Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-10-11
PREDICTIONS OF BRITISH STATESMEN CON-
CERNING THE UNITED STATES.

PREDICTIONS OF BRITISH STATESMEN CON-
CERNING THE UNITED STATES.
We have lately met with book which is rapid
ly, from its scarcity becoming of the curiostes
Of Literature. 1t is entitled "ObserUGtions on
the Commerce of the american States" Its author
was JOHN HoLRoYD, EARL OF SHEFFIELD, who was
a man of education and ability, PeeSof the realm,
an occupant Of high official position, and Privy
Counsellor of George III. Lord SHEEFIELD was
in his day and generation accounted well-nformed
statesman, and an able and enlightened political
economist His book also attained considerable
celebrity, for il reached second edition; piece
of good fortune which, according to the Edinburgh
Review, attends only one book in two hundred.
The second edition is dated from Downing street,
June 2l, 1884,, three months before the signing OF
the De6nitive Treaty of Peace between Great Bri-
tain and the United States, but year and eight
months after the actual cessation of hostilites At
such period, and when no materials existed from
which to deduce any very conclusive body OF
.Obseryations upon the Commerce of the Ameri-
can States" it would be too much TO expect that
Lord SHEFFIELD should in such an undertaking
have been endued with the absolute spirit Of pro-
phecy. His book--pamphlet he has the modes.y
to call its valuable for the official returns which
il contains relative to the commerce, &c. of the
country whilst under colonial rule; bat, whenever
the author endeavors to look forward and to fore
shadow the then future condition of what had be-
come when he wrote The UNITED STATES, he is
mos. curiously unfortunate, and his anticpations,
when contrasted with the gratifying reality, ap-
proximate to the ludicrous.
Lord Sheffield was certainly not unfriendly to
the United States. On the contrary, he frequently
expresses himself towards them with warm interest
and regards but he had no anticipation of their
success, and of their expansion in population, and
growth into commercial importance and political
power. He asserted that they would not increase
in population; their future commercial conse-
auence he treated with neglect which indicated
that he did not perceive it; and any political i'm
portance he regarded as unattainable by them be-
cause, he said, the Federal Compact could not be
carried out We know that there we're Statesmen
in Europe-aye, and in Great Britain, in the Cabi-
net, the Council and both Houses of Parliament
who looked from very different point of view
upon the birth ofthe young Republic, and who an
tcipated bright and glorious results from its advent
but our business is with Lord Shefield's book.
We spare our readers any further preliminary COM
ments and shall satisfy ourselves for the presentwih
some uerbatim quotations from our noble author,
trusting to their intelligence to give the suitable re-
plies to his opinions and anticipations.
Lord Sheffield says: It is a fortunate crcum-
stance, arising from the independence of America,
a. De: T.la ~ IN hlo
degree, the supply of our w est Iadia Islands with
: bread and -four Now, what has been the fact /?
An official table in his lordship's book states the
total value Of grain and breadsnfs exported from
all North America to the British and Foreign West
India Islands in ITO to have been g289, ,4O4 IS.
I'd, or, at one-fourth to the dollar, $l ,447 ,02l.
The latest official statement we have at hand of
the commerce of the United States shows that from
the United States the exports to the British West
Indies alone, in the year which ended 3O.h
June, 1914, amounted in value to $2,l94,O52;
while to the British American Colonies the United
States in that year exported breadstufs to the
amount of $2,l56,936. We might state further,
in refutation of Lord Shefields expectation, that
the year 1874 was by no means an excessive one
for the expectation of breadstufs to the British
West Indies; that the British home harvest was
not that year deficient one and that we do not
take into our argument the necessity which England
at present abors under, and will continue to do Of
importing breadstuffs for her home consumption
but this was contingency which British statesman
should not have overlooked when he was exulting
in the prospect Of the recovery of market for the
consumption of home surplus.
Lord Sheffield says further: America had
robbed US, at least for a time, of corn [grain
'trade that some time ago brought in to us as much
as any article Of export; and she was rapidly
robbing us Of the ship-building business which an
extraordinary event, the independence of the
American States, has in this case fortunately again
thrown into our power He gives table which
shows that the entire tonnage of vessels built in the
year 1859 in the colonies which in l776 formed the
thirteen United States, was O0l TONS Our readers
must supply the statistics of the present times.
Tobacco" says Lord Sheffield, g is the principal
article of American commerce. M" The culiva-
ton of tobacco has been greatly interrupted; II
fsOiH nsOer be so great again as It has been."
a The use Of tobacco has declined in England and
America" Now, what are the facts We have
not the materials at hand to answer the question
correctly, but we find that Great Britain imported
from, limited Ctotoe Al. 90 0oE