The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LON DON, SATURDAY, DECEMnEn 26.1810.

IMPORT DUTIES.

SIXTH ARTICLE.

We might extend our extracts from the Report
of the Import Duties Committee, till we had placed
every line nearly of the evidence before our readers,
with the important comments which almost every
line suggests. We must, however, close the subject
by the present article, in which we shall quote the
evidence given against—

THE TIMBER DUTIES.—These duties were first
laid on for revenue, but war haring in part and
for a time shut us out from the North of Europe,
and the colonial proprietors and shipowners having
great interest with the Government, commanding
some votes in the House of Commons, the timber
duties were made protective of our colonial timber
trade, and now are, according to Mr. M‘Gregor,
450 per cent. higher on timber brought from Nor-
way, and other politically foreign though near
countries. than on timber brought from Canada, and
oth:r politically connected though distant colonies.
Mr. \l'Gregor's summary, however, of the duties
scarcely gives a correct and complete idea of their
injustice; -for on most of the articles, such as batteoss
deals, &c., the duties levied on the foreign timber
is ten times as great as the duties levied on the
colonial timber. It is in fact obvious, that on such
a bulky article the protecting duty must be enor-
mously high, provided the article be about the
same price in the foreign country and in the colony
to enable it to bear the expense of the long sea voy-
age
from the distant Canadas, instead of bringing it
from contiguous Norway. The average duration of the
voyages of the timber-vessels to and from Canada
cannot be less than six weeks ; the averae duration
of voyages to and from Norway may be estimated at
one week ; so that the discriminating duties must be
sufficient to cover the employment of all the ships
and seamen necessary to supply us with timber for
Five weeks every year. Or, the distance from London
to the entrance of the gulf of St. Lawrence being
six times as great as the distance between Lon-
don and Bergen, and the amount of tonnage en-
gaged in bringing timber from our colonies being
estimated at 216,000 tons, navigated by 9,200
men, it follows that the country, by the discri- •
minating timber duties, is compelled to waste the
labour of 9,200 men for five months out of every
six in order to procure the required supply of
timber. The timber duties cause the labour of
that number of men and that amount of tonnage
to be as completely destroyed as if for that period
the men's hands were tied and the ships were lying
rotting in port. But this waste, though vast,
gives an incomplete and faint idea of the mischief
caused by making the community bring timber
from a place 3,000 miles off, when it can be ob-
tained from a place not 600. The length of the
voyage exposes both ships and crews to hazards
which in the shorter voyage are never encoun-
tered. Moreover, the worst kind of ship are
employed in the timber trade, and the conse-
quence is that a great number of vessels and
human lives are annually sacrificed. Thus to
the actual and certain-waste of the time of five-
sixths of all the vessels and men employed in the
timber trade, must be added an annual sacrifice of
property and life by shipwreck. Such, on the
first blush of the thing, is the effect of duties, to
make men supply themselves with timber from a
place 3,000 miles off, when, if there were no such
barbarous duties, they would bring it from places
not much above 500 miles off. We know no terms'
sufficiently strong to characterise such a profligate '
and brutal system.
The following is a copious abstract of the evi-
dence of Mr. Mitchell, a general merchant at Leith.
The first statement that these timber duties tend to
injure our ship-building, on which the safety of the
country depends, confirmed, as it is, by other tes-
timony, is calculated to startle those who look to
the wisdom of Parliament for the national defence
and security :
I consider that the duty upon both oak and fir tim-
ber is very oppressive, and extremely injurious to the
country generally ; and that if the duty were lowered,
particularly upon oak timber, tie should increase the
most important manufacture of this country, namely,
the manufacture of ships, to a very considerable extent.
The duty of 565. 6d. per 50 feet of both oak and fir tim-
ber is equal, in regard to fir of certain descriptions, to
about '2OO per cent., and on oak about 150 per cent.
I have lately received a letter from a correspondent of
mine in Norway, offering to deliver the very finest Nor-
way fir timber, including the prime cost and fi eight, at
Sd. to 6.;d. a foot, laid down at Leith. It is suitable
for any purpose, particularly for fishing-boats and build.
mg. It is in logs. I include everything, because my
correspondent offers to deliver it at what he calls " the
mast ;" at Sid., therefore, I conclude that all the ship-
ping charges are included. The duty per foot being
about Is. 2d., and the cost upon delivery being Sid., it
would conic to about 175 per cent. But the mode of
measurement makes the duty still higher to the importer.
There is a mode of measurement called the calliper
measure, which is used by the Customhouse, and in
some cases adds to the number of feet, by measuring
empty space, 10 per cent. It might be ebout 10 per
cent. more than the true contents on fir timber, and
upen oak timber it is 25 to 30 per cent. The wood is
peculiarly suitable in Scotland for many purposes, parti-
cularly for agricultural purposes, such as farm-steadings,
and for building pilot-boats, and even for ship-building ;
I had en application from one of our most respectable
ship-builders in regard to a cargo which 1 lately
landed from Norway. He was particularly anxious to
get it for deck plinks for a large steamer now building,
I think, for the West Indian Packet Company ; he
said it was preferable to any other wood for the purpose
of making decks, but when he found the price with the
duty, he saw he could not purchase it. It would be par-
ticularly useful for house-building for joists and
rafters in all places not exposed to the air. Placing
Norway timber under this high duty has prevented one
most important article of commerce from being intro-
duced at all, except, perhaps, one or two cargoes, in all
Scotland during the twelvemonth. If the duty were
reduced to the ad valorem rate there would be a very
considerable addition to the trade, and I should think it
would add very considerably to the revenue ; but as to
the exact amount I could not say. Nine-tenths of the
timber would be put into a fishing-boat ; the only thing
it would not do for would be the knees, which would
require to be oak, or herd wood. It would tend very
much to lessen the expense of building those boats and
all smaller vessels, such as the boats upon canals and in
small rivers. The Norway fir would suit them remark-
ably well. I think it is obvious that the French and
other foreign boats are stouter-built than ours, owing to
the very expensive nature of the material required for
building those fishing-boats in this country. 1 should
like to add, that our fishermen are now beginning to
proceed further out into the ocean in search of fish, not
only herrings but cod, and they require much larger
boats. They have been accustomed to go in small open
boats. Now if the duty were lowered, they could build
the large decked boats at the same price as they now p ty
for those small open dangerous fishing. boats. They must
not have it, their lives must be sacrificed. The boats
which have heretofore been made slight, in consequence
of the high price of timber, would, if the duties were
lowered, be made so as to be suitable for more distant
voyages, as the French and other fishing boats arc now
made ? Our fishermen, at this present time, decline
often to go to any distance from the shore, in conse-
quence of the slight make of their boats ?—lt would
be impossible for them to go any distance, because they
have no convenience either in regard to shelter, or in
regard to placing their food so as to protect it from
:he wet. The boats on the coast of Scotland are ail open
boats. They are altogether inferior for the purposes
for which they are used, to the French, owing to the
high price of timber in this country. The commerce
with Norway is a very important one. I am able
to remember when the duties were lower, and when
every farthing forming the net proceeds of those car•
goes of timber then imported was expended in Scottish
manufacturers. Every man in a Norway ship had
.chat they call a land-day, that is to say, a day of liberty
from the ship, and they generally spent every shilling
of their surplus wages in manufactured at tides. That
was I should think above 20 years ago.
Is not the duty on battens in the seine proportion as
on timber ?—lt is consderabiy less, which the Com-
mittee will be surprised to learn : the duty is consider-
ebly less on battens and deals, than on log timber.
nave made a series of calculation to prove that the
duty upon the manufactured articles of battens and deals
it considerably less than the dully upon the raw material.
MORE CONTRADICTORY LAVVS.—I have 'node out a
bentaantltesshowees the comparative duty payable on deals,
and squire timber, and the cubical contents,
Tee rate per
--- cent, excess of duty on the roush timber,
As compared with battens and deals, is from 40 to 95
per cent., and from 37 to 66 per cent.--(Tix witness
,ienvercd in a table.) Tumber cut up partly menthe-
eired, can he imported at a rate of from SO to 60 per
cent. less than timber in log, from which those battens
aro made. That prohibit& the importation of log tim-
ber to a certain extent ; 1 have only had two cargoes
on consignment lately. The trade in Norway log- tim-
ber to Scotland had almost ceased to exist. The ad-
vantage of importing log timber rather than manufac-
tured is, that we should have a number of men em-
ployed in cutting it up to the proper size we want it ;
and again, log timber can be employed as beams, and
`cr various purposes to whichvre could act apply cut-up
i
:vood, battens, or deals. anneufacturtal articie
is now admitted on more favourable terms than the raw
material. The effect of the existing law is not only to

check the trade but to deprive many men of employ-
ment who would be engaged in fashioning and squaring
the timber for the purposes for which it might be
wanted for home consumption. If the same facilities
were given to logs as to manufactured timber, the
whole of the Norway timber would be imported in
logs. It could be sawed cheaper here than in Norway.
A ship of 400 tons would cost at Leith ready for sea
from about 12/. to 15/. per ton. We are beginning
very much to buy ships abroad ourselves, because we
find it very profitable to take shares abroad. I have
ceased to be a British ship-owner some time since, and
I join in shares in foreign ships. The price of a foreign
ship is about 10/. a ton. A ship built of materials
equally good can be procured for 10/. abroad, whilst .ve
pay 151. hare. That difference of price in the first
place is owing to the high duty upon timber here, and
the consequent difference between the price of timber
abroad and the price here, and it may also be on ac-
count of the higher wages of the labourers.
If you continue the present duties, it would be cheaper
and more advisable to build a ship abroad, and to
bring her here navigated, and to continue navigating
her with foreign seamen. A considerable amount of
British capital is now embarked in foreign shipping. I
hold shares in some foreign ships. Seeing the difficulty
of getting ships cheaply built in this country, I thought
proper to join several firms, I think about two years
ago. If the duty on timber were taken off, and the
price of provisions were more like that on the Conti
nent, I have no doubt whatever that shipbuilding in this
cauntry would rapidly increase. I even contemplate
the possibilty of foreigners coming to buy ships in this
couuntry. If timber were admitted at a very moderate
duty, or free of duty, I should contemplate the possi-
i,ility (on account of the superior build of British ships)
of foreigners coming to purchase ships in this country.
The high duty on timber is the principal article which
prevents the British shipping from being improved. It
is of the utmost consequence to have Norway spars for
masts. The duty is excessively high. The duty upon
spars above 1.2 inches in diameter, is the same as upon
fir timber, 21. i6s. 6d. a load of 50 cubic feet ; other
stews suitable for masts, S and under 12 inches diame
ter, are 1/. 2s. each. If the duty were 20 per cent.
ad valorem I could import some masts at about 15s.
each. Those arc spire particularly useful for ship-
building. Baltic timber is considerably more durable,
and preferable on maey accounts to North American.
On the Continent, too, there is a more abutment supply,
and a better choice of timber. Here the best wood is
taken up for naval purposes. The present duties, con-
sequently, not only increase the p-ice, but lirnt the
choice of that timber which otherwise we should have
for shipbuilding. That gives foreigners a better mate-
rial generally for their ships then we have. If the
ditty werewer.r reduced on Baltic timber I do not think the
price would rise, because we have considerable compe-
tition from various countries ; we have Russia, which
produces a great quantity of fir timber ; we have
Prussia, and we have Norway. It is a mistaken no-
tion, that because the means of exportation from any fo-
reign country is facilitated, the prices will consequently
rise in that country, because there is nut only a coin-
petition in that particular country, but there is a com-
petition with other countries. I have no doubt that
English shipping would tied a preference in almost any
part of the world, if it could be built as cheap, and
that the shipowners would become more prosperous than
th sy are at present. I generally hear the shipowners
who are connected with the B-itish American pro-
vince: complain of the state of trade ; but it is not ge-
nerally known, and it ought to be generally known, that
nearly the whole carrying trade of that timber from
America is carried on by vessels that have been found
useless in more important occupations, and which are
employed simply because they are of little value ; they
have perhaps been in the West India trade or in the
East India trade, or they are built of very inferior ma-
terials, and consequently are suitable only for that
purpose. It is the most worthless part of our shipping
that is used in the American timber trade.

Mr. Eeeart—Are the ships belonging to the gentle•
men you mentioned chiefly New Brunswick built ves-
sels?—The whole of the ships belonging to one house,
amounting to 20, or 30, or 40, are entirely built in Bri-
tish America, in New Brunswick, I think. So that
the present duties discourage to a peat degree the
building of ships in England, and encourage colonial
built shipping. The result of a reduction of the duties
would be to encourage and promote ship-building in
England to a very extraordinary extent. The dwel-
lings of the poorer classes in Norway to those in this
country, are far superior, entirely owing to the cheap-
ness of wood. They are generally built of wood are
comfortable and durable. The people here ate living
in the most wretched and miserable dwellings, ex-
tremely injurious to the health, not only of the indivi-
duals thetneelves, but of the whole community. If
building materials were cheaper, the dwellings would
improve. In Norway families all live in separate houses.
In Norway there are some earthenware manufactures
and some coarse wollcn cloth, but they depend for their
manufactures upon other countries. Formerly, before
the duties were raised, they imported the whole of the
necessaries of life almost, except food, from this country.
Now they generally get the whole of their manufactures,
although very inferior, from Hatnhurgh, an,l from Prus-
sia, and Germany. If the trade to Norway could
be resumed as it formerly existed, the Norwegians
would supply themselves, in return for the cargoes
brought here, :vith the necessary articles required from
this country. I have found the Norwegians admit
themselves, that while they may get goads, generally
speaking, cheaper in the Continental markets in Ger-
many, they prefer, as superior in quality, the Scottish
manufactures, and that therefore they would buy all they
required in regard to manufactures, and necessaries of
that kiwi, in this country. They meet Prussian timber
in Germany, and arc obliged to sell at a comparatively
low price to what they obtain in England. They would
take their supplies from us in return for their timber.
Now, the importation of wood to any considerable
extent in the log has entirely ceased in Scotland. In
1822, 558 large ships brought cargoes of wood from
Norway, and in 1839 that number had increased to
758 ; but with battens or deals. There are some de-
scriptions of wood that we should always import from
North America. We have now got accustomed to
finish the insides of our houses with American timber,
and I heve no doubt that a considerable proportion of
the British lumber ships would be continued in that
trade. lam informed that a great part of the wood
brought from the British colonies is cut by natives of
the United States, and that a great part of the red
pine is actually the growth of the United States. I
lately read a letter from Baron Humboldt to Lord
Castlereagh, which appears to have been published, in
which lie states that " the wood imported from Quebec
is partly from the woods on the lakes and rivers of the
United States, and that the wood in Canada is to a
considerable extent cut by the inhabitants of the United
States, who, being paid in read) money, receive the
greatest portion of the price. The wood called red
pine grows entirely in the territory of the United States.
We now quote from Mr. Porter's evidence a
confirmation of the fact that the timber duties con-
fer an advantage on our Colonial shipbuilders at
the expense of our home shipwrights :
I have a letter in my hand which was written to
me a few days ago by a ship-builder in the Clyde.
He says, " Were it not that the quality of British
ships is held rather superior, our trade would likely
now be entirely at an end." He speaks of the ship-
building trade. " A most important warning offers
itself, in the example of our great North American
Shipping Company, Pollock and Gilmour. Our :muse
have been the ship-builders of that house since ever
they have been in business. They had a strong at-
tachment to the British build, and but for prohibitory
duties they would now most likely have had every
ship in their hands British built, whereas they have
not one, while the amount of their tonnage resembles
more a second-rate national marine than that of a
company of private traders ; they have between 30
and 40 ships of 700 to 1,000 tons register. The
duty upon timber, part of which is necessary for the
construction of a ship, I mean Baltic timber, is so
high that it acts as a restriction upon the ship-beild-
ing trade in this country ; and the ships that would
have been built in this country are now built elsewhere
—they are built in the North American colonic.. The
operation of the differential duties, moreover, is to
cause the employment of an inferior description of
timber, and to limit the amount of revenue that might
fairly be derived from the imperteition of timber. Those
duties are likewise injurious to the country, by limiting
our trade with the European countries where timber
is chiefly produced, and which formerly, under different
circumstances, were much better customers than they
noes are for British manufactures. Speaking of the
timbsr-producing colonies generally, I am of opinion
that it is no advantage to them ; it is an advantage to
some few persons who obtain a living by cutting timber,
arid it is an advantage to a certain clime of ship-owners
in this country, who employ old ships for the trade,
that must otherwise be broken up. It is not generally
for the benefit of the shipping interest in this country
to maintain these duties, but only far the owners of
these rotten ships.

Ship-building and navigation have a higher in-
terest than that merely of coinnhlce—they contri-
and they have accordingly
bute to the public safety,
been encouraged by much legislation not a little in-
.
eeusenajamrYens.ensrle?he timber duties, then,
to other classes than
jsubr.i
shipwrights and
pecuniary
like sonic other duties, we have adverted to, are
not only mischievous in themselves,_ but they con-
tradict other legislation, and tend to render the
whole confused and inapplicable to society . British
navigation is very seriously discouraged by our
merchants buying shares of foreign shipping, and
so encouraging foreign vessels. Some red-hot
patriots may exclaim their conduct is immoral, but
the guiding principle of commerce is to sock profit,
and its immense ut:tity tO Ult.' v.-odd a; :arok; suffi-
cient evi(l.42,ner of flu, rectitude of the tcipie. L
cannot be wrong, therefore, for the merchants to
seek profit by employing foreign shipping any more

than it is to seek profit by importing foreign cot-
ton or foreign wheat ; the wrong is committed by
those foolish statesmen who, without knowing the
effects of their own deeds, make laws which give a
bounty on the employment of foreign shipping.
The timber duties, not the honest pursuit of profit
by trade, are the source of the evil.
If it be said that Navigation is encouraged bti
the long voyages, we reply that it is not so ; that
we must have an equal quantity of timber, from
wherever brought, to the quantity at present con-
sumed ; that it is reasonable to conclude, in fact,
that we should require a great deal more, and that
our navigation would be extended both by timber
being brought in by British ships, and by those
ships, in consequence of the cheapness of naviga-
tion, being more employed. The money now re•
quired to pay those who are engaged in useless la-
bour would be vested in a useful trade, and naviga•
tion would be increased by substituting the short •
for the long voyage. Moreover, it is given in GNI..
dence that the worst possible ships are employed in
the American timber trade. They are fit fur no-
thing else, and could ;n no sense be of use to the
country in case of war. At the same time the long
voyage takes away our seamen at all times from
the public service, while the short voyage would
leave them as it were at home, ready to serve A.
tney were wanted and were willing. Nor is there
such temptation for them to desert in Norway that
there is in America, anti save another and, per-
haps, hostile Government.
To sum up the effects of the discriminating du
ties on timber, they waste the national resources
the extent of four-fifths of the shipping employed
to bring home timber; they have destroyed a most
prosperous trade with Norway and the rest of the
North of Europe ; they deprive the poor of com-
fortable habitations ; they check the very use-
ful art of ship-building ; they discourage
navigation, and damage the revenue. Wnat
good in return for these evils do they con-
fer on our colonies ? None. They turn
them from agriculture to wood-cutting, and
make them engage in a trade which could not be
carried on without the bounty of the tax, and
must, therefore. be a less profitable trade than
agriculture. They have injured and corrupted the
population of the colonies for the advantage of a
few shipowners and merchants in London and in
Canada. All these evils, however, are not learnt
now for the first time, they have been long ob-
served, but no remedy has been applied. In fact,
every attempt to apply a remedy has been defeated,
certain corrupt interests have combined to keep up
this injurious tax ; and for the advantage of a fevv,
the community has been deeply injured.
' One.votive for this conduct creeps out at one
part of the evidence. The present race of ship•
owners are afraid, should the timber duties be re-
duced, that the price of ships would fall, and that
they would be so much the poorer. No person
pretends to say that the value of their property in
use would he deteriorated, for the ships woud be
the same after the reduction as now, but the value
in exchange would be less. When a shipowuer
can noN say, " I am worth 40,000/., he would then
he only able to say I am worth 30,000/. The latter
sum would, however, most probably then command
as many, or more useful commodities, than now ;
but still the nominal amount of 40,000/. has so
oreat a charm for these people over the less amount
of 30,0001., that to possess the former, they
oppose the most desirable and just alterations. To
such miserable selfish motives is the welfare of the
nation sacrificed.

MORAL EFFECTS.—We cannot drop the sub-
ject, which we might extend to a much greater length
by further quotation from this excellent volume, with-
out making a few general remarks on the moral
effects of such a system which are too often over-
looked.

The Legislature begins by protecting iron or
ships, and goes on to protect corn. It first
levies a tax on all the consumers of iron, or users
of ships, or eaters of bread, for the exclusive ad-
vantage, not of the actual producers of these
commodities, for it is well known that the wages
of labour are not encreased by the protection—
' but of the owners of them. The owners, or ca-
pitalists in all these cases are comparatively few,
and thus an injustice is perpetrated by the Legis-
lature of taxing the industrious many for the
benefit of the idle few. But when the Legisla-
ture has begun this system for the advantage of
one class of capitalists, another class of capitalists
acquire a claim on the Legislature for an (qua!
• advantage, which it has generally been enabled to
make good ; so that the protection of one trade has
begotten protection of another. " So long, (says
Mr. J. F. Gibson, a silk manufacturer, in his
evidence) as we have a restrictive system, and
so long as the landowner is protected as he is,
and the chief necessaries of life are so very much
clearer here
full thanhseiriaereoip
ino protection." ftrenig.'l countries, I claim
Now, Mr. Gib-
son is an enlightened, intelligent, liberal man, and
roio"
because the landlords are enabled by law to
plunder the consumers of bread, lie claims a right
stoilkli.e
i3renabledoier t
y has with Usb v law to plunder the consumers of
a potential voice, and
the silk manufacturer is accordingly enabled to levy
a tax on the consumers of silk. Property, which
is of itself a power and a protection, obtains im-
Yri'etis established—that of
contrary to the very prin-
ciples to all. First one class is
then another class gets the
enabled
icu:luitel)risltielidlegos
tneoaqgwiva)hiaili:cnspltdl
reigonrtod,:a: entsrilkoirl
thus by the much-
boasted-of system of protection, plunder, vile, scan-
dalous theft, is consecrated h- he Legislature, and,
. Such a system
ii ss ranal.,dmeradlrepegseti.le.rallt rule of
the
whole.
It
is
the
legalizatioo of dishonesty. But pest though it be,
men are told they must not abuse it. To submit to
i
it is preached up continually as the highest social
duty, and smug.gling, which corrects it is punished
as a crime. To enforce it, an army of coast guard
is employed, custom-houses exist, and all the
contrivances which ever have guarded robbery and
wrong grow up silently out of this system of pro-
tection, and become the plague of our lives. The
frauds which ensue, and the costly and cruel laws
which are passed to punish them, become endless,
and we
are all made the slaves of a vicious system.
After all, what is gained by it. The land-
lords and other protected classes are great con-
sumers of silk, timber, sugar, coffee, &c.,
and they
must pay foe the protection these articles
arc. said
to enjoy, by conceding the protection
which the others 'receive. When it is considered
that these classes must pay about 4d. per lb. on
sugar to the planters,
and about 90. per lb. on
coffee, and about 12d. per foot on timber to the
colonists, &c,, they
cannot, it is plain, gain on
the whole anything beyond the most paltry sum, if
they gain at all ; and for this most wretched and
paltry sum they
are willing to sacrifice, and have
sacrificed, the
respect of society, and they see the
esteem and honour in which they were once held
converted into contempt and loathing. The dis-
criminating duties levied on timber, sugar, cofile,
etc. &c., probably equal in amount the tax on corn
which actually
that in the end no class is enriched by this system,
goes into the landlord's pocket, so 1
hut all are
impoverished and demoralised It is
chiefly, however, the industrious poor who are im-
poverished and degraded, for though particular
.pccicsproperty and particular employments of
capital are i
are
corresponding protection for industry ; and the
protected by the several laws, there is no
landlords tax, the
planters' tax, the shipowner,'
ax, the colonists' tax, arc all equally paid in pro-
portion to the extension of their consumption, wide-
out any counterbalance or corresponding protection
by the several class,'s of labourers ; on them this
system falls with all its accumulated weight, and
contributes to crush them.
It must
-C), n h he supposed that these masses of
evil cannot be
remedied. On the contrary, the
band that inflicts them has only but to wnbdraw
its pressure, and the evils will cease. The law-
melees is the author of them. It is proved, too, li
I'.. M'Gregor, Me. Hume, and other witnesses,
the former of whom laid before the Comin!ttec an
i'"F"cd tariff, that our Customs' duties might be
se levied and regulated were the principle, of lookii
to TGVenUC only CIA strictly in vie w, as to ensure to the
Government a greater revenue than at resent,
.
while the care, the comfort, and the happiness of
all classes would be promoted. If these evils be
not remedied, we shall affirm that they are conti-
nued from a diabolical love of evil, and that those
who continue them rather deserve the character of
demons than of men, They must have Bucked
~!resses, not woinen.
To the Legislature thi;, syit=, i:. :::,.: 01.intinite
trouble. It is continually called on to adjust. the
several claims of different classes of capitalists and

landlords which no human skill can accomplish ;
and it therefore excites discontent, and gets invoked
in inextricable difficulties. No man in his senges
would undcr:ake so sad and so impracticable a task ;
but our Legislators, more fit for Bedlam than the
world at large, have never hesitated apparently to
impose a protecting duty, and so they recklessly
have disarranged all the vast business of sup-
plying the physical wants of society. A system
of import duties based in any degree on the prin-
ciple of encouraging or protecting a particular
species of industry or particular production is erro-
neous in principle, and in effect most mischievous.
For the great mass of useful information which
this Committee has brought forward—though we
could have wished it had been fuller, the public
is much indebted to Mr. Hume, the Chairman,
who moved for the Committee ; to Messrs. Villiers,
Thornely, Ewart, &c., who continually attended,
and, by their pertinent and well-put quet,tions, eli-
cited the in no important facts. Those gentlemen
already deserve well of all the industrious and
trading classes, and they have added much to the
public obligation by their useful inquiries. It only
remains for them to act on the information thus
made public, and bring forward measures in the
approaching Session, no matter what other busi-
ness may be laid before the House of Commons
or by whom, for the abolition of the discriminating
duties on coffee, sugar, timber, &c. By that aboli-
tion no persons, but a very few planters and ship-
owners, will be injured even for a moment, and
the rest of the community largely benefited. Not
a single labourer, as' we have shown, gains a six-
pence by that system ; its petty advantages go to
a select few, and to continue it is, in fact, a vio•
lation of all jest principle.- We hope, there-
fore, that these gentlemen Will act boldly and man-
fully, for though they may not carry their measures
pow, they will certainly make such an impression
on the public as will insure the abolition of all
I discriminating duties at no distant day.