Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1842-05-24

10 save them from ruin. We think, then, that !, can
not be denied that high protective duties heretofore
have caused the necessity for higher protective on
lies now 10 secure even, they say, reasonable
Drocts But here another, and very grave question
presents itself Like produce Ike effects, I'M
der like circumstances. In the present stale OF The
civilized world, while capital IS eagerly seeking eve
nv where for safe investment at even small plohls,
when English manufacturing science and skill, Win
English capital spreading themselves over the
valleys of Switzerland and the mountains OF iyroi,
md lighting their fires on the sides CT The An
des, will not high protective duties invite again, as II
did before, new and extensive competition, boh 10
reign and domestic and Will not The same distress anc
ruin as followed before, but aggravated because
involving greater numbers, call again for duties stili
higher exclude the very limited competition OF TO-
reign capital and cheap foreign labor winch still exists
and which il is sought TO exclndef we say Hmts'
ed for by reference TO the tables above II Will appear
that The foreign articles in the four classes OF anuiac-
lures of most common consumption III the country are
not more than one-severtb Of The consumption Even
that total exclusion which, while 1t removes all com
petition, will also entirely destroy revenue from that
source will only postpone the ruin for few years
Extend this view 10 all branches CT manufacture winch
are now pressing upon US FOR protection, and apply the
same rule TO then, (or the same rule must apply to
a and what is the picture Of the future, and that the
,ure of even the present generation? The answer is
yious. The supported by limited capi
als must fall and the operative be lett without employ
Or sustain themselves, wages must be reduced, uh-
the reduction reaches 10 WllGl is
wages of Europe when, 10 escape starvation, they
must 90 at last To where Nature invites them
TO the and waste but rich wilderness of the West
for subsistence and 10 which hundreds Of thousands
of people in Ike condition are daily haste ming from
Europe and 10 which other hundreds Of thousands
are signing follow, but cannot from inability pro
cure the means OF removal.
But TO return 10 the immediate subject in hand-Mc
yssenue What is 10 be the effect of this entire exclu-
sion of foreign competition upon tha,' Those foreign
products only which do not enter into competition with
ours or rather those only which from climate, can
not produce will be imported, and the whole revenue
Grom customs must be derived from them. Ofthese the
principal luxrries wines, silks and spices, which,
with The ease with which the two last especially, can be
smogsld, will cease TO furnish revenue to any extent
if subject 10 very high duties. The residue Of The prn
cpal articles are SALT now subject TO duty Of cents
and tea and coffee, which are nowfee and sugar Will
The people, and especially the poorer classes submtO
high duty on these' And if they do, the only cfTec;
would be to ndd to tile prvatons Of the poor, and to
deprive them of these small comforts amid their
poverty aud force them, the laboring classes are
now forced in England by high duties, TO buy them BY
The ounce instead of the pound. While, then, high