The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-10-19 00:00:00

COLONIAL INTERCOURSE BILL.

A Washington Paper, the National Journal, which is
understood to be the organ of the sentiments of the prevail-
ing party in the United States, contains the following ob-
servations on the Colonial Intercourse Bill, passed during
the late Session of Parliament. They will be read with
some interest, notwithstanding the abeurdity of the con-
cluding paragraph, by which it would seem that the
British Government only f restme to legislate experimen-
tally till they have ascertained the feelings and dispositioes
of the Cabinet of Ilrashingtont—
g' To men of intelligence, who have attended, for some
few years past, to the course of British commercial legis-
lation, it must be apparent that the object of the Board of ,
Trade and the Government of Great Britain is. to render
that island the emporium of the commerce of the whole
world. The only obstacle she has to encounter, in per-
fecting this new system of universal monopoly, is the
regulation of her colonial trade, so RR to render it subser-
vient to her grand design. 'flue United States have often
pressed the British Cabinet to place the Vi'est India and
British continental American ports on the same footing.
with regard to this country, as the British ports in Europe
ate placed by convention; that is, upon a basis of equality,
in relation to admission and duties. The Colonial Inter-
course Bill, recently enacted by the British Parliament, may
be considered as tending to smooth the way to such an equa-
lity ; but the manlier of it is more exceptionable, as it is
more uncertain in its duration than an agreement to the
same effect, by treaty, would he. That this Act of
Parliament has been passed exclusively with a slew
to benefit the navigation and trade of Great Britain is
obvious from its provisions. They contain exceptions
which must operate to the disadvantage of the productive
industry of large and valuable classes' of citizens of the
United States. Dried or salted fish, beef, pork, or bacon,
whale oil or fins, sugar, molasses, or rum, of foreign pro-
duction,' in all of which our fishermen, grazier., agricul-
turists, manufacturers, and merchants, arc more or less
deeply interested, cannot be carried direct to the colonies
in vessels of the United States, upon the same terms that
they may be conveyed in British ships. The act, more-
over, establishes a line of ports with the privilege of the
warelioneiug system, commencing at Quebec, in Lower
Canada, and running through Ilalifax, in Nova Scotia.
St. John's, in New Brunswick, to Kingston, in the island
of Jamaica, inclusive. The intention of this extension of
the warehousing system cannot be mistaken. It is, by
the means of British capital, to concentrate as well the
manufactures and productious of Great Britain and her
colonies as the productions of the United States, at the ma-
ritime points specified, in order to secure preferences to
British bottoms in the transportation of them, and to give
to British merchants a ready opportunity of availing
themselves, not only of the occasional rise of prices in our
own market, but of that in those of the IVest Indian Ar-
chipelago, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and La Plata. Should
the Government of the United States acquiesce in this
project, it will manifestly operate to the benefit of the
British North American possessions, to the detriment of
the substantial part of the trade of the eastern, an 1 a por-
tion of that of the middle, western, and southern Stated of
the Union. It will likewise promote, to a large amount,
the employment of British and Colonial tonnage; which,
it is a notorious fact, notwithstanding the commercial pro-
sperity of Great Britain, has not kept pace with that of the
United States. Another and a political motive may be dis-
covered for the passage of the Colonial Intercourse Act.
The erection of new and independent governments in Spa-
nish America presents a new aspect of affairs, which must,
at no very distant period, materially affect Europe. It is
probably the policy of Great Britain, therefore, by a gra-
dual repeal of her Colonial restrictions, to raise up a power
more directly in the vicinity of the new American nations,
that may enable her to exercise a more immediate and de-
cided influence with them, in counteraction of that of the
United States. We are in ,some degree justified in this
view of our zubject, by an observation which was made by
Mr. Huskisson, in the house of Commons, in the discus-
sion of the new British Tariff; on the 17th of June last.
Ile said that he was inclined to give every encouragement
to the productions of the West Indies, and to endeavour
to raise new articles there, and to make them less depend-
ent than they had hitherto been on the United States, for
their own maintenance and that of their slaves.' Although
enacted in July last, the British law is not to take effect
until the sth of January next ; a postponement which,
we presume, was intended to ascertain the effect it would
have on our Governtnent."