The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-05-11 00:00:00

THE EVIL EFFECTS OF FREE TRADE

" Mr. Isaac Buchanan continues his indefatigable exertions to
convince the public that FREE TRADE cannot fail to produce
the following most disastrous effects on England :
Ist. A redaction of employment of all sorts both at ho:ne and

in the Colonies.
2nd. A depreciation of the currency.
3rd. The withdrawal of England's ability to pay the interest of
her national debt.

11 our dependencies abroad
ation Laws.

SUPREMACY ON Tllii SEA, and our becom-
bearing of a great em-

sacred-
tional c

Trade, they cannot suppose any Englishman in his senses
objecting to it, seeing that, under bona fide Free Trade, Eng-
land, as bring possessed not only of most capital but most
industry, must have the advantage over all the nations of the
earth.

The Protectionists will argue that our being able to show
Adam Smith's theories to be correct, supposing all the nations
of the earth agreeing together to Free Trade, or supposing all
the world under one Government, is just showing his theories
to be most inapplicable and impracticable in the actual circum-
stances of the world.
The nearest approach to Free Trade the Protectionists think
that can exist, without a gross sacrifice either of the one nation
or of the other, is a trade in which each nation shall charge
one and the same customs duty (say of 10 per cent.) on every
article imported. They say that if one country sends to ano-
ther country twenty millions of its national labour (as the
United States do to England), and takes from that country (as
the United States do from England) only seven millions of that
country's labour, THE TH IRTEEN MILLIONS of foreign labour
ought to be taxed in the country into which it is imported, to

pre-vent the home labour being actually on .a worse fooling
than it, even it the tax were not required for revenue.

The Protectionists, in fact, seem not to object to put the
foreigner on the same footing as the Home or Colonial manu-
facturer or producer, PROVIDED HE TAKES PAYMENT 'IN
BRITISH LABOUR; and this, surely, is being liberal enough.
They think that the best and most practical means of secu-
ring the workers of England the greatest freedom of trade, or,
in other words, the bestl and MOST PERMANENT AND WELL-
PAID EMPLOYMENT, s to make it the interest of other coun-
tries to open their ports to us, by making our opening ours to
them contingent thereon.

They will-abolish the Excise duties probably in tote, and
stahhsh a FREE TRADE COMMERCIAL LEAGUE, With which
to countermarch the North American Union of States, and the
German Zollverein, which at first would on!y be composed
England and her Colonies, with China (the refas
Traders to reciprocate N
ry conduct)

'of the Free

[i which country has been monstrous

3ut the act will provide that ANY NATION MAY AT ANY
ADE LEAGUE BY AGREEING

TIME COME INTO Tlif

ADE WITH ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES ON A RECI-
PROCAL DUTY OF 10 PER CENT. ON THE VALUE, IN THE
COUNTRY INTO WHICH IT IS IMPORTED, ON EVERY ARTICLE.

That this plan would find more emplOyment- and scope for
British labour, there can be little doubt •, but, in order to give
it a fair start, the Protectionists might be driven, contrary to
their declared intentions, to continue Peel's Property and In-
come Tax for a few years.
WE WOULD HAVE FREE TRADE WITH THE COLONIES, AND
BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT COLONIES, IN EVERY ARTICLE,
it being stipulated with each colony that all the public lands
revert to the Crown, and are hereafter to be viewed the birth-
right of any British subject who chooses to go and live on them.
In this way, an enormous and incessantly increasing outlet
for manufactures would spring up in the Colonies ; for, to take
one instance, the West Indies would he supplied with provi-
sions and bread stuffs from British North America, and these
would be paid for in BRITISH LABOUR .sent to Canada to clothe
the him

for, as at present, in BRITISH GOLD sent from t
to the United States.

In the meantime, all foreign countries who do not join the
British League would be charged-
20s. on Timber (the freight from Qu(
_ _

14s. on sugar, and 21s. on slave-grown.
15s. on spirits (there being no duty on British)
The present Corn-law being perpetuated as it
. .

thit there will be no duty when ti

All other ar
And ALL ar

40s. against

stands, except

les now in the Tariff to ;main as at
les NOT in the Tariff to pay 10 per c

value in this country

present.
.nt. on th

much more matured than !ropy

we have now given a good bird's-eye view., at feiist, Of the ob-
jects desirkl to be attained by them.
That a policy so generous and enlarged will he all carried
out, or even attempted, at once, so as to secure its success, is a
thing which we scarcely expect, fur in all parties there will
al

_
Lys be found small Men "fearful and unbelieving," whose
minds lead them to attempt only little matters, success in
which is little honour? and failure is disgraceful,—instead of
aspiring at worthy objects in which, even in failure, you are
associated with greatness, and with what, in your own mind at
least, is goodness.

Into the foregoing we have purposely thrown something of
the "whole hog," our chief object being to excite the attention
of the Whigs to the possibility of another party starting up on
very popular principles, while we are desirous to make it ap-
parent that our " AUTHORITY" amounts to no more than that

Of_" events casting their

---
We are sure it may at least b,

our statement, that it

is one which Sir R. Peel is much more likely to support, than,
at the opening of the last Parliament, he was to support the
measures he carried.

Reflection on the almost insuperable difficulties attendant on
the introduction of Free Trade even with our Colonies (the
only countries in the world which are able and willing to free

trade with us), must have the effect of showing up the humbug
that has been spoken on the subject of the practicability of
Free Trade with all the world. •
But to extend the benefits, and, if possible, the name of
England to the farthest frontiers of our Colonies, is no mean
object, thus enabling foreigners to feel that in the remotest
corners of the earth they can hnd English manufacturers as

untaxed as in England:
That the Protectionist can come into power now seems quite
out of the question.
The thorough reformation of the Irish Ecclesiastical nui-
sance must be a prelude to our trusting a class of men who,
though distinguished for their personal honour, are equally
distinguished for their Church-Toryism.
The Church will no longer be permitted to rule this country
in the name of the Government.
The Reformation of the Irish Church is imperatively called
for as a prelude to the unprejudiced discussion of the QUES-
TION OF LABOUR, or of the full employment of the country's
Industry, that great interest which now must alone be leg's-
' or, as seen to involve the stability of all that we hold
—the happiness of the people, the Crown, and' the na-
;:redit ; but it is also required as a prehide to the neces-
)cial ameliorations in Ireland, the condition of which
country is a disgrace to the empire.

The Other Estiddished Churches may be defended as matters
of circamstailee, but the Irish one, as now_ constituted, cannot.

Some good men within it have been able to do a little good,
in spite of the abominable system of which they are a part.
But let us compare this with the good that might have been
done in Ireland, and shudder when we think of the heartburn-
ings and animosities which their exclusive system has created,
generally ending in the foulest butcheriesby Christians of their
fellow-Christians.

The 'whole revenues of the'lrish Church will probably have to
be deviated to the endowment of a GREAT IRISH POOR LAW,
charity being the only religious duty in which the former and
present .ppssessors of them consmen!ionsly agree (the State
guaranteeing an equitable provision for the present incumbent

ty banished from Ire

land, the law may, and