The Sun.
London, England, 1820-05-09 00:00:00

trine which hail arisen in the country—more in-
deed in the Hoese thee in the country—the prin-
ciple of exclusive production. This principle
went so far as to establish, that it was better to
pay twice as much, in order to produce in our
own country what we could get from another at
half the rate. This was a most erroneous notion
It was contrary to nature ; for it was not to be
-supposed that Providence had given the sameid-
Yautages to ail soils. It had been observed in
later times, thitit tie wisdom was continually en,
. vooriog to produce at home ever.y..possitsle tie.-
script ion of produce. The northern people, whose
country was comparatively barren, stiolied by
ingenuity to overcome their natural difficulties—
they scratched their own barren rocks, to see if
they could not rival the luxuriant productions of
the South. The futility of such policy might
easily be shown e and on this head he should ie-
. commend a return to the old principle of protect-
ing the importation of raw produce. He should
. like very much to hear the explanation Mi-
nisters would give on this point. He was
glad ' that the motion respecting the tax on
wool was in such good hands as the Noble Lord's
(Milton). The agricailtural interests were greatly
concerned in this qiirs,ion. The home mar-
kets, they were told, was every thing, the foreign
markets comparatively nothing. But supposing
that it turned out that the woollen manufacture in
Fiance should be established so as to turn us out;
beat out of the foreign markets, in what a state
would our woollen manufacture be at home! This
was the greatest country in the world for wool.—
No other country could produce one third as
mod), and the consequence would be, that a great
quantity over and above what was required of the
home markets, most go to the Continent at a con-
siderable loss to the farmers. Ile felt so strongly
oo this subject, that he was greatly surprised
when lie heard the' Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr.
F. Robinson) declare, that without having heard
one word, Government had made up their Minds
that no alteration should take place. He deprecated
tie' restrictions Which bad not long back been
placed on the traffic of timber, which had been
advantageously carried on with the Norwegians ;
be believed that had metre us more enemies than
any other part of our commercial laws, the whole
effect of which was to give to foreign nations an
idea of unnecessary severity in all that 'related to
our commercial ttansuctious, at the saute time
that it engendered a spirit of retaliation on their
parts. Ile would-do away with 'all total prOhibi-
lions as far as possible, substituting a formal duty
instead. In the course of the last year the reve-
nue of the Custom Duties lied fallen off a million
and a half, which he 'thought might be attri-
. baited in a great measure to total prohibition.—.-
Jo prohibited articles he thought that it
would be better to substitute a tax of 25 per
ceot., upon delivery at the door., 'Soch a mea-
sure would have the effect of destroying the ;
practice of smuggling. It was impossible to cal-
ciliate the advantage that tyaishl arise from an un-
restrained freedom of trade. lie wished the subject
to, be met with a full and unbiassed eimsideration,
which in every, point of view it deserved. The
state of the country was SO deplorable, that atten-
tion should be paid to the minutest circumstance
connected with it. A great object with the EXC6..!••
tive Government ought to
.be to obtain the re-
moval of restrictions placed by foreign countries
on their cemmerciel connections with our own;
ands the first step to this was, to begin at home.—
; (Ijear, hear !)—lt was the opinion of the most
enlightened merchants of this country, that it was
not from the restrictive system that we bad
grown great, but that it was that systeth which
now stood in the way 'of our greatness. Among
other questions of the kind, it would become
one of great importance to consider how far
a further extension' of the India trade might
not be injudicious. This he was aware was
a delicate subject, on which we had not to deal
with any foreign power, but with one still more
terrible at home.—(A laugh.)—lf a fair case
should be made out, that from the general state of
the country an extension would he beneficial,
without doing injury to the interests of the East
India Company, he did not see what obstruction
could remain to such a step. He would be the
last to press it, however, if that Hon. CoMpany
could spew that their interests in China, or else-
where, would suffer in consequence. But he wish-
ed fairly to argue the question with theM. The
great objection to opan the trade with China was
stated to be, the opportunity it would afford to
smuggling, as also the possibility of deranging the
relations of the Company with the Chinese Govern-
ment, which were so difficult of arrangement. But
it might be urged in reply to this, that the China
trade was open to all other countries—America,
France, &c. and no difficultit s seemed to have
arisen on their part. And with respect to the
other objection, on the score of smuggling, that
es American and foreign vessels were allowed to
clear out from the Thames for China, they had
the same facilities of smuggling with only half the
security of our own countrymen. The trade to
the Eastern Seas was one most susceptible of im•
provement. It was, at present, carried on by the
Americans to a large extent, and without any of
the restraints which were imposed on British
it, ciders. No .mischief resulted to the American
Government in its relations with China on this ac-
count, and nothing was to be apprehended from
permitting our
:ships, like theirs, to be of any
tonnage, and at liberty to go from port to port as
required. If this wet e nlloaved, there was no telling
to what a pitch the ingenuity of such cotnmer-
cial places as Liverpool, Glasgow, and London,
aaright be carried ; and the increase of wealth that
might possibly be derived from it was not to he
celcidated. He telt the force of the argument, and
woni:l he sorry to interfere with the negocialions
between Government and the East India Company,
but agreeing to every valid objection that could
be urged against (voting the trade, he tas
:confident that the Directors irs well as tbe House
would think it advisable to meet the discussion
fairly. and liberally, for the gentral interests
of the country. All that he desired of the Com-
pany
.WdS, IO ruler upon this discussion, and he
tiirtiore to press any opinion as to what might
he its, issue, lie bad now stated sooty generally
the poiets embraced by the petition, and he
was sure the c c iaisCanres of distress referred to
were such as to demand inquiry flom the ilouse,.