The Sun.
London, England, 1820-06-30 00:00:00

TO SIR M. W. RIDLEY. BART.
In the midst of the various incongruities of these roost in-
-congruous times, nothing appears to me more
Unfortunate than the nrinaturai alliance of the Representa-
tives of the great maritime districts of Nortittlinberland and.
Durham, with those men whose selfish and short-sighted
palicy is aiming a deadly blow at the naval prepandetance 9f
Britain, and that at a period-when the uncOSirig animosity
of our Trans-atlantic toes is straining-every nerve to antici-
pate the time when they shall be tible-to wrest the sceptre o,
the lea put of our hands, and retaliate on us tenhild the, de.
v.istMion nrid iiisOt to their embryo capital.
Hid -I, Sir, been called upon, previous to the question of
the Wood Duties being agitated, to • name a man whom I
could suppose likely to appreciate it as a British Statvsman
ought, iny mind would have in.stautly recurred to you, as to
,arse wlniSsetsfeuts, sithou precioos habits, and intimate know-
ledge.bf the stilsjeet reil'ehited decidedly competent to view it in
all its hearings, whether as erattributing to trite-National and
best defence on the ocean, or as coutfticive to our domestic
happiness and prosperity, by the wealth the carrying trade
diffused attitiogst us at home, which will be hut poorly corn-
pesisated by a few crates of glass or eartheris- w;re,l Ora few
bales ref coarse goods sent to 'the wretched countries of the
North of Europe—coati:ries, which in spite of the logic of
the, miserable scribbler in the Edinburgh Review, inl;etit
an
hereditary hatred to the wealth and prosperity of this Coun-
try. 1 hare ltnuwn. these canneries long arid intimately, and
have often experienced their savage hostility. at a time- when
they were reaping incalculable benefits fruit) Britain.
.This
scribe, as,if to demonstrate Iris utter ignora.iccofthe practical
bearing of the question 'which he has been hired to advocate,
has told you that in 1809, the tonifa4e eriipleryed in the Baltic
trade amounted to 414000 ; but he has not-told yrrit that that
tonnagic was wholly foreign--not a British ship in the mass,
great as it was; for them, the ports of the uttlgnanimOus
Russian+the friendly Prussian—and still more anricalale
Dine, with the whole host of free arid Imperial Cities, were
shut against us, they being actively and energeticallieniploy-
_eel in assisting Napoleon hi his work of destruction, which he
meditated against the rnodern Carthage.
Does this scribe recollect the :tweed the exchanges at that
period? Dues he know that tire enormous Sum of nine mil-
lions-of foreign freight was paid in the. City of London alone
in. that. Isar, and that at that time all was •import'from th`e
Baltic, the French decrees rendering_ the introduction of
British nierchandize impracticable to the ports of any of those
powers. 1 merely state these things, which are matters of
notoriety to every one at all conversant in the, truthless, to
rove how little the strongest . advOcatiesOf 1108- FtkeiTt a'(tv
are aware.. eee the Fond _ma. th.,
Among the many circumstances to he deplored, originating
out of the license system, as a Br item I view none with greater
alarm than she Mancini- commercial ,%larine created at that
time by the Powers of the North, which only watts the repeal
of these Protecting Duties to the North American Timber,
to overwhelm the shipping interest of England. You are, Sir,
I all; afraid, in (unmoor, with the Many that think as you do,
totally unaware of the tintuber.and magnitude of the ships of
these.Nortlierit States—of the hardy arid seamen-like natuts-
ttithvit crews.-of their,capaltilitylo,rhavigate at otn;hall 1 he'
expellee of a Ilritiih ship,. from the absence of taxation in
their -respective.countries.
It surely -would be only common justice to the British ship-
owner, as lopg as our public credit. is to be maintained, to.
protect him from the competition of the untaxed alien, eren
were our naval preponderance not at all connected with his
existence, hot whets tkie Suagnit ude of the Nat ionifirsaerifiee,
,as inseparably; connectedwith the question, is:ciiirsidered, it
most not, it ought not to Ifidiirrcipitately decided
I, theretore, usingthe undoubted privilege which every
man has, to.call upon the Representatives of the State to-do.
theio duty, call upon you, tiOt implicitly to vote as a-local os
interested party may-dictate either war, lila I request.of you
to employ your undoubted talent and influence, hi-causing an
efficient investigation of Ibis momentous qugstionLprovethat
the Notion generally, must he a gainer by the contemplated
change, and the shipping interest. will . bow their :drat's, in
sarrowful acquiescence, to the fatal necessity, convinced, as
they _then must. be, that ho icirlividual interest, however re-
spectable or large, can expect protection again§t the general
weal.

But, Sir, this must he proved not by the declamation, of
heoretic statesmen, nutty the rhetoric of party zeal operat-
ing. upon Ministerial weakness, nor yet by the interested evi-
dence of -Isaac Sully, but by proof, irretragable preitif, by a
statement drawn from every source Which the power of PM"-
lament can .comniand, by the. value to be -exported, and
the value to- be imported, by the value of the freight,
as paid.to the-Briton, 41 the untaxed Foreigner, which ar-
ticle forms a drabs- little thought of by our present rico-
n conies._
By the toss-of our certain customers, in our own Colonies,
by tlstegahrof unr uncertain customers, in the North of Eu-
ropebt the:dpvtruction.of our own shipping interest, by the
renovation of. hat oric,fues, our must inveterate foes, for
thisqueasurewill not only benefit the shipping of our nearer
enemies, hut Oa* of, the Americans will come in for a full
share-of the•tvansit of wood, as the taking off the. present dit-
ties' . operate as a bounty to them, equally with those of
the Northern Powers, andthe wood being the produce of their
own count] ice, for America abounds with pine, mit ithed, Un-
taxed, and irnpo:;e,rated us they are, the chance of the Bri-
tish ship-owner, in anch a competition, oppressed as he is, in
common with the other branches of the community, by the
above enumerates! burthens, I say, his chance ip,,such a com-
petition, is easy to be anticipated.
I am decidedly of
.opinion, that until all-these various inte-
rests, and others, (which the limits of .a. publication of this
nature, preclude the enurneratiou of,) are taiily and impar-
tially baluaced, thnt you and others, who think as yOu appear
to do, are not justiatd in voting at all on the sulaject ; arid
o hilst I admit to ths fullest extent, not a Member of N 1.14-
11.1;11 has this undoubted right to exercise his own judgrarmt,
in the vote he gives, however contrary such tote may be to
the interestsnnd inclinations of his particular constituents,
yet this very right naturally involves the individual exercising
it, ii) the very highest-possible state of responsibility, that it
should be given wily on a demonstrated conviction of its ne-
cessity. (I am not possessed of .any language to express this
-stronger. I wish I was.)
You, Sir Matthew, 1 dare say, will admit, that after having
clothed you with this uncontrooled power of rating, onshrii
heat interests, that your constituents have an undoubted right
to. requite of you an account of your stewardship; yon, Sir,
represent our of the most ancient Sea Ports in Britain, anti
astter the Port of London, the largest its the Universe; there
is no part of the habitable (ilohe in which their ships and
crews are not tube found ; their reseals are fitted for the na-
VigatiOn of every clime; and the hardy inmates have ever
liern the pride and pillar of one yet invincible Navy.--Paige
then, Sir, I beseech you, before you assist, in the fervour of
a fearful responsibillity attaches to you, fur you can
is SU woe!, to. he Va-
%liel.'dtyzpolitic,, to destroy, what in itself
leither plead imbecility nor inditierence.
1 am, Sir, with great respect,
. AN AINCLENT BRITON.

North Stliehis, Jutic 23j O.

cast in any of the Courts below,

[New Times.i

The Committee of the blouse of Lords met yesterday, fur
the second time, asd passed some hours, it is believed; in Um
exainitiativir of the documents referred to them. It is now.

getierallruhtlerstoud that they will wake their report eiirly

ertt week Hiutl if the result should be to introduce Imo Par-

!lament a Bill of Pains and Penalties, that would of course be
neZt•Session to procure evidence on both sides

..tVe now sec the absurdity of all the idle declamation about

Green <Bags and Secret 'Comnat tees: Persons win, repeat
these expressions with affected intlignati,m, treat the. Public

like children who ate to be frightened with the words Raw-
head and Moody-bones! After all, it torn* out, tl:at t6'
Kolar mode of bringins for Ward a -Bill of Paris and Penaltito
is upon ,the -reiliort of a preparatory C:9mtaitittee:, hail as such

Committees always pt•nceetl on the examination of ductin,ezt-

tary evidence, there surely can be no great harm in inclosing
t'iuse Papers, if need should be, in a bog :—We have care-
fullylooked into the proceedings which took place just acen-
iury ago ou the Bill of Pains and Penalties against the Di:.
rectorS.and others concerned in what has been termed the
Great SoothSca Bubble. The very first step, on that oc-
casion, was.tu appoint a Commitiec of Secrecy. Nobody—
was then. so absurd as to confound this preparatory and
deliFarative measure, which was necessarily private, with
the Legislative proceedings, which were of course pub-
lic. Nobody, nut even the South Sea Directors them-
selves, - nor the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was
implicated in their criminality, pretended to impeach the
legality or justice of the Committee, and nobody asked
whether the hag in which the papers were brought
down was green or blue. The Committee made its Re-
port : but that Report was not considered as prejudging
the cause. The parties inculpated were heard in their
defence, and allowed to produce evidence before each.,
House of Parliament separately. Will it be said that our an-
cestors so soon after the Revolution of 1 688 had forgotten or
wilfully violated the principles of the Constitution ? Far
Irian it. It is one great excellence of
_that very Cunsii-
tittle's, that it supplies for extraordinary public evils, Feint:-
thus, which, though they are also out of the ordinary course
iif things, are not the less conducive to the great ends of sub-
justice.