The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-04-30

adequate for the performance of all our ex-
changes with that great empire; the power
to consume tea, her chief product, being
in course of rapid diminution, as, with
the system of slow duties," we are sub
stituting the pig iron of Great Britain for
that of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ten
nessee. In proof of this, we take from
one of the newspapers of the day the fol-
lowing:
Statement Of De exports of tea from China to the Uni
ted States.
Year ending Total grin. Total blk. Total lbs
June So ls45.. 10 ,sl2 ,099 695O459 2O,762, 55s
June 80 ls46. Jas 36,Os2 4266,l66 ls, 5o2 ,2s4
June 30 1s47. ,s53.l32 4,3ls,4s6 s,l1I ,62s
June So ls4s. Ia, 345, $50 3,9936I7 1898 $40
June 80, ls49 .l3sis,7oo 4,s53, 800 Is ,672 800
To Dec. Is, ls4s. 100000 l,672,20O 1902 500
| In 1915, under the tariff of 1912, we
made our own iron, and then we consumed
almost t,oenty-one millions of pounds of
tea. In 1849, under the benefcent tariff
of 1S46, giving us the system of SLOW du-
ties,' we imported our iron, and the con-
sumption of tea has fallen below nineteen
Millions, although the population has in
creased to an extent that should have car
ried it up to tDenty:f four; and in the last
six months Of GLOW duties" on iron and
cloth it has fallen to four millions Verify,
the account which our free-trade friends
will have to render of the correspondence
Of their performances with their promises
is likely to be most satisfactory onel
We were promised, and that so recently
as at the last session of Congress, that, by
carrying out the system whose operation
thus far had been attended with such mag
nifcent results, we should "command the
trade of all nations" To do this, how
ever, we need ships; and il happens, un-
fortunately, that with the gradual progress
Of this "benign" system of slow duties,"
the growth ofour shipping is diminishing in
stead of increasing. Under the '1ow-duty"
system Of 1913, we built less than 100,-
600 tons per annum. In the year 1878,
under the system Of "high duties, - which,
according to the Secretary, ought 70 have
caused us to lose sour foreign markets,
commerce, revenue, and with these our
carrying trade" leaving sour vessels
and steamships at the wharves without
freight" it had reached 243,000 tons,
and in the following year, lS47-'S, it ex-
ceeded 300, 900, whereas, in the one which
ended on the 30th of June last, it had
refrigerated TO 256,000, notwithstanding
the new and unexpected demand which
had grown up in consequence of the dis
covery of gold in California.
Now, we would ask, and most respect
fully, Of our opponents, how would their
performances have accorded with their
promises, had not the California accident
arrived at the very moment when il was
SO much needed Let them compare
the Trolling Of ship-building under Wing
measures, with the diminution under their
own, and determine for themselves the
sort Of account they will have TO render
when called upon for their defence.
The journals of the day are filed with
accounts Of the performances of the great
steamer, the Atlantic, and we meet occa-
sionally with similar notices of the launch
Of great packet-ships, written by men
whose eyes are as much dazzled as were
those Of the Secretary when he wrote of
Selling upon "the commerce of Japan"
by aid of steam vessels; totally emitting
to see that the main support of navigation,
the building Of smaller vessels for shorter
voyages, was rapidly diminishing.
The small vessels are to the larger ones
what the common school is to the univer-
sity; and the man who should adopt pol