The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-12-06 00:00:00

ANTI-CORN-LAW HONESTY.

The agitators against the Corn Laws pretend to infinite
moral courage, as well as to a monopoly cf intellect. They
are all, march-of-mind men ; they all boast of their willing-
ness to refer all social and political questions to " the test of
reason." Such is the boast of the free-trade party. We
have never found these advocates of free-trade other than
noisy spouters of common-places—common-1 laces, which
they always shrink, when fairly grappled with, from de-
fending. - - _ -

The latest proof is before us in the conduct of the Anti-
Corn-Law Circular. That paper was exceedingly loud, afew
weeks ago, in its boasts that no antagonist could be found to
encounter its friends, the lecturers against the Corn Laws.
We, forthwith, joined issue with the Anti-Corn-Law Circular,
and tore to pieces the wretched sophistries on which it trades.
The Anti-Corn-Law Circular atternpted a reply, which we
immediately demolished. Our contemporary then promised
a rejoinder—but, although a month has now elapsed, no re-
joinder has ever been hazarded.

Shall we be told about "the pressure of other matter? "
The subterfulze cannot avail—because the reasoning of the
Conservative Journal subverts every leading proposition
advanced by the Anti-Corn-Law faction : and if the Anti-
Corn-Law Circular could have discovered an answer, an
answer would assuredly have been offered. The persons,
therefore, who conduct the Anti-Corn-Law Circular being
unable to answer the Conservative Journal, must, on their
own showing, be convicted of dishonesty, in not abandoning
their clamour against the Corn Laws—because they are,
emphatically, men who pretend to appeal to reason, and who
are bound, by the very nature of their professions, to alter
their course when reason is against them.
The Anti-Corn Law Circular dares not answer the argu-
ments of the Conservative Journal ;—but will be content to
sneak away silently, from a contesti which the swaggering of
the free traders provoked.
The same course—so discreditable to the free-trade party—
which has been adopted by the Anti-Corn-Law Circular is,
invariably, adopted oy the other newspapers in the same in-
terest. lf, however, we do not err, the advocates of free-

trade are hound to keep the field of argument " against all
corners." Their very title to be listened to, depends on their
power of establishing their " superiority to the prejudices of
past times."
While not one of the journals opposed to the cern laws has
ventured to combat our reasonings in defence of native in-
dustry, many country newspapers, favourable to the corn
laws, have unceremoniously, and without the slightest ac-
knowledgment, availed themselves of our labours. One
journal, in particular, " The Kentish Times, and Corn Law
Advocate," has, on more than one occasion, cooly reprinted
our leaders as its own. "Save us from our friends 1" is an
exclamation not unwarranted in such circumstances. We
are unreasonable, surely, in expecting that, where our con-
temporaries profit by our labours, they should acknowledge
the obligation.— conservative Journal.

CHESTER DIOCESAN TRAINING COLLEGE.--We have just
received a prospectus of this admirable institution, to which
we briefly alluded in our last, and to which we may have occa-
sion hereafter to refer at greater length. It will be found of
the greatest utility to the masters of national and other
schools.. The course of instruction embraces every branch
of study ordinarily taught in commercial as well as classical
schools. Such an institution cannot be too extensively known
or too highly commended ; and we trust that the advantages
which it presents will be generally appreciated.
Joshua Walmsley, Esq., Mayor of Liverpoal, has been
appointed one of the justices of the peace for the county of
Lancaster.

We have the gratification to see in the list cf first-class-
men at the recent examination at Oxford, the name of one
of our townsmen, Mr. E. R. Jones, the son of the Rev. J.
Jones, minister of St. Andrew's.

NEW Cu LTRCH AT lIALSALL.—We understand that it it
intended to erect a church in a central part of the parish of
Halsall, for the accommodation of a large population situated
at a considerable distance from any church. Towards this
highly desirable object the Rev. R. Loxhain, the rector of
the parish, and some other individuals, have contributed in
a very liberal manner, and Richard liollinshad Blundell,
Esq., of lleysbrook, the patron of the living of 11.11satl, has
offered the munificent sum of :CLOW.

HOUSE ROBBERY.—On Sunday evening the house of Mr.
Dutton, London-road, was entered by means of false keys,
during the absence of the family. Tile thieves carried off
ten sovereigns and an old silver verge watch. We could
multiply instanos of robberies taking-place mice these cir-
cumstances, hut this one ought to be sufficient to put house-
keepers on their guard. On Sunday evenings e!,pecially, it
is extremely dangerous to leave a house without a single per-
son in it, because thieves are always o❑ the look out for
such an excellent opportunity of following their nefarious
avocation.

IMPUDENT ROBBERY.-011 Monday evening, last, about
half-past five o'clock, a most impudent robbery took place
in a public news-room. It being cleaning- night, about a
dozen women were engaged in the room, two assistants occu-
pied in the bar, and the master in his room, on one side of
the bar, a tall, respectable-looking man, about 28 or 30 years
old, came into the room, through the door near the bar, the
only one open, and walked deliberately to the other end of
the room and took down a barometer and large map of the
United States, which he rolled up? and retired with them
without interruption. Three of the women saw him, but
from his,respectable appearance concluded he was authorised
to do so, consequently the circumstance was not named until
the things were missed. It is more than probable the baro-
meter may be offered for sale, which may lead to the disco-
very of the adventurous perpetrator.

- -
CAUTION TO COACH-DRIVERS.—Last weds Mr. Wil-
loughby, of Birkenhead, brought two of his postbovs before
the magistrates for being drunk and disorderly while in his
employ ; they were fined 50s. each, and severely reprimanded.
We hope this will meet the eye of-other post Masters and
other drivers, and operate as a saluta-y caution against the
commission of so flagrant an offence, by which life is so fre-
quently endangered.
URGENT APPEAL TO THE SYMPATHIES. OF THE BENE-
VOLENT.—We mentioned in our last the melancholy accident
on the railway, by which a young woman of the name of
Johanna Sankey was unhappily deprived of life. We have
subsequently been informed that she has left an aged mother,
who has been bed-ridden for upwards of six months, of
whom she was the main support. By the fruits of her exer-
tions in hand-loom weaving, together with a very small
weekly allowance from her brother, who, it will be recollected,
she had been attending in his sickness, and was conveying
home when she met with her untimely death, the pcor mother
was sustained; and now both these sources of her subsis-
tence are cut off. We place these facts before the public, in
the hope that they may engage the attention of those who
may have something to spare for the necf-ssitous, and the
charity to bestow it. Any contributions for this purpose
will be received at our office; and, for further information,
we are requested to refer to Mr, James Paiker, brewer, of
this town,—Courier.

THE NEw POSTAGE.—An erroneous impression seems to
have been taken up in some quarters, that the fourpenny rate
is substituted for the penny rate. We can assure the public,
on the best authority, that they need be under 1:o such fears.
The penny postage will assuredly take place as soon as the
stamps are ready.—Post Circular, Wednesdak, Nor. 20.

COLONIAL NEGLECT AND FOREIGN PROPI-

TIATION.
(From 711ackwood's Magazine for Deceniber.)

(Concluded from last Tuesday's Standard.)
" Let us no longer strain," said Mr. Sheriff Alison, " after
the impracticable attempt to disarm the commercial jealousy
of the European states; but, boldly looking our situation in
the face, direct our main efforts to the strengthening, concie
listing, and 'increasing of our Colonial Empire. There is to
be found Ile bone of our bone, and the flesh of our flesh.
There are to be found the true descendants of the Anglo-
Saxon race ' • there the people, who, already imbued with our
tastes, our habits, our artificial wants, must be chained for
centuries to agricultural or pastoral employments, and can
only obtain from the mother country the immense amount -of
manufactured produce which theirgrowing wealth and num -
bers must require. So strongly, gentlemen, am I impressed
with these principles—so clearly do I see the future path
traced out to England, not less by her duty than her inter-
ests, that there is no ene circumstance in her present condi-
tion, act even those which are most justly considered as preg-
nant with danger and alarm, that they may not be converted
into the se-erne of blessings, if a decided and manly course is
taken by the nation and its Government in regard to its co-
lonial interests. Indeed, so clearly does this appear, that one
is almost tempted to believe that the manifold political and
social evils of our present condition, are the scourges in-
tended by Providence to bring us back, by necessity and a
sense of our own interests, to those great national duties from
which we have so long and se unaccountably merged. Are
we oppressed with a numerous and redundant population ?
Are we justly apprehensive that a mass of human beings, al-.
ready consisting of five-and-twenty millions, and multiplying
at the rate of a thousand souls a-day, will ere long be unable
to find subsistence within the narrow space of these islands ?
Let us turn to the Colonies, and there we' shall Lind bound-
less regions, capable of maintaining •ten times our present
population in contentment and effluence, and which require
only the surplus arms and months of the parent state, to be
converted into gigantic empires, which, befome a century has
elapsed, may overshadow the greatness even of European re-
nown. Are we justly fearful that the increasing manufac-
turing skill and growing commercial jealousy of the Conti-
tental strites may gradually shut us out from the European
market, and that our millions of manufacturers may find their
sources of foreign subsistence fail at a time when all home
employments are filled up ? Let us turn to the Colonies,
and there we shall see empires of gigantic strength rapidly
rising to maturity, in which manufacturing establishments
cannot for centuries.take root, and in which the taste for
British manufactures, and the habits of British comfort, are
indelibly implanted on the British race. Are we overburdened
with the weight of our poor-rates and the multitude ef our
paupers, and trembling under the effect of the deep-rooted
discontent produced in the attempt to withdraw public sup-
port from the maintenance of the adult and healthy labourer?
Let us find the means of transporting these healthy workmen
to our colonial settlements, and we shall confer as great a
blessing upon them as we shall give a relief to the parent
state. Are we disquieted by the rapid progress of corruption
in our great towns, and alarmed at the enormous mass of fe-
male profligacy which, like a gangrene, infests these great
marts of pleasure and opulence ? Let us look to the Colo-
nies, and there we shall find states in which the population is
advancing with incredible rapidity, but in which the greatest
existing evil is, the undue and frightful preponderance of the
male sex ; and that all that is warnine to complete their means
of increase is, that the proportion should be righted by the
transfer to distant shores of part of the female population
which now encumbers the British isles. Are the means to
transport these numerous and indigent classes to these di, tint
regions awantiag, and has individual emigration hitherto been
liable to the reproach that it removes the letter class of our
citizens who could do for themselves, and leaves the poorest
who encumber the land ? The British navy lies between, and
means exist of transporting, at hardly any expense to the pa-
rent state, all that can ever be required of our working popue
lation from that part of the empire which they overburden,
to that to which they will prove a blessing. Gentlemen, I
agree with my eloquent and esteemed friend, Dr. M`Leod,
that it is astonishing the attention of Government has not ere
this been turned to this subject. And why, I would ask, may
not part, at least, of the British navy be constantly employed
in transporting emigrants of all classes to our Colonial pos-
sessions ? Why should two hundred vessels of different sizes,
that are now in commission in the British navy, be employed
only in useless parades, when hundreds of thousands on the
British shores are pining for the means of transport across
the seas, and millions of acres on the other side of the ccean,
teeming with verdant fertility, await only their robust hands
to be converted into a terrestrial paradise? Why should the
British navy not be employed, like the Roman legions in time
of peace, in works of public utility ? and why should their ef-
forts not construct causeways across the deep, which would
bind' together the immense circuit of the British Colonial
dominions, as strongly as the highways constructed by the
legions cemented the fabric of their mighty empire ? In this
view the last inconvenience attending a redundant pauper
population—that of being with difficulty removed, would be
converted into an element of national strength, because it
would induce all classes cheerfully to acquiesce in the dupli-
cation of our naval force, from which they all derive such
obvious advantages; the navy would augment in size and
grow in usefulness under such a salutary system ; and the
very quality which Adam Smith long ago remarked as the
greatest obstable to the improvement of the human race, that
of being the lumber which it is of all others the most difficult
to transport, would become the means of augmenting the.
maritime force of England, and strengthening the
.Unseen
chain .which holds together the far distant provinces .of its
mighty dominion."
We cannot help thinking that the suggestion here made, of
directing a part at least of the British navy to the removal of
such part of our population as desire it, to our colonial pos-

sessions, is well worthy of the most serious consideration.. It
must be evident to every one who considers the extraordinary
reduction which has taken place in our naval force during the
last thirty years, and which has brought it down from two
hundred and forty ships of the line to eighty, that we have
fallen now into an economical and commercial generation ;
and that the rulers of the state, and the democratic constitu-
encies who direct the rulers, are entirely governed by that
passion for present economy, and that disregard of future ob-
jects, which is the invariable characteristic of the masses of
mankind. No surprise need be excited at a democratic com-
munity being influenced by such want of foresight, when all
the eloquence of Demosthenes was unable to
.persuade the
most enlightened of the states of antiquity to take any steps
to ward off the danger arising from the invasion of Philip of
Macedon ; and all the wisdom of-Washington, was unable to
communicate to the greatest republic of modern times, suffi-
cient strength or foresight to prevent its capital being taken,
and its arsenals pillaged, by a British division not four thou-
sand strong. It is cf the last importance, therefore, to dis-
cover some method by which the increase of the navy,
evidently essential to our national independence, and to
avert the horrors of the actual blockade of our harbours,
may be rendered popular with the masses of the people.
That these masses would make the most strenuous exer-
tions to support the independence of the British flag, if a
war actually broke out, may be considered as certain ; but
will they be equally ready to make those efforts during peace,
and when the danger is as yet distant, which are requisite
both to insure its success and shorten its duration ? Expe-
rience proves that they will not; for, though menaced by
maritime dangers of every kind, they have, in the last five-
and-twenty years, let the royal navy sink down one-third of
what it was during the war, and one-half what it was before
its commencement. The only mode, therefore, that is ap-
parently practicable of bringing up the royal navy to a level
at all commensurate either with the strength of the state or
the dangers with which it is threatened, is by giving the
masses some present and personal object of advantage,which
is to be gained by the expense requisite for itsincrease. Now,
no object would be so generally popular, or universally felt
to be important, as that which furnished the means of gra-
tuitous emigration to a large proportion of our surplus work-
in population. Every class in the country, every part of
thfttanire, would at once feel the benefit of such an arrange-
ment :—the poor, by the safe and easy means of emigration
that would be afforded them to countries where their condi-
tion would at once become prosperous; the landholders, in
the diminution of the number of paupers and the burden of
poor-rates, which would be occasioned; the manufacturers,
in the vast increase in the colonial market for their produce
which would be opened up ; the colonies, in the boundless
supply of robust and efficient labourers with which they
would be furnished. The increase in the population, now so
much the object of concern to the mother country, would
cease to be ,regarded with any disquietude ; it would be con-
sidered only as the harbinger of the increased growth of our
colonial possessions, and an increased vent for our produce
for our colonial wants. The British navy would really be-
come the chain which holds together the far distant parts of
its immense dominion ; the means of uniting them in peace
—the force to protect them in war; mid the prosperity and
extension of the far and distant parts of the empire, acting
and reacting upon each other, would tend only to angment
their mutual and highly beneficial dependence on each other,
and to increase the strength of the naval force which was to
protect alike all parts of the empire.
The British commercial policy, ever since the reciprocity
system began, may be characterised in two words—" Colonial
Neglect and European Propitiation." As this system has
now been in operation for sixteen years, ample time has been
afforded to demonstrate, by experience, its eflects, whether
for good or for evil. The following statement of the effect of
this system, which commenced in 1823, was made by Mr.
Alison at the Glasgow dinner above referred to :
" Standing as I do in the midst of this great commercial
city, second to none, after the metropolis, in the British em-
pire, I need not say that we are people mainly dependent on
commerce and maritime strength ; and we have only to look
around us, and contemplate the narrow extent of these
islands, compared with the vast population already crowded
within their shores, to feel convinced that any serious and
permanent obstruction to our foreign commerce, or decline
in our maritime power, would not only be attended with the
greatest danger to cur independence, but fraught with a de-
gree of wide-spread misery, perhaps unparallelled even in the
long annals of human suffering. But, gentlemen, when we
minutely examine our maritime and commercial situation,
we shall find many causes for serious alarm, and many rea-
sons for concluding that our policy in these respects has hi-
therto been mainly directed to fruitless or unattainable ob-
jects ; and that, in their prosecution, we have overlooked or
neglected the certain elements of strength lying in our own
bosom, in the growth of our colonial empire. If we, look to
our exports and tonnage returns, we shall see that our mari-
time resources for the last forty years have been far from
keeping pace with our commercial growth, and that our ex-
ports to the countries whom we have made the greatest sacri-
fices to propitiate, have been constantly and rapidly declining,
while those to our colonies, for whose interests we have done
so little, have been as constantly and rapidly increasing ; and
that it is the growth of the latter which has concealed and
counterbalanced the decay of the former. Let us look at our
total exports, imports, and tonnage in the present time, as
compared with what they were during the peace of Amiens.
They stood as follows :
Exports. Imports. Tonnage.
1802, £38,309,980 - £29,826,210 £2,167,000

1838, 105,170,549

61;268;320

2,890,601

" Thus, gentlemen, you see, that while from 1802 to 1838,
that is in six-and-thirty years, our exports have advanced
from 38 to 105, that is about 280 per cent., and our imports
from 29 to 61, that is about 210 per cent., our whole tonnage
has only increased from 21 to 28, that is about 33 per cent.
This broad and decisive fact is calculated to excite the most
serious alarm in every rational bosom, as to the maintenance
in future of the maritime superiority of Great Britain. For
who has carried the remainder of our merchandise abroad,
and wafted the remainder of our imports to our shores ?
Somebody must have dune it. The conclusion is unavoid-
able that it was done in great part by foreign states, that is,
by vessels and seamen that may any day be ranged against us
by our enemies. And, gentlemen, the number of those fo-
reign seamen and vessels now employed in the British trade,
and the rapid encroachments they are making on British ma-
ritime strength, is decisively proved by the Parliamentary
Tables collected with so ►such care and accuracy by Mr.
Porter, at the Board of Trade : from them it appears that the
relative proportions of Foreign and British shipping employed
in conducting our trade at these two periods were follows :

British.
Vessels. Tor.s.
.11,285 1,668,060
.... 16,119 2,785,387
Foreign.
Vessels. Tons.
1832 .......... 3472 447,611
1838 ......... 8679 1,211,066
"Thus, while the British tonnage in the last thirty-six
years has advanced from sixteen to twenty-seven, the foreign
employed in conducting cur trade have advanced from 41 to
121, that is, nearly tripled. This, gentlemen, is the general
result,. and unquestionably it is sufficiently alarming to every
one who considers how essential our maritime superiority is
to our foreign commerce ; and what would be the condition

of the British population if the empire of the seas were
wrested from it, and the Thames, the Clyde, and the Mer-
sey, were blockaded by hostile fleets? But the particulars of
our trade with separate countries are far more instructive,
because they demonstrate, in the clearest manner, where,it
is that the decay of our trade and shipping is going on, and
where the counterpoising sources of strength and revival are
to be found. It appears from Mr. Porter's Parliamentary
'fatles, that since 1823, when the reciprocity system com-
menced, our tonnage with the countries with whom the reci-
procity treaties were concluded has been decreasing in the
most alarming manner, while no increase whatever has taken
place during the same period in The amount of goods which
they take off our hands. The British and Foreign shipping
employed in the trade with Prussia, Sweden,:Denmark, Nor-
way, since 1820, have stood as follows :
British declined with Prussia from 539 ships to 270
• • Denmark, 57 .... 16
Norway, 168 .... 15
Sweden, 123 .... 66
And the foreign ships with Great Britain have increased dur-
ing the same period in these states as follows :

'Prussia with Great Britain increased from 258 to 903
Danish 41 to 624
Norwegian 558 to 785
Swedish 71 to 250
Such, gentlemen, is the working of the reciprocity system
with these countries ; and even in regard to America our
trade stands thus :

British.
Ships. Tons.
1836.. 226 89,383

American.
Ships. Tons.
524 226,483

" Thus you see, gentlemen, that while our commerce with
Northern Europe is almost entirely passing into the hands of
foreigners, nearly three-fourths of that with America is at this
moment in the hands of the inhabitants of that country ! It
is easy to see, that if we had no commercial intercourse but
with such foreign and independent states, we should, by the
very extension of our export of manufactures, be nursing up
a foreign, and possibly hostile, commercial navy, which
would cre long wrest from us the empire of the seas. It is
needless to go farther into details; for the. following is the
general result of the change which the tonnage of our foreign
commerce with all parts of the world has undergone during
the last thirty-six years :
" The trade of Great Britain with all Europe has declined
from 1802 to 1836, from 65 to 48 per cen
With British Colonies in America
increased
With United American States
With India

18 to 25 • ..
6 to 9 ..
34 to 5 .. "

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 Europe, 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 &retest 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. 1829. 1835. 183 G.

Russia £1,408,970 £1,318,936 £1,752,775 £1,742,433
Sweden 46,731 42,699 105,156 113,308
Norway 39,129 53,552 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 indefatigable 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. itz 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-
deuce 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 population 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 naturallk 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 live-
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-
-min,- 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 onr concession in maritime affairs, has been to load
our manufactures with atitlitintM thrtir,a. Prolrsia 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-
tugal, has shown her gratitude for the aid Which pat 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 very 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—

Real Value,

Exports to the United States of America were
no less than
British North AMerican Colonies 2,732,29.
British West Indies
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.-
Yon 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
£3,709,000, or considerably more than twice as much as
France, with its population of thirty-two millions. And
-what is most marvellous of all, and conies 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 1810 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 souls, 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 other channels. 'This people is connected with
England with origin, language, manners, and institutions ;
-their tastes go along with their 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
negroes in the southern states are clothed in English-made
goods, and it takes 40s. a-year thus to supply one of these
unfortunate persods. 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 upon 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 plainly perceive that it can be no other-
wise. The whole population of the country is made up of
customers who require, and who can afford to pay, for our
goods. This, too, is peculiar to that nation, and it is. a pe-
culiarity as happy for them as it is profitable for us. I know
the real or affected contempt with which some persons in
this country treat our kinsmen of the West. I fear some
angry and jealous .feelings- have survived our -former more
intimate connexion with them—feelings engendered by the
event of its termination, but which it would be wiser, as well
as more manly, to forget. Nay, there are certain romantic
spirits who even despise the unadorned structure of their
massive democratic society. But to me I freely acknowledge,
the sight of one part of it brings feelings of envy as an En-
glishman : I mean the happy distinction that, over the whole
extent of that boundless continent, from Canada to the Gulf
of Mexico, and from the Mississippi to the Atlantic Ocean,
there is not one pauper to be found. Such are the customers
whom America presents to us. The rapid increase of their
culture and population, too, doubling in twenty-five or thirty
years, must necessarily augment this demand for our goods
in the same proportion. Circumstanced as the two countries .

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