The Sun. — 1870-07-18 (London, England)

COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH SOUTH  AMERICA. The United States Government appears at last wakening up as to the advantage and importance of encouraging more intimate relations with South and Central America. All the English steam trading companies, besides offering facilities for passengers and goods traffic all along the East and West Coasts of South America, have ferreted out and caused their steamers to touch at every small port which is backed by a productive interior. The advantage to the whole country soon showed itself ; increasing trade and production kept pace with each other. The Governments, if they did not take the initiative, felt compelled by the example of other nations, but much more by the increasing resources of the country—the facility for official communication and postal arrangements to aid and even subsidize the enterprise. The love of industry, the due appreciation of material comfort and the self-respect engendered by the possession of something to lose, have lessened the tendency to revolutions, and commercially as well as amicably established intimate relations between both countries. Such has been pretty much the history and beginning of nearly all the steam navigation companies between Europe and the South American States. No where has this been more evident than in Central and South America. Since the first steamer of Panama Railroad Company went to the former to solicit freight and offer commercial facilities, the productions of those States began to increase, and have gone on yearly at a satisfactory ratio. So convinced are all those countries that isolation is retrogression and dependence on their own resources alone, a species of suicide, that Honduras is pushing ahead her inter-oceanic railroad, and Salvador her electric telegraphs. The United States in general, if we except the Isthmus of Colombia, has paid hitherto but little attention, at least of a neighbourly kind, to the condition and prospects of these countries. Absorbed in the gigantic development of California, the lands of coffee and indigo have been little thought of, politically as well as commercially. Man cannot live on gold alone, but must seek for its equivalent in the necessities and luxuries of life which its possession represents. Our merchants are beginning to turn their attention to those countries whose climate produces the articles wanted. Statistics tell us that tea, sugar, coffee, and tobacco go on increasing with the world's population, and so, founded on some mysterious instinct of our nature, draws from the poorest man his last shilling to obtain one or other of them. The peculiar geographical situation of the Isthmus and its relation to the rest of the world, even from the time of Pizarro till now, has always been such as to discourage the investment of capital in agricultural pursuits. In respect of exportable products she is far behind -almost all the other portions of tropical America. She has not even a single article due to human industry that is demanded abroad, except perhaps an occasional cargo of pearl shell or Indian rubber ; so that in a purely commercial estimate of South America the Isthmus has to be left out. Like the bell in the church tower which calls people to church, but does not go itself, the Isthmus lives by the transmission of the exchange products of other nations, but produces nothing within itself. The following extract, which has given rise to the above reflections, we take from the New York Herald of the 3d instant. It is headed, among the doings of Congress, " Commercial Relations with South America," and says as follows :—" The President, in accordance with a resolution, has communicated to the Senate a despatch from Minister Blow, at Brazil, in relation to the commercial interests of the United States with South America, Central America, and the West Indies. He regards the question settled. The sugar we are to consume beyond that raised by ourselves will be grown principally in the West Indies and South America, and the coffee almost entirely in South and Central America, Mexico, and the West Indies. He speaks of the necessity of establishing close, regular, and rapid communications with every portion of these countries by liberal subsidies, and states as the advantages :—First, the increased and active development in the production of coffee and sugar in all those countries growing the same ; second, an immensely increased demand for our flour, grain, lard, pork, and manufactured goods, many of which are now needed at remunerative prices, but which are kept back for want of regular and fair transportation, and that enlightened understanding of trade which our dealers fail to grasp for want of facilities enjoyed by those of other nations." If the scheme is favourably entertained and subsidized by Congress, an effort will doubtless be made to carry President Grant's suggestions into effect, in which case we may hope the Isthmus to recover somewhat of her special and functional. prosperity. In the meantime it is for the authorities considering upon what the rentistic possibilities Of the State depend to adjust their necessities according to time and circumstances. As to encouraging commerce the New York Post of the Ist instant says about anything Congress could do, that " commerce is not the product of legisla • tion, and asks no favour of any government. The only request it has to make is that thepovernment shall cease to annoy, impede, and plunder it."—Panama Star and Herald.  Cincinnati claims to be the fourth mannfacturing city in the United States, only New York, Philadelphia, and Boston excelling it. Last year the total manufactures in the city was 119,140 dols. 89 cents, employing 59,354 mechanics.  General Robert E. Lee has refused on behalf of Mrs. Lee, to accept the annuity of $3,000 settled upon her by the Trustees of Washington College. The Board, however, has, as delicately as possible, intimated to him that they must adhere to their original plan.