The Sun.
London, England, 1818-09-07 00:00:00

the Act of Parliament of the Bth May last, insert-,
ed in this Gazette 01 the 23d July.
The Act will accordingly go into immediate
operation. Its object is evidently to counteract
the Law passed at the last Session of the Con-
gress of the [loiter! Slates, inserted in this Pa-
per of the 21st May last, for closing the Ame-
rican ports agai.st British vessels corning from
places in the British Colonies from which Ame-
rican vessels are excluded, which Act is to be
in force from the Ist of October next. The Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick Free Port Act, is,
therefore, not a dereliction of the Navigation Laws
of Great Bl itain, but a local and temporary relaxa-
tion of them, to meet the supposed necessity of
a supply of lumber, live stock, and agricultural
produce, ft omit the United States,- for the West
India Islands, without suffering these articles to
be carried in American vessels ; the object of the
American law being to force Great Britain to an
abandonreent of her Navigation Laws in favour•of
American shipping.
The effect of the Nova Scotia and New Bruns-
wick Free Port Act will shortly appear. If the
American Act should not be sufficient to prevent
the supplies to the British West Indies, and the
return of 'West India produce, from going and
coming in this indirect way, further legislative
provision will, probably, be resorted to. Should
the Free Port Act have its intended effect, its ope•
ration, ice • are apprehensive, will be injurious to
the British North American Colonies generally, by
putting American produce, in the British posses-
sions, nearly on the same tooting with British Co-
lonial produce, with respect to Ditties, and en-
abling the Americans better to stand a competi-
tion with us -in our own markets. There is no
doubt, however, that the measure would Enove,
in the first instance, advantageous to the towns
where the Free Forts are established, by the in-
crease of shipping and agency, labour, and the in-
flux of strangers.
It has been, we understand, in agitation among
the merchants here to apply for an extension of
the Free Port Act to Quebec. Our opinion is not
formed on the subject. The first thing that
strikes us is, that the local situation of Quebec
is adverse to its enjoying the usual advantages of
a Free Port ;-situated many hundred miles from
the sea, it can never be a place where foreign ves-
sels would come to deposit and take cargoes. It
seems to us, hotvever, on viewing the immense
and fertile country, daily increasing in popula-
tion, to which the St. Lawrence is the outlet to
the sea, that, under proper regulations, the West
India markets might be supplied from the port of
Quebec, in British shipping, at even a lower rate
than they can be supplied from the United States;
affording, at the same time, a most extensive mar-
ket for West India produce. We shall return to
this subject on a future occasion.

The weather in this district for the last three
weeks has continued unusually warm, with more
or less rain almost daily. Haymaking has com-
menced under very unfavourable circumstances.
The quantity is less than usual, and unless a fa-
vourable change in the weather soon takes place
the quality will be worse. The crops of grain,
which ale generally heavy, have lodged in many
places, at.a time very unfavourable to their com-
ing to matirity. We observe that the farmers
lately front Europe, wherever the land is rich,
have sown too thick, probably unaware of the
astonishing power of vegetation in (his country,
811 error which, in the present season, will prove
fatal.
'Ora OF QUEBEC.