The Sun. — London, England, 1820-05-27 00:00:00

by tetra produred by eventnaily favonring the Air.ctic.A.n at the expense of the British trader; the latter . was in a tnmiter excluded, and the ad vantages were eighty to +me in favour of the Anscricans, ,hoi , e trade at Canton had increased inlrone thud in the conrte of the last year. — The Noble Matliness then directed NE view to the iiicAenlible advAtrageg which he felt (limit re till; trot)) the opening of H tree trade bet wee'n thiS ciint•tiy atkthe•reg:on of Sonth America, under thr liberal regidati(mg of an independent Govern rnvnt, He itistatired- the r4pid increase of onr it 4 . 1 e %vith i11f.11 , 15 Ayres, titn'or the then dream 'trances, in 1812, Mhell if ‘, AS literally donbled. - 1 teas [;ready to he wkhed . that our Govern ment would find some means of cementing our connectioo with that of SOurh Ktierica, 00 the iihetal principles of 4o,id faith 'atilt sound policy. T is, 'lit , first maritime country in the world, was aide to give the inOsc dIT. Chin) aS•iCanCe to those inip , rtant and rtsttig States, which no iloitht At wilit-mAe the most favoorable concessions were we to Ask them. lie woold pin this conside r:VFW. OttM seriollily to the iittetltiOn Of his Ma ieSfy:4 GOVer.lrw - tli. An extension of trade in (nose regions woold prove peculiarly advantageous: to Ireland, a considetation which he hoped would, ail things considered, have its 'due weight with his Alyiesty'3 Ministers. Atter expatiating Fur th-r on the great beneficial advantages which might result frost) a liberally regulated ctimoter citil iti•ereotirse with the South AtnertCan Nations, li pA•srd In a general vietv of the great political, as tV4 hi arc rf , nl.7 l erCid advant ages, which might erase iff the Brit slt Empire from a general sytetn . ctontocreidl revtla!ions lotioned on fair aud )i-, beral piineipleti, which more than ifily other con- Fitt...ration Would, he held,, tend to relieve this country froin accumulated ettharrassnient, and re store it to its once enviable s , ate of political great ness and . cntitmert iii prosperi;y. The Noble 111; , ipies5 conclinled an able argumentative dis co,,,-it by !toasts:--- That a 6, ,mittee he appointed to take into considers.-: tion. (1 to inquire, respecting the Foreign Tra4e .and Cumnierce of the lontory, and to report thereon to the Ei ft, Earl of Liveapooe rose. He had heard 'the speech ot the Noble,Maitptis with much satis rfarei agreeing, as he did, with most of the pro po• i i , )s tit hid) if contained, tho' he might grit At -tail, a sin) lir &wee of import anee to all of them. Ile ;hereof e lel' an to oppose the which the Noble MatqUis had propetlylimit 'erf (0 an ioquiry into the state ot our foreign - trade, and the means of extendi,g . it. lie thought preperlv limited to such an object; because he iverf that it war, • by'soch a limitAtion alone shot. it would be poisside to achieve aoy . thing. inquity been extended ao the whole trade, it a v " u ld have iteeowe interminable, and most have . ptoceeded, either by doing nothing, or by doing `ll 0me , 11 , 1,g to little purpose., At the same time, 'be did nor think it possible to take a view of our foreign trifle, without looking itito the situation 'Of oUt internal trade. Stich an examination alone could explain the reasons'why many things could atot he done u ter the present circumstances, wteen. miler others, might have been carried into eft cr !n cousidei nig the present question, lie Should rip retore take a view of the whole situa tioti 6t our internal trade, in order to do justice to himself .and to those with whono he was acting. Nif - hen Petitions were coming to the House, not only front our merchants and manufacturers, but from the agriculturists, be thought it tight, in agreeing to the Committee, to state why lie ciid not con ceive a more extensive inquiry proper, anti why lie had not come forward to propose one. - He agreed with the Noble Marquess, that there could be no opining so pr,judiciwi and unfortunate'as to suppose that the COMlllerelid, agricult ural, and tnanutacturine, interests could be set at variance with each other. He concurred in thinking that the strength of the one was the strength of the o: tier, and the distress of the one, the distress of the other. But no attempt had been made to consider them as distinct front each other. Agri , culture was the basis of wealth, but neither agri culture, nor the fortunes which it had produced, would have been what they were, if they had not bet-n fostered by the manufactures of the country. He therefore agreed that the proposition with which the House must set out- was, that -all the great interests of the country were connected with each other ; that what .was done for the one mist `h, done for the other, and that any attempt to cat. fine measores, of protection to ;he one, must tend to injure the rest. He Should now endeavour to trace, from official documents, what the situation of the coutrry really was; what was the condition of alt those great interests, the na ture of time distress, and what could be done to relieve - that distress. fie thought it the duty of the House to decide what it would or would not do, as the feelings and difficulties of the country would not settle uotil men were awme of the fixedness of the laws and principles by which their interests Were to be governed. The first question to which be should call the attention of the House would be, the state of our internal manufactures, 'and' the consideration whether their present distress bad grown out of a diminution of consump tion within the country, or from a diminution of cur foreign trade. He trusted be should he able to satisfy the House that there was no ground to believe that the present distress had arisen from any reduction in the consumption within the country. The quantity of revenue raised must be deemed a'proper criterion, amid it would be fair to take the aver4ee of the three years ending in 1817, 1818. a0d,1819, and to compare it with the ac tual -consumption of the last. The average of intetrod consomption for those three years was 21,650 8701. The internal consumption - for thew year beginning on the sth of 1819; and ending. ott the . sth of April 1820, was 22,332,1171. rii•king in small increase of cons on) WlOll The average consomptiOu of CO-ffee' in the three pre-. eedt , .g years was 7,523,5831. ; in the last it-was 358.8561„, showing tt - • small diminution of less tn.') 201) 0001. Tile avecage crinstio t ption of To-- bocci, ill Ole three nrecediog years was 11,967,7111. iti the list it had been 1,1„175.9171. so that a coo- . riderihre ditnintilon had taken' place in that. The average consomprino of Mait in the former period had been 22,190,2781.; 'in the cast year it bad risen to 23..971.31571:, showing an in crease of unwardit of 1 700,000.1. The average conlumption of &picks, comprehending Irith and Scotch., was 5,173,7551. in the preceding three years, and had lalleu off, in the last, to 4,801,9371. but if there.h.rd brim A diminution of 300,0001. on this article, the consumption of foreign spirits had become much greater. This estimate was taken on the quantity, not the value ; and though only tine year had . been put into' competition with three, the result evidently proved, that instead of any redaction in - rhe — internal - consittnption of the country,, there had been an increase-., It the same inquiry %very followed up with respect to the value of other articles, as Candles, Soap, Stc,, the result would still he the same* Ott some of these a ttifiing diminution would he found,. which would he compensated by an increase o n others, and the whole would lead to the same c ,, nclusion, that the internal cofisump-. lion of the country had not been reduced, This was undoubtedly satisfactory, as it show ed that in what entirely depended on ourselves,. the general wealth of the countly had ex perienced no diminution or • falling off. •Lle sbeuld now take a view of our foreign - trade, and - the state of our manufactures. In that. branch there was certainly a large falling off, if the last year was compared with 1818. The whole produce of the British manufactures in 1818, had been 48,903,7031. In 1819, it was 37,939 5061. showing a falling off of eleven Millions. • But the House must recollect that 1818 had been a year of .extraordimary'efforts, and one of oyertrading and speculation. It the average were taken on the three following - years 1816, 1817, and 1818,. it would he' found to amount to 45,161,7561. leaving still a falling off of more than 5,v,..n mil-' lions. This falling off was certainly eonsi lera ble ; but what was - the state and produce tit our nremutacture's antecedently to the wAr, and during its continuance ? • 1n'1792, the largest:year betnre rheAvar;onr exporishad been in value '24 . 905,2001. In 1806, they had amounted to 25 a - Ohm's ; in 1807, to 27 ; in 1808,- to 25-;-. ii, Ibo 9. to 26 ; in 3810, to 35 millions, and in 13 i 1, to 34,930,000 i. So that though in 1819, there had hen a dtn►t:;;t- I tine when compared tint h yet the amount of- our exports • in,thatyearhatt bten as great - as during the most Honrishittg,.yeat of the war, when our trade o , ls carried twits great est extent. The next question which would-at - I.e, would be in what branch the falling off had taken place. There had been some reduction in our En• ropean exports ; but it wtas'not considerable, anti did not exceed 1 ; 200,0001. More than one halt of this was on Refined Sugars, a branch of trade which, - in a considerable degtee, we might cons'. der ourselves as•having lust ; for the intercourse between other- Nations and the Brazil, having been re-opened, it was oat uril to expect that they trould apply.themselves to the manufacture of that article. The tailing o 8 in the exports of Bullish Manufactures to Europe did not exceed 600,0001. whilst it wAs gratifying to know, that the trade in British MtiolltatqlOth to Ife1411(1 had been iecreas ing'duriog the . senie period. The weal_ falling off was in tire East India Trade, and the other great depression was in the tratie with the United States Of •America. Our exports to the latter bed di minished a full halt tinting the last yielr. In 1818 those in cotton goods had bez-012,432.0001 1819 they had not much exceeded me.million , Those in cutlery and hardware,. which had amintioed to 834,0001. in the previous year, had in th e lest been reduced to 436,0001.: and those in 40,,ilesfs had dwindled, in the seine period, from epwerds of `three millions, to 1 ;703 001. t he eveee g e of the last three years, -the tailing off in our exports to the United steles had in fact amounted to three millions: This led naturellyoo the coesideretion of that tradee 'Elie Noble Ma , guess had admit ted that distress was not coefiued to the imiuStry of this country, bitt existed in every State of rope atid America. He had rightly attributed it to the great- coevulsion • which, Miring the last 20 years, had so unhinged the state of thin e 's, !h a t it was impossible it should not. have produced dis tress,in all countries after the conclusion of pea ce . But • the House must not forget, that great a, that bad beets in all countries of Zurope, - in none had it been greater than in the 'Jotted States of America. Let those who vette - disposed to ascribe its -existence amongst us to the weight of taxation, to the tithes, or to other !nutlet-is, coin ' pare what the revenue- and nstionat debt of chat country were, and pause before they attributed that distress to such causes. Those of American distress were involved in no mysteey. It did not proceed from war ; for itt the lapse. of thirty ' five years, they had been but two, yeais at war. It was true e that they had felt the, effects of the tremendous contest which had raged in • Europe; but how had they felt them . ) . During the whole of that war America had been the principal, and during part of le, the only neutral Power. Site - had, therefore, employed the means of supplying this country and outer States with goods, at a time when trade could be carried on by no other. The-result - was an increase of prosperity on her part which exceeded all ex ample. - Within twenty years she bad made a : pro gress, which in a natural state she could not have. effected in 60 or in 80 years. •She now. telt the effects, not of. former distress, but of her past. prosperity. She must retrograde till she bad reached the point at• which she should . stop . . Her torMer•prosperity must reimburse itself by a state of distress, till she had returned to her natural state. He did not speak invidiously, fur no country was more deeply interested in ber pros perity than we were. • Of all Powers in the world, by. the magnitude of herpopulation, and the ex tent of her territory, she afforded the hest market for the produce of this country, anti every one must - 'wish her prosperity.—([leer, hear 1) — What he 'stated was only to show that ,she had shared the fate of all countries at peace or at war, and that the convulsion -- which 'hed'shaken the world had not fallen upon two or three countries -only, but upon the whole world. It -a depression had taken piece in our Asiatic trade,. it had arisen front over-speculation, and the evil could only be temetlied by time. Should . the House- be induced to adopt any rash- measure, the only effect might be to . continue and. perpetuate that evil. • It the people were poor and could-not buy our merchan-, Mee, as in former times ,we must wait with patience tilt they,.ehould. he able to byy them: The Noble Mat guess had founded his motion . on a principle which he had not sufficientlymodified, that the general freedom of made would be productive of. the greatest advantage. He could entertain no doubt of the great advantage which all nations of the world would have derived from that Systein had it been earlier adopted. But things were in a situation in which it was impoSsible for'this country, and perhaps for all countries in the world, except .America, to act on those -princi ples. If ,the House looked at the general freedom of trade, it must also consider the state -of -the laws which affected agriculture, and the prohi• hit ions of foreign produce to which they gave birth. - We could not' go to foreign countries with any advantage; for the poorer States would' tell us, " If we take your manufactures, you, must take our corn. If you talk so big, and are such adMirers of Adam'Smith's I'Vealth of Nations, fur God's sake act upon his principles, and IttnVe your sincerity by admitting our produce." Eng land bad risen by a different system, or as some . supposed, in spite of a bad system ; however this might be, she had risen nailer her present system, and it was impossible, even did not her taxes• 'amount to one half of what they were, that .the whole state of property should be unhinged ' by, such a change. He should not discharge his duty to the country, ,if he did not take this oppor it-' pity of expressing his opinion with respect to the. Corn Laws. lie was one of those who, 1815, had supported the Bill for granting an addi tienel protecting price to the agricultural lute-' rest against the importation cf foreign Corn.— At that oeriod opinions were divided, and Some were fount! who recommended to leave thingS as they were; and to wart frir two or three years to see how they, would turn out before passing' the 801. This be bed strenuously opposed. lie had called upon the ['rinse to dech:e at once, either li t er it world grant the additional protection, to that it would never grant any to corn-growers.— in the is-tier ca•e, a compromise must have taken plat., her weeti the owoers of lands and their occu. wets; ref - 1;s must have and the distress whi c h, he anticipated and wished 'to prevent by the - Corn Bill, must have occurred and passer: away before the three years should haaie elapsed. To ettempt to legislate on the subject after such consk;thmatioo might have proved highly inje-- riotts. This was the feeling- he should hare en tertained, bad the Corn Bill been rejected. How much srronger inns, that leeling now be since that 13111 had. passed into a law Whatever distress I might exist, there 'was no more certain means of increasing that distress than a conti n ual tampering wirit those measures a n d tho se l a w s . L e t th e l au d - lords and the farmers know that they must abide by the present system, and they would come to some arrangement for their mutual advantage-- The in inciple of the Corn Bill terfded to protect agriculturists against an extreme low price, at which it 'might 'be supposed they would not, be able to raise their -commodity ; but at the same time -to secure to the public the advantages of free inrpot wits') when the price should rise above 80 shillings. If this system were altered, what would be the effect of a fixed duty in years of seat cit y It the dirty were low, it wOuld- be no protee tioo ; it most therefore be high, and if it were raised to 100 or 120 it would be equal to a deity of 50 seiltings in addition to the present price of bread to the poor. He had investigated how the Corn Bill had worked. The importation price was fixed at 80s., and the antagonists of the me:ism e maintained at the time that 809. would al ways'be the minimum. Its supporters had argued on the contrary, that it would be much nearer the maximum. Now it appeared from the returns lor the four years ending on the sth of Ja nuary 1819, that the average price of Wheat had been 78 shillings, that of Barley (of which the protecting duty was 40s) 425. and that of . Oats 28a. On this account he saw - no reason to say, that the Corn Bill had not operated fairly to, its pur pose. There had been high years and low years, and farmers must be provid en t d ur i ng tire - one, to make up for the other. The amount of to reign Corn imported in the tour years already mentioned was 2,905,417 quarters. Ot these 318,824 quarters were at this moment in ware -houses, and 505,894 quarters had been re-ex ported, so that little more than two millions of quarters had been consumed by the country in the coarse of four years. Now, was it possible that 500,000 quarters thrown Annually into the circu lation of the country should have contributed to the distress experienced by agriculturists If the manner in which the average- was taken: was ob jected to as fraudulent, the trend ought to be cor rected, and the existing law supplied the neces sary power for its correction. Some entertained a notion that to omit the Welsh counties would , raise the average, but. be doubted the propriety of altering the system altogether. With respect to the change its our currency, it had certainly contributed to a consickrable extent to aggravate existing distress ; but it had not operated upon . agriculture as generally as it had been supposed ; for, if it had affected one branch of it, the rest must have equally suffere'd. This was not /the case, for the price of cattle bad been as high last year as it was formerly. But, even if the change in- our currency had contributed to produce the evil, that evil had now been borne, and there would be more danger in retracing the Steps al ready taken, than there was originally in 'taking them. No man hail been a greater supporter of the Bank" Restrictions than himself, for he felt convinced that they alone bid enabled the coun try to go through the late ware 'But he had al ways stated that he considered them merelyfits war expedients, and that we crust return at peace to our national curreecy. - The facilities which they gave, were accompanied with evils not uemixed with good in time of war, but in time of peace the evils alone remained. They might create it great appearanee of trade, but they could not pro duce its reality. He was one of those who be Hever' that our exports would' revive, that Our looms and manufactures Would shortly'be at work again, and that our commercial Inalustry would recover trout its'depression‘ and its distress. We must the'n guard' agaitiSt theSe revelsions which oceasionally took ptaee in the coarse of a few ,years. -Any airing tending to create a' fictitious cepital, tended increase that evil. Ile,felt that as no alteration ought to be made in the Corn Laws,, so noire ought .to take place in the system of our Currency, l'heCountry should understand, onr tiferatini 9 lbotiid tindClSto rut, the . World should UULICI3t4/1:1, that we are acting on fixed , principles, :anti were •tlefermined not to tappet again with the laWs.t--(Hear, hear, hear !)- 11a had already stared - the difficulties that stood in the way of adopting the princ'ple of !he freedotn_ of trade, and he most d o those who supporte d the principle the justice to say, that they had n ° nothenit could he acted upon: Kyen those wb° in 1815. had Most strenuously oppo4d the C ur° did not now wish that au alteration should be made in that measure tor the, put n osrs of a ,free .trade. He should mislead the public it he seer)' ed to.think that -ir.would be praitic_ l ble to ditty/ that freedom. of trade on - Bay of the•gr, at bt ( ineh.(. 9 f of our mans:factures. He was of opinion I' l l 4 ' -I I all the laws resit , cling the impoi , aiion of were repealed, it might not affect that trade ; our silk and linen 'manufactu(es were completelY artiicial; and any attempt .0 open the Trade ctn them must. occasion their tosai destruction''' . He regretted that they had beet) established jo this country, as they were more natty to • France, who, if we had taken her silks aid lioeo 3, would have taken our woollens. 13:4 coo,ittelJog . the immense p, - pidatino t ilea. ell i ea, rving tilt t on, and that.mote than 50 000 ,vererio . played in this metropolis in ins M.; o°' though he Inlahs. regret that on e Sucti qter(o 3l Should ever have been granied,yes berth! lint 116 0. ' 4 pOS%ihle, under the'cirenins.sancs a.ot the enno tVi ' that it should he repeai,d. What would ne .ii' c effect on the linen manntactureis of Ireland it ffr` lt protection were withdrawn ? He again regselir! that it had been given, but that was 110 reeiSol , it Should he po,sible now t o * a tido wrongty done. It might be riliaps imporiA" s object to consider whether toe rinciole hition might mot be altog abet ,bandoned. 13" 1 he d.stibied that ,ninch tgo,,d-vt,stlin result from abandonment, as it %%twilit oeresstary inpose protecting ditties so bight that lire teoall.' almost 'amount to prohibition, and i n solo ° ca•es might wove more ',fl a t-ly e . . t I , e e.ocei,eit it would have a %mot tit 't•-t1 vac i as many who dealt in' prolitbl , etr totijec s 517 , be willing to p4v Ai.) , duty to pr>cti,;., dirt) legally. His I,,,,rdship t h en followed tste N Marquess through :he vatittas poin's he touched in the course of his. Ile that the warehousing system form( d an insioity ant branch, and that it might he r ropey tit CO"t' cider how far it might be cx!etnied. With le spect to the- transit dn.y, ,he (11,1 Nut sea ,n 1 British ship - plug should not have the same nroc v leges as foreign shipping. The timb-r trade •" 5 partly fettered by an arrangement ma:le Canada merchants, at a time when a.. II K " . 45 closed against us, and the want 'of Utiliser to, 'so f navy became alarming. They were then no,sced, .to enter into that trade by the psonti6e a 'protecting•cloty. It was true that a iteve' tine duty had been. imposed since, and this' • as least, remained open for consideration. respect to the wine trade., lie wilted to "e e ' how the 'matter stood, and whether by una;,iosf any concessioa to France we might out stlaw r our woollen manufactores to some kaitt o: rat' . liation on the part of Portugal. it coo••qat of the Treaty of_ .1783 with Fra,ice, V. 4 (' ' l5 reduced t hedut les oil Ft each allot I'ortn 4 rie•e hut not so as to put them on the ssime tositing He had maintained the lame pcoport.iwo OJ#. third in favour of the Portuauese attics 'C' i e whole amount of firitiso Mannhcrisres talportel into France, in 1787, hid been 718 6951 a jP. , into Portugal, 657.6521 Now our t %poi 1 9 '7 Portugal and 13raz,ils had risen to tout lions sterling, and the trade was a gro` f : ing and improving trade, and o n e wlnc" we should coin ia tie to enj,,y. He (he' s took a view of the amazing efforts of trade whic il had taken place in Itidia, and the too tztlf. 6l exports made to Asia in formerlyears. c tempt to introduce Elitist, me , „titact'',,e, tufo had proven nearly al-rot-live ; tin( though direct trade between China and this con al v 4."3 closed, yet a great trade ,s ag India and Chiva not in the, Company's iota C might be made a qttesti o n wto then a direct trad e 4 should be carried between lit-ilia aoo parts of Europe, without passing through I I j r country; and he bad no difficulty in articles which it was lawful to import shOuid he reqUited to came first to Enaland or M bitt should be allowed. to he cal tied rc' any part for which they were intended. ',a had now followed the Noble .li4iques. tht , "'S 6 the various points which he had in:rodaced. had taken a, view of the inietnal and toreign't" t , of the country ; h a d exp resse d hi s o pi n ion r e , specting the existing distress, and had not ' 0) ",, eealed his conviction that the remedies trout he expected most were time and patience. then concluded 'by strongly recomtnen (l ing that g 1,0 tampering with the laws should take place, $ 4l , that fixed principles being a dopted and m a intain e e the comitry should know low to prepare to N e e theist, and on what it had to depend. Lord'LANspnwN said a few - words its expl 6 " a tion. be ° Lord LAUDERDALE, adverting to the speec he s of the Noble Mover, and of the Noble Bolt t o , pressed himself more sanguine respecting the P oe sent condition and ultimate prosperity of , .Country than either of them. His Lordship td .e j proceeded to touch upon several p o ints conoreale, with'the general view of the question, and t° e d liver his' opinions on these topics, He coosid e ' o r the great alteration which bail taken place iu 9,0 currency as a principal cause of the embarra i o t went which existed. Without the paper curreunoc had been resorted to, the Noble Earl cola sti g have carried on the war, which had in • re 01 plunged the nation into so much difficnlti; that system, taxation tb the amount of " lions per annum had been raised since 181 5, nto itt than otherwisCcmild have been obtained t, fact, the Country, instead of paying an iote , : -5 0 had, for the last 20 years, been expendinavos trillions a year out of its capital. But " ).5 only a proof of the energy of the C o notrYt i 00 ‘ i that it was now stronger than ever. Hti d or e , been so, it could not have endured the pre r id' With regard' to the rivalry' beiweeo th a e n i lse _oral' and commercial interests, he depree tne‘ o , el e idea of their put buing 'separate objects., lit'? fit ef ,4 so . ' interwoven with e a c h • o th er , that ( i ) a s Wotllir be rniaous. What wits It by 1 ) 01 • borden was the reven u e, whi c h, from the co j'oe 0 had stated, namely , t h e akura(joa of co 11 !I P t) 11 11 , ii,i : li ft t k: u 'l t