chester, which indeed are shipped by no set of men to a greater extent, than by the Petitioners now at your bar. The payment of the goods thus sent over is made in a comparatively small proportion in American produce, chiefly cotton and tobacco, shipped directly from America to this country. This proportion amounts in general to about one part in three, which I will show, if the house will favour me with its attention, when I state for one year the course of American trade with the British empire; for that will be a more satisfactory argument, and go a greater way in demonstrating the necessity of the continuance of such a trade, than if I were to attempt describing it in any other manner.

"In 1804, according to the official accounts printed in America, by order of the houses of Congress, there were shipped from America to England, or I should rather say to the British dominions in Europe, American produce, to the amount of nearly three millions sterling, viz. 2,971,462. reckoning dollars at the usual rate of 4s. 6d. sterling. From the same part of our dominions there appear to have gone over to America, in that year, goods to the amount of 6,213,6451. The exports from America to the British East Indies amounted in the same year to 29,500l. and the imports to America from thence amounted to nearly one million sterling, being 979,488. The exports from the United States to the British settlements in North America amounted to 253,6271. and the imports from the latter to 178,1351. This balance, how. ever, in favour of America on the trade with our Northern colonies, is only an apparent one. The sums which I have read are taken from the duties on importation; and Plaster of Paris, the chief article brought into the United States from our settlements, being absolutely necessary to the American farmer in the cultivation of his land, is not taxed, and of course is omitted in the esti mate. It amounts to greatly more than the rest of the imports from Canada, &c. and leaves the balance here, as in general, against America. The exports to the British West Indies, during the same year, amounted to 1,585,7221. and the imports from thence in returu were 1,066,316. On this

head then there appears to be a ba lance to a considerable amount in favour of the United States. But from this must be deducted the real balance on the New Brunswick trade, at whatever it may be estimated, and even admitting the full balance as now stated, of nearly half a million on the West Indian branch of the account, the whole trade between America and our dominions gives a large excess of imports from us, over what we take in return. For even on this view of the account, the total amount of the exports from America to the British empire, in the year 1804, will be 4,840,058/. and the amount of the imports into the United States from the British empire, 8,437,9841. being about double the former sum. This great balance is moreover rapidly increasing; for, by taking the average of the years 1802, 1803, and 1804, we find that the excess of imports above exports was only three millions instead of four millions and a half, to which it had risen in 1804.

"The accounts, sir, on the table of this house confirm these statements taken from the American official documents. I hold in my hand a paper or dered to be printed on the 15th of March, and giving the value of imports from the United States, and exports thither, for the years 1805, 1806, and 1807. It appears from this document, that in 1806, the imports from America to Great Britain amounted to 4,360,7431. real value, and that the exports from Great Britain to the United States, in the same year, amounted to 12,865,5517.

"If we take the average of those three years I have mentioned, viz. 1805, 1806, and 1807, we find the exports to the United States of America amount to upwards of twelve millions sterling, and the average of imports to upwards of four millions and a half; and as the disproportion is increasing, we may say in general, that this country now exports to America three times as much as she imports from thence.

"Are you willing to continue exporting to America, twelve millions and a half of British produce and manufacture, or are you not?-If you are, how are you to be paid for it? It is evident, that you only receive four mil

Fions direct from America; therefore there are no less than eight millions wanting. And America, we all know, can only pay you by trading with the continent. If you wish to cut up that trade by the roots, you commit that old solecism of power, as my Lord Bacon so well calls it ;-you wish to command the end, but you refuse to snbmit to the means. You desire to trade with the United States of America; but you desire, at the same time, to lop off their trade with the enemy, as you call it, which is in other words lopping off the very commerce which you carry on with your enemy, in spite of the war, and in spite of himself--by which you were getting eight millions sterling each year-by which You were enabled to continue a trading nation. You are destroying the only means by which America can pay that enormous amount to you. She must have the opportunity, not only of taking your goods, but of exporting her own, in order to pay you. She most not only export her own goods, she must also re-export yours with them, in order that you may still send them to your enemy, notwithstanding the hostilities you are engaged in-notwith'standing the decrees he is threatening your trade with. So stands the matter in argument, or if you will in theory, and I now invite this house to say, whether it is possible for them to conceive any thing more precise and couclusive than the evidence which has been adduced at your bar, to show that this is also the matter of fact, from the actual history of our trade with America.

"The witnesses most largely engaged in this commerce told you repeatedly (and it was so uniformly stated by each of them, in answer to the same question, that it is unnecessary for me to quote from the test:mony of them all) they all concurred in telling you that they received remittances in payment of goods sent to America, froin merchants acting as bankers for Americaus in this country. Beside this, we have called those bankers to your bar, and have asked them how they came to be possessed of their remittances. They have told you that they have two ways of receiving the fands drawn upon by our manuface

turers; that they get part, and but a small part, in goods, directly from the United States, and another part, which is by far the greatest part, in remittances from Europe, by bills arising from the sale of American produce on the continent, made payable to manufacturers and exporters of manufactured goods here. Mr. Bell has stated these remittances as forming two parts in three of the whole ac count. Mr. Glennie has told you that they are ten times more than he receives in the direct way from America; and Mr. Mann states them at three parts in five. They have said, that with these funds they answer bills drawn in favour of the manufacturers in this country, and at other times balance accounts with the United States. And being asked whether they only ac cepted those bills in consequence of the remittances in their hands-they said they freely accepted such bills, trusting to the continuance of the trade by which they had formerly received payment; and for the majority of ther correspondents, they always accepted bills, whether they had goods already in their hands or not, when they knew consignments continued to be made as before to the continent.

"Now, sir, apply to the English decrees, those tests-the amount of remittances, and the willingness ofmerchants to accept bills, which you have already applied to the execution of the Berlin decree, and then tell me what you think is the effect of the orders in council upon our foreign trade. You will find it the very contrary of that which might have been expected by the sanguine projectors of the new system. Applicable to this subject, you will find among others the very distinct testimony of Mr. Glennie This gentleman told you, as I formerly observ ed, that the year after the Berlin decree, so far from having received less from the continent on American account, he had received one-fifth more than in any former year. How much then did he receive since the orders in council? Compare the months January and February, 1807, with the same months in 1808, and this wit be the test of the effect of the orders in council upon his trade. He answers,

1

1809.]

307

MONTHLY RETROSPECT OF POLITICS.

THE threatening appearances which oppressed people into action, appears presented themselves to the view

of the politician at the close of the last month, have at length been realized; uncertainty is removed, or to speak more properly, our anxiety is transferred from the origin of the war to its result. We see all the powers of Europe with a strange fatality piesenting themselves singly and successively to the sword of Bonaparte, as if their main object in resisting was to augment the splendours of his tri-, umph.

The Spanish war is still protracted. It is the dying embers of a mighty conflagration, that sends forth intermitting sparks, raising a momentary expectation that the fiame is about to break out afresh, but in reality only hastening the period of utter extinction. The Junta of Seville still performs the functions of a legislative and executive body; and Spanish armies are still heard of. Rumour catches at every whisper, and the exultation of victory one day is checked by the gloom of treachery, and defeat on the next. We are told that the people of Gallicia, irritated by the ill treatment of their ferocious masters, are

in

Soult,

again up in arms, and have signalized themselves by some successful attacks, consequence of which Marshal who commands the French forces in that part, has found it necessary to retreat into Portugal. His retreat, if it be the fact, has been attended with advantageous circumstances to his cause. The city of Oporto, after a defence not very creditable to the military character of the Portuguese, has surrendered, and our troops still remaining in that country, seem to afford the only hope of preserving the capital from again becoming the headquarters of the invading army. conscious are the Portuguese of their incapacity, that an English officer, General Beresford, has been appointed Generalissimo of the Portuguese He has commenced his operaarmy. tions by a Manifesto. That an English

So

General, accustomed to command freemen, should employ this as a prepathe energies of an rative to rouse

very natural, but of its effect on
a nation of slaves, we cannot but er-
The general
tertain great doubts.
character of the Portuguese gives
rise to fears that success under the
command of a foreigner may be as
injurious as defeat. By this time the
arrival of Sir Arthur Wellesley has
augmented the English army in that
country to a very great amount, and
if ably seconded there can be no
doubt of their retaining possession of
the country against the forces at pre-
The ad-
sent brought against it.
vantages of the acquisition or the
possibility of retaining it are more
uncertain. An impoverished country,
an effeminate nobility, a population
either torpid or discontented, afford
but little cause for encouraging the
hope that much more benefit can be
derived from the possession, than the
excluding of the common enemy; the
same causes, together with an
tended frontier and a powerful force
in reserve to overwhelin resistance seem
to render the latter problematical. It
must be evident to all, that if Portugal
be retained, it must be retained by
an English force, and such a force,
maintain
as England scarcely can
without depriving other parts of the
Empire of their proper means of de-
fence, or supporting the military es-
tablishment in all parts, by an ex-
cessive drain from the population of
the nation. The same reasoning bears
also upon Spain. But the affairs of
both these countries have already lost
a great share of interest by the new
antagonist that has started up to oppose
the French Emperor in his rapid course
of victory.

ex

For the causes of the Austrian war, in order to avoid repetition, we refer the reader to the political retrospect of last month, in which it was asserted that it was forced on that unfortunate country by the domineering spirit of France, which would be satisfied with nothing but the total sacrifice of its independence. The Archduke's proclamation* evinces this.

*See official Docements, p. 310.