The Sun.
London, England, 1822-05-29 00:00:00

50,000 tons of British Shipping of profitable em-
ployment, (the quantity I fear will be treble)
then the account will stand thus :
DR.—The consequences of Mr. Wallace's Bill to the British

Empire.

To the Landed Interest, for the cost of maintaining
7,000 paupers and their families, at £2O per fa-
mily - - . - - -
To do. for the loss of customers, and a further in-
crease of paupers occasioned thereby, -
To the Manufacturing Interest, for loss of Custo-
mers, about - - - -
Loss of Revenue, about - . •
National Wealth, and Political Power, about
Loss to the Shipping Interest, about - -

I will have you to add what it will cost to batten
down this new power all are creating.
I conceive that if Mr. Robinson's two Bills relative
to the West India and American Intercourse
Trades pass into a law,' that they will, in addi-
tion to the above, cause an annual loss to the
British Empire, and affect the several Interests
above stated, equal to about

£140,000

60,000

100,000
100,000
100,000
100,000

£600,000

2,400,000

£3,000,000

Thus the serving foreigners without their re-
...

urning a single equivalent to Englishmen, will

be an annualloss of about 3,000,000 per annum

I hope that every Englishman will do his endea-
vour to frustrate the passing of such injurious

Bills.

The East India Company's Charter, the Ame-
rican Treaties, the alteration in the Timber Dit-
ties, Mr. RoßlNsoN's two West India Trade
Bills, and the want of due protection to our ge-
.

neral industry, are and will be in the whole of
twenty times greater loss to the country than the

Bills in question.
I am sorry the superciliousness of men in power
should prevent their taking good counsel from dis-
interested and experienced men when offered gra-
tuitously, and which might have convinced them
of the errors of our present commercial measures
before they had produced their present baneful
consequences; as well am I sorry that you did
not summons me= to give evidence, as I requested,
before the Foreign Trade Committee, as I think
I could have prevented one half of their errors.
You should know that a large portion of foreign

trade, while our people are unprofitably employed,
is a criterion of national decay ; and that the
profitable employment of our people (without
reference to foreign trade) is the true criterion

of national prosperity ; our present circumstances
prove this position.
If in passing your Bill you contemplate serv-
ing the British shipping interest (as you professed
to do when you altered the timber duties) would
it not be better for you to wait the solicitation of
that interest, and not press on its members these
good things (as you call them) against their will ;
for, as plain common, sense practical men they
cannot conceive how you can benefit their inte-
rest by giving the employment of their ships
to foreigners more than you did by our East
India Charter, our baneful American trea-
ties, and alteration of the Timber Duties. If a
person so stupid exists, as not to know that agri-.

culture is the root of and propelling power to all
our.other industry, let him just ask himself whe.
ther agriculture, manufactures, or commerce ex•
isted first ? Of Course that which first existed mus'

be the root of what grew out of it; let him also ask
himself if every other class of society are not
either the factors, carriers or labourers of, or
pensioners on, the landed interest ; but, Sir, I
am aware of that arduous task which every one
has to perform, who undertakes to convince such
men of their errors, as could wait till the table
of the House of Commons was nearly broken
down with Agricultural Petitions, before they
knew of the agricultural distress, or appointed a
Committee to ascertain its state ; while the pro-
found Statesman, knowing the price of corn, and

comparing it with the cost of production, would
have given relief before a single petition could
be presented ; as well do I know the difficulty
of convincing those of their errors Nfvho could
boast of the great benefit derived to their coun-
try by the exchange of 55 for 35 millions of
commodities (say we also received some bul-
lion, and which was unaccounted for ; this on
the average of years cannot much exceed three
millions sterling, as our animal consumption is
only about that sum) that our branches of in-
dustry were in a state of prosperity, while their
roots were acknowledged to be in a state of
decay ; who could also state, under such circum-
stances, that our revenue was in a prosperous or
increasing state, while this year of a sound pro-
duction it falls short of from 10 to 15 millions
sterling. Who could state that over-production
was the cause of our distress, while from a less
breadth of tillage, and after an injured and but
middling crop of corn, we had 1-6th more po-
pulation to feed and clothe than in 1815, and
while a large portion of the Empire was short
of provisions, and the people supported by
the bounty of their countrymen; and who could
say that our Shipping Interest (the bulwark of
the State) was too numerous, and that steps
would be taken to diminish them ? It was the
wisdom of our forefathers to protect British Com-
merce from foreign competition : it is the folly
of our present worthies to destroy British, and
to protect foreign Commerce from British com-
petition.
It is a maxim in the natural world, to lop off
useless branches, in order to save the trunks and
roots,—it is the maxim of our Statesmen to de-
stroy the root, in order to save the branches.
Now, I ask any man of common sense, how any
but the present disastrous consequences can be
expected from such unnatural and ill-concerted
measures.
Notwithstanding what is said to the contrary,
I am ready to prove that, with the exception of
the duty on foreign wool and rice, hardly a duty
or tax has been laid since 1815 that has been
founded on sound principles of political economy,
and those two duties have not been carried far
enough.
Now, although it is so absolutely necessary,
still, strange to tell, it appears that modern
Statesmen never, in the arrangement of their
measures, take into consideration the paymasters
of our enormous national debt and expenditure,
nor the case of our gallant defenders, the'profit-
able employment of our people, or how to pro-
, vide consumers for the return payments of our