New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1844-01-31

StonIngtOn. Inc Ne"-l1dFeh uio iiot g o"'' "''
evening, but will leave for Norwich early this
morning. Mr. Harnden started express overland
for Boston last evening, in order to be sure OF
reaching the Britannia in season with his piles OF
Foreign Letters. The Mutual Safety fought her
way through the ice from Bridgeport, arriving
about PM The ice about Hurl- Gate and IN
all the narrower parts of the Sound is very thick
and strong as well as abundant, and our CITY is
nearly blockaded by it. New-York rarely expe-
riences colder week than that which closed yes
terday morning. -
Hardware, Foreign and American.
A number OF the Importers Of hardware IN
this City have united in memorial to Congress
for reduction of the duties imposed by the pre-
sent Tariff, on British Hardware, as 1t was their
perfect right to do. But they have accompanied
their memorial with certain statements of the
amount and effect of the present duties on Hard
ware which, as honest and fair men they had not
a right to make-which many whom we recog-
nize on the list of signers could not have made, II
they had known what they were doing.
There are in the first place fragrant suppress
sions Of important facts in their memorlal-facts
which Congress should have before them In
coming to an enlightened decision on the matters
presented to them by these gentlemen. They
omitted for instance, to state to Congress that the
increased duties levied by the last Congress had
been met in almost every instance achere there is
any American competition, by reduction in the
Foreign Manufacturers prices nearly or fully
equivalent to the increase of duty, so that virtu-
ally the increased duty ispaid into oar Treasury
By the Foreign Manufacturer and not by The
american consumer. This fact abundantly ap
pears on the bills Of these importing gentlemen,
but it does not appear in their memorial to Con-
gress. Neither did they remember to tell Con.
gress that no such reduction was made through
three long years of previous depression-that this
was made in the face Of an improving market,
while they had held firm through years of disas-
ter and that no such:reduction has noto been
made in the prices Of articles in the same line
,ohick are NOT riualled in this country. On the
contrary, large ADVANCE has recently been made
in the British prices of Cutlery which we have
not yet begun to make to any serious extent in
this country. If they had stated these facts, and
many like them, which arc fully within their
knowledge, they would have afforded Congress
solid basis for Legislative elaboration and action.
They have chosen to do otherwise.
Their tables are put forth with great show
of mercantile accuracy, and seem to show duties
on Hardware and Iron of As to 240 per cent. but
they arc deceptive. For instance, they say,
Iron Bars, under inch square, cost in England
f5 IS. equal TO 1913 3d. duty 2ac. per lb, or 24O
per cent" Now no man will individually say
that the Iron usually imported under this descrip-
ton can be bought in England at f5 5s a ton,
or any thing like it, though possibly some kind
of Iron may be got at that price. But who in
the world viii give E5 5s. for $23 SO Go to
any of these gentlemen for a bill on England,
and see if lie will let it 90 under 81 so to the
pound sterling at the least. Yet throughout
their calculations the pound sterling is translated
into Yankee at the rate of 81 IA to the pound,
while the legal value IS 81 so, and the market
value always higher; and by this gouge alone
the duties are often made 10 to 80 per cent
higher than they really are.
But again" Butt Hinges, cast iron-usual
kind a, S23 per CT discount-cash amounting to
fl2. SIS. Id net-S54.57: duty p c. per ID, net
1924 lbs. duty $4,000, or 741 per cent."-Now
in the first place, fl2 IS. I'd. is 1888 instead
of S54.57, reducing the rate of duty to less than
70 per cent. and then the Butts here styled "usu-
al kind ought In fact to have been designated
/" Or'nary." being so miserable that no reputable
~ banir yyhn eynecte1 eySr IN ha n.,rIt ~
work by his employer, would use them. Any body
must know that that must be horrible article Of
Butt Hinges of which over sixteen hundred weight
can be sold for less than fifty nine dollars and in
fact thus is u mere Pindar's-razor affair, made to
sell, and hardly fit even for ahat. Itisnot recog-
nized as relative by the respectable family of
Butt Hinges, American or British. Yet this ar
:icle is put forward-the duty on Butt Hinges be-
ng specifically q cents per pound--to give the
Impression that Butt Hinges retaxed by the Tar
If an average of TAI per cent.
And now, since we are on the subject of
Butt Hinges, let us give the real cost of the I'M
'orted article under the old and under the new
Tariff contrasted. We have it from gentlemen
,ng and now engaged in the Hardware Import
,g Business, verified by dealers in both the I'M
orting and the domestic line There can be no
uestion of Its accuracy, for it is based on the |
ctual transactions of ls42, and of the present |
ear We begin first with the Importers chosen
licle-the Pindar Butts aforesaid-on which our
oYsrnment indeed receives $l9 per caak more