The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1832-12-11 00:00:00

FREE TRADE EXPERIMENTS,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STAND4RD•
SIR,-The appearance of the late Governor of New. Brunt'
wick amongst us, brings to my mind events which took Place
some twenty odd years ago, which, being of importance to tlr;
nation at large, and to Liverpool in particular, I think shou
be placed to the view and to the understanding of every reason'
able and thinking individual in it.
Thirty years ago, not more than about sixty vessels from the
United Kingdom arrived at Quebec and Montreal ; and the
number at Nova Scotia and New Brunswick probably in P.
portion. This country came to be at war with France, uncle
Buonaparte, and consequently at waralso with all his adherent"?
of whom none were more devoted to him than Thomas Jeffer-
son, the President of the United States of America, and hlf
democratical or radical party, then forming the Government
that country. Mr. Jefferson, a man, in some respects, of eon:
siderable talents, both natural and acquired, had strong liklag
and strong dislikings, which made him apt to be gulled, as ap-
peared on three prominent occasions. The statements of opPe;
sition in the British Parliament, and the circulars of some
Englishmen of anti-national principles and feelings, as well as
of weak understanding, led him to believe that the lestructiep,
of our finances, and the starvation of Great Britain and her cr
lonies, were at his disposal : a state of ruin which all EuroPe,
and America to boot; could not effect. Nor can any nation eoni;
earth effect it, unless by acts of base suicide we tarnish our Ili.;
character and credit, and effect it ourselves.

-- ---
The demagogues of Mr. Jefferson, who were to be found at
the tables of most of the principal hotels of the United State!:
all repeated that Mr. Jefferson had said,—That Buonapar`i;
was about to adopt measures against Great Britain, after whit
she could not exist three months as a nation. Mr. Jefferson
undoubtedly knew the nature of Buonaparte's Berlin and Milo?'
decrees, for months before they were issued, so that there ,13„,
good reason to believe the project of them was even sent tu
Buonaparte by Mr. Jefferson, and some one or more of his
icol-
leagues. Be that as it might, Buonaparte might capture,
.bnr4;
and destroy, without a murmur; but when Great Britain, 'd
her own defence, which the law of nature made her duty, adoptere
the decisive measures which she had in her power, which 0,4
of no injury to the people of the United States; for so long -
the trade, produced by the superiority of the British na,v,,,Jd''
could pay the premiums to the insurance offices, which enau`iit,
them to pay for the ships captured, so much more emplqw„ceor
was given to all classes connected with the building 0' -er,
ships, &c. The Radical majority of the legislature, 1100;e -
could not, or rather affected not to see that; and, in e'ljiar
quence, the republic of the United States displayed the singa
spectacle of--the wisdom of a great and enlightened count
being hid under the bushel of the ignorant. Though Oleic 3 f
a considerable number of enlightened, and a greater number°,.
what we call clever men, in the United States, they iverea-ielil
jetted and placed on the shelf by innovative democrats, the
though these men on the shelf foresaw the consequences 0f tits
embargo, they had no more power to prevent them than
e t,
man in the moon. By the bye, what we call clever, the!' a
press by the word smart; and their meaning of clever is, a
good-natured fool, who gives his property away for nothing'd
meaning which applies exactly to our political economists
an
free traders of the present day. Smart Americans highly 3
prove of the free trade principles of other countries : but nres:
they take care not to put those principles in ractice theinse_sted
The Radical Party-Government and Legislature of the U1",,c1
States, on receiving a communication from Buonaparte, Pastbe
the embargo law, and, (much depending on a name,) in
hips
name of free trade and sailors' rights, in one day (had their sod
all been at home) put one million of tonnage of shipping, „
uP
forty thousand seamen, out of employ. They thereby gasci'tbe
the carrying trade. They gave up the West India an of
lumber trade, those great sources of the industry and weal 7.,,,
the eastern states, inhabited by a people the most enterprt "
and the most capable, perhaps, of any in the world. All tbeis,
the philosopher Jefferson called the full tide of successful e s;
riment. And so it was to Canada, and other British provinc4
for instead of abont sixty vessels arriving annually in the :0g
Lawrence, ever since the embargo about six hundred veb'o
have arrived, employing probably ten thousand seamen ; a
the arrivals at Nova Scotia and New Brunswick must have ber
creased in proportion ; for they at once took up the lunflore,
business, left in abeyance by the Yankees, and it being lce
seen that on the removal of the embargo a glut would take Pa I
in our lumber market, a protecting duty on foreign lurnb.,e';'ec-
suppose, was asked, and a duty was put on it, not only prod
tive, but also restrictive. t did
Thus we see that a Radical and innovating Governmen for
not hesitate to try an experiment that threw out of emPlotan4
sixteen months, one million tons of shipping and forty to
leot
seamen, losing, in freights alone, (then very high,) at ii,;('
from twelve to fifteen million pounds sterling, merely bee try:
it was ignorantly believed it would starve and ruin this Nun c;,,1
and yet, wonderful as it is, there are men in thisNischoiniteu `gate_sri
town, who,. either from ignorance or selfishness, v
ploy American agriculturists to improve a soil which ,
belong to us, _and to employ foreign shipping to bring corn,
whilst our own agricultural labourers aie in want of en'P sex
ment, and the cultivation of our soil scarcely pays the exPisiioil
We had lately a cotton bubble. If our American Nunn gri-
agenti want a corn bubble, they have only to induce our, witl
culturists to accommodate them, by reducing the extent oi,,Jcoo
sown with corn one-third. That will reduce the amount 01_.,„,(13
usually raised, by, at present prices, some fifty million 1701
sterling. That amount, perhaps doubled by high prices, obo
make a noble bubble for them. It would also Teach tliosed tho
talk about corn • laws to know something about them, and for
community at large whether it would be better to dePe'ove-
the necessaries of life on our own soil, capable, by nater de'
ment, to feed double the number of inhabitants, or t`)
pendent on foreign countries.
lc
We have seen that the American embargo gave the have
and the West India trade to the British provinces. NYeudatiel
seen a British legislature secure that trade by adequate. tasted
ton
and regulations; and should a future legislature be so in
_at es
and anti-national as to give up advantages and employol,oo
such immense importance, they will parallel the infatna"over
the American embargo, which, as it never has had, I hop`
will again have, a parallel. are.
u
We want no weak theorist in Parliament. Weak —etioli -
more dangerous than rascals. I would not give a frac pall'
the truly English spirit of an Oliver Cromwell, for all the
.It
tical economists and free trade advocates in the kinet,
was a correct statement of Sir Howard Douglas in en" and
our navigation code of laws had made the nation stron,g;col::
the relaxing of them would, in the same ratio, makethat
Party men will elect party men, but national weal rectn_"reswin OP;
we prefer men, neither lory, Whig, nor Radical, who t coined
ply their minds to the investigation of every subject thambere..
before them, and decide agreeably to the result, unenca 00'
by any bias, and influenced neither by Government, Pair :t
individual. The nation expects of us that we should eicte tie
of intelligent and expanded minds; men who can reVevetY,
rights of foreign nations; who can respect the rights ",
class in the British dominions; who can not only res Peat t ble
also guard our national rights. Party men are incaP
these qualifications. • ySB LF.
Belonging to no party, I am, &c. m

4 prO.
THE WHIG PRESS.—The ministerial paper, the Tlines'A;c3s
ceeds in its two-handed warfare—in one line calling the R 9,;: it'
thing that is infamous, and in the next exprossi,.ll"feiv
contempt tor "the wretched Tory creatures." Tbe.6kuettp;
lows in the same track;—but while the ministerial prc.sit,
vents its enmity against its two sets of antagonists, .i„e4
always ready and indeed anxious to avail itself of the sersLigli
of the one party against the other. Thus, at the las:, i".:Alic
it recommended the Radicals to use physical force ..,,,411°
Tories, and now it calls on the Tories to use, in the saose,,itel
ner, moral force against the Radicals. Earl Grey's
is to be supported by every means, fair or The iiis;
vincial Whig papers do not go so far as those in the inetrpP°o-
they confine their abuse, as yet, exclusively to the Tor,;e,.,
parently afraid of coming into close grips with the .13,4aP;i3fl
Some of them, however, are merging fast into Radicd-PrNigir
we suspect these will run abetter chance of success
half-7+.u4-half brethren.,—Glasgow Herald.