The Sun. — London, England, 1821-03-30 00:00:00

be 'allowed in ehter into the tonsideratinn of this subject on th e p r esent occasion. ;NO one had a greater regard and respect for the shipping in terest th an h e had '; but he thought the protec tion of it might be pressed too i'ar so as to be ilijuriol4B t o t h e ot h er interests of the country. I le ktlnye* also that the Strength of the Empire lie r ';ended 'upon a great and extensive greatl y „ er cantile mar i ne; b u t t h en to ma int a in th a t, If such must hav e a gre at and extensive commerce. suc h an extent of Shipping were necessary , to the defenc e of the country, he would admit there was a Plausible reason for keeping it Up ; but he c ould see no thi ng i n the present state of Europe li kely to call upon this country for any greater na val exertion s th an s h e h a d put fo r th be fore. The shipping was considerably greater a .," the nu m b er o f sa il ors fifty th ou Sa nd mor e than in 1793 an d 179 4 , i mme di ate ly prece di ng t he, War. I t was to b e part i cu l ar l y remar k e d, t nat the ships upon which this excess had taken place were of the worst description. They w ere, old, and worn out in, the service, and built ori ginally of the least durable materials. It I " said in the timber trade, that any thing unfit for any Other service would do for that trade, and it ' vi as argued in the Committee as an argument against the measure he Should propose, that it have the effect of throwing ships out of wor ks which could find no other employment; and) indeed, w hen they came to look into the m atter, it was evident that none but a madman Ictrust any other kind of property in them. of *4 , 7 , 113 for such as them that the best interests country 'were to suffer. If any new tha anels of trade Could be discovered, the .i I :PPing interest might be able to support it -e'fs but without that, nothing but reduction r 7 o nid avail. At th e present moment, there was one interest in particUlar to attend to. All demanded alike their attention, and relief, if Possible ; but they could not be expected to Pursue a plan of relief towards any one set of in luviduals at th e ex p e nc e o f another. It was not force, but by fair and natural means that they : a d the power of extending and promoting the l i tit erests of the general commerce of the country. 44 doing that the best way would be to remove ev ery restriction upon our commercial relations -w ith foreign countries, by which they would be made to feel that their interests depended upon. o ur Prosperity. B y f o ll ow i n g thi s c o u r se all the interests of 'this country, particularly the agricultural would be substantially promoted. Ile had already shewn that a reduction in the duties upon Northern Timber must take Voce. The difficulty was in fixing the price. The - douse would see by the witnesses examined on that point in the Committee, that some recom mended a reduction of ss. others again of 10s. 1 5s. 20s. and 255. Amidst this variety, it was no easy matter to fix ; but it had appeared to him More prudent to stop at 20s. The system of over-trading* which had been so long carried on bad been injurious to many individuals, but be neficial for the Colonies. The measure he was gall% to propose he wished to be understood °llly as a step, a very small one, towards a better system. There were many reasons for not making 114 altogether unrestrained course of remedy upon That occasion. Amongst them was the fact of I n t anY large establishments having grown up in `lle Coloni e s u p on th e faith of a continuance of t he present system. He wished to say one word on the assertion that the exports of this c o untry to the ColonieS depended on the Timber,l rade, and the .argument that it would be in furious to the manufacturer to lose one million which he derived from this Timber Trade. lie w ished the House to know the facts. The ut tno.st that was done in .the Timber Trade, was ° f course the invoice price, which was less than 400 ) 000/. annually. The exports of the last ear to the Colonies amounted to 1,600,0001. -4 1iich left 1,200,0001: clear of the Timber Trade, i nstead of the million which was talked of. The Ilatu re of his Resolutions, he would inform the C ommittee, was to alter all the duties, and to re- Place them by others: That would be the whole ° f their contents ; and he hoped that whatever Points of conversation there might appear in 4 1 !'erti, they would he transferred for discussion after the printing of the Resolutions. The 'rst question that suggested itself was, how to d ispose of the re duction he proposed of twenty s hillings. After mature consideration on that B , l thject, he had come to the opinion that it would ti e best to take off one half of that sum from the I d uties on Baltic timber, and put on the other . l alt on American timber. lie also recommended, levying. the duty, that the cubical rinciple S hould be . followed. The Right Ho p nourable t ` l i - ,eutlemai t concluded by moving- 46 That it is e opinion -of this Committee that certain duties ';',Yable on the Baltic timber cease and termi , t i 4t es and that several drawbdcks be paid in lieu Lord Avrnorti then rose to offer some obser- Z ' t ions upon the statements and arguments of tithe'd ght Honourable Gentleman who had just sat -° ‘i'n• He contended that the Canada trade ePerated as an immense tax upon this country : a nd it s eeme d t o b e pr. t •cted and encouraged f or no other purpose than that of working ships,. I vhich were worn out and rotten, and unfit for any other service. With respect to the argument 'cif the Right lion. Gentleman, that encourage ment was due to the Canada trade, as a protection to the interest of those whom the established sys tem had induced to invest their capital therein, he b egged to remind the Right Hon. Gent. that there Were heavy balances due to B r iti s h merc h an t s f rom the northet n traders, tire :only hope of a recovery of which rested in the encouragement given to the Baltic trade, and - that to the in terests of these parties an equal degree of pro tection was due. He recommended that the duty on Baltic timber should be 50.;. per load, and 10s. on that Of Canada. H e a l so recom tn_ ended that the duty on d ea l s s h o l i ld h e levied according to their cubic contents in the raw state, as it could be no profit to the country to tax deals for the sake of encouraging the home sawyer, when they could import ready cut deals at a cheaper rate than, they cou ld saw th em here. Mr. MAattyaTT--.1 cannot agree to the Reso lutions proposed, and still less , to the improve news upon them suggested by the Noble Lord ; because one of them, so far from being founded on the evidence given before the Committee on Foreign Trade, is in direct opposition to that evidence, as I shall hereafter more particularly explain. Another objection nhich weighs very strongly on my mind, as well against the Reso lutions as some passages of the Report itself, is, that both of them betray too great a leaning to the principles laid down in the Petition of cer-' tain Merchants of this Metropolis, presented last Session of Parliament, which led to the appoint ment of the Committee on Foreign Trade, and which called upon this House to take off " all " duties merely protective against foreign coin " petition." In conformity to this doctrine, it is now proposed to us to diminish the protection hitherto given to our Colonies and our Ship OwrierS, in a degree that I am satisfied will prove highly, injurious to both, and give a mono poly of the Timber Trade to foreigners. If we comply,. in this instance, with the request of the disciples df the new school of political economy, and establish what they term " a sound principle, " a standard to be 'referred' to in all subsequent " arrangements," we must follow it up in every other case, and shall soon ruin every class of the community, one after the other.—l admit that if we had a new state of society to form, and a new order of things to establish, a free and unrestrict ed intercourse between all nations would be the wisest and most beneficial system that could be adopted ; but we are in an artificial state df so ciety, and might just as well think of returning to a state of nature as of returning to first princi ples and abstract doctrines. We have an im mense national debt, and the load of taxation we necessarily bear to provide for the interest of it, enters into the price of labour, and every thing that is the produce of labour ; and makes it im possible for us to maintain an equal competition with 'foreign nations, who are not subjected to the same disadvantage. Let them take up our national debt, and then we may venture to meet them on equal terms ; but under present circum stances, they can and will undersell us, except in particular branches of manufacture, where we have advantages that counterbalance this weight of taxation.—Great- surprise has frequently been expressed of late, that a nation in possession of such amass of industry, capital, and enterprise as this, should be suffering to such a degree as all classes in this community 'now are ; but the solu tion is easy : we have returned to a state of peace, loaded with a debt . of 800 millions, ins stead of 200, which was the amount before the wat, and therefore are less capable than ever of bearing that foreign competition with 'which we are again brought into contact. We are pursuing a wrong course, in attempting to increase the sale of our manufactures among the European Powers.. .Most of them manufacture for them . selves ; and use every practical means to secure their own consumption to the industry of their own subjects. Those who do not, will only take from us what we can supply them with cheaper than their other neighbours. Our home con sumption, and our Colonies and Dependencies, take off 6-7ths of all .our,manufactures ; and our only reasonable expectation of extending their consumption, is among, instant nations, who do not manufacture for themselves, and who will take our goods in exchange for their productions. —The obvious tendency of a free trade is to make rich countries poor, and, poor countries rich ; be cause poor countries, where articles are cheap, will . undersell rich countries where they are dear, 'till the inequality between them ceases, and they are all brought to a level. This, there fore, is a very proper system for those who are poor to recommend, but not for those who are rich to adopt ; unless indeed they feel that they enjoy too great a share of wealth. and property, and wish to divide their superabundance with their poorer neighbours, which I do not take to be our case at the present moment.—My objections to taking this fresh step in the new career recommended to us, of abolishing all restrictions on foreign competition, are not only the injury that would be done to our Ship Owners and Colonists, by what the Report of the Committee on Foreign Trade terms " a re " currence to those sound principles by which all " commerce ought to be regulated ;" but the consequences that must ensue to all the other great interests of the country. My impressions on this point are confirmed by the testimony of a most intelligent witness. examined before the Committee, who declared, that our prohibitory duties on foreign linens are considered in a more invidious light than our high duties on their timber; that our prohibition of their corn, un der the present Corn Laws, is very obnoxious to Russia and Prussia ; and being asked whether the reduction of our duty on their timber alone would remove the unfavourable disposition they entertain against us, unless followed by the re moval of the restrictions on the other articles, he answered, 46 It would contribute to such an 64 effect, chiefly, as an earnest of a more liberal " system." Justice and reciprocity, not libe rality, ought to be the basis of our intercourse with Foreign Powers : but if we open to them those great spurces of consumption which furnish employment for our own domestic industry, in the expectation of deriving correspondent advan tages from them in retura, I fear we shall be grievously disappointed, and have am ple leisure to lament our own folly.— While I contend that protection against foreign competition is absolutely necessary, I beg leave to distinguish between protection and monopoly ; and to observe that it should be bounded by such limits, as the interest of the community at large require. If any class attempt to carry it farther, the foreign competitor ought to he let in, and &e -vent an "undue advantage being taken of the public. Under such limitations, protection is necessary to almost every class of the community ; and those who are loudest in support of the op posite doctrine, would be the first to cry out if it were applied to themselves.—'When I have brought up Petitions from the British Ship Owners, and the British Colonists, praying for protection against foreign competition, they have sometimes ,been- treated with asperity, and the petitioners represented as selfish and unreasonable ; and this, too, by Landholders and Gentlemen of the Sister Kingdem, , who might be . . . expected to consider with indulgence the. claims of otherSto the same protection 'as they receive themselves . .—As to the Landholders; the protec tion againisrforeign competition given to them by the Coin haws amounts to not,, less than thirty millidns per annum, which the British consumers pay them for the produce of their, land; more than they would, pay for it, if it could be im ported vdthodt restrictions on foreign competi tion. Wheat would then be sold here at 40s. per quarter ; land would not pay the ex pence of cultivatitiff; and be ,of as little value as tine wilderneses in the British Provinces in North America, where .the Timber : groWs; the duties on which we are now regnlating. Ire land enjoys the same protection for her agricul ture as Great Britain ; and her staple manufac ture, linen, is protected from foreign com petition, by duties on foreign linens; ,amounting to from 50 to 90 per cent. ; and still farther, by a bounty on the exportation of Irish Linen, of 12d. per yard ; which, on the coarser qualities, amounts to about 172 per cent. more. Nay, so great is the horror of, foreign linens, entertained by the Gentlemen of the Sister Kingdom, that 'they have extorted from his Majesty's Government the continuance of a transit duty of 15s. per cent. on its being warehoused here for expor tation ; under an erroneous prejudice, which is injurious. even to themselves, and highly so to the best interests of Great Britain. Let them rend the memorial lately presented to the Russian Government by the sugar, refiners at St". l'etersburgh, and they will find that the transit duty on foreign linens is made the ground of re taliatory measures of a most severe and important nature. These classes, who receive such ample protection themselves against foreign competition, ought surely to give a liberal consideration to the claims of their fellow-subjects, and I beg they will dispassionately attend to those of the Ship owners, and the inhabitants of the British Colo nies in North America.—During the late war, the numerous expeditions fitted out from this country required a great number of transports. The Ship owners met the demand, built an additional num ber of vessels, and supplied the exigencies of the public service. At the close of the war,Government having . no longer, occasion for them, these trans ports were diScharged ; and, at the same time, many of the Colonies captured from the enemy having been - restored, the'ships engaged in bringing their produce to Great Britain were also thrown upon the hands of their owners ; the remaining branches of our commerce being insufficient to give them employment, the value of shipping depreciated more than 50 per cent., and freights were so reduced, that those ships which found employment, instead of giving any profit, were navigated at a loss to their owners. These facts are incontestably proVed by the evidence given before the Committee on Foreign Trade. The same evidence proves that they cannot, as has been erroneously supposed by the Committee of the Lords on this subject, enter into suc cessful competition with the Shipping of every. other - country in - the globe ; the expence of building, fitting, and' navigating ships in this country being infinitely greater than in . the North - of Europe. Under these circumstances, all the protection the Ship Owners ask is, that you will net alter the existing duties on Tim ber, and transfer that -trade- - ~ t o foreigners, which is at present carried on 'by them from the British Colonies. If you do this, you de prive them of their only resource, and devote them to inevitable ruin. The British Colonists in support, of - their claim for protection against foreign competition, state that they were encou raged to engage in this timber trade by a specific pledge on the part of Government, " that a de , ' cided preference would be given to timber, the growth of his Majesty's Colonies in North Ame rica," in consequence of, our being excluded from any supply from the northern powers of Europe. Under this assurance, and in this exi gency, they formed expensive establishments, and supplied the wants of the Mother Couti try. The Report states, that,'" so far from ‘ 4 any expectation being held. out_ that the' en couragement so given had been considered " by Government as permanent, or was in " tended to be indefinitely continued, means cc seem to have been studiously taken to pro " duce by explanation a conviction of a contrary tendency ;" but the only document I have seen which in any degree justifies this assertion is Mr. Lack's letter of the 25th Feb. 1817 ; and this refers to the additional duty of 10s. 3d. imposed on Baltic Timber in -1813, and expresses the conviction of their Lordships," that a duty to " the same amount might be laid on Timber " from the British North American Colonies, 44 without being prejudicial. to the great interests " concerned." The Ship Owners remonstrated against this duty, and on the 20th February, 1818, Mr. Lack wrote again, " that upon a full consideration of all the circumstances of the case, it is not at present the intention of his Majesty's Government to. submit to Parliament any altera tion of the law as it now stands, in respect to the importation of Timber, whether from our own Colonies or from Foreign States." The Chairman of the Ship Owners has publicly denied having received any commueication hich he did not make public ; and every witness from the Bri tish Colonies, examined before the Committee, declared that they considered the duties perMa nent, excepting that of 10s. 3d., and that they acted in full confidence of the continued pro tection of Government. They farther . state, that this trade is now grown up to a magni tude, that . renders it of the utmost import- ante to the British ColonieS ; that persons en gaged- inn agriculture. find employment in cutting timber and conveying it to the shipping placesdur ing the winter, when all other occupations are sus pended ; that the increased population thus em ployed, has given great encouragement to agri culture, by extending the demand for agricultu ral produce; that a great number of emigrant:; have been enabled to settle, in that country, by merchants advancing to them the supplies ne cessary for their snpport, until their lands were brought into a .state of cultivation, and taking their payment in timber ; that . the ex port of their .timber note forms a large .propor tion of their means of importing the Manufac tures of the Mother Country, and that if this trade is discouraged, their imports must be dis coutiaued, their Agriculture decline, and their Population emigrate for want, of employment. They urge, that if you interrupt the trade of an independent Power; to wham the, com merce of all the world is open, it may be directed into other channels -; but that as you bind them to trade with the Mother Country alone; if you refuse to protect their produce; they are left without resource. They contend that the restrictions you impose upon them, of taking all their supplies from you, and shipping all their produce to you, and that in British ships, thus making their industry con tribute in every possible way to your great objects, of finding marts for the consumption of your manu factures, and maintaining your naval power, gives them an unanswerable claim to protection against foreign competition ; and that you must either continue that protection, or they will be unable to bear your restrictions. Political considera tions of the .highest importance support *the claims both of the Ship Owners and the Colonists. We should seriously. consider the consequences that may ensue from destroying a branch of trade that in 1819 employed 17,500 British seamen,being 3,500 more than are voted for the whole ser, vice of the Navy, and the; danger of. driving these men into the employe of foreign, who may perhaps soon again become ,hostile, statei. We should also reflect upon the-impolicy of making ourselves once more _ dependent upon foreign powers for the supply of timber for the use of our Navy ; who may'avail themselves of that cir cumstance to exclude us froin their ports, and reduce us to the necessity of making peace on their own terms, as 'they attempted to do last war. To confide in them again, after the conduct we then experienced, would be absolute folly and infatuation. The importance of the Bri tish Colonies in 'North America is very great, and if they continue to flourish as they have done for some years past, they will soon become an effectual barrier to the ambition of the United States ; but if otherwise, a discontented and diminished population will submit to them on the first attack. If you lose your Colo nies in North America, you will not long retain those in the West Indies ; for they will become dependent upon the United States for their means of subsistence, as well as for their supplies of timber; and the wants and interests 'of mankind will bring them together, in spite of all obstacles. The Govern ment of the United States is well aware, that, if she increased her duties on British Manufactures, they would find their way into her territories through the British Provinces, without pay ing any duty whatever ; but let her once become mistress of them, let her command the Continent from the Mississippi to the St. Lawrence, and she would possess the means of making her . non-intercourse and non-importation Acts effectual; these provinces are the only check you have upon her policy.--- If we look at the present state of the Timber Trade, ,as divided between our own Colonies and the Northern Powers of Europe, we shall find that the imports from the latter have ex ceeded those from the former, on an average of Abe , last three years ; and, therefore, the Northern Powers have no reason to complain that they do not enjoy a fair partici pation in the trade. They complain indeed of great losses, arid so with equal truth do the traders from the British Colonies ; but this competition, though injurious to the importers, has been beneficial to the British consumers of timber, by lowering the price of the article. As no charge of want of liberality can' justly be brought against us by foreign powers, in our present regulations of the Timber Trade, we have a right to consider our own interests alone, in any alterations we . may think it advisable to adopt, and probably our manufacturers should be the first object of our attention. The Report states, that in so far as any alteration in- troduced is favorable to foreign trade, it must-have a tendency to produce an increased importation from the north of Europe, 4nd thereby possibly to induce an increased demand from that quarter,- for the manufactures of Great Britain ; and it goes on. to state that, " your Com " mittee are inclined to believe that an in " cre s ssed demand would be the result, as " well from the desire for British manufac " tures that is said strongly to prevail in those " countries, as from the extent to which the ex " port of them has been maintained, not " withstanding the burthens imposed on the " importation of this important branch of " their produce into the United Kingdom." That the export of British manufactures to the Northern Powers of Europe, does not depend upon our import of their Timber,' is manifest from this plain fact—that in the years 1817, 1818, and 1819, when the import of their Timber was so much diminished by the competi tion of the British colonies, the export of British manufactures to these Powers was .nearly three times as much as in the years 1799, 1800, and 1801, when they had the whole of the Timber Trade in their own hands. The Power particularly spoken of by one of the witnesses, as feeling this strong desire for British manufac tures, is Norway ; and if really felt, it appears singular that it has not been gratified, for a state ment is given by another witness, sheaving that her shipments of timber to'this 'country, in the' three years 1817, 1818, and 1819, amounted to 820,000/. 5 and that her returns taken in British manufactures, during the same period, amounted only to 3123,000/. so that she has the means, but' wants the will to increase her use of British manu factures. In short if we consult the interests of on-r' mann facturers,we shall encourage the tradewithour ColonieS in preference to that with foreign powers, because foreigners only. may deal with ps, :bof our Colonies must, and common sense : tells us not to give up a certainty for an vincertainty., The consumers have an interest both in the qua-' lity and : in the price of timber, andstlo• e e id eace given before the C ommit t ee .ishi;►: } Y.,Nalu , able, as it serves .to correct the violent prejn-: dice that'had ,been excited against; the ,Colonial timber, by the Report of the [Ands' cOmmittee. is unfortunate, however, th 3t.a list given.in by -. • . one,. of the witnesses; of 123 Vessels built of Colonial -Timber, from ten years ,to forty.seven years old, now in actual employ, and on .Lloyds'' Register, of .last : year, was not., printed the, Appendix, as, a ~ setk)ff to the .161 given.. in by Sir Robert Seppings; of ; the frigates ) . whose.. average duration was only fonr years. • But it appears, in his evidence; that. th , .: timber of which these frigates were built, wa; floated from Deptford; WoelwiCh; and - Cluithatti, to the Contractors' yards; and the fact is,•that it was Aeft upon the med, to - be wet or dry as the tide ebbed and flowed, and worked up in that state. No wonder, that ships so constructed were subject to the dry rot ; and this story. is much less discreditable to the quality of the' American Timber, than to the character of those who condUcted this branch of the public service. The Colonial Timber is certainly inferior to the Baltic Timber ; but ,answers as well for many purposes ; and by,corning into competition with. it, keeps dowti the price for the benefit - of. the .consumer. It has been asserted that to encourage the import of. Colonial Timber, is to oblige the pub lic to pay a higher price for a worse commodity.. It the Colonists applied for an Act of Parliament to giVe them a monopoly of the Timber Trade, and preclude the public from the opportunity of purchasing any other, the objection would be just ; but as every one is perfectly at-liberty to give the preference to which timber he-pleases; at . the difference of price, it surely is not very reasopaDie to complain of having the option. One of the Resolutions - before the House proposei a 'reduction of the preient duty on Foreign Timber; and this appears to ..t le, as I fore stated, to be in direct oppositiim to the evidence given. before the Committee. Alt the witnesses practically concerned in the trade state that the effect of this measure would be to raise the price of the article abroad, and not to lower it to the British consumer. It also appeared in evidence, that both the Russian and Prussian Governments have either reduced, or wholly taken off, the duty they formerly im posed on the export of timber, in order to ena ble their subjects the better to maintain the com petition to which they were exposed with out Colonies. We may, therefore,' reasonably con clude, that when that competition is diminish:- ed, these duties will be revived, and thus we shall sacrifice our own revenue, either to increase the revenue of Foreign Powers, or for the advantage of foreign individuals. — Another objection to reducing the duty on Baltic Timber is, that by so doing we shall diminish the protection and lower the value of 'British Timber. British Oak, of small sizes, now sells at only 41. per load ; and of sizes fit for ship-building, from 40 to 60 feet meetings, at 6/. per load. These .prices will not remunerate the grower, and if poll reduce them still lower, you may bid adieu to all expectation of an adequate supply. of native timber. These considerations all tend to show the itnpolicy of reducing the duty on Baltic timber. That part 'of the Resolution which recommends the imposition of a duty on Timber from the Bri tish Colonies, is. supported by the evidence, and not objected .to by the Colonists them selves, who allow that it would have the effect of .making theth more careful, both in the selection': and conversion of, their Tim ber, and .: tend to - improve its character and value, in the British market. This then is merely a question of degree, and the only point at issue is, what duty. it can safely bear ? A calculation given in the. Appendix to the Re port of the Lords' Committee shows that the nett proceeds of a load of Colonial Timber, which costs 18s., are only ss. 4d., leaving a loss of more than 70 per cent. to the importer ; and this is n confirmed i t teeo thi s by t h e i io u evidence se . o imposegi ett before ad u t t y h e or cm i o os: per, load on Colonial Timber, and take off 10s. from the Baltic 'Timber, must altogether cruSh.a trade already labouring Under such disadvan tages: The preponderating weight of the evi dence given before the Committee states 10s. per load, in whatever way imposed, to be as much as Colonial' Timber can bear. Indeed, even this can only be justified by a prospective view of that improvement in price, which may result from a more careful selection of it in point of , quality., and also from thatdiminished import, the effect of which must soon' be felt. The number of ships employed in the Timber Trade to the Colonies last year, was two hundred and sixty less thaa in the year before. Overtrading naturally leads to undertrading ; and any violent corrective in . the shape of duty, applied to .a trade thus circumstanced, would . destroy it alto= gether, and be ruinous to the great interests with which it is connected.—Another con sideration, that ought to have weight on this subject, is, the doubt whether Government-do .not . stand 'pledged to the continuance of the eN isting protection, with'the exception of the addi tional duty of 10s. 3d. imposed in the year 1813 ; and therefore, whether .they, can fairly make au alteration to the prejudice of the Colonists be yond that amount. From these conside - rations 1 shall oppose any greater.duty ; and when the House considers that .the whole amount paid for Colonial Timber goes into .the hands either of the British manufacturer or ,the British ship owher, and thus 'contributes to the support of natiottal' industry and national revenue, while the amount paid for foreign timber, except the freight of that proportion of it which is brought in -Bri tish ships, goes into.the . hands of foreigners, with out producing the same beneficial results, trust that.they will think the remaining protection lett to the timber of our Colonies is not more .than sound -policy requires. I shaft now declare my intention. of moving, in a proper stage of. these proceedings, that •thelluty on - Baltic Timber, stead of 555. : per load, 'continue as at .present, 655. per load. The Ca %NICE:LT.OR of the EXClMUrn..observed, that 'his Right . lion.' Friend's proposition was founded upon 'a:liberallpolicy,.and the protection of the .-British 'Colonies. The House was yot prepared at that 'late hour .to pursue a discussion of so much importance; heltherefore .proposed the lionse should- agree .to the resolutions - pro forma. They -Might then.he printed .and put into the hands of - Members. 'lt would then he open. to any Gentlemanto propose any amendment. I.le,