The Ministers of the Empe...
The Times, 1824-01-24T00:00:00

ThelMinisters of the Emperor ALEX ANDErahave, it seems, made a considerable addition to tlhe import duties on foreign manufactures and produce. In other words, they have bzcrn throwin,, fresh difficulties in the way of Russian ex- ports to foreign countries. To what extent the English trale may sufine frotm the adoption by ALEXANDER of these fszal l-ariszns, already worn out and condemned by the disernirg nation against whlose interests he would now direct them, it is easy to guess. Russia cannot injure Grzmt Britain by means which are calculated to repress the isiing indusRtry of Russia lherself, but to rouse the enter- pFise of Englishmen into a search after vew paths of com- marc2, ard into a cultivation of resources before untried, cnly b=;use the want of them had not been hitherto ex- pearicetl. We have little to dread from a rival armed vith those very weapons which we have ourselves cast aside aa unservIceable. The war of prohibitipns is disastrous to nce so ccmpletely os to him who wagesit; and the Rus- sian Gbvernment, by this gross blunder, proves against itself an abza-=ce of political civilization, no less remarkable than that mcorl and social rudeness whichl has long been a re- pmach- to ils subjects Sugar, coffee, porter, cotton, w.oollens in their several stages of manufacture, are all aEwted by the tarif now published at St. Peters- iurgh. Put wi the prohibitions, as rather, perhaps, tae diminised sales, thus intended, be real ? NVe ap. y7hicmd rlt. The Russian manufacturer will, it is fair to pres=e, sib: c ns Lb ilted by the msnopoly, as the State by the duty. The smuggler will trick them both; and of foreign commodities, just as much is -likely tod be. consumed in spite of this bastard Continental System. (indeed more), as in- defiance of the legitimate one, raised intolife by BUON.APAILTE. But shoul tlhisindiscretion on- the part of Russia produce to England.rhe-evils which it is possible were anticipated by some of its authors, what follows? Why, that England must of necessity cling with increased force to those advantages which she liolls independent of the power of Russia-that she must strengthen the ties which connect her with other nations, and improve those resources wbich their friendship and their markets offer. If Russia hal perceived in the British Government, for example, a stupid indifferenice to the blessings of which the freedom and prosperity of the' American continent, its final dismemberment from the continent of Europe, and intimate union with Groat Bri- tain herself, might be rendered productive to this commer- cial empire-if, seeing this blindness of the British Go- vernment to its most obvious interests and duties, the Imperial Cabinet had sought the mcans of rousing our Ministers to a sense of them,' we know not of any more masterly expedient for awakening their stupidity, or compel- ling their repugnance, than this, which proves that the countries of Europe, the most abundant in raw material, and least advanced in art, are kenceforth to be no- thing to the English merchant ; and therefore, that he can have no dependence hut upon regions in another he- mispher%- -vhich are, like Russia, rich in produce, and un- skilkld in manufacture, but which do not unwisely and 'perversely, like lher, seek to transpose the natural-relations of comm-unities suffering under opposite wants, and formed for reciprocal accommodations. The Princes of the con- tinent appear to us-no lessby their mercantile than their political system-to have agreed upon tying this country to a stake, and forcing her into an aUfiance with every thing American, for the defeat and mortification of the monarchical principle in Europe.