The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-04-21 00:00:00

LOSS OF THE COLONIES OF ENGLAND.

(Continued from page 3.)

And now with regard to our enemies' second plan of
attack, viz., with the figures Of the Board of Trade, I
may just refer you to two articles against my letters that
appeared on the Bth and 11th of this month, in that very
talented paper, the Manchester Guardian, the great gun
of the Anti-Corn-Law League.
The Guardian displays the official figures of the twelve
years commencing 1832 and ending 1813, thus including
both cholera years with the period of the great commer-
cial distress which ended in 1813, and only coming down
to the moment when the advantage given, in 1842, to Ca-
nadian Wheat, was beginning to tell on our prosperity.
The Guardian says " In the last twelve years there has
not only been a large actual decrease, but a still larger re-
lative decrease, in the amount of our goods sent to that
market, which, at the most favourable time for such a
comparison, took rather more than five-and-a-half per
cent. of our entire exports, and on which now the country
is actually dependent for a market for three-and-a-quar-
ter per cent. of its foreign trade!"
Now, what stuff it is to tell us, who know the immense
increase of the Canada trade, that an actual decrease ex-
ists anywhere except in the official tables, bad though the
twelve years were, and though the United States trade,
which had been £12,425.605 in 1836, fell, in 1842, to
£3,528,807, in the face of England taking from her double
the produce in the last than in the first year the Guardian
has selected.

To show, however, the utter worthlessness of figures
when used (as Sir Robert Peel does) for a purpose, 1 may
just give the substance of a contrary statement, which I
got my eve on the other day, in the 43rd page of the ap-
pendix to the 44th edition of M'Culloch's Dictionary.

The gross shipments in 1844 were . £58,581,292
The average, 1839 to 1844, was

Showing an increase of 111 per cent.....
The shipments to British America were, in 1844 ....
The average, 1839 to 1844, was

. £8,164.363
3,070,861
2,666,374

Showing an increase of 15 1-6th per cent.... £404,487
This is his friend Mr. M'Culloch versus the Manchester
Guardian.

The exports to British America are thus given by the
Manchester Guardian:-
1632 £2,075,725 1838
1833
18114
1835
1836
1837
Now, I assert, and by the return of the present steamer
I shall expect from the Montreal and Quebec Custom-
houses a verification of my assertion, that INTO THE
PORTS OF MONTREAL AND QUEBEC ALONE THERE HAS
BEEN AS MUCH IMPORTED FROM ENGLAND AS THE
AMOUNT OF THE ABOVE OFFICIAL RETURNS FOR ALL
BRITISH AMERICA !
If I am correct, the error of the Government returns
will amount to neither less nor more than the omission of
an amount equal to the whole trade to every port in New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island, and
Newfoundland; and these together cannot be far less
than the amount of the trade of Montreal and Quebec, or
the amount of the whole official returns as above.

I, moreover, insist that it ought not to be overlooked
by practical men, that, directly and indirectly, our Trade
pays more than double the profit to British subjects, that
Foreign trade to the same extent does, or in its very na-
ture can pay as merely manufacturing commerce.
And I argue that the excellent and permanent nature of
our trade, and its gradual and sure increase, ought to be
considered, rather than its present insignificant amount;
the latter arising partly from the infancy of the Colonies
which remained true to the British Government when the
old Colonies revolted, but arising still more from the want
of active government, and the two frequent misgovern.
ment of British America.

To prove the want of management of these Colonies,
and to.account for the comparative smallness of the Trade,
I need only mention the fact that there is yet scarcely
more than half a million of sods in the magnificent pro-
vince of Upper Canada, than which there is NOT A FINER
FIELD FOR WHEAT GROWING IN THE WORLD ; the whole
of that Western country being in a more southerly lati-
tude than Paris.

The inhabitants of Canada West consume, per head,
more British goods than any Colonial or Foreign popula-
tion in the world.

Even brought down by the lesser consumption of the
other Colonies, Lower Canada, consuming very little in
proportion to its 750,000 people, the average taken by
British America, is yet very surprising compared to what
is taken from England by foreigners.
There is the following, even from the showing of those
official tables, which I consider so fallacious as scarcely
to show half the exports to British America :