Star.
London, England, 1823-12-22 00:00:00

When tbaY)sav-e---oed new channels of coin merce •
wheenti 'Sipping has *ayed, and our agriculture is
abandoned.; 'atm, on faith of the law, large capitals
preinvested,in manufactories, we may regret our pro-
. bibitory policy but we must persist in it.
• -4eisrmoe4eiatte that the enactment of the proposed
Tariff can bate no teudeicy to introduce now capital :
its sole effect will be to transfer capital from one stock
en „ountbetk—front a stock which the owner believes
More profitable to axe which he believes less so. Indivi-
duals are the best judges of their own interest; and the
'inmate of individual interests is that of the nation.
There is, undoubtedly, a manifest injustice in thus com-
.pelling the owner of capital to use it otherwise than his
own discretion directs, and not alms manifest inspolicy in
substituting a legislative discretion for that of the indi-
vidual most deeply concerned-who is prepared by the
habits of his life, by an intimate knowledge of all the
• details, and by daily investigation, to form opinions,
:sad is animated by the strongest possible excitements
to form his opinion correctly. The proper period for
the introduction of manufactories, is that when a ca-
pital can be profitably invested in them. As soon as
this happeni, they will be established without legisla-
tive interference.
The• Customs supply at present nearly two-thirds of
the revenue•of the Government, and relieve it from the
necessity of a resort to direct taxes. A diminution of
the Customs to any considerable extent will render 'this
resort inevitable, and the amount of taxes must be in-
creasied in a direct ratio with the incapacity of the coun-
try to pay them. Besides the heavy indirect tax in the
enhancement of the price of manufactured articles, for
the encouragement of manufactures, we shall be called
upon to pay a direct tax for the support of Government,
and be subjected to the justly odious vexations of an
Excise System, and all this must be borne when our
wealth is destroyed, by the very measure which induces
such exactions. It will reduce us to a state of things
not less calamitous than but internal situation daring a
war preceded by as embargo.
The dimiuution'of the Cuttoms, cannot by any fair
'mode of calculation, be estimated at less than ttne-half ;
ipating seven initeacr d'ficipreten. tiiillioits. The re-
' :liiißriing ieven intuit; irsiiiifori, be raised by direcntases.
The Protecting' Dudes Will, of course, become part of
the price laid oti the eonstimer, and thus operate as
,a
tax upon him, tonal to the amount of the prohibitory
' duty. The loss of a market for our exports cannot be
estimated as reducing their profit less than one-third.—
* The direct tax, the advanced price of necessary arti-
• ales, and the loss on exports, will give an aggregate of
• loss •to be suffered annually for the encouragement of
manufactures equal to the whole present expenses of
the G&Verunsent, without estimating the loss upon ca-,
• pital'imv employed in:commerce, in freight, and in
ship-building. Can it contribute to natioaal wealth or
to burthen the country with such exactions?
• will it promote either, to bteak down the agricultural
and commercial interests? and (what is:still more to be
' deprecated) to excite a permanent, bitter, and uncom-
• promising spirit of hostility between those who lan-
guish under, and those who enjoy, a detestable mono-
poly ? Or has a manufacturing system some peculiar
advantages to counterbalance these appalling results?
D ..es it contribute more than agriculture to the corn-
fort, health, morals, or intelligence of the labouring
• ' class? Does it make more spirited citizens, or braver
• soldiers? Will it make more fit heirs for the inheritance
andtrust of our liberty ?
But it is said such a system will render us indepen-
dent of foreign nations. If this 'means that it will dis-
solve our connexion with the society of nations, and
establish us in a Chinese seclusion, we answer that it is
neither practicable no: desirable- if it means that we
shall thus be rendered secure from foreign aggression,
we ansv er that the best security is in a heatthy;labor ions,
and intelligent yeomanry to furnish an army; in a wide
extended commerce to furnish a navy ; and in that na-
tional wealth which itas iti foundation• in the industry
- of the citizen, directed :by this own sagacity. These
constitute true national '.independence, and that they
are competent to an efficient maintenance of our rights,
recent events of our history prove.
Yonr Memorialists, in short, have seen no arguments
osin favour of this system, sufficient to justify the risk of
so hazardatis rus 'experiment ; and, in whatever point of
view they regard it, it seems fraught with injustice, op-
pression, and vbirr; and as such, they solemnly protest
• 'against it.
WILLIAM C. FIIRSTON,
THOMAS COOPER;
W. F. 1441J/33CM.

Onnmistee.

LEIPSIC AMIS2IMAIS FALII.
In manufactured goods the competition of Scottish
manufactures has, undoubtedly, particularly in the finer
sorts, lessened very considerably the sale of home made
cotton goo.h. But the principal cause of the diminished
sales was the want of pui chasers from the North. The
too numerous sellers consoled themselves, however, with
the hope that some modification would soon be intro-
duced into the Ittissibit tariff, as it was stated that the
new imposts had very much diminished the revenue of
the boundless Empire. Better informed persons, on the
contrary, rema; ked, that, if the obstacles from the nu-
merous manufactures now establishing in Russia were
not so great, and the present admirable and well-in-
formed Minister of Commerce and Finance could
succeed in changing, in establishing other regula-
tions, yet the trade with Rlssia and Pvland could not
improve till the price of coßi was considerably higher.
For there even the stock is prodigious, and cannot he
turned into money, by which much poverty and a di-
minished demand for new goods are occasioned. Even
in the c, tr.°, the powerful competition of EnglAna,
strengthened by its sovereigns of full weight, has injuri-t
ous effects on the trade of the Leipsic fair. As to the
goodness of the English manufactures, which was for-
merly so Much praised at this fair also, people found
themselves considerably deceived. The shortening and
the deterioration of the goods, as well as the whh to sell
at any price, sheaved themselves in the clearest manner.
The German and Swiss merchants were obliged to swim
with the stream. Oa new and fuse patterns there is little
to say. Even the Swiss brought very little to the fair,
tempting from its-novelty, although their goods were
very much distinguished by their fineness and sttengg
It is certain that all the underselliag began from Eng.
land, because in that country is a prodigious store •
trash, which is sent to the Continent. It was the same
at the Frankfort fair in the autumn, of which the Jour-
nal de Commerce remarked, that the English commis
were sold at such a price as hardly to cover the expense
of making them.
Of some mew of stockings, and goods connected:widki
the. the .sale erns considerable, patticularly in theiiamto
sac cotton :tooting% which at present are preemod