The Sun.
London, England, 1826-04-28 00:00:00

[MORNING lIERA.LD.]

By the Parliamentary Returns, it appears that the
imports of Great Britain, lase year, 'amounted` to the
sum of about 12 millionsiwhile.our exports amounted
to about 63. The exports, therefore, exceeded the.
imports 21 millions. According to the ancient no-
tions of trade, such a state of things would be gain to
this country, for as they had no paper medium, they
were glad to export as much, and import as little, as
possible, that the balance might be made good by gold
and silver, for the purposes of medium. We, . how-
ever, so far as medium is concerned, having a coinage
within ourselves, need not have recourse to the old
mode of trade in order to strike a large balance, to be
remitted in 'gold. We are in no want of medium,
nth. can we want it, so long as paper credit lasts.
'B6' far, therefore, as the question •of medium is
Concerned, we are better off than our ancestors,
being more' independent of a supply from fo-
reign countries; Now if this twenty-one millions ba-
tatibe last year has been made good by remittances in
gold and silver, we may consider ourselves the richer
—so far as those metals are concerned; but if the

balance be unpaid—if our London, Glasgow, Man-
chester, Birmingham, Liverpool, and other merchants,
sent out of the country last year 63 millions of goods,
• and only received back 42 millions—if they did not
scecive gold or silver in return for the balance—then •
we easily account for the situation in which the mer-
cantile and manufacturing interests are said to be at
present. To make the matter betterunderstood, we
Will state a position. We will suppose a Liverpool
~'irierchnt, trading to foreign parts, ships goods to
the amount of 63,0001., but in return he only rs-
eeives• goods to the -amount of 42,0001., of course
he is' nimus 21,000/. But if his friends abroad,
:Along with the accounts, send him , a remittance
and silver of. 21,000/4 ha is paid fOr
his trouble by the profit he probably added to the,
'too-alio exposited'. But. if ;with the account sales,
Oiewing a balance of 21,000/, a remittance In
gold or silver be not made, where is he so far as
say beneficial business is concerned ? To, be

sure, if the balance be remitted in cotton, hides, or
goods, a looker-on would say it would be the same
thing as gold and silver; and so it would, provided
the 21,0001.. remitted in those . things, would sell for
' 21,0001, • but if, from some cause or otheohey would
only sell for half the money, where would
.be the ex-
porter's apparent balance in his favour ? But, as we
have before mentioned, with respect to ~these Parlia-
mentary Returns, we never know the exact amount of
goods imported, for the Reports of Import Trade do
not include the imports of the smugglers.. ,We
Mr. Hume would ask Mr. Huskisson this question—
" Tray, Mr. Huskisson, as 1.. see that last year 63
millions were exported, and only 42 -millions were
imported, how do you suppose the balance was
adjusted ? How much gold and silver was
ported,. and. how much of goods was imported
by the smugglers, .to make good the balance of
trade of twenty-one millions ?" If it could be shoWn
that the balance of 21 millions had been made good
by a remittance in gold and silver, then Mr. Huskis-
son might, indeed, congratulate the country, and' Mr.
Robinson use the woad " prosperity." But if that
were.the case,- what would become of the cry set up of
a falling off in a quantum of medium ?. But it should
be borne in mind that the statement of more goods
being exported every year than have been imported,'
has been regularly put forth for the last 20 years ; and
if the balance has been paid in gold and silver, we
ought by this time to have a, large quantity. But where
is it, we would ask ? What has become of it ? Who
_ _

possesses it ? For, if for the last 20 years we haVe
exported 20 millions more every year than we have
imported, we ought by this time to be possessed of
gold and silver to the amount of 400 millions ; but
the latter we know is not the fact.

The propriety of the abolition of
,imprisonment for
mere debt, which we have, long advocated is, we trust,
gaining ground in public opinion. To throw a man,
into prison, and confound him with criminals because
he happened to be unfortunate, is a relic of ignorant
legislation that ought not to continue to disgrace civi-
lised times. The inmates of a gaol should be those
who wilfully violate the law, not' those who have in-
curred no other reproach than that of adversity, to which
all men.-are liable, has steeped them in the bitterness
'of affliction. If, indeed, imprisonment remedies the
creditor in any way, there would be some sense in it ;
but instead of that, it renders his changes of satisfac-
tion less, or destroys them altogether by, tying up the
hands or overwhelming the faculties of the debtor.
There is. a goOd principle in the ancient law with re-
spect to levying a distress upon a tenant's goods for
rent in arrear—and that is, that neither the books of .a
scholar, nor the necessary implements of a husband-
man, 'or the tools of an artizan could be distrained—
and why ? This reservation was evidently made that
the tenant should,not be deprived of the' means of sa-.
tisfying his landlord by his mdtistry, as would be the
case if he lost the instruments of his trade or oc-
cupation. With strange inconsistency; -therefore,
was it permitted to take the person of the debtor, and.
doom him to the torture—the sorrow—the degra-
dation and poverty of confinement. It was like
•
a man saying to another, 4, You owe me so much
you cannot pay me now, and for that. reason I am
resolved you never shall have it in your power to pay
me ; so I will put you into prison to insure myself of
your utter incapacity for the future to discharge your
debts, to me or any body else, or be in any respect a
useful member of society." Would not such language
as this, if used by any man, appear very absurd? and
yet the principle has been acted on for ages, and has
only of late been at all ameliorated. The present Act
for the relief of Insolvent Debtors, goes a great way to.
seperate the consequences of misfortune from those of
criminality ; but what we contend for is, that we should
not so far confound poverty, with crime as to .make
both. partake of the bitter draught of captivity. The
pernicious facility with which credit is !obtained would:
also be diminished if arrest and imprisonment for debt
were abolished. Shopkeepers and tradesmen, who
were aware that they could not have the bodies of their
customers as a pledge for their pecuniary engagements,
would be more cautious. how they gave their goods
without money or adequate security ; honesty and fair
dealing would be thereby promoted—and we have no
doubt the moral character of the nation would be
greatly improved,—(/bid.)

[MORNING CHRONICLE.]
We have just heaid of a circumstance, curiously
illustrative of the petty vindictiveness and timidity of
the French Govepment. Mr. Bowring, whose appli-
cation for leave to return to France, made through Sir
Charles Stuart, was refused two years ago by M. de
Chateaubriand, having occasion to visit France for
commercial objects, made an application about a month
ago to the French Ambassador for a passport, assur-
ing his Excellency that his intended journey had not
the slightest reference to politics, and giving his word
of honour that his visit was solely for commercial pur-
poses. His Excellency, immediately sent a.passport
to Mr. Bowring, without even requiring (as is usual)
his attendance. But as some portion of distrust,
and very naturally too, existed in the mind of
Mr. Bowring, who had found that French Am-
bassadors' passports are not always very sufficient
protections to British subjects, he wrote to our Right
Honourable Foreign Secretary, respectfully desiring
him to ascertain from the French Government that
the passports of the Prince de Polignac would really
be respected ; and after a considerable. delay, Mr.
Bowring is informed, that Lord Granville has ascer-
tained that Mr. Bowring will not be allowed to enter
France. If the French Ambassador have lent him-
self to a mere stratagem for entrapping an English-
man, we think his Excellency's morals want mending;
but that a Government, after failing in every attempt
to criminate Mr. Bowring, should think it worth
while to deny to him that ingress and egress, which
we believe is provided for commercial men in all the
treaties of amity between the two countries, and to
imagine that its security is disturbed by his presence,
is as childish and despicable-as it is ludicrous.

PR ESBYTERI AN REGlMENTs.—aecently a ,Con-
siderable sensation was excited by the fact of a Scot.
this regiment in Belfast, composed of men brought
up :in the doctrine and discipline of Presbytery, being
compelled to attend an Episcopal Church there. The
soldiers themselves felt it as a grievance, and the
people of .Belfast, who are distinguished as zealous
Presbyterians, cried out against the act as an infringe-
ment of religious liberty, and an insult to Presbytery.
It appears front the Northern Whig of Saturday, that
the subject has been attended to at head-quarters, or-
dem haying been issued from the Horse Guards, by the
Commaxyler-in,Chie4 "that Presbyterian soldiers shall
be allowed to attend the Meeting-houses of ,any
nomination of Presbyterians, the Ministers, of which
receive a stipend from the Crown." All the Presby-
terian Clergy of Ulster receive small salaries from the
Crown.