The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-02-26

can manufacture ourselves. the domestic supply
would become SO abundant that prices would be as
low as they now-probably lowers but an ave-
rage duty Of twenty five thirty per cent. is
enough for all practical purposes.
We will not follow Mr.. Brown in all his wander
ings but we must notice another sentence or two
in his lecture. He says
You seem altogether to forget that you must
buy to be able to sell and the more property you
can possess yourself of at home, or import from
abroad--at the least expenditure Of your capital
or labor-the sooner you become rich. presume
this will not be denied"
And " it is there that you are! % as the lamented
Power was wont to say, when he came upon the
stage in the character of the Irish Ambassador.
When Mr.. Brown wrote this he must have been
little drowsy. Had he been wide awake the reverse
of this proposition would have occurred TO him.
Can il be that, in a wakeful mood, he would have
written such an absurdity? Now, we fully agree
with the gentleman of Richmond Hill, }" that if we
could possess ourselves of largo amount of foreign
property, ,cithout paying for IT, should be driv-
ing snug business, and such transactions would
be most agreeable; but the day of reckoning must
come and if our imports be greatly larger than
our exports, a regular break down must occur
sometime or other. Has Mr.. Brown forgotten
1887, when excessive imports, for three or four
years previously, Frustrated the whole business Of
the country by the stoppage of specie payments,
causing an immense amount of trouble? A
try disposed to become rich should take to go
in opposition to Mr. Browns opinions, /. q. export
more than it imports and then it will get the CAPT.
tai of other nations.
parade is made about cotton, exports, &C.; but
this does not amount to much. When there is no
famine in Europe, our exports do not amount to
more than ten per cent of the products Of soil
and even when there was a famine few years ago,
our exports did not amount TO more than fifteen
per cent on the products. Our home market is the
market. Break up, if you will, our cotton mills,
iron establishments, coal mines, &C., &C., and We
respectfully ask the foreigner who has become die
tator to this country, what would become of some
twelve hundred of dollars worth Of the pro-
ducts (annual) of the soil? The farmers do not
buy much Of each other, and John Bull could not
swallow oneffth of them, unless he be in state of
famine When Great Britain takes something
worth naming, lectures from the other side of the
Atlantic might be excused, though in bad taste.
But we not yet done with Mr.. Brotcn-that
old, familiar name. He alludes, complacenty
enough, to the British government abolishing the
duty on cotton and flour but he does not tell the
on cotton was ive-eghths of penny per pound !;
in 1888 it reduced to FIVE sxteenths of penny
and subsequently Eve forget the Year, to nothing.
Why this donee Simply to protect the English
| manufactures; and recollect assemblages in
Manchester which petitioned parliament to let cot
ton come in free of duty, and upon the ground that
they could not compete with the growing cotton
mills of the United States unless the duty was en-
tirey abolished And as to flour or our breadstuffs
the sliding scale" continued to operate until the
! famine of 1876, or thereabouts and we have no
doubt strenuous effort will be made by the landed
arstocracy back to duties those articles.
Mr.. Brown, in his fanfaronade, does mention
s' tobacco - but he should have informed us igno-
| rant Americans whether or not Great Britain had
abolished the duty on il. On this subject he is
silent, drowsy so will wake him up, and in
woke him to look at the records when he next goes
up London to sit in his chair parliamentary.
Whilst in the pney woods of South Carolina, some
eight ten years ago, we met an English gentle
man who presented paper under the sign manual
of Sir Robert Peel and in il was stated that the
annual revenue derived from duties tobacco
| (nearly all American tobacco) upwards
of three millions Of pounds sterng-say about
sixteen millions of dollars. At this we. were
not surprised, because every body knows-espe-
cially the particular MIR. Brown, Of " Richmond
Hill'-that the duty is three shiings sterling per
| pound-say sixty-seven cents currency, or
about eight hundred dollars per hogshead in short,
the duty is from eight hundred to one thousand
per cent, according to value. Mr.. Brown de-
lights to dwell upon taking of restrictions but not
a word does he say about the British exchequer
fobbing some fifteen or twenty millions of dollars
annually in the shape Of duties American
tobacco! Why, our annual duties upon i'm
ports from Great Britain, the continent, and
the residue Of the world. amount to only about
twice the sum which John Bull collects on
our tobacco; which, by the way, is grown in but
five or six States Of the Union.
For the present, we done with Mr.. Brown.
During the "ides of March we may take him up
again, if we should have another hour to spare.
Meanwhile, we tell the M. p. that il he should
again peep out from " Richmond HILL near Liver
pool" to read another lecture, he shall not 20
unwhipt Of justice. CURTlUs.
Valentins's Day.