Star.
London, England, 1830-02-10 00:00:00

A like acmiturt of 'the esports at pistil MIMI gook, whit the'
amount of dudes received, sad drawback* Amid, each year upaa;
the same.

Mt BMW could not agree with the him taller. Aswan'
'to the best orbit belief and 'aperients, aides ,so far from ,
suffering the alleged depression within the Paned to, bad,
on the contrary, doubled toed trebled in its reddle. lb wished,'
therefore, to dispel the deludes which Each mknegeennetadons were;
calculated to produce. To take the official value has itip criterion,
except for quandth was a easy great mistake. In the year 1828,:
the official value was greater than the real value by nearly
16,000,000/. But this was not univenally the case. In one year
it exceeded, and in another might fall short of it. The effects of tea.'
chinery had been adverted to, but nothing could go farther to
prove the important change in the prices of manufactures which
man's inventive ingenuity had created than the fact that bob-
bioet, which had been at U. per yard a few years ago, was
now to be had for Is. 6d. This he considered to be a most
material advantage, so far from being an injury to the coon.
try—(Hear, hear.) The cheaper every necessary article could
be procured, the better for the public. Those who could''
not afford to wear a rag before, were at the present day enabled to
purchasegood clothing. In support of what he had advent-ad with re-
spect to the official value, be might merely mention, that every pound ,
of cloves imported into England was estimated in the Custom-hood
at Ls. whereas they very often fetched 15s. in the market, while
on the other hand they were sometimes sold at half-a-crown. The
official value thus continued always fixed, but the real value
varied according to contingencies, and an apparent loss existed,
which had no foundation in fact. There was a great derangement
in property at present, be fully admitted; nevertheless, at no
previous period was the country in a better condition for bearing all
the burdens imposed upon it It was stronger to de this now than
in 1702, although burdened with the overwhelming load of
850,000,0001. of debt. Free trade had done us no injury whatever,
and ought to be still further extended, instead of being in any degree
contracted. Away, then, with all this bothering nonsense (laughter).
When gentlemen, who unluckily represented important and re-
spectable towns, came down to that house preaching such
intolerable nonsense and humbpg, he felt inclined to ask'
them what would Venice, Genoa, or any other of the powerful
maritime states of Europe have been without their commerce. (Hear.)
Some of these notable legislators had even gene so far as to say that
it would be letter for England to have no foreign commerce what-
ever. But this was such unmitigated and irremediable absurdity,
that it did not deserve a moment's consideration. Why, ex-
cept for free trade, the people would be soon reduced to utter
min, and driven to the necessity of eating one another, sur-
rounded as they must be upon all sides by a political• wall of
brass. (Laughter.) He would wish, however, most earnestly to see
taxation more equalised, and taken as much as possible off the poor
working classes, upon whom it now pressed so hard. The labouring
poor at present contributed four-fifths of the taxes, while millions
pee comparatively nothing. Saying that it was impossible to
afford relief was equivalent to complaining that a man could not
run after having been chained to the ground. Let the burden of
taxes be imposed chiefly on property and capital, the owners of which
were so forward to claim priority in representation that it would be
• pity to refuse them precedence in this particlar likewise. In that
case he affirmed that the land would no longer be burdened with
pauperism, manufacturers would flourish, and the whole body of
society be improved in proportion.
Mr. ROBINSON (of Worcester) was one of those who looked to
facts, and was not to be diverted from drawing inferences from those
facts by sneers ot Imputations of being led awayby narrow prejudices
or of being in the rear of the march of the sound principles of politi.
cal economists. Wl:en he looked at these facts, he saw that how.
ever plausible official statements might appear, the country was not
progressing in prosperity, but was wading still deeper in dis-
tress and difficulty. The advocates of the present system of
free trade dwelt much on the apparent increase in the amount of
our exports as a proof of our increasing wealth and commerce;
but they seemed to forget that there were but two elements in those
exports—namely, capital and labour; and that when the imports
not only did not replace this capital and labour, and leave an income
profit and high wages to the capitalist and the laboder, but
actually were less, the nation must be deteriorating, however
numerically great might be those exports. They also seemed to
forget, that, however objectionable free trade might be in the ab-
stract, to be advantageous it should be general ; and if this country
acted on it while other countries pursued a different policy, they
would be the gainers, and we so far the losers. Those, therefore,
who questioned the policy of free trade, had the example of other
countries to appeal to, and surely were worthy of attention when
they asked the house not to abandon its free trade enactments,
but merely to revise them. The distress was too general, too
all-pervading, to be longer paned over without a minute In-
vestigation of its MUNI, in order to get at the proper remedies.
(Hear.) Those causes were numerous; one was the expense of
the maintenance of labour, for which reason he agreed with the
bon . member for Aberdeen that a reduction of the taxes which press
more immediately on the nasestaries of life would be axed relief
to the operative, sod thence to the consumer of our domestic pro-
duce. The introduction of machinery was, as a noble duke had
elsewhere justly asserted, among the concurrent causes. The bort.
member for Aberdeen bad said much of the free trade principles
making the world tributary on England for her meaufsetures ; but
the honourable member bad forgotten that France and Ame-
rica, acting on the restrictive system, bad both extended their trade
last year. The increase, for example, of the value of imports into
the portof Havre (the Liverpool of France), amounted last year to
20,000,000 of francs over those of the preceding year, and the ex-
ports of the United Suites were6,ooo,ooo of dollars mare last year
than in 1828--(hear, hear.) Was it not evident, then, that other
nations were benelittcd, while this was injured, by the present sys-
tem ? Why should we take the silk of France unless she recipro-
cally bound herself by treaty to take our cotton and hardware manu-
factures in return ? In a word, why should not the systab be made
one of bona jide reciprocity, or be revised and emended ?
Mr. COURTENAIi was willing to admit, that the system of
determining the value of our exports, by that called the 14 official
average veld," was not altogether as perfect at might be desired;
but it was the most perfect that he knew of, or, he would venture to
say, any member of that house had as yet devised. He had tried
one or two other modes of arriving at a value of our exports and
imports, but found them not so successful; and he should he
obliged to any honourable member who would suggest a mode
less liable to error than that of the official value. He would
not then enter into an analysis of the honourable alderman's
(Waithman) statements, as a more fitting occasion would
shortly present itself, but would content himself with con.
tending that increase of exports proved so far an increased activity
of commerce. How could these exports be made without an in-
creased amount of shipping, and of the employment of machinery
and labour ? Honourable members said that because the price or
rate of profit of those eiports wrier law, that therefore they were of
no national benefit; but they forgot that the etteet of the market
was as the lowness of profits—that if they wished for high prices,
they must count on small sale, and Mee versa (hear: hear). The
hon. member for Worcester said that France and America had not
followed our example in adopting the anti-restrictive system. Now
it was a sufficient answer to say to the hot. member that the seers-
tag to the Trendy of the United States bad in his last report
asserted the very doctrine which had been over and over advathoed by
ministers,—namely, that the transition from a states, war to that if
Peaces the application Of science to machinery, (which God forbid
he (Mr. Counenay) should denounce or not appreciate), and other
concurrent causes necessarily induced a temporary distrait, for which
there was no legislative remedy. (Hear, bear.) Then with
respect to France, It. was a fact that our exports to that coun-
try bad increased coacideiably last yiar, sonolthetwoding the
ass-much-objected-to free trade system. When, last session, he ad-
dressed the house at the subject. he comendeel that the silk trade,
the then io 'eat complaint, would be extended by the very saes.
brass which members decided be its ruin ; and
he appealed to the candour of every raWs Man if the fait was
not as be had dedicted--(hese, hear.) And sett wadi be with
other branches of trade, as be would endeavour to prove on another
ots:atien.

Mr. ATTWOOD *as not 'surprised that the bon. member for
;Aberdeen iJitatild be balled as s great auti*ty on the Ppm of the
nation by lion. members opposite (ton the Traisury biesit)
statements went to bear out their ill-founded alasediser 11114
the honourable member had a condition of his own, whisk
went, if examined; to. upset the rely dornitios *bleb be finial
to uphold. The honourable slumber 000tellittli 'Waver
present fres.trade system gate us _the Oiathet• of die •
and yet strangely argued that then should be a redskins
20.010.0001. of taus, ;else we 'XI be driven.
_, _ Out ,
matket other competitors. (gr. nine slid he dld not
20,000.0091,4—liemity.mentisoid a 1 rednothie.) No mange,
6, or 10 minims, amen; 2 wikel_
a death blow to Sibilance. He did not doubt
to the °Hertel inniesta,the Salinas or isports ape lase.**
Ires4*Ptan chore of Prtgo4hllt (bear,.os6r. bear.)But ad
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