Had England been willing to treat the world with justice, she might have found a market, for a century to come, for all the manufactures which her entire labour and ingenuity could produce; for other nations, possessing a larger territory and richer soil, would gladly have exchanged their surplus grain for the productions of her mechanical skill. But her monopolizing policy has recoiled upon herself; and now she cannot find a market for half she is able to produce, and her manufactures are fast decaying. The facts of the case are most astonishing, and in our country but little known.

By her refusing to receive the corn of Europe and America, these countries are no longer able to purchase her goods; and from being her customers, they have become her rivals. English exports have fallen off rapidly. In 1833 she sent to various parts of the world 8,000,000 yards of velveteens; in 1836 only half that quantity. In 1833 she exported of cotton goods to Germany 29,500,000 yards; in 1838 only one quarter as much. The quantity sent to Russia in 1820 was 13,200,000 yards; in 1837 only 847,000. In 1829, 5,000,000 yards were purchased by Russia; and in 1837 not one yard. At the peace in 1815, England supplied the whole commercial world with hosiery; but in 1838, while she sent only 447,000 dozens to the West Indies, Saxony sent a million and a half! By her restrictive enactments, in relation to her West India interests, she suggested to France the ingenious experiment of extracting sugar from beet-root; and this example has been followed by Belgium and other nations. A gentleman recently from Europe, told me that he saw a large sugar manufactory erected on the verge of the Forest of Soigny, overlooking the field of Waterloo.

Throughout the Continent manufactures of almost every kind are springing up; and there is not a country there that does not bristle with steam-engines and factory chimneys. Many of these nations are now England's powerful rivals. Within the last two years they have exported their goods to Britain, paid heavy duties, and undersold the English manfacturer on his own ground. Every American knows that we can now manufacture every

thing we want. Our immense domains are able to feed the hungry millions of England. We were willing to give them bread in exchange for their goods; but England would not let us; she has compelled us to manufacture for ourselves. And to protect our manufacturers, and defend ourselves against her exclusive legislation, we have imposed heavy duties upon her goods; and as she seems determined to persevere in a line of policy, so suicidal to herself, and so unjust to others, when our heaviest duties upon her commodities were about to cease, Congress has deemed it expedient to renew them.

But if the duties we impose inflict keener sorrows upon the English operative, we are not to blame: England has driven us to it. We should be insane not to guard ourselves against her destructive enactments. It was a long time before our importers saw the folly of sending away millions of specie every year for English goods, while she refused to receive our grain in payment. But they do see it and feel it now; and it will be long before we are again cursed with the enormous importations of

1835 and 36. If we must clothe ourselves in foreign vestments, let us at least have the privilege of paying for them with the product of our untaxed soil.

The unprecedented growth of American manufactures is to be almost entirely attributed to the English Corn Laws. We were not designed by Providence so much to be a manufacturing as an agricultural nation; for God has given to us a continent which can spread a plentiful and luxurious table for the whole human race; but, thanks to the same Beneficent Power, we have all the resources of life within ourselves, and need be dependant upon foreign nations for nothing. If England is resolved to exclude our corn, we have but to keep our gold at home, and employ it in the encouragement of our own industry.

There is no doubt, I suppose, that Americans are willing to declare a free trade with England, as soon as she will agree to it herself. While Mr. Addington represented the court of St. James at Washington, he expressed the opinion, in a letter to Mr. Canning, that, had no restriction existed in England on foreign corn, the tariff bill never would have passed Congress. I have heard the same opinion from some of our own most eminent states

men.

It is horrible to reflect upon the miseries England thus brings upon her starving people; and for it, she merits the contempt of the whole world. There is no nation, savage or civilized, that so wantonly tampers with the prosperity and happiness of its people.

We all know how recent has been the rise, and how rapid the progress of our manufactures. Massachusetts alone annually produces manufactured goods to the amount of nearly twenty-five millions sterling. These goods we export to every part of the world, and are able to compete with the English themselves in markets they have long monopolized. We have not only sent engines to the Continent, but to England herself for her own railways; and while I am writing these pages, a splendid war steamer, built in New-York for the Russian emperor, is weighing her anchor for St. Petersburgh. I know not whether we should thank or despise England most for a policy