New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-07-30
AN ALLY OF BRITISH POLICY.

We cut. the following paragraph from
disquisition in favor of free trade, in The
Racine Adr0cdte:
GAN see how detrimental tariffs would be between
the Staes yet they will the Injury of them be-
tween us and other States They will not see that
tariff between France and Belgium checks business,
although they do zee that iarif between New YORK
and Pennsylvania would. Then they point to lrelsnd,
and say that Ireland has suffered Tor want OF protecon
Why the manufacturers of ireland protected,
much protected as tho.e Of England She suffered be
capse her lords lived in England and spent her re-
there each expanding the industry OF hun
dTeds."
This is a specimen Of the arguments
with which the Loce- Foco journals seek
to convince the people that they ought to
vote for that candidate who has the best
wishes of The London Times for his sue
cess, because he is sure to be valuable
ally to the commercial policy of Englan
OF course Ireland was protected as much
as England against other nations, bit it
was the protection that the vulture gives
the lamb. Against England she had no
protection whatever; with Eng land she
enioyed the benefits of free trade, as they
call it, and the consequence was that Irish
industry was crushed by English comPeti-
ton, ard in order to give English specula-
tors absolute control of the Irish market,
the people of the island were forced
through that dis. strous transition from
largely manufacturing to exclusively agri-
cultural employments, until, as Meagher
expressed it, the only business that thrived
there was that of the coffin maker. Abb
,enteeisn no doubt was very serious
evil, taken in addition to the general pow
erty and weakness of the inhabitants, but
had industry continued to be protected and
to prosper and extend itself as it did under
protection, all the mobiles in the country
might have staid away, and the people
could have borne it without a groan.
But if, as you say, Ireland has suffered
nothing from British free trade, how do
you account for the famine b! How do you
account for the fact that, while thousands
were dying daily of starvation and dis
eases caused thereby, food enough was
exported to England to have supplied the
hunger of the destitute ! VIII you charge
such facts as these, inhumanly, to the fault
of the Irish nation, or blasphemously, to
the fault of Gods providence They
grew from neither of these causes. They
were but the legitimate and perfect fruits
of that commercial policy of which The
London Times sees e great bulwark in
the SO. called Democratic party of this
country.
And what folly to draw COMPARE
son between the position of the several
States of this Union toward each other
ard the position of our country toward
foreign powers, and especially toward Eng
land. Here, in the United States, the
conditions of free trade exist. The States
are parts of one political system, similar
in social and industrial development, not
animated by the spirit, or endowed with the
power, of financial and commercial monopo-
ly, as respects other, and therefore they
can enjoy the advantages of real free trade.
But not such is British free trade. That
is sin ply an ingenious continuance to render
younger and weaker nations subjectto Eng
land; to compel them to abandon manufac-
lures snddevote themselves to agriculture;
end 10 come to her to sell their raw products