Star.
London, England, 1818-08-28 00:00:00

THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA.

" The country or. the southern shores of the great
American lakes, represented as among the most fer-
tile in the world, has of late been rapidly advancing
in population and productive industry. The inha-
bitants of the Atlantic ports of the States hive,•
however, been disappointed in their expectations of
the trade likely to accrue to them from these quar-
ters. Fhilidalphia and Baltimore can only commu-
nicate with these tracks by a long and painful land
carriage ; and the same thing occurs at New-York,
where, though the navigation of the North River be
unobstructed for 20 miles to Albany, and a kind of
navigation by looks has been formed along the Mo-
hawk river to the neighbourhood of Lake Ontario,
yet the expense of transport along this last is fully as
great as by land carriage. Frorchthese causes the in-,
habitants have been induced to turn their attention to
the natural outlet of the St. Laurence, and, in parti-
cular, since the non-intercourse laws of the American
Government, by cutting off the market for their pro-
duce in their own ports, obliged them to adopt the
alternative of trying the markets of Montreal.
" Since that period an immense and constantly in-
creasing trade has arisen between these countries and
the ports of Canada, which, on the part of the Ame-
ricans, is in a great measure contraband, since the fa-
cility of running the goods imported prevents the pos-
sibility of levying the duty of 16 per cent. charged
on entering the States—and the adoption of rigorous
measures to that effect, it is feared, might endanger
the allegiance of that part of the Union.
" Goods can be brought by sea from Europe to
Montreal, nearly as cheap as to New-York ; and,
though the current of the St. Lawrence retards a
little the voyage up, it favours the return. From
any part of Lake Ontario, large vessels navigate to
Montreal, and return against the stream with little
trouble. After the short land carriage above the
Falls of Niagara, which may probably soon be super-
seded by a canal, a ship navigation extends through-
out all the great inland sea of Canada, to the head
of the Michigan and Superior ; and, lastly, an inland
boat navigation exists, connecting these lakes with
the upper branches of the Ohio and Mississippi.
" Lake Champlain is navigated by large vessels
tawithin ten miles of Montreal, and its river admits
of rafts floating down to the St. Lawrence; but, in
' the direction of New-York, its ether extremity is dis-
tant .50 miles from the navigation of North River.—
, Here the inhabitants of the State of Vermont find
themselves also chiefly connected with the market of
' Montreal and the St. Lawrence."

Thus it is that the errors and blunders of States-
men ever have a tendency to produce correctives'
which, by their operation, are ultimately beneficial
to the pursuits of general industry, though often pre-
ceded by local distress. The very fact that a people
can supply themselves better and cheaper by import-
ing than by manufacturing, furnishes a demonstra-
tion that, in such circumstances, to attempt the latter
is to misapply capital. Bat on this topic we cannot

at precept enlarge. The United States, by the impo-
litic attempt to raise the pridcipai part of the ,Re-
venue by Duties on foreign imports, instead of in-
juring, have greatly benefited the commerce of Great
Brittin, abd till they shall entirely change the system,
they will but aggravate the evil by their palliatives.
To counteract the natural tendency of the foreign
commerce of the Western States, which Vas been sti-
mulated to action by this commercial war against
foreign iadustry, the Legislature of New York have,
within these two years, resolved upon, and actually
begun, a work of great magnitude, viz% a canal of
three hundred miles in length, from the lower part
of Lake Erie, parallel to the Lake Ontario, and by
the vale of the Mohawk River, near Albany, where
there is a tide navigation to the city of New York.—
But will this, when finished, tend to the exclusion of
foreign manufactures ? No : it will only extend the
sphere of action, and bring new competitors into
the field for a portion of the profits offered to specu-
lators by the evasion of the 16 per cent. duty. As
to the interests of British industry, it matters not
whether the products reach the consumer by an eva-
sion of the payment, or by regular importation, at a
comparatively low duty.

The Paris Papers of Tuesday arrived this morning.
On Monday evening, being the Eve of the Pete of
Saint Louis, the whole of the Theatres were thrown
open to the gratis admission of the public. Although
the concourse of visit•rs was immense, no distur-
bance occurred, and every where couplets, or pieces
adapted to the occasion, were received, we are told,
with transport.

The solemnization of the Festival itself occupying
the whole of Tuesday, none of the particular details
of it are contained in the'Papers of that day, now
received ; but we are presented with whole columns
of tolerably respectable adulation on the subject.—
In the case of the Journal de Paris, the enthusiasm
bf its Editors hts even .kindled into something like'
poetry on the occasion ; for, abandoning the path of
dull prose, they have hailed the auspicious day in a
rhyming leader of some two hundred lines and more,
which concludes with a wish, not in the least hyper-
bolical, that