The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-01-30

ergy in the richer classes notion OF better con
diion, and consequently no wish to smeiiorats
that of the poor. Such the causes Of the extra
| ordinary poverty which dovours this rich country
where the soil gives the finest fruits to those who
only take the trouble to open it, whose climate is
az soft as il is healthy; where such scourges rs cpl
| denies, inuDdations, haistorms, and volcanic
| eruptons, are unknown; where all and every thing
| breathes balmy repose, and promises abundance OF
goods. The remedy for such state Of things will
form the subject of another letter"
Such have been the results OF ''free trade and
direct taxation" in Turkey, and we cannot
but recommend them to the careful considera-
| ton of the advocates among ourselves of the
system which forces our planters and farmers
to make their exchanges through the agency
| of the middlemen of England-the men of Biz
mingham and Manchester. Under the mask
oftree trade they have been enabled to destroy
nestle association, and to compel them to make
all their exchanges by aid of spindles and
looms, forges and hammers, distant from them
thousands of miles. and controlled by men whose
shop-keeplng instincts are always on the alert
to enable them to buy. cheap and sell dear
and who find great advantage in substituting
flour for cotton--a process unknown to the
domestic manufacturer. The factories of the en-
pire have been closed, and the tinerant bagman
has taken the place of the resident shopkeeper.
Credit is unknown, and of money there is none;
the little that may appear in circulation being
| Sl,,s hv ha IA,
precisely as is now being done on larger
scale among ourselves with the gold of Cali
fornia. In the intervals between those rounds
the poor agrcuturist has no one with whom to
exchange but his brother agriculturist, and
there is no demand for labor except in agrcul-
ture; the consequence of which is that he wastes
both his labor and its products, and is thus de
prived of the power to purchase either cloth or
iron-the uniform result of British trade, wher>
ever found, whether in Ireland, India, Turkey,
Portugal, the West Indies, OF Canada.
How little the results of this exhausting pro-
cess have realized to Britain herself the mag
nficent anticipations of our author, may be
Judged from the following facts At the date of
the publication of his work, the consumption Of
cotton in 'the poorest families" was estimated
at eleven pounds weight; and were we to take
only that quantity as the average Of the whole
population, rich and poor, it would give forty
millions of pounds weight, low estimate Of
the value of which, in cloth. would then have
been thirty millions Of dollars. The manufao-
ture has disappeared, and yet the whole export
of last year from Great Britain to Turkey, Mol
davia, and Walachia, of merchandise Of every
iption-cottons, woollens, hardware, &c.,
&c.-amounted to only about thirteen millions
of dollars and, of even this small quantity,
much was intended for transportation beyond
the bounds Of the empire.
Turkey is, of all the independent countries
of the earth, the paradise Of British free trade,
and there we find the same destructive effects
as are exhibited to view in Ireland and all the
British colonies. Among ourselves, the cotton
planters are the main advocates of the British
system; and We therefore recommend to their
consideration the fact that the consumption Of
cotton declines in every country that has free
trade with England, while it increases in all
that protect themselves against that system
In Russia, as we have recently shown, the
consumption has recently grown fifty per cent.
in four years. In North Germany, under the
ZoU- Jereu, it advanced one hundred and fifty
per cent. in nine years. Among ourselves it
doubled under the tariff Of 1912. In Ire
land and Turkey it has greatly declined, and
the last three years among ourselves exhibit a
decline of almost thirty per cent. in the total
consumption, foreign and domestic; the conse-
quence of which is seen in the fact that cotton
has fallen from more than fifty dollars bale to
little more than thirty dollars 1t is time that
our planters should study and understand for
themselves the working Of the British monopo-
ly system.