The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-03-27
The Morrill, Tariff in Europe..It Effect up-
on EnHlish Trade.

| on English Trade.
| From the London Times of the 5th
| At moment when the destinies of the
great American Union are trembling in the
| balance and the Republic ID menaced with the
| worst catastrophes of civil war it's Legislaiurr
| is engaged upon n measure which seems calcn
lated at once to ALLEVIATE foreign nations Tn
embittef domestic strife, and to prov ide n i,,
| exhaustibe aliment for the antagonism un :
| happily subsisting between the two sections
@ 9i the Copfederacy The bill called Morrill,
| Tariff Bill is an Act for the establishment Of
| protective duties on most extravagant scale
| Ii 1t were desig led to condemn the very prin
ciples OF Free Trade, and to introduce those
| OF Protection, as forming the only true theory
| more strongly framed The du ties i'm posed by
| the bill are not only immoderately high
but they are levied upon imports of
the first necessity. The articles taxed are
not mere lnxuries, or commodities entering
into the consumption of the opulent alone -
Ii Is upon cotton goods, woolen goods and
hardware, that the imposts will fall and so
enormous are the ties proposed that the re-
suit can be little short of absolute prohibition
Cutlery is to be taxed upwards of 80 Der
cent. In the lowest instance, in the highest
nearly $50 In addition to this, the bill en-
acts so many complicated arrangements and
throws such interminable distractions in the
| way OF business, that commerce will be next
| 20 impossible under conditions so difficult
We need not enter into the particulars of the
Act, which is said to be scarcely intelligible
| even to Americans themselves, put we can
convey very good idea of its character and
purpose by observing, that if it should be
passed IT VIII almost prohibit all imports
into the United States from England France
and Germany. That, and no less, is the ef-
| feet anticipated from the measure in New
y ork itself. Of our own position under such
cireums tances, we shall presently speak but,
as the consequences OF the measure would ha
| felt most deeply by the Americans themselves.
we may give them the precedence in our re-
marks upon the subject
1t has been asserted Wi III
considerable emphasis that Europe has entire
| ly Inexperienced the con troyersy between
the Northern and Southern States of the
Union. We are assured that the slavery
question does not constitute the essence of tile
quarrel; that it has been merely introduced
as q blind or as an instrument of proyocation
ana that the real point of contention lies III
the national Tariff. We do not believe in this
explanation. We are convinced that the con.
test for territory is the real contest between
North and South, but at the same time it
would be impossible to deny that the South
has always conceived its interests in the mat
| ter of tariffs, to be opposed to those of the
North, and that its desire to regulate it's Gus
| toms duties for itself has had "a strong infiu-
ence IN determining its recent movements. The
| Southern States are agricultural and export
| ing countries. Free trade is their natural
SYSTEM and visibly so. The cotton planters
Ierfectly understand that the commerce be-
tween the manufacturing States of Europe
and the exporting States of America
cannot be too free. They have ALWAYS
consistently objected to the Tariffs and
Navigation Laws OF the North. They
do not wish TO protect Pennsylvania iron
masters or favor the factories of Lowell
They comprehend the views of the North In
these respects, but do not share them They
have only one object, which is to get the high
| est price for the greatest quantity of cotton,
and they wish accordingly for cheap freights
and free trade. fortnight ago the President
| of the new Southern Contederacy addressed
his constituents in an inaugural speech and
| after touching uDOn the nprilS ha isis
| and the possible obligations of the seceders,
he proceeded to declare that the separation
| Just cons nsummated was, in reality, q political
necessity arising from the natural discortance
between Northern and ToUthern interests
| He argued deliberately and dispassionat"ly
that there was not enough congruity of in
terest to keep North and South together tina
| an antagonism had been unavoidably created
between them by the very nature of things
| and that dissolution of the Union was not
only necessary, but an adyanta yeous, result.
we shall not attempt any analysis of these
arguments. 1t will be sufficient for our pur-
pose to remark that they are, at any rate
founded TO some extent on fact, and they will
| receive an enormous accession of force from
the tariff bill now before Congress. That
bill would be far more detrimen tai to the in
terests of America than to those of Europe
The blow would do little damage to this coun-
try, but such q proposal ut such n moment
would look like a new sacrifice of the South
ern States to the eXigencies of the Northern
and Will intensity the quarrel between them
by 1eaiouSle5 which Will survive after the DO
litical tempest has rolled away.
1t has now become perfectly known that
protection i'll these matters is only another
word for suicide, and that when a State estab-
fishes a prohibitory tariff it is itself the suf.
ferer from its own ordinances. II the back
woodsmen of America are to be deprived of
good axes, and settlers of cheap clothing, the
penalty will be paid by them. At the same
time, however, though we shall not think the
worse OF America for this measure, except us
regards her financial wisdom, we must needs
remark that, as amity follows free trade, so is
estrangement or indifference likely to follow
commercial seclusion. 1t is rather an extra
ordinary reflection that what we have Just
been endeavoring TO do at some cost regards
France, America should be proposing to undo
as regards us. If friendship follows in the
wake o. trade, it must needs be exposed 10 de-
cay when trade is prohibited. The Ameri-
cans are at present not only our nearest kins-
folk, but our best customers, and whenever
there has been difference between us we have
always remembered with peculiar gratifica-
tion that a commercial interest bound US in
dissolubly together. We should be very sorry
to loose this bond. We do not suppose in
deed, but what we can be as good friends as
before; but unless the principles accepted on
this subject are altogether false, the connexion
between the two countries must be weakened,
and the interchange of opinions, as well as
commodities, be somewhat isturbed.