The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-16 00:00:00

Teneriffe, 200 English vessels entered Riga in 1810 with -
British produce, and brought away Russian produce. Of
so much importance was the trade with England consi-
dered by Russia, that the Emperor Alexander suffered
his country to be invaded in 1812, rather than give up
such gcod customers as the English. The evil of this
system of ineffectual blocka . was that, whereas honest
and honourable merchants refrained from engaging in
trade with
the enemy, speculators were not prevented
from entering into this adventure. He would give an in-
stance of this. During the Vienna conferences, specula-
tors paid to Russian merchants an advance of one-half
and sometimes two-thirds, and not unfrequently the
whole price of the article they traded in. The crown
flax of Archangel wass2/. per ton in this country; in Arch-
angel it was 271. a ton. Freightage, insurance, and inci-
dental expenses, cost 71. ; so that the cost of this article
in this country was 341. Here, then, there was a dif-
ference of 181. per ton, er 50 per cent. to speculate upon.
If peace was established this was all gain to the specu-
lator ; if not, he had the 181. to pay the charges of the
land transit through the Russian dominions, the whole
)f which found its way into the pockets of the Russians.
(Hear.) He bad to say of the morality of the specula-
tors, perhaps they felt some twinges o,f conscience at
enriching themselves and the enemy of their country,
but he was afraid that 50 per cent. calmed the " still
small voice." At any rate the Government were par-
tzcipes criminis. (Hear, hear.) The Government had
always been most sensitive to the credit of the country,
and had sought to keep up the value of the rouble. At the
outbreak of the war it was 38d., but it had fallen to 32d.
The Russian Government had done their best to pre-
vent this by prohibiting the export of specie ; but the
Government of this country came to their aid, by the
order in council for regulating the trade with Russia,
and then the rouble went up again to 350. or 36d.
Subsequently, on the accession of Lord Palmerston to
office, some alarm had been created by the publication
of another order in council ; but when its effect was un-
derstood, the alarm was soon di-4sipated. Russia dreaded
nothing so much as interference with her exports ; and
this fear being removed the Russian Government had
thought they might venture to join us by prohibiting the
export of grain. By a merciful Providence, in the shape
of a bountiful harvest last year, we were spared the suf-
fering which this might have occasioned ; but who could
answer for the effect which such a measure might pro-
duce this year ? Pas est et ab hoste doceri ; and as Rus-
sia had sacrificed her trade in grain, though so impor-
tant to her, let us imitate her, and inflict the maximum
of injury on our enemy, and the minimum on our-
selves. (Hear, hear from the Government bench.)
Let us rescind our order in council ; for the certificate
of origin was not worth a sixpence. (Laughter. It
might easily be rendered more certain and stringent ;
various plans had been proposed with that view.
A Manchester gentleman had recommended that an
allowance should be made in the certificates of origin
for the probable produce of the countries adjacent to
Russia. But he would ds away with the certificates of
origin altogether ; he would prohibit all consumption of
Russian goods, and of all which were partly of Russian
growth. Nothing short of this would completely put an
end to the trade with Russia. He would throw the onus
of proof entirely on the English importer ; and this
would be sufficient to prevent any Russian or semi-Rus-
sian goods being imported. Persons practically ac-
quainted with the trade, brokers and others, declared
that it would be perfectly easy to carry out this plan.
The noble earl concluded by moving, " That it is the
opinion of this house that, in order to bring the war
with Russia to a speedy termination, it is necessary to
restrict the trade with that country by more efficient
measures than any which have hitherto been adopted or
announced by her Majesty's Government."

Lord STANLEY of ALDERLEY said he most en-
tirely concurred in the importance of the object which
the noble lord had in view. He coincided in the neces-
sity of doing all in our power to restrict, and, if we
could, destroy the whole of the Russian trade, by any
means by which this was best to be effected ; but as far
as he could understand the means and the mode which
the noble earl wished to pursue, he could not agree with
him. (Hear.) He spoke as if the trade of Russia had
been by no means interfered with by our efforts for
blockading the ports of that country. It was true that
that blockade had been carried out in a very imperfect
way, for reasons which had appeared to be valid,
namely, that at the breaking out of the war the greatest
part of the produce lying in Russian ports was rather
the property of French and English subjects than of
Russian subjects ; for, by the system pursued there, the
greatest part of that produce was paid for beforehand.
(Hear.) In the Black Sea, he admitted that the blockade
was not only imperfect, but it had barely existed. The
reason was, that in consequence of erroneous views
taken by the English and French admirals, who sup-
posed that it would be sufficient to blockade the Bos-
phorus alone, whereas that course was afterwards found
to be untenable, the season had too far advanced, and
the entire fleets of the two nations were occupied in the
embarkation of our troops from Varna to Sebastopol.
But, notwithstanding the absence of blockade in the
Black Sea, and the imperfect blockade of the Baltic, the
trade of Russia had been reduced between 50 and 60
per cent., giving to her the benefit of all the excess in the
importation from neutral ports of articles which were
principally her produce. If the blockade had been
strictly carried out, the effect would only have been to
raise the price of those articles in Prussia, who
would have had to import from Russia all that she re-
quired. A paper which he had recently received from
8.-rlin, dated May Bth, stated that the inhabitants of the
islands along the Russian coast of the Baltic were making
preparations for quitting their exposed dwelling houses,
d retreating souse distance within the continent. It
was also stated that the Russian Government had ins-
Fesed an additional tax upon every vehicle coiiveying
produce along the road to the Prussian frontier. So that
this Emperor of Russia, who, it was said, was to ba at
once coerced by the limitation of his trade with this
country, did not hesitate to put an additional tax of a
considerable amount upon every vehicle going alongthat
road which was to take that very produce to Prussia
One of the principal articles of Russian produce was core,
and yet he bad put a prohibition upon the exportation of
corn. The objections of the noble earl reduced them-
selves to a very small compass. He had dwelt with great
emphasis on rendering aid to the Queen's enemies, but how
the rescinding of the order in council could have any such
effect, be was at a loss to know! What was that order in
council? The first was issued because everybody felt it
was impossible for us to insist upon those old rights
which we had &aimed in former wars. We were engaged
with an ally who entertained different views about the
rights of search and the laws of neutrals. We had, there-
fore, very wisely, under existing circumstances, agreed
to waive the right which we still possessed, namely, that
right by which all goods of an enemy carried on beard a
neutral ship should be confiscated. And in the case of
Russia there was no great generosity in doing this. She
had an immense territory, and a very same seaboard,
and there could be no great difficulty in blockading every
port she possessed, so that not a vessel could put her
nose out of harbour without being liable to be stopped
arid seized. The noble lord said that a subsequent order
had allowed English subjects to import enemy's goods
from neutral ports. He could not discover that there
was any such order. The order of the 15th of April
allowed neutrals to trade with all ports not in a state of
blockade, but it did not apply to English subjects. But
bow would the noble lord proceed ? If the orders were
rescinded, would he search every vessel coming out of a
Prussian harbour ? He even proposed to go so far as to
seize articles partly manufactured ; but this could not be
done by any existing law. (Hear.) After listening at-
tentively to the noble lord's speech, he was unable to
gather any definite course which he recommended. He
had spoken of quantities of jute and hemp which might
be obtained from other countries. If this were so, we
should not be at the trouble of getting a little hemp
through Prussia after a long land Tourney, but should
prefer to obtain it at a cheaper rate from Manilla. The
noble lord had denied the veracity of some returns, but
had failed to show wherein they were untrustworthy.
A recent return, only received that afternoon, showed a
large increase in the importation of hemp from Prussia
in 1854 ; but, on comparing it with the whole amount
exported from Russia, instead of showing an increase
of one-third, it showed a diminution of one-fourth or
one-sixth on the whole quantity. Of flax, there was a
large decrease for the first four months of the present
year ;.it had been reduced to about one-fourth. The
quantity exported during the whole of last year was
425,418 cwt., while the quantity during the first four
months of the present year was 12,023 cwt. Of tallow,
the whole quantity last year was 552,672 owls., and the
quantity fur the first four months of the present year was
42,144 cwts. In conclusion, he could assure their lord-
ships that her Majesty's Government felt as strongly as
the noble earl could do the importance of carrying the
blockade into effect. with all the strictness which ail the
energy, activity, and exertion of the naval service could
impart to it. He was satisfied that it would be so con-
ducted, and that the export trade of Russia, so far as her
"own ports were concerned, would be all but annihilated.
With regard to that small portion of it which oozed
through Prussia, he saw so many difficulties in the way
of distinguishing between what was Russian and what
VMS Prussian, that to adopt the measures recommended
by the noble earl would, to use his favourite phrase, only
inflict the minimum of injury upon Russia, and the
maximum upon ourselves. (Hear.)
Lord RAVENSWORTH thought the noble lord was
inconsistent in admitting the great importance of the
Russian trade, and at the same time arguing as if it was
of comparatively trifling moment to Russia. He found
in an article which appeared in a Government organ
that morning certain returns, showing the increase which
had taken place in the Prussian exports, and stating
truly that that increase represented the Russian produce
which had found its way to this country through the
ports of Memel and Dantzic, notwithstanding the block-
ade. The exports of tallow in 1853 had been 54,000
cwts., in i 854 they had been 253,959 cwts. ; hemp, in
1853, 3,447 cwts. ; in 1854, 366,223 cwts. ; flax, in
1853, 22,442 cwts. ; 1354, 667,879 cwts. What he
(Lord Ravensworth) proposed was, that they should lay
a duty of 20 or 25 per cent. ad valorem, upon all Russian
produce exported from any ports in the Baltic or Black
Sea- (Hear, hear.) Such a step would be perfectly
fair, and it would be effective. It would tend greatly
*utterable
to restrict the Russian trade, and at the same time it
would swell to a certain extent our own resources.
d at
be
IgJeerdagw
airEHOU SE said that, although there might
he cue •
would be fours:
plausibility and weight in the arguments
they came to policy of the Government, still, when
examined more closely, he thought it
orrthebeen-
Lord BERNtat the policy adopted was a wise one.
tion of munitions oeti°ll
brought forward !Sinhad, on the 6th of March, when be
earl the President
with respect to the exporta-
informed by the noble
Government had - green Council, that the Prussian
Government that they wouirs
4_,_uranne to her Majesty's
ma
the transit of warlike steps ut a stop to
terials he
wished to know