The Sun.
London, England, 1827-03-01 00:00:00

AMERICA.

EXTRACT FROM REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON COM-
MERCE.

" Your Committee believe, that, having offered to Great Bri-
tain all that she can claim upon any principle, all that else is now
understood at any time to have asked, and all that any indepen-
dent nation can surrender, the trade vrii: be opened, unless she
has determined to exclude us from all intercourse with her Colo-
lonies, while they are opened to other nations. Such a measure
as that would.speak a language not to be misundes?tood. In the
remote contingency, then, that such may be her policy, we have
provided an absolute interdict, to take effect at a future daj,, which
will give her time to weigh the subject and snake known 10. r in-
tentions.
" This interdict is to take effect only in the event of her refust.ll
to open the trade to her Colonies. The refusal would draw a
broad line of distinction between us and other nations, and evince
a spirit of jealousy and rivalry which we cannot believe to exist,
and indicate a policy at war with the liberal principles and ami-
cable sentiments she has professed.
" In consequence of the possibility of being driven to the en-
forcement of the interdict, it has become necessary to inquire into
the extent to which it should be carried; and your committee
believe, if contrary to expectation, Great Britain should adhere
to her exclusion of our vessels under the terms proposed, there
would be but one feeling and one voice in this country. The
principles on which we act, the dignity of the Government, and
the interests of commerce, unite in demanding an absolute and
rigid non-intercourse.
"If we make it partial, Great Britain will derive the benefit,
and we shall lose all that is worth contending for. If we merely
exclude her vessels, then her productions will still find a market

here, and the colonies will find their supplies as usual from us.—
It will be for both parties, out of a spirit of jealousy, to lose the
carrying of their own productions. This will be to give her co-
lonies all the benefits they derive from a free trade, and will indi-
rectly effect the avowed object of their policy, as indicated in
their debates, to secure by her laws to her own shipping as large
a portion of the navigation of the world as she can obtain, and
what she cannot in this way secure to herself, to divide and
diffuse among the other nations, to prevent any nation from hav-
ing an undue share of it, and to throw it, if possible, into the
hands of the lesser powers. By this arrangement she obtains
what she can of the trade with her colonies, by excluding us from
the competition, and thows the balance into hands of others,
divided and diffused so as not to augment the power of any par-

ticular country.
" It is not to be disguised that such a policy, while it subtracts
from our, and does not increase her navigation, preserves her pre-
ponderance by maintaining her relative strength. If it has en-
tered into her views that we are rivals, that the natural effect of
fair competition must be thrown into the hands of those powers,
who excite jealousy, in order to preserve her relative superiority,
then it becomes us, without indulging any feeling of rivalry to-
wards her, to counteract a policy so injurious to us.
" The vast colonial power, the extensive commerce and mari-
time strength of Great Britain, which we cannot pretend, in our
infancy, to rival, excites no feelings of jealousy. But the fair
trial of the enterprise and skill of two such nations is a noble
contest, in which we willingly engage, not to depress her, but to
improve ourselves. But if her ample means, conducted by masterly
ability, and seconded by the spirit of her people, is not enough.
and she finds it necessary to protect herself from fair competition
by regulations, prohibitions, and interdicts, we must regret, while
we yield to the necessity, to be driven into a system of counteraction
alike injurious to both.
" Your Committee cannot, therefore, hesitate to make the in-
terdict as broad as the case requires. The British interdict leaves
open the ports of Noi th American possessions, and so much only
as suits her own peculiar system. Ours must be made to meet

its operation, not its terms.
Some fears may be entertained that this may prove injurious
that
information their articles
from
r o
twillloseinos
most
exar-
pe-
rienced
rienced merchants, that no injury will be sustained. The Colo_
I,i oifnnr ere,
st
ht abneds best
and
to
by
cvulerudas
is
nies must be supplied, and the depressed state of their produce
will not allow them to bear any increase of their burdens, espe-
cially in the necessaries of life. Canada cannot supply them to a
greater extent than at present. The flour from the Baltic, if it
can be obtained, will he at very advanced prices. They must de-
pend for supplies upon us, which they will obtain from neigh-
bouring ports, to which it would be carried by our vessels. The
quantity of articles, sold in the West Indies, and the navigation
employed, will not be changed ; but if we permit British or neu-
tral vessels to carry direct to the colonies, we shall lose all the car-
rying trade. The situation of the colonists will scarcely bear the
increased expence of the indirect voyage. During the non-inter-
course between 1820 and 1822, the colonists complained, in nu-
merous petitions, of the ruinous effect of the restrictive system.
It produces such a derangement in, the trade, such ii regular sup-
plies, advanced prices, and want of market, that the Government
was obliged to relieve them by opening the ports. We shall hear
the same thing again.
" All the merchants concur in representing the trade as not
profitable. Losses are sustained on all the home voyages: the
v.-; exportation duties alone are heavy burdens on the trade. It
will further appear that our exportation to the West Indies, and
wereth e shippingdiminished.employed,
()u during
productions
tl y i ears
foluBa2doa,
marketlB2l, andu,h
enever
West India productions were sold. The colonists were obliged to
find the article where it was to be sold, and the exchanges of their
productions were necessarily made wherever they found our sup-
plies.
" The Committee believe, from the information alluded to, that
no injury will be sustained in the sale of the articles for that mar-
ket ; that this part of the interdict is an essential prohibition,
without which it will fail to produce its effect.
" It is recommended to close the communication with the
North American possessions, for a reason equally obvious.—
They are left open by the British regulations, in order to draw
our provisions, lumber, and live stock to those markets, by
which means the colonies will be supplied, at prices somewhat
increased, but cheaper than from elsewhere; and the great ob-
ject of all these regulations, the carrying of these articles from
those ports to the West Indies, will be secured to the British
shipping. Without this precaution the interdict will be worse
than useless.

"The effect of closing these ports will be to concentrate our
trade in some of the ports adjacent 'to the British colonies, to
which it will be carried by our vessels. Without this provision,
the trade of the northern States would concentrate in the northern
British possessions, and exclude our shipping.
" But it is said that Great Britain will intercept the commu-
nication between these intermediate ports and her colonies. No
apprehension of that can be indulged. Her colonies could not
sustain such a state of things. It would produce inevitable ruin.
They did not venture to resort to that violent remedy in 1821
and 1822, and if she does, the effect would scarcely be felt by
us. Whatever they consume must be taken from the general
market, and will so far diminish the supply of that market. But

this measure could not be effected but by a non-intercourse wit
all the West India Islands in American produce.
" The British West Indian colonies are iu a most depress
state ; their production are reduced to the minimum; they me
with a powerful competition from other islands, in every mark
except England, and even there they must be protected from tl
sugars of the island of Mauritius and the East Indies. They r
quire to be supplied direct, and at the least expence, from t]
United States, to maintain themselves. The increased pric
the natural effect of irregular supplies, and the expence of lm
voyages, could not be tolerated there long.
" By permitting our productions to go direct by the vessels
other Foreign Powers, or circuitously by her northern possession
we lose the carrying, without benefitting the agricultural inter(
of this country. By the other course recommended, our produ
tions, carried in our own vessels, will find a ready market. 0
interdict will be felt, and the only operation of the British inte
diet will be to burden more heavily the colonies, already sinkii
under the pressure of other causes operating on them.
" Great Britain, in applying the interdict, either had in vie
a free intercourse or entire exclusion. We report a Bill to me
either exigency.

" Your Committee, having presented their views to the S
nate, with the accompanying Bill, indulge a hope that the terr
proposed will be acceptable to Great Britain—that the commer
will return to its wonted channels, and that the two countrii
though touching at many points, but rivals in none, will purse
their march in the high career that lies before them, not in tl
spirit of commercial jealousy, but with a generous and noble con
petition."