The Sun.
London, England, 1824-03-15 00:00:00

important changes introduced by the Finance'
Minister of this country, and formed to affect the
silk trade in particular, are founded, we are con-
vinced, on the best and soundest principles of
commercial and national policy. Yet, situate as
the silk trade now is, and with the competition
and skill of the French manufacturers at Lyons
and elsewhere, before the eyes of the manufac-
turers here, joined with the preference that noto-
riously prevails for foreign silks in this country, we
are not surprised that the trade in general have
taken deep alarm, and deprecated, as full of clan-
ger, the regulations in question. It tnust be always
a matter of doubt, and of serious deliberation,
how far the free importation of any foreign
goods ought to be restored, after the interrup-
tion to them has long existed. When any do-
mestic branch of manufacture has, by means
of high duties or prohibitions upon all foreign
goods which can come in competition with it,
been so far extended by the home demand 'I
as to employ a multitude of hands, humanity
and policy both require, that the freedom of
trade, if again conceded by the Legislature,
h
should only be restored by slow gradations, and
with the greatest possible reserve and circum-
spection. Ware the prohibitions and restricting
duties, that fetter importation from France and
other countries, taken off at once, cheaper foreign
goods of the same kind would be poured into the
market, in such quantities as to deprive at once
thousands of our most industrious artizans of em-
ployment and the means of subsistence. The
silk manufacture is certiinly that which would
suffer most by the repeal of those restrictions.—
The linen trade would be injured also, but
not nearly so much as the silk ; but those
manufactures, of which a large proportion
is exported to other countries without any
bounty, could be little affected by the most
unlimited importation of the same fabrics from
abroad. Such manufactures, to command the
foreign market, must be sold as cheap as the
goods of that country of the same quality, and
consequently they must be generally supplied
much cheaper at home ; they would, therefore,
still keep possession of the home market, and no
sensible impression could take place on the ge-
neral employment of the people. Our woollen
and cotton manufactures—cutlery, hardware,
and other goods, are annually exported, in large
quantities, to other countries without any
bounty, and employ many thousands. They stand
completely above any competition from abroad,
and have nothing to fear from the most unlimited
freedom of trade. Consumption is, in fact, the
only end and purpose of all production, and the
interests of the manufacturer ought to be pro.
tested only so far as they promote those of the
consumer. In the mercantile and fiscal system,
however, that has long prevailed in this coun-
try, the interests of the community,
e
whour
oar
e
the consumers, have been sacrificed ; and pro-
duction, and not consumption, seems to haveft -great end and object
of all industry and comm lerce. n tirenum
s
restaints on the importation of all f • ()reran
commodities, which might interfere with
our own growth and manufacture, the interests of
the consumers at borne are sacrificed to those of
the producer. The community are heavily as-
sessed and saddled with that enhancement of
price, which an unjust monopoly of this sort
must always occasion. The manufacturer alone
is benefited also by the bounties granted on
the exportation of his produce. The home con-
sumer has to Pay both the tax necessary to
meet the ballot'', and a higher price for the
same commodity err
the home market. When
any country oppresses, by high duties or prohibi-
tions, the free trade of other nations, it injures at
the same time itB °wn interests most deeply ; by
raising the cost of foreign goods, and of all manu-
factures, it sinks the real value of the surplus
produce of its own laud with which, or the price
of which, it Purchases those very foreign
goods and manufactures ; next, by giving, in
a great degrees a monopoly of the home
market to its own merchants and manufacturers,
it raises the rate of Profit in both instances, and
draws from agriculture a part of the capital,
which would otherwise
have been devoted to it.
Agriculture is thus discouraged by the rate of
profit being raised in other employments and
lowered in that ; and men are thus tempted by
their own interests to turn their capital and in-
dustry from agriculture to manufactures, as more
profitable.

A new Work will shortly appear in Paris by
M. DE PRADT, entitled Europe and America in
1822-1803. It is looked forward to with great
interest,—as are also the Memoirs of the Mea-
QUIS DE LA FAYETTE, which are likewise forth-
coming.
INQUEST.—On Saturday last an Inquest was
held before JOHN MILNE, Esq. at the Grapes
public-house, Lancaster Hill, near Stockport,
on the body of Richard Sherwin, who met with
his death under the most awful circumstances.—
The deceased had been drinking for several
days, and on the -day of. his death was parti-
cularly desired by his friends to desist; this,
however, seemed only to increase his inclination,
and he declared he could drink thirty gills more;
but when he again lifted the glass to his mouth,
his head dropped upon his breast, and he fell
lifeless from his seat. A surgeon was instaptly
sent for, who attempted to bleed him, but in gain.
Verdict—" Died in a fit occasioned by exces-
sive drinking."