THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



89 



ing her " plateful of biseuit" from every barrel of 

 transit flour, when the commercial world applauds 

 President Pierce's stand ou the Danish Sound 

 dues. 



We have said that inspections violate all the 

 analogies of trade ; and it might be sufficient to 

 Btate in proof that neither Eugland nor France, 

 which, with ourselves, form the great commercial 

 trio of the world, have any inspection of the 

 quality of merchandize within their dominions. 



But our own commerce is exempt from them, 

 except in a very few articles. Cotton, which is 

 worth some $80,000,000 per annum, has never 

 had a legal inspection. The purchases are all 

 made by brokers, who buy according to samples 

 on the counter of the commission merchant, and 

 rarely see a bale of the article they contract for. 

 Yet there is scarcely ever cause of complaint. It 

 is a poini of honor, as it is a matter of highest 

 interest, with the planter, that there should be 

 none. And so accurate is the mode of doing busi- 

 ness that if there be cause of complaint it is at 

 once fastened on the proper persons. The know- 

 ledge of this keeps all things straight. 



Sugar, again, which has increased in production 

 nearly four hundred per cent, in twenty years, 

 and now gives an income of eighteen millions 

 to the planters, never has been inspected. Nei- 

 ther is molasses, which is peculiarly subject 

 as all know, to change of quality. In these last 

 the tare of the hogshead is agreed at a certain 

 weight . If it is supposed to exceed that amount, 

 a less price per hhd. will easily adjust the differ- 

 ence, just as a butcher in buying cattle at a tare 

 of one half, always pays more in proportion for 

 those that will "gain upon the scales," as it is 

 termed, i. e. overgo the nett weight allowed. So 

 of corn and wheat, which, though more exposed 

 to injury than flour or meal, are yet never inspec- 

 ted by law. 



So of our imports. Dry goods of all descriptions 

 are either made to order or sold ready made ; in 

 both case3 by sample ; and so assured are all parties 

 of a correspondence to the sample, that the goods 

 are never examined from the time they leave the 

 warehouse of the manufacturer, until after pas- 

 sing through several hands they reach the counter 

 of the retail merchant . A simple card pasted on 

 some familiar spot, tells all that the parties wish to 

 know. 



"Coffee, whichls taken so largely in payment of 

 flour, is never subjected to legal inspection. The 

 broker examines the samples of the bags or pack- 

 ages, buys by them, and ships them to his prin- 

 cipal along with the article bought, properly 

 marked and nui ibered. We recently saw in the 

 office of one of our city millers a letter enclosing 

 an account of purchases of this kind, with eighty- 

 five samples of quality, all of which were satis- 

 factory. 



The same thing can be done and will be done in 

 the progress of the flour trade. The miller will 

 sample his own flour before it is packed ; he can 

 then do it intelligently and reliably, because he 

 knows what kind of wheat he is grinding ; and 

 the merchant will purchase by the sample, as in 

 other kinds of business ; he judging for himself as 

 to quality of sample, the miller warranting con- 

 formity to it. Public opinion and private interest 

 will attend to the morals of the transaction; and 

 the wants of the consumer, aided by the vigilance 

 of him who supplies them, will fix the quality of 

 the merchandize far better than a government 

 Inspector can ever do. So at least we infer from 

 the analogies of common life not less than from 

 the experience of trade. 



"As a general rule," says J. S. Mill, "the busi- 

 ness of life is better performed when those who 

 have an imm diate interest in it. are left to take 

 their own course, uncontrolled either by the man- 

 date of the law, or by the meddling of any public 

 functionary. The persons, or some of the persons, 

 who do the work, are likely to be better judges 

 than the government, of the means of attaining 

 the particular end at which they aim. Were we to 

 suppose, what is not very probable, that the gov- 

 ernment has possessed itself of the means of attain- 

 ing the best knowledge, which had been acquired 

 up to a given time, by the person most skilled in 

 the occupation ; even then the individual agent has 

 so much stronger and more direct an interest in 

 the result, that the means are far more likely to 

 be improved and perfected, if left to his uncon- 

 trolled choice." 



It was inspections which taxed so heavily the pro- 

 ductive energies of France up to the Revolution, 

 that has left not a vestige of them ; and it was 

 entire freedom from them, which, according to 

 Adam Smith, did more than any thing else to give 

 to England its vigorous commercial development. 

 They are, in fact, but applications of the principle 

 of" paternal government," " which would not now 

 be attempted in even the least enlightened coun- 

 try of the European commonwealth of nations." 



Introduced into our code, at an early period of 

 colonial history, when the true principles of trade 

 vere so little understood that what was deemed 

 surplus tobacco was burnt to keep up the price of 

 the balance, and inconsiderately adopted by other 

 States under the force of our example, many 

 people not only submit to these laws as proper, 

 but demand them as a right,; just as the Hindoo 

 devotee comes in time to prefer that bed of spikes 

 which he first elected in ignorance and delusion. 

 But the harshness of their original features has 

 been already greatly mitigated, and we may hope 

 that in no long time they will yield to the influ- 

 ence of more enlightened principles. 



