The Sun.
London, England, 1822-05-24 00:00:00

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FRIDAY, MAY 24, 1822.

TO THE RIGHT HON. T. WALLACE,

VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE, &C.

22, Birchin-lane, May 21, 1822.
SIR,—If the public prints of this day report
your Speech of last night on the Navigation
Laws correctly, I have no hesitation in saying,
that you know but little of the fundamental
principles on which Commerce is founded, and
to the many hundred pounds I have already of-
fered to stake with you (as per letter inserted in
The Public Ledger of the 11th January last), I
will venture to add 1001. sterling more, that you,
consistent with sound principles of political eco-
nomy, cannot explain the bearing and operation
of your intended measures, and you will pardon
me still farther, Sir, when I say, that before
you propose more alterations in our Navigation
Laws, you should account to the Shipping and.
Landed Interests for the enormous number of tons
of British shipping and people deprived of profit-
able employment through the Fast American
Treaties and alterations of the timber duties,
yet these were done under the specious plea of
serving the British Shipping Interest; these
two Acts alone deprive no less than 150,000
tons of British Shipping, and half a million
of people, of profitable employment, the na-
tion of revenue, wealth, and power in the like
ratio, and which increase the charge on the
landed interest, through the Poors'-rates, of not
less than one million Sterling per annum.
You seem to be much alarmed through fear of
foreigners shutting their ports against us ; now
what would be the consequence of such shutting?
my answer is, that we should then supply our-
selves, and from our Colonies, with 9-10ths,of all
we now take from foreigners, and which measure
would have a tendency to banish from our shores
Whiteboyism, Pauperism,Criminal Justice, trans-
portation of convicts, &c., the whole cost of which
is now amounting to about ten million sterling
per annum ; while it would also tend to give all
our people and shipping profitable employment,
and increase our revenue, wealth, and power. It
is a pity you cannot bring yourself to understand
this simple fact, that an Irish Whiteboy, or an
English Pauper, in cultivating and exchanging
his bale of hemp, flax, cotton or tobacco, would
not only take an equal quantity of our Manufac-
tures, but would employ double the quantity of
British Shipping, Tradesmen, &c. that Foreigners
supplying us with the same articles now do.—
When did we prosper most?—Answer, When
Buonaparte's Continental System, and America's
Non-intercourse Acts, were in their strictest ope-
ration against us ; this ought to cure you of your
alarm, and ought to caution you how you again
depend on those foreign supplies, as you did last
war, with which we could supply ourselves.
How are we to pay our national debt and ex-
penditure, and supportour Navy, without protec-
tion to our industry and shipping; neither Fo-
reign Exchequers nor Foreign Navies will pay
our debts or fight our battles ; now, if you con-
sider your measures as founded on the principle
of the profitable employment of our people con-
stituting the wealth and prosperity of the Empire,
you appear to me not only to be ignorant of the
principles of Commerce, but also of the probable
effects of your own measures, as well ^as of the
mighty resources of the British Empire.
I also enter my protest against any one pre-
siding over the destinies of our commerce who
does not found his measures on these fundamen-
tal principles, viz. that-British and Colonial pro-
ducts, exchanged for tack other, give double the
profitable employment to our people than if they
had been exchanged for the like foreign pro-
ducts. That we cannot beneficially carry com-
merce in exports beyond our ability to consume
their return payments, and that such ability de-
pends on the profitable employment of our peo-
ple ; nor ought he to preside over our commerce
who does not know that the cost of our manu-
factures at home has little or nothing to do with
their sale in Foreign Markets, depending on
our ability to consume their return payments.—
If this principle were acted on, I ask who would
now be Vice President of the Board of Trade ?

I remain,
Your very obedient humble Servant,
JOSEPH PINSENT, a true Pittite.

N.B. Perhaps you do not know, Sir, although
it is the fact; that our present commercial prac-
tice is founded on principles of self-destruction;
and further, that capital continuing to be em-
ployed in an Interest is no criterion of the pros-
perity of that Interest, as it may proceed from
other Interests being- equally unproductive, or
from want of opportunity to transfer it. Before
the increase of our Shipping and Revenue should
be the theme of any one's boast, he should con-
sider that our population is now about 1-6th
more than in 1815, while from the same taxation,
our Revenue, as well as the tonnage of our
Shipping, are rather less than in 1815 ; conse-
quently they are this year 1-6th short of a sound
complement and production. When any one re-
commends free trade to this country, he should
couple with it the profitable employment of
our people, as well as the payment of our na-
tional debt and expenditure, and what is neces-
sary to the support of a Naval preponderance,
with neither of which can England dispense.
I further contend, that while we retain our pre-
sent Colonies and population unemployed, that
shutting the Foreign Ports of the World against
our Commerce, (were we to protect our industry
by a duly protecting system) it would have a
tendency in an equal ratio to increase our aggre-
gate industry, revenue, wealth and power. Add
to which, the extension of our foreign commerce
depends on our ability to consume the return
payments of our exports, and not on what fo-
reigners are willing to buy from us. J. P.