t of the carriage of foreign
produce; and, however hostile Russian tariffs may be to British
manufactured products--as hostile to the last degree they are, as well
as against the manufactured wares of all other States--it is undeniable
that our commercial marine enjoys a large proportion of the carrying
trade with Russia--almost a monopoly, in fact, of the carrying trade
between the two countries direct. Of 1147 foreign ships which sailed
with cargoes during the year 1842 from the port of Cronstadt, 515 were
British, with destination direct to the ports of the United Kingdom,
whilst only forty-one foreign or Russian vessels were loaded and left
during that year for British ports. Of 525 British vessels, of the
aggregate burden of nearly 118,000 tons, which anchored in the roadstead
of Cronstadt in that year, 472 were direct from the United Kingdom, and
fifty-three from various other countries, such as the two Sicilies,
Spain, Cuba, South America, &c. The number of British vessels which
entered the port of St Petersburg, as Cronstadt in fact is, was more
considerable still in 1840 and 1841--having been in the first year, 662,
of the aggregate burden of 146,682 tons; in the latter, of 645 ships and
146,415 tons. Of the total average number of vessels by which the
foreign trade of that empire is carried on, and load and leave the ports
of Russia yearly, which, in round numbers, may be taken at about 6000,
of an aggregate tonnage of 1,000,000--ships sailing on ballast not
comprehended--the average number of ships under the Russian flag,
comprised in the estimate, does not much, if any, exceed 1000, of the
aggregate burden of 150 or 160,000 tons. This digression, though it has
led us further astray from our main object than we had contemplated,
will not be without its uses, if it serve to correct some exaggerated
notions which prevail about the comparative valuelessness
of our commerce with Russia, because of its assumed entire
one-sidedness--losing sight altogether of its vast consequence to the
shipping interest; and of the freightage, which is as much an article of
commerce and profit as cottons and woollens; oblivious, moreover, of the
great political question involved in the maintenance and aggrandisement
of that shipping interest, which must be taken to account by the
statesman and the patriot as redressing to no inconsiderable extent the
adverse action of unfriendly tariffs. It is only after careful
ponderance of these