The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-03-26 00:00:00

e"lesarenniewor
tress may be concealed ; may be delayed ; it is poison
still, snot it is deadly.
So much for the police of England, the effects of
whieli she is now feeling to the core.. —We cannot
alismias this part of the production before us, without.
another quotation ; it relates to the policy of Spain,
- }tut more particularly to that Decree of the torte',
which has excluded foreign motile lures from the
markets of the Peninsula. without supplying their
place by the product of native industry.
" The writer cannot, however, in this place, forbear
expressing his astonishment at the reproaches and in-
dignation with which, he is given to understand, the
decree of the Corters, which prohibits on many British
manufactures, has been received in different parts of
this country. Spain will punish herself —is planiahing
!smell hat too severely—by her erroneous policy ; and
interested as is the writer in the well-being of that coun-
try. the witness as he has heen of so much of her suffer.
ill, and so conch of her glory, bound by strong ties of
personal affection to many tit the illusirions acto
feel.rs in
the late Iltollll.llillltt awl exhilarating changes,—he ,
and poivertislly tools, disappointment and regret that
her legislators should have committed an error so fatal :
but, hr tome hr allowed to ask, on what plea of honesty
or consistency can England object, who so inexhorably
stints her ports to the manufactured produce of foreign
hands? aye, even of those of her own subjects—of her
ovu colonies Is it for us, forsooth, to complain that
high duties or severe interdictions prohibit the circula-
tion of our fabrics, while the cheap linens of Bessie, the
tine ones of lierniany, the canolorics of France, the car-
pets of Tir4oev, the cottons Of India, ant the silks of
China, implore an admission to our markets, with all
the Aaron of snperior cheapness and superior excel-
lence, and are met with a stern unyielding No ? We
imagine, complacent souls ! that other conntries will
give a welcouie to the works of our looms, becau.se
tie
&Ter them so honest an equivalent. the prohibition of
every thing proolneed by theirs. Their wool and their
fruit, their oil and wine, their drugs and dye-woods, we
wilt receive from them in our abundant generosity, as
we are not al.le to produce them: lint what right have
we plain, if they copy the example we have given
them. and sullenly turn our manufactures away ": They
show liew they value, and how well they can apply, the
xorol lessons we have given them. We would persuade
them, perhapa, float it is for their interest to take our
roods : they are cheaper, better ; twilling more reason-
a'tle. Put, in common justice, if they have a word to
s.y to na on that score in favour of their own. let us,
pray let us listen to them. Shall our answer be—No,
tervet
Mr. Bentham's% portion of the pamphlet embraces the
ot-eninents in favour of less restricted coniniercial in-
terconrse between nations. These are illustrated by
farts, atoll strengthened by reasonings which, it would,
in our humble so; inion, be impossible to controvert.
Must lc lailily would we fay' copious extracts from this
part of the work before the public ; ice can only offer
trie or two as specimens of a production that deserves
the maturest consideration of every reflecting nrin in
LI- I-toiled Kingdom. We begin with the first principle
I iid down by the author.
" It may lie laid down as a universal maxim, that the
sy ten of cututuercial restriction is always either useless
mischievona ; or rather inisloievons in evert- ease, in
11 degree, or in a greater degree. In the judgment
cr the purchaser, or the consumer, the gooola
diacon-
razed mast be either better than those witien are pro-
treted, or not; if not better, (iii course better for a fixed
egaivalent.) they will not be bought even thought no pros
lubition exist : here then is tiseleaatiosas, or mischief in
the lesser .legree. But etas., and the only probable
Case, in which the fictitious encouragement will be tip-
pled, is that where the;, Is eat-lusted are better, or in
',titer words cheaper, titan those sought to be protected:
Lire is untie:tidiest mischief, iniaehiel in the greater de-
}see.
We do not hesitate to say that the ingenious sloe
triaes by which the above fowl* newel 111.1XillIS are
s:pportetl wilt hear to be put in advantareeons cony*.
r. son is ith all precetiing writers on political economy.
As we cannot fellow Mr. Bentham in the Itiminons
tie." he takes of the mischiefs arising from, and moms
the p:ullibitory system, in which he removes a host
of vulgar prejudices, and exposes the innumerable
pals of our present condition, our readers must be
satisfied with one more passage, wherein the venerable
a•uthor points at once to that pestiferous tree, whose
p oisosions Stanches feet the air we breathe, while its
roots extend to the remotest corners of the whole empire.
" Whichever contest is taken; action or inaction—in-
terference or non-interference—liberty or coercion in the
s; ape osf prohibition ; distress to a vast relent—distress
%et-ging i.ll ruin—distress on the one side or the other—
be ;he inevitable consequenee. It the importation
et foreign grain be left free. ruin is en ailed on the Ca-
rrel-, ilistreaa on the lamllitrola : prohibit foreign grain,
-ri ruin falls not only upon the manufaeturer, butt upon
laisonring class ; that is the great majority even of
airienlturi.ota. Stich is our miserable situation: its
exc.-aloha- taxation : excessive taxation, the con-
s •11111.11 re of unjust war ; unjust war, the fruits of the
4!..!erilail`3.lo'l formed by the roiling' few to keep the sub-
' ..t many in a state of ignorance and error.--in a state
dependence something beneath the maximum of de-
t• -rotation awl oppression. In England, the primal and
a S-flitticient cause of misgovernment. and consequent
r• wry, the corruption of the systems of natioual repre-
s utation; in every wher country, the want of a.systein
adequate national representation, or rather the want
a, a representative democracy. in place of a more or less
rt'tigateol oleapotisin : the want of the only form of go-
. cement in which thesreatest happiness of the greatest
ttnber is the end in view.
'flits mischiefs, then. of this system of partial eneon-
r 4;eursetit being in all its shapes so vast, au incalculable,
a• al their sum so plainly prial 1111 l inant over the sum of
rued, to whom or to %%hat shall we attribute the exists
ca.e. the prevalence of such a system ?
• To the general causes of misrule : to the want of the
r avesary elements of good government to a deficiency
u. appropriate probity, or intellectual aptitude, or active
te.lent : in other words, to a want of honesty, or ability,
• 'n 'ustry.
" One cause hearing upon the question of appropriate
intellectual aptitude or ability, and likely to mislead it,
la this:-the good which coosiatitioes the etound of the
prohibitory measure, the reaasei that operates in favour
of it, is comparatively prominent : the evil not equally
• / ; its place ts comparatively in the hark-growls!. Hence
it is, as in too wane other instance', a however
mall, is by its vicinity to the rye enabled to eclipse and
conceal the evii, however large.
•• When, reckoning from the day on which a wafture
leas received the force of law, a certain period of time
rase elapsed, custom cover' it with its mantle ; and. fe-
giriiing it as au unauthorised act of daring to look into
t-•e nature of the noeasur-, men inquire no further than
it•to the existence of the law ; habit glees it a fixed au-
t!ority : and thus it is that, in every country, wwrship is
1 -stowed on law* and institutions vying In absurdity
aay scheme of extravagance which the imagination
1,1.111 could prodnee.
• Thus things go on—evil is piled upon evil—till at
leneth the hurt hen of evil is absolutely intolerable. Then
it is that men's eyes are opened, and a desire to retrace
their erroneous steps is conceived. But no sooner has
the legislator turned round, than he finds the way barred

THE STAT

against him hr a host of difficulties. And the*. whim'
nothing would have been easier at first than to present
the diseam—that is, to f.,rhrar creating it,—the cure
becomes ineligible, insufferable, not to FAY intpolsi-
ble: and error and folly become immoveable and im-
mortal."
We perfectiy coincide wi
fore submit his urgnments
meditation of our country,

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itis Mr. Bentham, and there-
to the solemn alul serious

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