hat, at present, under
a discredit, which it will be found hereafter not to have merited. The
English know its value, and were supplied with it, before the war. A
spirit of hostility, since that event, led them to seek Russian rather
than American supplies; a new spirit of hostility has driven them back
from Russia, and they are now making contracts for American timber.
But of the three articles before mentioned, proved by experience to be
suitable for the French market, one is prohibited, one under monopoly,
and one alone free, and that the smallest and of very limited
consumption. The way to encourage purchasers, is, to multiply their
means of payment. Whale-oil might be an important one. In one scale, are
the interests of the millions who are lighted, shod, or clothed with the
help of it, and the thousands of laborers and manufacturers, who would
be employed in producing the articles which might be given in exchange
for it, if received from America: in the other scale, are the
interests of the adventurers in the whale-fishery each of whom, indeed,
politically considered, may be of more importance to the State, than
a simple laborer or manufacturer; but to make the estimate with the
accuracy it merits, we should multiply the numbers in each scale into
their individual importance, and see which preponderates.

Both governments have seen with concern, that their commercial
intercourse does not grow as rapidly as they would wish. The system
of the United States is, to use neither prohibitions nor premiums.
Commerce, there, regulates itself freely, and asks nothing better.
Where a government finds itself under the necessity of undertaking that
regulation, it would seem, that it should conduct it as an intelligent
merchant would; that is to say, invite customers to purchase, by
facilitating their means of payment, and by adapting goods to their
taste. If this idea be just, government here has two operations to
attend to, with respect to the commerce of the United States; 1. to
do away, or to moderate, as much as possible, the prohibitions
and monopolies of their materials for payment; 2. to encourage the
institution of the principal manufactures, which the necessities, or the
habits of their new customers call for. Under this latter head, a hint
shall be suggested, which must find its apology in the motive from which
it flows; that is, a desire of promoting mutual interests and close
friendship. Six hundred thousand of the