variety of resources, are still able to maintain a considerable intercourse with us; though, in those years in which we do not import corn, our exports to them do not exceed a third of what they amounted to previous to 1810.

It is, however, to the state of our intercourse with France that the public attention ought to be chiefly directed. At this distance of time, it is of no importance to inquire which of the two countries was the first to fetter and restrict the trade with its most civilized and opulent neighbour. Both parties, we believe, were in this respect equally blameable; and whichever may have been the first to commence this felo de se crusade on the comforts and enjoyments of its own subjects, its measures have been but too well seconded by the other. The wretched effects of such blind and infatuated policy have at length become manifest. Instead of being, what they have been most absurdly and wickedly designated, natural enemies, Britain and France, from their near vicinity, and the extreme variety, as well in their raw as in their manufactured products, are especially fitted to maintain an extensive and mutually advantageous intercourse. It is to France, much more than to either South or North America, or the East Indies, that we should look for new channels of commerce. We ought to show that we have emancipated ourselves from the disgraceful prejudices by which our ancestors were actuated, when they declared the trade with France a nuisance, (Prohibition Act, 1st Will. & Mary,) and that the experience of a century has satisfied us, that a rich, populous, and highly cultivated country, must afford a much better market for our products, than one that is comparatively poor and miserable. We do not, however, contend, that any preference ought to be given to the trade with France over that with Portugal, or any other country. Laissez nous faire, is our maxim. * * * *

The capital and industry which is now employed in the production of such commodities as would, under a different system, be imported from abroad, would, in that case, be devoted to the production of the articles which foreigners would not fail to require as an equivalent. It is obvious, therefore, that the abolition of all restrictions and prohibitions whatever, would prodigiously augment the productive energies of the country. As long as we co-operate with nature, we cannot be undersold by foreigners. And if, instead of absurdly endeavouring to raise at home what might be more cheaply imported from abroad, we were to employ our capital and industry exclusively in those branches in which our insular situation, our inexhaustible supplies of coal, and our improved machinery, give us a natural and real advantage, we should be secured against those injurious revulsions and changes in the ordinary channels of trade, which, in a fully peopled and highly manufacturing country, never fail to occasion the most wide-spread misery and

distress. Lorsque nous condamnons nos terres à nous donner ce • qu'elles produisent avec désavantage, aux dépens de ce qu'elles 'produisent plus volontiers; lorsque nous achetons fort cher, ce que nous payerions à fort bon marché, si nous le tirions des lieux 'où il est produit avec avantage, nous dévenons nous mêmes vic'times de notre propre polie. Le comble de l'habileté est de tirer 'le parti le plus advantageux des forces de la nature; et le comble 'de la démence est de lutter contre elles; car c'est employer nos peines 'à détruire une partie des forces qu'elle voudroit nous prêter.'à * * *

It is completely in our power to open a new and boundless market for our surplus products. We may, if we choose, immediately double or triple the number of the foreign consumers of British manufactures. Nor is it at all necessary, in order to bring about this most desirable result, that we should attempt to negociate a commercial treaty with France. It is extremely probable, indeed, that such an attempt would, at the present moment, prove unsuccessful; and it is therefore fortunate that it is of very secondary importance. All that is required to lay the foundation of a commerce which would give an immediate stimulus to the languishing industry of the country, and of which it is impossible to estimate the future extent, is to consent to act, as a nation, on the same principles which regulate the conduct of every prudent individual -or, which is the same thing, to buy in the cheapest market. This is all the sacrifice that we are called on to make. The French, we may depend upon it, will not refuse to sell; and as there can be no selling without an equal buying—no exportation without a proportional importation-by acting on a liberal system ourselves, we shall not only reap a very great immediate advantage, but shall inevitably compel them to abandon their restrictions.

This illiberal policy is disadvantageous in many other respects besides being fatal to our commerce. Our open and avowed jealousy of the commercial prosperity of other countries, and the power to which we have attained, excites at once their ill will and their envy; and disposes them as well to manifest an unaccommodating spirit on occasion of any petty quarrel, as to adopt retaliatory measures on our trade. This has been especially the case with France. But, if things were left to their natural course, the connexion between the two countries would be so intimate the one would constitute so near, so advantageous, and so extensive a market for the produce of the other-that they could not remain long at war without occasioning the most extensively ruinous distress— distress which no government would be willing to inflict on its subjects, and to which, though it were willing, it is probable no people would be disposed to submit. By doing away all restrictions on

a Say, Traité d'Economie Politique. Ed. 4me, p. 177.

the trade with France, the two nations would acquire one common interest. And we should thus not only cause a prodigiously increased demand for our products, and a proportionable augmentation of the comforts of all classes, but, in a great measure, secure ourselves against the risk of future hostilities. Les peuples ne s'entrehaissent jamais; and we trust the period is now arrived when a selfish and repulsive system of policy will no longer be permitted

to

-Make enemies of nations who had else,

Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.'

The late glorious revolution in Spain, will not only give additional strength to the cause of freedom in this and every other country; but if we avail ourselves of the opportunity which it presents, it may also be rendered of the very greatest service to our commerce. During the period when Ferdinand was employed in the appropriate task of embroidering petticoats for the Virgin, the Cortes did every thing in their power to promote a free intercourse with this country. No sooner, however, had the Cortes been put down, and the Usurper restored, than our cotton goods were strictly excluded from the Peninsula; and a duty of from 26 to 43 per cent. imposed on the two finer qualities of our woollens, and of 130 per cent. on the inferior qualities. This put an entire stop to the operations of the fair trader :-But there is every reason to hope that the Cortes will again return to their former policy; and that a generous and liberal conduct on our part, will be sufficient to give a vastly greater extent to the commerce with Spain.

But it is not in Europe and America only that the abandonment of the exclusive system would give fresh vigour to commerce.-It has been nearly as destructive to our intercourse with the Eastern nations, as to that with France and the Baltic. The disadvantages under which our commerce with China is at present carried on, have, it is said, impressed even the practical statesmen of the Board of Trade with a conviction of the necessity of making some partial relaxation in the East India Company's monopoly.-But this can be of no material service. If Government are really desirous that the surplus produce of this country should find a vent in the immense market of China, it is indispensably requisite that the freest scope should be given to competition, and that every exclusive privilege, granted to any particular class of traders, should be done away. It is certain, indeed, that if the monopoly is not entirely abolished, we shall very soon be deprived of the share we at present possess of the China trade. Notwithstanding every advantage derived from long acquaintance with the Indian seas, and the character and manners of the people, the drawback occasioned by the exclusive system has been so great, that the Americans, whose flag first appeared at Canton so late as 1784, have already completely stript us of all share in the foreign tea trade; and, but for the monopoly

which the Company have acquired of the home market, they would not be able to send out a single ship. It is not, therefore, a partial opening to the trade with China which can be of any service. All the skill and capital of our merchants would, under a system of perfectly free intercourse, be barely sufficient to enable them to enter into a successful competition with the Americans. It is quite visionary to suppose that we shall be able to regain the ground we have lost, if we continue to fetter and shackle the spirit of private adventure. As a proof of the advantages resulting from the freedom of industry, it is enough to mention, that, under all the absurd and teasing regulations about size of ships, places of sale, &c. imposed by the late act for partially opening the trade to Hindostan and the Eastern Archipelago, the private traders have already fairly beat the Company out of the market, and have prodigiously extended our intercourse with these rich and populous regions. Nor is it possible to estimate the addition that would be made to this traffic, were the nuisance of monopoly completely put downrestraints and shackles of every kind thrown aside-and the vast continent of Asia opened as a field for the unrestricted competition of our merchants.

When the former sources of our wealth and channels of our commerce have been either dried up or shut against us, and, in consequence, a seventh part of the entire population of the Empire plunged in the abyss of poverty, and reduced to the condition of paupers, it becomes the imperative duty of Ministers to endeavour to open new markets for our manufactures, and to stimulate the natural demand for labour.-Instead of having too large a supply of manufactured produce, it would be found, were we to consent to relinquish our restrictions and prohibitions, and gradually to recur to the only sound principle on which commercial prosperity can ever be bottomed—that of a perfect freedom of trade that we might add indefinitely to its amount. The market of the world never has been, and never can be, glutted. The distresses of the manufacturers, as far as they originate in the want of a market, (and this is undoubtedly their principal source,) are entirely a consequence of our own perverse policy-of our refusing to admit the cheap corn of Poland and America-the timber and iron of the Baltic-the wines, brandies, and cambrics of France-the silks of Spain-the sugars of Brazil, and so forth. Let our rulers renounce this selfish monopolizing system; let them cease to counteract the benevolent wisdom of Providence, which, by giving a diversity of soils, climates and products to different nations, has provided for their mutual intercourse and commerce; and it may be boldly affirmed, that whatever evils we may in future suffer from our oppressive taxation, and these will be neither few nor small, we shall at least be relieved from those which arise from a deficiency of demand for our commodities.

ART. VI. An Appeal from the Judgments of Great Britain respecting the United States of America. Part First. Containing an Historical Outline of their Merits and Wrongs as Colonies, and Strictures on the Calumnies of British Writers. By ROBERT WALSH, Esq. 8vo. pp. 505. Philadelphia and London, 1819. [Review-May, 1820.]

ONE great staple of this book is a vehement, and, we really think, an unjust attack on the principles of this Journal. Yet we take part, on the whole, with the author :-and heartily wish him success in the great object of vindicating his country from unmerited aspersions, and trying to make us, in England, ashamed of the vices and defects which he has taken the trouble to point out in our national character and institutions. In this part of his design we cordially concur-and shall at all times be glad to co-operate. But there is another part of it, and we are sorry to say a principal and avowed part, of which we cannot speak in terms of too strong regret and reprobation-and that is, a design to excite and propagate among his countrymen, a general animosity to the British name, by way of counteracting, or rather revenging, the animosity which he very erroneously supposes to be generally entertained by the English against them.

That this is, in itself, and under any circumstances, an unworthy, an unwise, and even a criminal object, we think we could demonstrate to the satisfaction of Mr. W. himself, and all his reasonable adherents; but it is better, perhaps, to endeavour, in the first place, to correct the misapprehensions, and dispel the delusions in which this disposition has its foundation, and, at all events, to set them the example of perfect good humour and fairness, in a discussion where the parties perhaps will never be entirely agreed; and where those who are now to be heard have the strongest conviction of being injuriously misrepresented. If we felt any soreness, indeed, on the score of this author's imputations, or had any desire to lessen the just effect of his representations, it would have been enough for us, we believe, to have let them alone. For, without some such help as ours, the work really does not seem calculated to make any great impression in this quarter of the world. It is not only, as the author has candidly observed of it, a very clumsy book,' heavily written and abominably printed, but the only material part of it-the only part about which any body can now be supposed to care very much, either here or in America-is overlaid and buried under a huge mass of historical compilation, which would have little chance of attracting readers at the present moment, even if much better digested than it is in the volume before us.

VOL. I.

45