The Sun.
London, England, 1824-03-19 00:00:00

TO THE POLITICAL ECONOMISTS.

The Economists are again at work, sounding
in our ears their new principle of free trade.—fi
Sir, have been educated in that school in which it
was not thought any crime to admire, and even
to extol, the ancient navigation laws, and that co-
lonial policy which gave the greatest encourage-
ment to all other branches of native industry, or
to admire those Statesmen who, following the
principles handed down to us by our ancestors,
considered those laws as the safeguard of the
State—who, when the most portentous cloud
hung over and threatened this island with de-
struction, had then the proud satisfaction to
see Great Britain most effectually put forth her
maritime strength to curb that Hydra of Demo-
cracy which threatened to overwhelm all Europe
in one common ruin. This democracy afterwards
changed its character to that of a Monarchical
Ilydra of Despotism; but still in this despoiling
shape it was met, overawed, and finally subdued
by means of the naval preponderance of Great
Britain.

this result as a foundation incontro-
vertible,
faking
and as derived from the window and
efficacy of those Laws, how astonishing must
the acts of this boasted new era appear to
those who yet preserve consistency in their
former impressions, wr
e find that system of policy
which every one
then acknowledged as the na-
tural
bulwarkof
proved the salvation of
the nation, and which, in the
late
desperate struggle,
the country, and has likewise been the means of
ving
the of all the Monarchs of Europe,
w
subject
for declamation to every
now
become crowns
a
r—those laws, which even the
Review acknowledges to have had
Epudninybuproglhi ti
Rcian
that reverential hold on the minds of all classes
of the community, that twenty years ago no man
would have dared to have stood forward to pro-
pose their abrogation ! Yet the consistency of
some men's political creed his been much extoll-
ed, who suddenly found in those laws matter for
the theme of continual reproach—who suddenly
found them a theme to ridicule as the grossest
blunders—as the most positive remains of the
barbarism of our forefathers—and that, fortunate-
ly for us, a new light had at last illuminated our
hemisphere—that every risk must now be run,
even to the ruin of a great part of the community,
(the extent of which ruin no one has dared to
surmise), to clear the present generation of
that invidious disgrace, which so long has '
been attached to our statute book !—Those
barbarous relics of our forefathers are to be
swept away to make place (under a Tory
administration) for the introduction of an en-
tire new code, founded on those sound and
liberal principles which were so long and so
strongly recommended by those once considered
our enemies (the Illuminati of France and Ger-
many), taken up at second hand by the radicals,
then joined by the Whigs, and at last recom-
mended for practical adoption by those who were
thought to be Tories !
The first step towards the accomplishment of
the new theory was to endeavour to impair the
magnitude of our commercial marine, which was
considered too extensive to suit foreign interests,
by relaxing the Navigation Laws, and relaxing
our Colonial Policy, to introduce what is termed
a reciprocity or equalizing of duties on the ship-
ping of all nations entering our ports, without
any consideration of the different rates on
their value and the expence of navigating them ;
thereby giving the foreign shipping a decided
advantage in supplying us with the produce of
their respective countries, which they are enabled

to do much cheaper than our own shipping, where-
by the freights are lost to us.
Then follows a notice of withdrawing the
bounties hitherto granted to the Fisheries, and
that a larger duty will be imposed on sea-borne
coals than on those supplied by inland convey-
ance! This is the sound principle—the boast-
ed liberal policy—the perfect freedom of trade,
that is to be enforced as regards British naviga-
tion, the greater part of which has been accom-
plished, and the remainder undoubtedly may be
carried into effect, without meeting any formidable
opposition more than that which the Shipping In-
terests may feebly interpose, which as yet has had
no effect in any way to check the measures as
they have been progressively brought forward,
though they have made it known that they can-
not successfully compete under such circum-
stances,—that their prospects are blasted by
those sound principles,—and that the shipping
must be gradually annihilated under such a bane-
ful influence.—There perhaps never existed a
greater peril, pregnant with more danger to the
vital interests of a maritime country, than is to be
apprehended from the ill-judged desperate spe-
culation in this freedom of trade, and this concilia-
tion of Foreign Powers, which gives them the
choice of imposing evils on us, or rejecting our
humiliating offers. It will enable them to fill us
up a cup of bitterness, and make us drain it to the
dregs. We have allowed them already to tell
us that if we do not yield, they will compel us to
make the sacrifice. Then, most gracious Provi-
dence ! is our national character likewise gone ?
It might be thought that, on hearing this, at
least we had touched the bottom of humiliation ;
that our lead had come up covered with mud and
dirt ; that we should thence determine on a dif-
ferent course ! But our economists have found in
the lowest deep a still lower deep, opening to
them a dark profound abyss, and into that they
are directing their career, and still pressing for-
ward, resolving to plunge deeper and deeper
into humiliation, conciliation, and folly, without
end !—To a people who have been proud and
great, and great because they were proud, a
change in the national spirit is the most
terrible of all Revolutions. Then may we
inquire how is it that our national character
has become on a sudden so completely changed.
What would a Cromwell, a Blake, or a Claren-
don have said, or, in modern times, what would
the first Earl of Chatham, or the first Earl of
Liverpool have said to such measures ! But, lower-
ing our degraded selves from their high spirit,
the least that can be said is, that too much
shopkeeping principle is abroad. There is in
this no intention to ridicule honourable trade ;
but we find such principles abroad in every spe-
culative merchant and broker; and nearly every
branch of trade seeking to sacrifice its fellow,
in hopes of more gain to itself !
That war is now ended which had given us
for a time almost the entire navigation of the
globe—that trade which made England a univer-
sal depot, from which merchants, brokers, and
others derived much benefit ; but those gains
flowed from an unnatural source, and ceased with
the cause. The trade of the world then fell into
its more natural course, which caused a diminu-
tion of gain to those whom that trade had em-
ployed, and a clamour was raised to endeavour
to find artificial means to bring it back—and
this under the pretence of liberal ideas and free-
dom of trade ! It is a thing utterly impossible
to induce Foreigners to deposit goods in this
country to any extent ; it was a stoppage from
a natural cause which time as naturally would
have rectified and brought to a level. This
country was in a state to command and facilitate
a full proportion of commerce; and natural causes
have rectified and re-instated the commerce of the
country, and not the measures of the Economists.
They had, it is fatally true, searched out all the
old tattered remnants which had fallen from the
illuminati, which they new furbelowed, tinselled,
and vamped up, and put forth as their own ; their
nostrums were eagerly gulped down by the ava-
ricious speculators and the inconsiderate ; and a
loud clamour soon made converts in higher situ-
tions, which it is impossible to account for on ra-
tional grounds! As yet the agriculturists have re-
sisted the principle as regards themselves ; but at
any rate it has found its way deeply into the Se-
nate, where it threatens to become a gangrene
to the State, and will gradually stop circulation,
if not impeded in its fatal course.
The Navigation Laws, and all the barriers that
once protected our commercial shipping, are now
thrown down, and whilst this was doing the other
interests looked calmly on as if they had no-
thing to dread ; they never once thought that any
other steps were necessary ; they therefore will.
ingly sacrificed the shipping, those stately out-
works that had rendered the citadel impregna-
ble, when the slightest consideration would have
made it obvious that the shipping had a double
claim to protection,—first, as the natural defence
of the country depends on the seamen ; and, 2dly,
from their equal right to protection,—and that the
protecting laws under which the ship owners' ca-
pitals were embarked were the most ancient in the
kingdom. They never perceived, while the out-
works were demolishing, that the economists had
declared free trade a general principle, and that
other countries were to be thereby invited on the
liberal principle of free and unrestricted recipro-
city and conciliation, to supply the British mar-
kets with corn, cattle, butter, and cheese, at a
much cheaper rate than it is possible for our agri-
culturists to do : that linens, silks, and all other
articles, whether of growth or manufacture, can
and will be brought into this country, if the
system of " sound principle" is persisted in and
carried to the full stretch, at a much cheaper rate
than it is possible for us to supply ; for in this
country, our national debt, and a consequent taxa-
tion, disproportionately increase the expence of la-
bour and materials. By degrees the cloud of so-
phistries breaks over us, and we come nearerto the
climax of the plan " for the further conciliation
of Foreign Powers", and it seems well calculat-
ed to render the system still more complete, for
there is a proposition in embryo to allow the
artisans to march off with all their apparatus, im-
plements, and machinery of every description.—
This is something like a finish to the work. Those
ho on the first clamour for free trade, perhaps

might not contemplate the full extent of
the
liberal system, may now have a little more ex'
tensive view!! Many of them never thought that
any of the poisoned chalice was preparing for
their own lips ! Oh, no! but, now it is prepared.
many of those liberals have turned round 111
dismay,—one prays for time—another for indem
nity,—and others to be excused altogether frofromits effects ! The medicine is good for any 1)11
themselves--they wish to shun the embrace °;
conciliation, and find in reciprocity no charms •
They most willingly assisted in raising a whirl-
wind for the destruction of others, but offer
up most devout prayers that the impending
storm may pass over their own heads in safety
and that they may be sheltered from the
destructive blast ! Thus, many who clamoureu,
and lent their aid,now say that they never intend'
ed the system to extend so far, or most certainlY
not to themselves! Yet it may be asked whether
they sanctioned that sweeping resolution, 44 that
all restriction on trade is an evil," or did they
expect that this most profoundly combined system
of free trade, with so much tinsel, and gloss, and
varnish, was got up to rest with the sacrifice 01
British Navigation alone, and doomed it alone to
compete with misery and rags, great as that sacri-
fice was ! If any one thought this, he muse
have looked very superficially into this question,
or he must have thought very unjustly that
British Navigation was alone to yield, and haie
its capital alone ground down to dust, to increase
the contingent chances of the other parts of the
community, without either indemnity or time
being extended to it ! What had the ship'
ping and seamen done to call down so severe 3
measure of vengeance and punishment ? It was
much more rational to conclude that the econo.
mists never meant to stop with that measure, but
to proceed onward as far as their visions may
carry them. They from the beginning held
out that there were two great evils to stir'
mount before their plan could be effected,
(viz, the National Debt and the Corn Laws). It
is true there was some little hesitation on the in'
troduction of" sound principles," as to their being
of too sweeping a character to be accomplished
without much difficulty. There are evidently some
qualms of this sort still remaining ; but " a sound
principle" is still echoed and re-echoed, although
the first movers now begin to see the dreadful
precipice. They see in that which lies before
them innumerable accumulating difficulties, which
must increase at every step; arid yet there seem°,
a determination to proceed against the repeated
warnings of practice ! It may reasonably be 10'
quired for what end all these dangers to all our
old establishments are to be undertaken, when,
year after year, we are corning round from those
difficulties which the war had occasioned, by the
natural resuscitation and course of events, an
not by any efforts that have arisen from our
sound principles. What has lately been doing 15
admirably calculated to reduce the strength'
land wealth, and power of Great Britain, and le
render her the base pander and tool of the
trigues Gi Europe and America, " when all thelc
arts are levelled at our trade, our base to shake.,,
How comes it now, for the first time, that it!!
found expedient to be governed by the councils
of those who wished to enforce those same pritv
ciples on us as the means of our ruin !—Why tine
adopt those principles against practical infor;
mation, and the remonstrances of experience'
Ought not those who have brought them
forward rather to tremble, when they are per"
suaded not to travel on that road which
has been marked out as the road to stir
destruction !—They have found all those measure:
as they are brought forward, invariably opposed
by that very body which should best understanu
them, but who have been as repeatedly told the,
don't know nor understand their own interests'
Give the British a fair reciprocity of expense to
compete with, and they are willing to meet it:
All other pretended reciprocity is the grosses'
imposition, and is the grossest mockery in the %vet
it is now proposed. All Foreign Powers bacgs
their choke of taking the vantage ground. If rti
their power to undersell us, they will make the
election : if on the contrary, they will spurn Or
offer, and shun our reciprocity. We shall soon.t
find that our much boasted new principle is but'
on a basis fundamentally erroneous. Our Ece;
nomists seem determined to persevere: indee,':
few theorists are willing to acknowledge the'',
errors—they are always right, learned, and wise'
the ruin of empires generally springs from causer
of this nature, and can only be retrieved by some
of those unforeseen dispensations, which the al'
wise but mysterious Governor of the World soma"
times interposes to snatch a nation from ruin•
X. X.

BOW-STREET. (MARCH 18.) Two ladfr
named Ward and Fullbrook, were brought up in cuS'
tody by Avis and a brother Officer, charged with being re'
puted thieves. Both of the prisoners have been repeat:4W
in custody, and Ward had undergone the ordeal of t,lic
cat-o'-nine-tails at the Old Bailey, but without effect.
searching Ward silk handkerchiefs were found secreted in lot
his sleeves, a la Filch in the Beggar's Opera, and on the other
handkerchiefs were found in his hat. The only defence made bf
the young delinquents was, that the officers had not seen thell;
" do any thing," and that though they had been bad, yet the
had reformed. The Magistrate, Sir Richard Birnie, howevel;:,,
entertained a different opinion, and they were committed
the House of Correction, and to be kept to hard labour.