The Sun.
London, England, 1832-09-04 00:00:00

CUSTOMS' ACT-IRELAND.

sois
The Iris
els, Is h are making a prodigious noise respecting the
out e in the Customs' Act of the late Session, allowing
wara.
o bound merchant ships to supply themselves with
Stores irons the warehouse duty free. As Ireland is the
!°!zutty of exaggeration, it would be astonishing if the
iniurious consequences of this clause were not exaggerated.
At a meeting of the Conservative Society in Dublin,
94 Tuesday last, Mr. George A. Hamilton went at great
length
into this subject, and concluded with moving the
aPPointinent of a Committee of twenty-one, to inquire into
and report the nature and extent of the evils likely to
nFur to this country generally from the unjust and
),(luitous clause, surreptitiously introduced by one of his
al jesty's Ministers into the new Customs' Bill, whereby
an important branch of the trade and exports of this
country has already been materially injured, and is likely
to be totally destroyed."
We have already exposed the injustice of the charge of
surreptitious introduction, by showing that the clause al
lud d to formed part of the printed Bill on the 19th of
June; and that on one occasion the Bill was discussed
for eight hours; and which was not passed till the 3d
August.
Nothing can be more absurd than the attempt of the
Irish Conservatives to make it appear that Ireland is par-
ticularly injured by this clause. How is it that vessels
cannot be provisioned at so cheap a rate now as formerly
in Ireland ? Because steam navigation conveys Irish
meat directly to the English manufacturing districts, and
the price in Ireland will always equal that of England,
minus the charges of conveyance. Yet this sapient orator
of the Conservatives, shutting his eyes to the fact of the
necessary equalization of prices from the facility of com-
munication, maintains that the clause will produce a de-
preciation in Ireland to the extent of 35 per cent.
" How (he exclaims) will the graziers of Meath, West-
Meath, Queen's County, and the rest of Ireland, be able
to endure the withdrawal from the market of the demand
for the immense quantities of cattle annually consumed in
the provision trade? How will they be aisle to sustain
the depreciation of at least 35 per cent ? My Lord, it is
impossible they can sustain it." Oue would have sup-
Posed that common sense might have suggested to this
Conservative orator, that if the prices of the rnid,and
manufacturing districts forced up the prices of Ireland to
their level, so long as the English market is open
to Irishmen, prices cannot fall 85 per cent. in Ire-
land, without falling 35 per cent. also in Eng-
land. All the tirade about the peculiar adaptation
of Ireland to the provision trade is beside the ques-
tion, because it is that adaptation which leads
the English manufacturer as well as the ship-owner to
the Irish market, and the price of provisions generally
throughout the manufacturing districts must fall before
443 r particular fall can take place in Ireland. "My Lord
(says Mr- Hamilton), the provision trade of Ireland, from
the earliest period of our history, has been deemed one of the
most staple .of our national resources, and it has been al-
ways dealt with as such. Our soil is peculiarly adapted
1.4 'limy parts of Ireland for the fattening of cattle—and
is a well-known fact, that our Irish grass-fed beef alone
npossesses that firmness and quality which renders meat fit
r salting, and for preservation in long voyages." It was
Irish
hthese qualities, however, which raised the price of
provisions, but, as we have slid, the easy access
through steam navigation to the great markets of Eng-
land. The price in
h
English market determines the
price in the Irish
marktete; for no man will supply provi-
sions to a ship-owner at a rate below that which he can
obtain from England, and
a lower rate than can he
obntoainmeadn will supply England at
from the ship-owner.
Whether the producers of food, generally, will feel the
effects of the clause, is a question'
however" which
we
shall
not
enter. It is quite clear,
that if it affect the
Irish, it must affect the English and Scotch, and that the
Irish have no separate ground for complaint.— Chronicle.

We learn that the most satisfactory accounts
have been received from Greece from Colonel BAKER, one
of the English Commissioners appointed to arrange the
boundary line of the new kingdom, which, it appears, is
80 well defined iu the agreement that no sort of practical
difficulty is apprehended. It is further stated, that the
successful termination of this critical negociation has pro-
duced the most unbounded joy throughout Greece; from
Which fact it is to be hoped that comparative (rider and
tranquillity be may soon restored.
ERARD'S collection of pictures by the old
masters, unequalled for their number and value in the pos-
session of any private individual in Paris, were sold by
auction a few days ago. They produced upward's
ti irty-two thousand pounds sterling. The most choice
atui rare gems were bought on commission to be sent to
tughind.