The Express.
London, England, 1848-03-11 00:00:00

Funded debt
Management
Intorent on Lleflcienc7 gins
inter eat on Exchequer Ella
Reductions w the customs and excise elution

£9,831,625
Such had been the result of the financial policy of the right
hen. baronet. He would now refs r to its commercial conse-
quences. In 1842 the commerce of the country was in a
prostrate condition hut between that and 1816 our exports
increased 10,000,0661. It had been said that we ought not
to have relaxed our tariff until other countri• s consented to
do o too. That would not have influenced him as an im-
portant consideration. (Hear, hear.) lie had yet to learn
hy we should do ourselves an injury by reusing to adopt a
wise policy because other countries refused to adopt it. Then
it had been said that as we relaxed our tariff other countries
made theirs more stringent, and that we could not afford to
import without exporting to a corresponding degree. But
what bad been the actual result? Why, that a material in-
crease had taken place in our trade with those countries on
the continent whose tariff was most boetile to us, and
that while in 1842 the whole amount of our exports
was only 20,000,0001, in the year 1846 they amounted
to 27,000,0001. (Hear, hear.) The depresslin if
the last two
years was unparalleled in Europe generally as well am in
this country. And yet, contrasting it with the year 1829,
which was also a perm.: of great dcpressi in, he found that in
t' at year only 2.000,000 quarters of cirn had been imported,
while 12,000,000 bad been imported this year. Tho import
of other articles of food had increased in a still greater de-
gree ; and he could not refer to that fact wit .out tendering
his deepest gratitude to the right hon. baronet for having
made it possible to import those articles which before 1842
were entirely probihi ed. The following table would show
the increase which had taken
161 place on those imports:—
5. 1847.
Orals
lime
Use animas Ku. $4,000
?rondos* ..... Ws. 133,000
flutter oda 254.001
Cheese eat.. 268,000
Now, looking to this enormous increase of imports, what, he
would ask, would this country have done during the late
famine if those articles had sill been prohibited? (Hear,
hear.) Notwithstanding that in the past year we h,d im-
ported 216,000 live animals, it was very generally complained
that animal foo I had rarely been so dear. (Hear, hear.)
But what would have been the consequence, if, with a slid-
ing scale to prevent the importation of a large portion of
grain, animal fool had been entirely prohibited as before
1842 ? In his opinion it would have been impossible during
the past year to have maintained those laws. (Hear, hear.)
He contended that with a siding scale they could not, owing
to the peculiar circumstances of the season, have imported
anything like a sufficient quantite , the countries near us
being as badly off as ourselves, and our supply being had
partly from the United States and partly from d'stant parts
ot Russia. The failure of tke harvest in France, Germany,
and Southern Europe made them large importers of grain ;
and the tffi et, be admitted, showed itself upon our exports •
but it should be remembered that, in 1846, outof 56,000,00 d
of exports, no leas than 27,000,0001. west to the countries of
Europe—that France took no less than 2,700,000/„oermany
0,000.0001., as much as nor whole East Indian territories put
together. and Holland 3,400,0001., being a larger num than
was yielded by the whole of our American Briti-h 'teases-
sioue. Our trade had, no doubt, suffered from the blight
of the potato in France and ot the barley crops in the
Rhenish provinces, es might be seen in some of the leading
articles of manufacture exported from this country to
Southern and Western Europe :
1444. 1447,
Colton twist ..........16e. 102,629,901
Thread sad sewing
Plain rahnoes lards 109,117,507
Printed catches
Linens
Woollens £ 2,007,136
Silks 319,360
That showed how exceedingly sympathetic the markets were
with the state of Europe. But there was another reason
why our export trade had suffered during the last year,
namely, the depressed state of the eastern markets, which
were altogether unconnected with the policy of the right
hen. baronet. Our exports to the eastern markets were as
follows ;