstanding the cosmopolitism of their rulers, be actuated in their inter course with foreigners exclusively by self-interested motives. They will not export a single bale of goods, if they are pre

vented from importing an equal or greater value in its stead. And, hence, to whatever extent we prohibit the importation of external commodities, we must in effect hinder, to precisely the same extent, the exportation of our own manufactures. But this is very far from being the whole of the mischief occasioned by this pernicious system. No commercial nation ever refuses to import the cheap produce of another, without occasioning a much more serious injury to its own subjects, than to those of the nation against whom the prohibition was intended to operate. By refusing to import the cheap corn of America, we may perhaps give an inconsiderable check to the cultivation of land in that republic; but we cannot accomplish this, without compelling our artisans to pay à greatly enhanced price for their bread, and without, at the same time, preventing the extension of those manufactures, the produce of which would have been taken in exchange for the corn. It is thus that the exclusive system saps the very foundations of national posperity. If persisted in, it will assuredly give universality to that pauperism and wretchedness which it has already rendered so very general. Were it carried to its full and proper extentto that extent to which it has of late made so rapid an approach -it would put an end to all foreign commerce, and even to that carried on between different divisions of the Empire; for, it would not be more absurd to prevent the manufacturers of Glasgow exchanging their muslins for the cattle of Argyleshire, than it is to prevent their exchanging them for the corn of America, or the wines of France.

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The state of our intercourse with Norway, Sweden, Russia, Prussia, and Denmark, affords a still more striking proof of the pernicious effects of our present monopolizing system. Previous to 1810, we maintained a very extensive and advantageous traffic with those countries. In 1809, no fewer than 428,000 tons of shipping were employed in conveying timber from the Baltic, and in exporting British manufactured and colonial produce in return; while, at the same time, more than one half of the iron prepared in Sweden, found a ready market in this country. The small progress the Northern nations had made in manufacturing industry, and the demand which a country, circumstanced like Great Britain, must always have for the va luable raw produce with which they abound, would, but for the interference of Government, have occasioned a very great extension of this mutually beneficial intercourse. Instead, however, of meeting with encouragement and protection, or, which would have been much better, instead of being let alone, we have done every thing in our power to destroy it altogether.

The shipping interest represented to the Board of Trade, that as Sweden and Norway were not quite so distant as Canada, if prohibitory duties were imposed on timber imported from the Baltic, and permission given to import Canadian timber duty free, a greater amount of tonnage, and a greater number of sailors, would be necessary to carry it to this country! The Right Honourable and enlightened persons to whom this representation was addressed, were extremely well pleased with the suggestion: And the Canada merchants having given the scheme their support, Ministers forthwith brought in a bill, repealing the duties payable on British American timber, and doubling those on Baltic timber! But, notwithstanding this enormous increase of duty, the trade with the North was still carried on, though to a comparatively limited extent, till 1813, when an addition of 25 per cent. being made to the duties laid on in 1810, it entirely ceased: And ever since that time, the people of Britain have been obliged to pay about twice the price for timber of the very worst quality, and which is not expected to last above 20 years, that previously sufficed to procure the finest and most durable timber in the world!

But Ministers could not, had they been so disposed, stop here. Having gratified the Canada merchants and the shipping interest, by doubling the price of timber, they could not venture to refuse a monopoly of the iron trade to the proprietors of mines in this country. And hence, in order to attract an undue proportion of the national capital to the hazardous and unproductive trade of mining, prohibitory duties were imposed on Swedish and other foreign iron, and this important branch of our external commerce totally suppressed!

This conduct, we must say, is much more akin to absolute insanity, than to mere official drivelling. For the sake of employing a few thousand additional tons of shipping, and of clearing a few hundred acres of a colony, which is of no value whatever to this country, and which, in the course of twenty or fifty years, will be either independent, or a province of the United States, we have deprived ourselves of the revenue afforded by the low duty on Baltic timber,-obliged our builders and manufacturers to pay double prices for inferior fir and iron,-almost entirely annihilated a trade second only in importance to that with the United States, and occasioned irreparable injury and disgust to our natural friends and customers! Neither Norway nor Sweden had any other commodities except wood and iron to give in exchange for our produce; and as we refused to take either of these, they have been absolutely unable to import a single cargo of our goods; so that we have in fact voluntarily shut ourselves out of

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