ited the trade of the colony to the mother country. Colonial
products can now be carried directly from the islands to any part of
Europe; and it may not be improbable, considering our own high duties on
spirits, that that article may be exchanged hereafter by the English
West India colonies directly for the timber and deals of the Baltic. It
may be added, that Mr. Lowe, whom the gentleman has cited, says, that
nobody supposes that the three great staples of English manufactures,
cotton, woollen, and hardware, are benefited by any existing protecting
duties; and that one object of all these protecting laws is usually
overlooked, and that is, that they have been intended to reconcile the
various interests to taxation; the corn law, for example, being designed
as some equivalent to the agricultural interest for the burden of tithes
and of poor-rates.

In fine, Sir, I think it is clear, that, if we now embrace the system of
prohibitions and restrictions, we shall show an affection for what
others have discarded, and be attempting to ornament ourselves with
cast-off apparel.

Sir, I should not have gone into this prolix detail of opinions from any
consideration of their special importance on the present occasion; but
having happened to state that such was the actual opinion of the
government of England at the present time, and the accuracy of this
representation having been so confidently denied, I have chosen to put
the matter beyond doubt or cavil, although at the expense of these
tedious citations. I shall have occasion hereafter to refer more
particularly to sundry recent British enactments, by way of showing the
diligence and spirit with which that government strives to sustain its
navigating interest, by opening the widest possible range to the
enterprise of individual adventurers. I repeat, that I have not alluded
to these examples of a foreign state as being fit to control our own
policy. In the general principle, I acquiesce. Protection, when carried
to the point which is now recommended, that is, to entire prohibition,
seems to me destructive of all commercial intercourse between nations.
We are urged to adopt the system upon general principles; and what would
be the consequence of the universal application of such a general
principle, but that nations would abstain entirely from all intercourse
with one another? I do not admit the general principle; on the contrary,
I think freedom of trade to be the general prin