Star.
London, England, 1826-01-24 00:00:00

LONDON.

'Stock &tidy adventures—and tie removal of Coln-
menial Ilestrictions •on foreign intercourse in general.
On this last point the Zloite fairly spirits out; In a
well written article received yesterday, it states that
Mr. Hosscisson had so right to found a demand for a
commercial treaty with France, on the facilities recently
afforded by England fc.r the introduction of French
productions; those facilities having originated in the
mere desire to repress smuggling, and thereby to benefit
the British Revenue. The basis of any commercial
treaty with foreigners must, it is asserted, be laid in a
free trade in Corn, if Elgland would claim credit for
sincerity in desiring to place foreign intercourse on a
more liberal footing generally. But such a basis, the
Etoile asserts, Is impossible, because Min sters dare not
propose to Parliament, which comprehenAs the Landed
Interest, any measure having a tendency to the reduc-
tion of rents.

It remains to be seen how far the Frenchman is a
soo hsayer in this prediction. e dare not premise
that the event will falsify his prophecy,because we see the
strong, array which is already prepared to arrest any
discussion on the subject of the Corn Trade. From that
array, the monopolists in the silk trade have t iken
courage, and it certainly appears that they expect to
defeat the operation of the law passed two years ago,
for the admission of French silks under protecting
duties, by the clamour arising from the real distress of
the unemployed at tisans.
The looms are idle, the men are starving because the
masters assert they cannot praduce a fabric equal to
the French article, even when the latter is taxed at
thirty per cent. and the former is at prime cost. The
reason they adduce is the high price of bread in England,
The land-owners assert that bread cannot be lower
without ruin to their interests. So that the people are
not to see the most distant prospect of terminating the
monopoly in either or any other branch, by a free and
fair competition with the foreign trader. It is wholly
left out of sight that foreign silks, and other pro-
ductions, are subjected to heavy taxation, which goes
to diminish the burthens on landed produce, and lessen
the charge of raising corn. It is also left out of right
that foreign corn, if permitted to be consumed in Eng-
land, would also bring in a great revenue, and still
further lessen the but thens of the native agriculturist :
but most of all is the unassailable argument suppressed,
which shews that all foreign commodities wnatsoever
must be purchased with British labour,exerted on commo-
dities of some other kind, the fabric of which must there-
fore be immensely extended, and thereby give employ.
ment to countless thousands who will otherwise be idle.
High priced bread, and scanty employment, is, and
must be, the doom of our industrious and increasing
population, if monopoly is to be maintained—whether
in Corn or any other article which the foreigner can
supply on cheaper terms than ourselves. The conse-
quence of this state of things it is fearful to contem-
plate—and we trust that the blindness of temporary
interests will give way to more enlightened principles,
ere the evil :hall be remedied by more viplent means.
‘Ve would, therefore, implore our Land-Owners,
and great Manufacturers, who compose the majority,
if not the whole, of the Legislature, to bear in mind
the prophetic words of MONTESQUIEU. on the subject
of leaving tile executive to be exclusively supported,
in measures of permanent benefit, by the mass of the
people:
66 Has not Rome, Athens, and Sparta per ished ?
" The British Constitution will perish, when the Legis-
" lative power becomes more corrupt than the Executive."