32 



in whicli Mr. S. R. is placed, and in 

 whicli, perhaps, lie will wish be had 

 not involved himself, is this, \iz. If 

 llie StuleQients are fallacious, he ex- 

 ])oscs those who countenance them to 

 the character of knavery and deceit; 

 and, if not fallacious, as my conclu- 

 sions will then stand incontrovertible, 

 lie exposes himself to ridicule for the 

 bold ajr of his assijm|)tions, and places 

 Ihc guaidians of the national interests 

 as convicted culprits at the bar of 

 judgment, guilty of either a wanton 

 and shameful disregard of their duly, 

 or of a total incapacity to its per- 

 formance. 



I siiall not take upon myself, it 

 remains for the British people to pro- 

 nounce judgment, after they shall have 

 duly weighed and digested the evi- 

 dence which I havcoU'ered in my ])re- 

 vious communication in November, 

 and that which I purpose further to 

 olfcr on the present occasion. I beg, 

 liowever, in the first place, to remind 

 Mr. S. R., and that I do it in the sin- 

 cerity of good fecliug, and not of 

 malevolence ; that, by the tone and 

 irtanner in which he has ofCercd his 

 observations, he has exposed himself 

 to the suspicion of belonging to a party 

 interested in maintaining a system of 

 delusion. In the nmltiplicd ramifica- 

 tions into which the commerce of the 

 nation dill'uses, whatever may be the 

 loss in the aggregate, there will be 

 numerous gainers. There arc other 

 wreckers, and plunderers of wrecks, 

 in commerce, besides those who live 

 shameless of the opprobrium of the 

 name ; besides plunderers, also, there 

 are numbers who will fairly be gainers 

 in proportion to the extent of the 

 operatinns carried on, be the result 

 nnprolitiihlc or profitable ; and, if Mr. 

 S. I>. is at all conversant with the 

 present practical nature of commerce, 

 and, if he isnot,itill became himtooller 

 so bold an expression of opinion on the 

 siil)ject as lie has done, but if he is, he 

 vill know that there is one class of 

 commercial operators, the fewest in 

 number, but the most powerful in 

 means, whose narrow-minded, selfish, 

 and avaricious, views, induces them to 

 believe that their interests consist (or 

 rather their conduct resolves itself 

 into such position) in maintaining a 

 system of delusion, « hereby they may 

 the more readily make victims, and 

 derive advantage from the credulity 

 and ctipidity of sanguine and unsus- 

 pecting adventurers. 



Commercial Si/stem of Great Britain. [Feb. if 



But I will now proceed to offer sonie 

 further evidence in justification and 

 proof of the inferences and conclusions 

 drawn in my communication of Nov. 

 last; and, in the first place, I will ask 

 Mr. S. R., if he can name a town or 

 market on the whole surface of the 

 globe, where he can realize his cost of 

 Britisli production to the value of 500/. 

 he may make his selection out of the 

 whole range of British products, and 

 tlie remuneration for the labour of 

 their production shall not have ex- 

 ceeded 2s. per day, and I defy him to 

 name a market where he can realize 

 the cost ; and, on tlie other hand, I defy 

 him to name a production of any other 

 country in which he can vest a corres- 

 ponding sum to realize the cost when 

 it arrives in England. 1 say nothing 

 about profit, but merely the cost; and 

 1 gravely put forth this challenge, not 

 only to Mr. S. R., but to the whole 

 commercial body " in the metropolis of 

 the greatest eoinmercial empire that 

 ever existed," as Mr. S. R. has so 

 pompously designated it; and to faci- 

 litate his selection, as well as serving 

 to slsew how far the total amounts, 

 from which the inferences and conclu- 

 sions drawn in my November commu- 

 nication, are fallacious or not, I here- 

 with send you a scries of Tables, for in- 

 sertion in your Supplementary Number, 

 in which all tlie leading articles of both 

 import and export are enumerated, 

 with the values assigned to each arti- 

 cle in each of the nine years 1814-22; 

 and, as regards the imports, I shall send 

 you, for insertion in a future Number, a 

 series of Tables, exhibiting the quantity, 

 in cwts. or lbs. weight, of all the more 

 important articles. Whereby, by re- 

 ferring to the selling prices of the 

 respective years, a reference easily 

 made, the actual values may be pretty 

 correctly ascertained, and compared 

 with the values assigned in the Cus-' 

 tom-House returns : and the receipt of 

 Customs duty for the last six years, 

 which was published with a minute- 

 ness of detail, and an unrivalled jier- 

 spicuity of arrangement, in the British 

 Press newspaper, from the 12th to the 

 20th of August last, will further serve 

 to show the quantity and value of 

 several other articles of import. Tho 

 Statements at pages 359 and 441 of 

 the 55th volume of your Magazine, 

 will also serve to throw much addi- 

 tional light on the subject; and the fol- 

 lowing is a specification of the several 

 countries from whence the imports are 

 derived, 



