The Arkansas banner., 1843-10-21

import are mere gratulty. Foreign mer chants or manufacturers are not apt to be st abundantly benevolent They expect to re ceive an equivalent for what Is shipped tt another nation. This equivalent can only bs some product of it's labor. It must consis either in agricultural produce, or in manufac- tured fabrics, works of science or skill, or in gold and silver that represent one of these oi all. Whatever it be, it is the result of labor How manifest, therefore, that you lessen the demand for domestic labor, to the same ex- tent that you diminish foreign trade: nay, to much greater extent; for if nation pro- duces a commodity for itself, 1t employs on- ly the labor necessary to its production; but If 1t gets that commodity from others. it em- ploys the labor exerted in producing those articles for which 1t is exchanged, the labor exerted in sending those articles to a foreign port, the labor exerted in bringing back the desired commodity, and the labor which Is , requisite to construct the vehicles and vessels by which the barter is effected. The whole course of industry is changed, and with it those habits that give skill and facility. So l that this vaunted system, whose chief recom- mendatlon is, that 1t encourages domestic in- dustry, interferes with that industry at every stage ot its progress And the effect of this interference-the enormous evil 1t occasions must go on accommodating until there is a complete prostration of the energies of every kind of employment.
 There are large classes of facts-of histori- cal facts-in melancholy illustration of these reasonings. They may be reduced to four | nnIntS (1 NV WbproUor tho has been adopted, and precisely in the degree in which 1t IS adopted, have the rights and in- terests of industry suffered. (2) Yetin these very nations, branches of industry not falling under the protective principle, have attained a surpassing vigor (3) Where resort has ne- yer been had to 1t, industrial pursuits have been prosecuted with the most energy, and reached a state of solid and permanent pros perlty, proof against competition, and supe- rior to ordinary vicissitudes of trade. (4) While in nations generally free, the modes of those which were the least successful, and most liable to huctuation.
 Let any one who would possess himself of abundant and satisfactory evidence on these heads, consult the testimony laid before the House of Commons. It is overwhelming There is France, beautiful France, as she IS called, so cramped by the stays which vi- cious legislation has invented, that her limbs can hardly move. Her coal, her salt, her iron, her gravel, her cutlery in short, almost every branch of industry, has been the object of an enormous protection. A duty imposed on one article, has been followed by prohi- bition imposed on another. All classes have clamored for the assistance of the govern nlent. WitiI what fcsuit a population, iii iii clothed, i'll fed, and i'll lodged their agricul- ture stagnant; their trade subjected to fluctu- ation; their resources but half developed; i; and their social existence disturbed by per petual fear of tumult and riot Russia, with an agricultural territory covering nearly a moiety of Europe, is far behind, in all the elements of trade, nations that are not one hundredth part her size. With fitness for industry that is almost illimtable, her indus try can scarcely be said to exist. The ener- gy of thepeople is entirely depressed by their enormous restrictions. The effects we see in the constant embarrassment of her treasury, in the stationary state of the people, and in an entire want of the evidences, and even of the spirit, of internal improvement. Spain, shackled from the beginning with the letters of barbarous legislation, finds her harbors deserted, her cities tenantess, her colonies dwindling into troublesome dependents, and her beautiful interior trampled into ashes, by the hosts of an infuriated bandtti. Austria, Fin all things, in her politics as in her trade, the slave of merciless despotism, bewails a bankrupt treasury, and degraded, spiritless, and impoverished people. But no nation il- Illustrates more pertinently the folly of com mercial restriction, than Great Britain. For ages, the government of that nation has task ed and misdirected the productive powers of its people. It has prescribed to them to whom they shall sell, and from whom they must purchase. It has built up monopoly af- ter monopoly, added restraint to restraint, un- til its withered, starved, and wretched labor CTS are crying with tears of agony to be re- leased from their expressions. Tory states men may close their ears to the cry, heartless reviewers make mockery of the notes of alarm, money and fraud succeed in stifing the voices of the masses, but there can be no mistake as to the fact. A thousand speech less but eloquent tongues tell us that the be-
 
 dy of the people suffer. They have become the prey of rapacious landlords. The bread is wrested from their mouths, the cup dashed from their lips, and even the rag is torn from their naked limbs, by cruel monopolists.-- They cannot long suffer in vain. If their complaints are unheeded, they will take their rights in their own hands. They will teach their tyrants justice, -or perish in the attempt.
 Yet, let it be marked, in these very nations, branches of industry that have escaped the vi- gilancc of protection, have, at the same time, escaped the misery which is its inevitable re- suit. The Biscayan provinces, which are the only provinces of Spain having fiscal legis- lation of their own, the only provinces in which the prohibitory principle has not been introduced, are likewise the only provinces that can be said to have attained any thing like general prosperity. The cotton trade in England was at first persecuted trade; 1t was made the subject of repeated taxes; yet those who pursued it have never sought the