294 Sir Henry Parnell on " Financial Reform" $c. [[MARCH, 



on the Slave Trade, and by being at liberty to receive his supplies from, 

 and send his produce to, any market he may think proper raise sugar 

 cheaper by 17-?. the cwt. than the British planter ! Remove all these 

 restrictions, or in the name of justice and humanity give him some ad- 

 vantages to counteract the onerous restrictions you forcibly impose upon 

 him, in all his operations ! 



Sir Henry affirms that the Colonies form so small a portion of the 

 market for British goods, that it would be a groundless exaggeration to 

 say, that the British manufacturer would sustain injury from the re- 

 moval of all restrictions on the intercourse of the Colonies with foreign- 

 ers. " In the states of North and South America, where trade is free (?) 

 with all nations, the great mass of imports are received from Great 

 Britain, because the British goods are cheaper than others." This may 

 be true to a certain small extent : but we would ask Sir Henry whe- 

 ther he can maintain that the linens and fish of the north of Europe, 

 or provisions, lumber, staves, &c. of the United States, are not cheaper 

 than those of Great Britain, or than such as are furnished in a circui- 

 tous manner, under present restrictions ? We presume to think that, 

 although, in the event of the productive industry of the Colonies being 

 kept up, the loss to the British manufacturer (however the agriculturist 

 and fisherman might suffer) might not be so great, yet supposing 

 these possessions to be thrown out of cultivation, the loss of such a 

 market to the British manufacturer and agriculturist would not be so 

 trifling as Sir Henry, in hammering out his theory, seems to imagine. 

 We perceive by a return, No. 292 of the last session of Parliament, that 

 the total export of British and Irish produce and manufactures to our 



West-Indies, in 1829, amounted to . .. 3,726,643 



and that they were our customers for Foreign and 

 Colonial merchandize (independent of fish provisions and 

 lumber from our North American possessions) to the 

 amount of 323,213 



4,049,856 



Now the total amount of our exports to " South America, where 

 trade is free to all nations," during the same year, is according to the 

 same return, as follows, viz : 



Mexico 534,380 



Guatemala 10,493 



Columbia , . . . . 556,961 



Rio-de-la Plata 484,364 



Chili 1,182,140 



Peru 518,873 



3,287,211 



To Brazil our exports are considerably greater, but it must be recol- 

 lected that no inconsiderable part of the goods sent to that country, 

 are te-exported to Africa, and exchanged there for slaves ! We may 

 further state that the British and Irish produce and manufactures 

 taken in one year by our West-India Colonies, are, as appears by the 

 same return, greater in official value than the exports to Russia, 



