The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-12-10 00:00:00

E

,

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1 539.

result • and unquestionably it is sufficiently alarming to every I wise. The whole population of : the country is made up of
one who considers how essential our maritime superiority is I customers who require, and who can afford to. pay, for our
to our foreign commerce ; and what would be the condition ! goods. This, too, is peculiar to that nation,
and it is a pe-
of the British population if the empire of the seas were culiarity as happy for them as it is profitable for U 3. I know
wrested from it, and the Thames, the Clyde, and the Mer- the real or affected contempt with which some persons in
sey, were blockaded by hostile fleets ? But the particulars of - this country treat our kinsmen of the West. 1 fear some
our trade with separate countries arc far more instructive, angry and jealous 'feelings have survived our former more '
because they demonstrate, in the clearest manner, where it intimate connexion with them—feelings engendered by the
is that the decay of our trade and shipping is going on, and event of its termination, but which it would be wiser, as well
where the counterpoising sources of strength and revival are as more manly, to forget. . Nay, there are certain romantic
to be found. It appears from Mr. Porter's Parliamentary spirits who 'even despise the unadorned structure of their
Tables, that since.lB23, when the reciprocity system corn- massive democratic society. But to me I freely acknowledge,
menced, our tonnage with the countries with whom the reel- the sight of one part of •it brings feelings of envy as an En-
procity treaties were concluded has been decreasing in the glisharan : I mean the happy distinction that, over the whole.
most alarming manner, While no increase whatever has taken extent of that boundless continent, from Canada to the Gulf
place during the same period in the amount of goods which of Mexico, and from the Mississippi to the Atlantic Ocean,
they take off our hands. The British and Foreign shipping there is not one panpey to be found. Such are the customers
employed in the trade with Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, Nor- *limn America presents to us. The rapithincrease of their
way, since 1820, have stood as follows : culture and population, too, doubling in twenty-five or thirty
British declined with Prussia from 539 ships to 270 years, must necessarily augment this demand for our goods
Denmark, 57 .... 10 iiu the same proportion. Circumstanced as the two countries
- Norway, 168 .... 15 are, I use no figure of speech, but speak the simple fact when
Sweden, • 123 .... 66 I say, that not an axe falls in the woods of America which
And the foreign ships with Great Britain have increased dur- does not put in motion some shuttle, or hammer, or wheel iu
ing the same period in these states as follows.:— .. England."*
Prussia with Great Britain increased from 258 to 903 Such is the astonishing effect of the causes thus eloquently
Danish ,1 ~ •44 to. 624 described by Lord Brougham, as occasioning the surprising
Norwegian ~ n 553 to 785 demand for V.nglish manufactures in the British Colonies, or
Swedish 7 9 If 71 to 250 the independent states which have arisen from that origin,
Such, gentlemen, is the working of the reciprocity system over other countries. The following Table, which, a priori,
with these countries; and even in regard to America our'. would have been incredible, shows the exports to different
trade stands thus:— states, as compared with their respective population, and the
British. American. value of British manufactures which they consume per head :
Ships. - Tons. Ships. Tons. Export in Proportion
1836.. 226 89,383 524 226,483 ' Population. 1836. per head.
" Thus you see, gentlemen, that while our commerce with Russia 60,000,000 " £1,742,433 £0 0 5
Northern Europe is -almost entirely passing into the hands of I Sweden - 3,000,050 113,308 00 9
foreigners, nearly three-fourths of that with America is at this j Denmark 2,000,000 91,302 00 11
moment in the hands of the inhabitants of that country !It Prussia
is easy to see, that if we had no commercial intercourse but France • 32,000,000 1,591,381 00 11
with such foreign and independent states, we should, by the Portugal .
very extension of our export of manufactures, be nursing up Spain
a foreign, and possibly hostile, commercial navy, which' U. States of America .14,000,000 12,425,005 017 0
would ere long wrest from us the empire of the seas. it is Br. N. Amr. Colonies. 1,500,000 2,739,291 111 6
needless to go farther into details; for the following is the l Br. W. India Islands 900,000 3,786,453 312 0
general result of the change which the tonnage of our foreign Br. Austral. Colonies lOO,OOO 1,180,000 11 15 0
commerce with all parts of the world has undergone during It may truly be said•that this table speaks as to the real
the last thirty-six years : .-- -- • -•- - • --interests and manufacturing establishments of Great Britain ;
" The tra:ie of Great Britain with all Europe haS declined
,and that, if our rulers were not struck with judicial blind-
they would at onoe perceive where it is that the steady

ness, :y *Aloe perceive writne
and rising market for British manufactures, and where all
our efforts to promote a successful traffic may be regarded as
fruitless and unavaiiing. For fifteen years past our whole
commercial policy has been directed to the object of gaining
a more ready vent for our manufactures into the continental
states of Europe. We have concluded no less than twelve
reciprocity treaties with the principal powers; and, in order
to propitiate their good-will, we have sacrificed by our trea-
ties all our commercial advantages at least in our intercourse
with these states. And what has been the result ? Why,
that our commerce with them is a perfect trifle when com-
pared with that which we maintain with our own colonies,
whom we have maltreated and neglected for their sakes; and
that, while the old states take off a few pence per head of
their population, our own colonies take off as many pounds.
In this instance we have tealy verified the old adage, that we
have been penny wise and poand foolish, even in regard to
our existing interests at the moment. But when, in addition
to this, it is- recollected that these colonies are part of our-
selves—(;start provinces of our own cfnpire, whose blood is
our blood, whose strength is our strength; that they are in-
creasing in numbers with a rapidity unparalleled in the annals
of the world ; and that, however fast they may augment, they
are by their situation and circumstances chained for centuries
to agricultural and pastoral employments, and consequently
our export trade with them must increase in the same pro-
portion as their numbers ; while, on the other hand, the
states of continental Europe are -increasing far less rapidly in
numbers—are actuated for the most part by commercial or
political jealousy, and may any moment become our enemies,
it may safely be affirmed that the neglect of the colonial pro-
vinces to propitiate foreign powers, is of all human absurdities
the most absurd.
It is needless to inquire to what cause this marvellous
difference between Colonial and European trade is owing.
It is immaterial whether it is to be ascribed to the circum-
stance. of the Continental states being in the same state of
civilisation with ourselves, or being inhabited by people who
have no taste for our manufactures, or no money to buy
them ; or governed by jealous and hostile foreign governments
-or actuated by similar and rival commercial establishments.
It is sufficient to state the fact, that, from one or other, or all
of these causes, their trade with us is trifling, and either sta-
tionary or declining, • while that with our colonies is enor-
mous, steady, and constantly increasing. In truth, how-
ever, it is not difficult to, perceive to what cause the total
failure of all attempts at commercial increase with the old
states of Europe is to be ascribed: Mr. Alison observed at
the Glasgow dinner, " It is easy to see to what cause this
remarkable decline in our trade with old-nations and this
marvellous increase in our commercial intercourse with our
own colonies, is to be ascribed. It is evidently owing to the
fact, that these old states are in the same state of civilisation
with ourselves, and therefore they are actuated by a natural
desire to deal in the same articles, and to manufacture the
same produce as ourselves: Are we cotton-spinners ?—so are
they. Are we iron-masters ?—so are they. Are we silk ma-
nufacturers ?—so are they. Are we cutlery and hardware
merchants ?—so are they. Are we clothiers and woollen-
drapers ?—so are' they. There is no branch of industry in
which we excel, in which they are not alimaking the greatest
and 'most strenuous, and sometimes successful, efforts to
rival and outstrip us. It is in vain that we meet them with
the signs of amity, .and hold out the olive branch in token of
our desire to establish reciprocity treaties on the footing of
real mutual advantage. We cannot, by so doing, either shut
the eyes of their manufacturers to the danger of British com-
petition, or close the vision of their governments to the daz-
zling spectacle of British greatness. Tuey see that we have
risen to the summit of prosperity under the system of pro-
tection to domestic industry, and they naturally imagine that
it is only by following our example that they can hope to ri-
val our success. It is in vain that we now offer to meet them
on the footing of perfect reciprocity. They say—" It is very
well for you to throw down the barriers when your superio-
rity in every branch of industry is incontestible. When ours
is the same, we will follow your -example ; in the mean time,
ybu must allow us to imitate the steps which enabled you to
reach`the elevated position which you now enjoy.' Gentle-
men, it is difficult to see the answer which can be made to
such arguments." .
Powerful as . are these considerations, derived from the
commercial and manufacturing interests of Great Britain, in
favour of her colonial settlements, the facts pointing the
same way, deducible from the shipping interests, are, if pos-
sible, still more conclusive. The essential difference between
the shipping, which carries on a trade between the colonies
and the mother country, is,'that it is, as in the former' case,
all our own—in the latter, one-half belongs to our enemies.
This difference is so enormous, the effects it produces on
our maritime strength are so extraordinary, that, numerous
as have been the details which we already given, we cannot
resist the temptation of contrasting our shipping and tonnage
with some of the principal foreign powers with whom we have
concluded reciprocity treaties with 'that which we carry on
with our own colonies.
BRITISH AND FOREIGN TONNAGE NV ITU RECIPROCITY
COUNTRIES.
BRITISH. FOREIGN.
Ships. , Tons. Ships. Tons. •
• 66 10,865 250 42,439
• 15 1,573 785 125,875
16 2,152 694 51,907
270 42,567 903 174,439
2,036 139,329 1,740 108,352
220 86,383 524 226,483
BRITISH.
East India Company's Territories, Ships. Tons.
Singapore and Ceylon
New South Wales 59 19,195
British Northern Colonies
British West Indies 9OO 237,922
Nor is 'the present magnitude of the British trade with
these colonies more remarkable than its rapid increase.
Some very remarkable facts on this subject:wer"e stated by
Mr. Alison at the public dinner in Glasgow :—You have
already seen how completely our shipping which trades
with Northern Europe is withering away under the action of
the reciprocity treaties ; and you have seen that it is now.
little more than a fourth of what it was fifteen years ago ;
while that of the Baltic powers trading with us has.quadru-
pled during the same period. But, gentlemen, turn to the
colonies, and you will learn a very different result; and be-
hold with delight a growth of our shipping as extraordinary,
as its decline in our intercourse with Europe is serious and
alarming. Gentlemen, it appears from Mr. Porter's Parlia-
mentary Tables, that the growth of our shipping employed
between Canada, Australia, and the mother country, has
been as follows

from 1802 to 1836, from 65 to 48 per cent.
With British Colonies in America
increased
Vith United American States
With India
These facts may be considered as decisive against•the re-
ciprocity system, so far as the maritime interests of the em--•
pire are concerned. They prove, beyond the possibility of
doubt, after the most ample opportunity of trying the system
by experience has been given, that under the reciprocity.
system the British flag is generally becoming extinct in the
trade with Continental Europe ; and that, if it is continued
for ten or fifteen years longer, our whole traffic with Europe
will be carried on in the vessels of foreign states. Indeed,
it is evident,- from the extraordinarily rapid growth of foreign
shipping in carrying on the British commerce, that if the
present system continues many -years longer, the foreign sai-
lors and tonnage employed in carrying on our commercial
intercourse, at least with the states of Ourope, will be greater
than our own ; that is to say, we shall have nursed up a race
of foreign seamen in our own harbours, and in conducting
our own trade, superior in number to those of the British
islands—in other words, sharpened, and put into the enemy's
hands, the dagger which may at any moment pierce us to
the heart.
Real reciprocity with these countries would evidently have
consisted in stipulating, that in consideration of our admit-
ting some article in which they had advantages over us, on
the same terms as they admitted ours, that they should do
the same with some article of our Manufacture in which we
had the advantage, and they had the worst of it by nature.
But we never thought of doing this, but contented ourselves-
with surrendering to them the whole advantages which the
navigation laws gave to our shipping, without ever stipulating
even the szrallest corresponding adVantage in favour of our
cotton, hardware, or woollen goods, in which we had by
nature the start of them. The consequence has been that
our own shipping employed in carrying on the trade with
these nations has been almost destroyed, while no benefit
whatever has been gained in our exports to these nations by
the sacrifice. This .decisively appears from comparing our
exports to the powers with whom we concluded reciprocity
treaties for the last ten years, during which time, in conse-
quence of the action of these treaties, our shipping with them
has been dwindling away to nothing. The following table
exhibits the value of our exports to the Baltic powers, in
1827 and 1828, and 1835-and 1836:—
Countries. 1827. 1828. 18:15. 1535.
£1,408,970 £1,318,936 £1,752,775 £1,712,433
Sweden 46,731 42,699 • • 105,156 113,308
Norway... 39,129- 53,582 79,278 79,469
Denmark
Prussia 174,338 179,145 188,273 160,722
It is needless to go farther into details; for the following
statement by the learned and indefatigible Mr. Porter; of
the Board of Trade, on that subject is decisive :—" That
part of our commerce," says Mr. Porter, " which, being
carried on with the rich and civilised inhabitants of Euro-
pean nations, should present the greatest field for extension,
will be seen to have fallen off under this aspect in a remark-
able degree. The average annual exports to the whole of
Europe were less in value by nearly 20 per cent. in the five
years from 1832 to 1836, than they were in the five years
that followed the close of the war; and it affords strong evi-
dence of the unsatisfactory footing upon which our trading
regulations with Europe are established, that the exports to
the United States of America, which, with their population
of only twelve millions, are removed to a distance from us of
3.000 miles across the Atlantic, have amounted to more than.
one-half of the value of our shipments to the whole of Eu-
rope, with a poptilation fifteen times as great as that of the
United States of America, and with an abundance of pro-
ductions suited to our wants, which. they are.naturally desi-
rous of exchanging for the products of our mines and
looms."* . • • • •
Thus it distinctly appears, that while we have completely
sacrificed, by the reciprocity treaties, our shipping employed
in the trade with Northern Europe, we have derived no
countervailing advantage whatever. in our.exports to these
countries, because they actually, as a whole, take off, on an
average of five years, less of that produce than they did five-
and-twenty years ago. It is evident • that, while they have
taken advantage of our simplicity to engross to themselves
all the carrying trade between their harbours and Great Bri-
.ain, they have taken care to give us no corresponding ad-
vantage whatever in our commercial intercourse with them.
In fact, they have done more—the •only return they have
made for our concession in maritime affairs, has been to load
our manufactures with additional duties. Prussia has re-
warded us for our ample concessions to her by the Prusso-
Germanic league. Every year brings a fresh ukase from the
Emperor of Russia, imposing additional duties on our goods ;
and even our little puppet; the revolutionary Queen of Por-
tug,al, has shown her gratitude for the aid which put her on
the throne, by nearly doubling the duties on every species of
British manufacture !
Mr. Alison, after dwelling on these facts, proceeded as
follows to exhibit the ve?y different picture which the colo-
nial trade has presented
" Gentlemen,—l will not fatigue you with farther details.
You see here the astonishing facts that France, with its thirty-
two millions of inhabitants, takes off only £1,500,000 worth;
that Prussia, with a population of fourteen millions, takes
off only £160,000 worth; and, most marvellous'. of all, that
Russia, now with a population of sixty millions, takes only
£1,700,000 of our produce. From these facts we may esti-
mate, with perfect certainty, the chance which Great Britain
has of being *able to maintain a lucrative commercial inter-
course with the old European nations in the same stage of
civilisation with herself, and influenced by the political hos-
tility and commercial rivalry incident to their political situ-
ation. Gentlemen, I' have said, however gloomy the pros-
pects of our commercial interests with such states may be,
there is not only hope 'but confidence to be derived from
another quarter ; and if we turn to the Colonies we shall at
once see whence it is that England is now deriving its heart's
blood, and from what commercial intercourse our wealth
and greatness in future times is to be derived. Gentlemen,
you will be-astonished, your hearts will- exult, at the magni-
tude of the returns which lam now to lay before you. In
the year 1836 it appears that our—

5wede.......
Norway .....
Denmark .....

Prussia......
France ......

United States ..

Real Value,

Exports to the United States of America were
no less than
British North American Colonies 2,732,291
British West Indies 3,786,453
Australian Colonies
East Indies 4,285,829

. .
" The articulate returns of the trade of each country for
the years 1837 and 1838, have not yet been laid before the
public ; but here is surely enough to excite our wonder and
astonishment. You see that Canada, with its population
that does not yet reach fifteen hundred thousand souls, takes
off no less than £2,800,000 of our produce, or nearly twice
as much as Russia, with its population of sixty millions.
You see that the British West India Islands, with a popula-
tion of about forty thousand white and eight hundred thou-
sand black inhabitants, consumed in 1836 no less than
£3,700,000, or considerably more than twice as much as
France, with its population of thirty-two millions. And
what is most marvellous of all, 'and.coines directly home
to the object of this night's festive assembly, the Aus-
tralian Colonies, with a population scarcely at this mo-
ment amounting to a hundred thousand, take off no less than
£1,000,000 a-year of produce. Why, gentlemen, I venture
to predict, that before the year 1840 the colonists of New
Holland, reinforced as they will be by our friends around us
proceeding to New Zealand, will consume. more. of British
produce and manufactures, though they may not number a
hundred and twenty thousand :soul4, than the sixty millions
of the Muscovite empire. Such is the wonderful difference
between the commercial intercourse we can maintain with our
own descendants—our own flesh and blood—the Anglo-Saxon
race whom we have sent forth to civilize the world—and the
inhabitants of foreign states, subjected to the authority of
hostile governments, or swayed by foreign commercial
jealousy. '
Lord Brougham, in the debate on the repeal of the Orders
in Council in 1812 has explained, with even more than his
usual felicity, the causes of this remarkable difference be-
tween the commerce opened in our colonies and that which
can be maintained with any other independent state in the
old world. " The extent," says he, " and swift and regular
progress of the AmeriCan market for British goods, is not
surprising ; we can easily and clearly account for it. In the
nature of things it can be no otherwise, and the reason lies
on the very surface of the fact. America is an immense
agricultural country, where land is plentiful and cheap ; men
and labour, though quickly increasing, yet still-scarce and
dear, compared with the boundless regions which they occupy
and cultivate. In such a country manufactures do not na-
turally thrive ; every exertion, if matters be left to themselves,
goes into oter channels. This people is ccumected with
England with origin, language, manners, and institutions ;
their tastes go along with thCir convenience, and they come,.
to us as a matter of course for the articles which they do not
make themselves:- Only take one fact as an example : the
negrees in- the 'southern states are clothed in English-made
goods; and it 'takes 40s. a-year thus to supply one of, these
unfortunate persons. This will be admitted to be the lowest
sum for which any person in America can be clothed ; but
take it as the average, and make a deduction for the expenses
above prime cost, you have a sum uptin the whole population
of eight millions, which approaches the value of our exports •
to the United'States. But it is not merely in clothing. Go
to any house in the Union, from their large and wealthy
cities to the most Solitary cabin or log-house in the forests,
you find in every corner the furniture, tools, and ornaments
of Staffordshire, of Warwickshire, and of the northern coun-
ties of England. The wonder ceases when we thus reflect
for a moment, and we plainlypereeive that it can be.no other-

Australia

* Porter's Progress of the Nation, p. 101.

* Parliamentary_Debates, xxiii. t") 15.

We have the details lying beside us, and were we not fearful
of exhausting the patience of our readers by farther statis-
tical details, we could exhibit a picture from parliamentary
and authentic documents of progressive ruin in those noble
establishments, which would amply bear out, and even exceed
this statement.
• She next, practically speaking, shortened by two years the
'period of negro apprentiecship, and thereby completely dis-
organised all the plans which the planters had laid, for en-
abling them to wind up their affairs during the period of ap-
prenticeship. And when it became manifest that the negroes
would not work, and that a fresh supply of labourers became
indispensible to maintain the industry of the West India Is-
lands, we passed acts of parliament prohibiting the introduc-
tion of free Asiatic labourers, and promulgated regulations
in the island, which by giving the planters no security in the
retention of the labour of free European workmen, have in
effect, cut off all means of supplying the place of the indolent
negroes in the cultivation of the land. -
What have we done during the same period in Canada? It
would appear from our conduct to that noble colony, that we
were desirous of disgusting it so completely with the rule of
the mother country, as to throw it headlong into the arms of
the United States. We first winked at and promoted repub-
licanism and sedition to such a degree, as to fan them into
actual rebellion ; and, though aware for years that an insur-
rection was rapidly approaching, we left the colonies with
only 35041 British soldiers to protect them from destruction.
When the first ievolt was put down by this gallant handful of
men, and the strenuous support of the loyal North American
British population, we carried the system of conciliation,
concession, and dallying with treason to such a length, as to
cause the rebelliou to break out a second time under circum-
stances of still greater horror,'and when it required to be ex-
tinguished in oceans of blood. While the wintry heavens
were illuminated by the light of burning villages, and the
wintry forests were strewed with the carcasses of the slaugh-
tered peasants, we submitted quietly to the insulting inroads
of hundreds of buccaneers and pirates from the American
terriory, in a way that never yet was done by the government
of any independent state.
When the royal banner of the loyal inhabitants in Upper
Canada had surmounted these various evils, and a second
time restored peace to a distracted land, the sympathy of our
rulers with their old allies—the republican party in America
—was so strong, that they have never proposed a vote of
thanks in either house of parliament or from the crown, to
the brave soldiers and patriots who saved the empire from
dismemberment l Lastly, to show our sympathy with the
anti-national party in our transatlantic possessions, in our
total disregard to their vital interests, we placed at the head
of the colonial department Lord Normauby, whose policy in
Ireland was graced by the wholesale liberation -of felons and
anti-national convicts, and placed at the head of the Govern-
ment in Quebec, Poulett Thomson, the President of the Board
of Trade, who is chiefly known by his long established con-
nexion with the Baltic timber trade, and his often avowed
predilection for an equalisation of the duties on Baltic and
Canadian timber.
Serious as these evils are, we much fear that greater and
more heavy blows at our colonial interests are yet in the ccsti-
templation of our infatuated government. Acting on the
dictation of the urban constituencies, whose great object is to
bay cheap, and still clinging to the blind system of foreign
propitiation, there is little room for doubting that they will,
ere long, perhaps in the next session ofparliament, bring for-
ward ministerial plans for equalising the duties on Baltic and
Canadian timber, and Foreign and British sugar. Strong
indications of these intentions have already appeared in the
speeches of many of the supporters of government, and the
appointment of Mr. Poulett Thomson to the viceroyalty of
Canada may be considered as the official promulgation of their
intention. Let no one imagine that these propositions are
so obviously destructive in their effects, and bear so obviously
the tendency to dismember the empire, that therefore they
will not be attempted by a ministry whose only principle
seems to be to prolong their official existence, without any re-
gard to the jeopardy in which the means of accomplishing. that
object may place the existence or independence of the coun-
try. It is never to be forgotten, that to secure the support
of O'Connell's tail, they have surrendered the government of
Ireland and the direction of the nation to the Popish faction,
whose bond of cement is the repeal of the union, that is, the
dismemberment of the empire. True, by establishing a free
trade in timber, we should annihilate the industry of our
North American Colonies, and throw them at once into the
arms of the United States, and cut off at once 600,000 tons of
British shipping., and altogether extinguish both our maritime
superiority and national independence. True, by equalising
the duties on Foreign and British sugar, we should utterly
destroy our West India colonies, and perpetuate that hideous
tearing of 200,000 negroes from the shores of Africa, which
we have professed ourselves so anxious to'prevent. But what
does all that signify ?—the urban constituencies must he pro-
pitiated ; a few stray seats at the next election may turn the
balance in favour of the destructive or conservative party ;
and the cry of cheap sugar and cheap bread may catch these
stray votes and cast the balance.
It is childish to descant always upon the weakness and im-
becility of ministers, or suppose that a tortuous policy, so
flagrantly dangerous and impolitic as that which we have just
been considering, is to be ascribed to the mere recklessness
or want of capacity of our present rulers. It is perversity in
the public mind which is the real source of the evil—it is the,
shortssighted views of the numerous constituencies that have
so long rendered a remedy impossible. The colonies.are
wholly unrepresented in the House of Commons ; the ten-
pounders have the disposal of the majority of the seats in that
assembly ; to buy cheap is their immediate interest, and it
matters little to the short seeing masses what effect that cheap
buying may ultimately have upon their own or the national
interests. Here is the true secret of colonial misgovernment ;
we are governed by masses who think only of buying cheap,
and the interest of the colonies is to sell dear. Eight years
ago we foresaw, and distinctly predicted this effect, as neces-
sarily flowing from the Reform Bill.
All the colonial calamities that have since occurred are but
the accomplishment of our predictions in this particular.*
The colonies were not actually represented under the old
constitution, but they were Virtually so, because colonial
wealth found an easy entrance into parliament through the
close boroughs. The Whigs have destroyed that avenue for
colonial representation in the Ilouse of Commons ; time will
show whether they have not destroyed with it the colonial
empire and national independence of Great Britain.

* BlLckwood's Magazine, September, 1831, vol. xxx. p. 43G.

WEST INDIAN AFFAIRS.

EXTRACTS FROM "REFLECTIONS ON WEST INDIA AF-
FAIRS," BY LIEUT.-COL. THE HON. SIR El/WD. CUST.

ADDRESS TO THE COLONIAL OFFICE.
I could have wished to have addressed, with every cour-
tesy, to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State, the ob-
servations that it had occurred to me I could lay before the
public, with some advantage to West Indian affairs, after my
return home from an excursion through the principal British
and Foreign possessions of the Caribbean sea. But the in-
cessant changes of the Principals in the Colonial Department
scarcely give me any option, on the present occasion, but that
of addressing the entire Office. I will make no allusion to
the inconveniences resulting to the Colonies themselves from
the late fluctuating appointments, further than to remark,
that at a moment when the Office takes upon itself to do so
much without consulting those who are the most concerned,
it would be consolatory to the Colonists if they could have
more satisfaction in the greater stability of those to whom
Colonial affairs are entrusted. True it is, that, amidst all
the recent changes, the situation of the most active Under
Secretary remains always unaltered, and I might therefore
have selected him for my correspondent, without any appre-
hension of being obliged to modify my address ; but, whether
justly or not, I have found that gentleman's influence to be
so unpopular in the colonies, and considered to be so hostile
to their interests, that to address my letter to him might have
been misconstrued by all parties ; and 1 might either have
been imagined to participate in his supposed views of colonial
policy, or intend satirically some remarks in opposition to
them. I have no such motive. My object is to state, as
concisely and as clearly as I can, the opinions I have been
induced to form during a recent voyage through the Wind-
ward Colonies ; and although I shall not profess an absence
of prejudice by a hesitating inclination to blow hot fend cold
upon every question, I shall endeavour to steer as clear of it
as a man not ashamed to write himself a Churchman, and a
West Indian planter, can be believed to do by those of op-
posite denominations.
DESPOTIC AUTHORITY OF THE COLONIAL OFFICE.

I consider that the Colonial Office in its collective juris-
diction (for I will not attempt to dissect the individual influ-
ence that directs and controls it) is at the present moment,
and has been for some years, the most unequivocal Autocracy
in existence. The Russian Emperor rules absolutely, with-
out a show of constitutional authority : he can appoint and
depose his Governors, increase or diminish their salaries, and
enforce laws by his unquestioned power. All this is of course
done by our superior government, but it does not hesitate to
override, at its pleasure, every constitutional influence ; for
whilst it leaves the semblance of a willto the two estates of
the several mighty rocks of the Caribbean Sea, it is only when
their freedom of legislation is discreetly moulded upon the
previously- ascertained will of the Colonial Office, that their
laws are permitted to come into operation. Thus the ma-
gistracy, the militia, the police, and the prison questions, are
all arranged in Downing-street, without reference to colonial
interests. The Governors are the mere creatures of its au-
thority, of no imaginable influence but what they derive from
its nomination; they are unequal to represent at home the
just grievances of the colonists, because they know that if
these should in any degree clash with the preconceived opin-
ions of the department, their situations are in immediate
jeopardy ; and they are in no position to make head against
its influence, by an appeal to the good sense and justice of
the Britisll people, without hazard to their individual inte-
rests, and ruin to their professional prospects.

Canada. Canada.
Coasting Trade. With Britain.
Tens. Tons. Tons.
1820 • 1,291 248,343 343,377
1836 19,195 609,111 620,772
Thus the astonishing facts are anparent,•that, in conducting
the intercourse between Canada, the West Indies, and the
mother country, there has grown up a'commercial navy of
nearly 1,200,000 tons, of which nearly 600,060 belong to
Great Britain, and the remainder to her transaVantic off-
spring ; while the tonnage with the Australian. Colonies has
increased in sixteen, years, prior to 1836, from 1200 to
20,000, or nearly twenty-fold. When we recollect that the
total commercial navy of Great Britain is only. 2,800,000
tons, and that our vast foreign trade with America only em-
ploys 80,000 tons of our shipping, the whole remainder being
in the hands of the Americans themselves ; and that our in-
tercourse with Canada and Australia, the population of
which is not sixteen hundred thousand, already gives em-
ployment to 600,000 tons, or neatly seven times that em-
ployed in our whole immense commerce with the United
States of America, the vital importance of colonial trade to
Maritime independence becomes at once apparent ; and the
general result of the comparative progress of the vessels be-
longing to Great Britain, at home and in the colonies, front
1814 to 1836, is as follows :
Great Ilritain. Colonies.
Tons. Tons.
2,414,170 202,795
2,349,649 442,897
Thus yOu see, gentlemen, that while the shippin,g.of Great
Britain' and Ireland has-declined in the last five-and-twenty
years, notwithstanding the prodigious increase of our ex-
ports and imports, that employed in conducting the trade
with the colonies has more than doubled. More decisive
evidence cannot be imagined of the vital importance of the
colonial trade, not only to our commercial wealth, but to our
national, existence. And if any one, after the facts that have
now been stated, remains blind to our true national interests,
anti the quarter from which we must look for our Wealth, our
security, and independence. in future times, -I say neither wilt
he be‘converted though one rose from the dead."
When it is dettionstrated by statistical facts like these,
concerning which there can be no diSpute that interests so
vast both in our colonial possessions and the parent state,
are dependent upon the connexion between Great Britain and
her Colonies ; when it is recollected that the bread and very
existence of millions at home depend upon' the increasing
trade and market with these Colonies ; and that our mari-
time strength and national independence are entirely de-
pendent upon the •immediate adoption of such a system as
shall extend and increase our colonial empire, it is with feel-
MO of regret too profonnd to be mingled with bitterness—
with sentiments of indignation too deep to exhale in angty
Words—that we look back upon the colonial policy of Great
Britain for the last ten years. It may safely be affirmed,
that the insane policy of 'Great Britain to her colonial pos-
sessions 'during that time hai 'been unparalleled in modern
time S.. She has first fotced upon the -West India Islands the
monstrous - project of negro emaneipation, a step which has
already reduced to one-half the produce of those splendid colo-
nies, and given a blow to the prosperity both of the Negro and
, European population froM which neither can ever recover.

THE 'EMANCIPATION OF THE NEGROES.
But whatever may be the faults of this system, and what-
ever may be the sins which the Colonists may be disposed to
lay at the door of the Colonial Office, it is not justly charge-
able with the evils resulting from the emancipation of the
negro population. The " pressure from without" carried
this measure; which, founded on no sound principle of co-
lonial policy, and carried through, not by the dictates of a
sober judgment, but by the fervour and heat of sectarian zeal,
has been followed out (as it will not be surprising to reason-
able minds to learn) with much danger and risk to the pros-
perity and happiness of the very people whom it was intended
to serve and benefit. The Emancipation Question was car-
ried through with too much intemperate feeling to admit of
that patient and discriminating consideration which was ne-
cessary to raise a naked uneducated barbarian to the condi-
tiOn of a well-clothed, comfort-understanding christian la-
bourer. Time was not allowed to the planter to prepare for
the mighty change; had he been ever so well disposed to do
so ; at the same time I am free to confess that a West Indian
temper, goaded and provoked by incessant interference and
attack, was not in the best frame to prepare the proper means
of amelioration and improvement. Much was done by the
planter, for which he obtained neither credit nor advantage;
for ivhilst the least measure of change was of necessity a pre-
sent and immediate charge upon his income, it was out of all •
question to calculate how far he might hope to receive any
satisfaction himself from his exertions. The benefit, there-
fore, was clearly upon the side of those who did nothing, and
if very little was done, compared with what ought, and might
have been done to prepare for such a portentous change of
condition, it was a natural consequence of the intemperance
with which " this free," as the negroes call it, was'hurried
on to its hasty and ill-considered conclusion. With the clear
and discriminating-judgment of a great statesman, Mr. Can-
ning had early laid down the principle, that the only safesys-
thm of emancipation was to direct it through the instrumen-
tality of the planters. The plan pursued was to carry the
measure in spite of them. lam one of those who, looking
back upon the past, may very reasonably regret that we did
not immediately set forward, from the date of the resolutions
of the House of Commons on the subject of Slavery in 1823,
to prepare for the inevitable change, which from that mo-
ment awaited the slave population of our colonies ; but un-
less the measures of amelioration had been prepared and