The National Register.
London, England, 1815-01-01 00:00:00

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islands," said the noble speaker, " we know must be free. this
admits of no daub' ; let us then suppose the private trader
admitted 'there to free • navigation and commerce, but ex-
cluded from direct access to China. What follows? Every
article of the commerce of China which he wishes to procure,
its cottons, its silks, its tea, will be brought to him in what-
ever port he chuses of the eastein Archipelago. Against
this danger, as some would call it. against this great ad-
vantage as I consider it, what precaution would the spirit of
monopoly advise? Shall we meet it with the revenue system
by which the British Coasts are guarded ? Can we establish
along the whole extent of Java and Sumatra and. Malacca.
our entries and clearances, our bonds and certificates and
dockets as in the ;wit of London ? Can we bui:d British Cus-
tom houses in all that vast chain of countless islands which
encircles the sea of China, placed there as if in mockery of
such a vain imaginat.ion, and stretching in uninterrupted con-
tinuance from Ave almost to New Holland, and thence again
northward by Borneo and the Phillipines, to the "'try
boundaries of the' Russian empire It would be to consider '
such a piojeet too seriously, to remind your Lordships that
.the whole army of revenue officers now employed through:.
out the British empire, with all their expense and patronage
and influence, would not suffice to execute the smallest part
-of such a provision, which, if it fails even in a single instance,
is defeated in the vibrate; where if any one channel of
estape remains unclosed, the whole dyke with all its difficulty
and cost and labour, becomes only a useless burthen to the
earth.
" To Europe. therefore, not indeed by lawful bade, butt
in despite of all your prohibitions, and by that vet), motto.-
bawd, if contraband it can *be called, against whiCh your
exclusion is directed, eve!), article of China produce and
manufacture can easily Le brought. But you may at least
prohibit your merchants from bringing them into the British
pmts. Yon may so. And whenever peace is restored to
Europe, the consequence will be the same as the same pro-
hibition has before produced. Ostend, Calais, Boulogn..,
the whole coasts of the narrow seas, will again he lined with
depots of tea for smuggling, with tea brought there by Bri-
tish trade frutn the Eastern islands, or by foreign trade direct
from China.
" But, in truth, my Lords, not only is the.provision im-
practicable, the object itself is hopeless. Our: past experience
teaches us, with unerring certainty, that in peace the reve-
nue which we raise on tea cannot, at its present rate of duty,
be collected. In 1785. the Company's monopoly *as in

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to. the lawsa_and veneration for the immortal institutions 1 reason dui as an indirect trade tanntit be prevented, It is u
Fell of our ancestors, as the principle which will alone enableell to make tlie permission for a direct commercial inter-
us to survtve any of the storms that may assail the vessel course, a matter of favour and the means of obtaining an
of. the, State. equivalent advantage in negotiation.
" The trade of the British merchants with the Eastern