cles subject to duty; and of this number seventeen alone produced £21,700,630, in 1839; while the remaining number, 1133, produced only £1,261,980, or scarcely enough to cover the expense of collecting the duties. The following list of these seventeen articles, and the revenue they afford the government, with other statistics here given, I derive from Sir Henry Parnell's "Financial Reform," fourth edition, London, and from the "Report of the Committee appointed by the House of Commons, to inquire into the Customs, &c.-Folio, 1840."

I shall not attach any importance in this estimate to duties chargeable on articles of luxury, or those that are pernicious. From motives of hu

manity, I do not object to any duty, however high, upon wines, distilled spirits, silks, and similar articles, for the comfort and morals of the poor receive no advantage from them. But when human laws infringe upon the happiness of large classes of men, and by increasing the price of the necessaries of life, inflict suffering on the poor, I cannot be silent. All such legislation is unjust.

We must not only consider the effect upon the labouring classes, of the duties levied for the purpose of REVENUE upon articles of prime necessity, but the effect of duties levied solely for PROTECTION; for sustaining monopoly, and augmenting the incomes of the favored classes, at the expense of the rest of the community. Unless we extend our calculation beyond the amount collected by customs, we shall have a very inadequate idea of the real burden imposed on the people. For example; the duties collected on the CORN imported in 1839, were only a little more than $5,000,000; but as it will hereafter be shown, (see First Book,) this was not one twentieth part of the bread-tax that very year-for before one pound went into the revenue from the duty on corn, its price in England had risen to double that on the Continent.

Of the seventeen duties mentioned, yielding nearly all the revenue, only tea, tobacco, wine, cotton wool, currants, and raisins, were imported for revenue alone the remainder were levied, not to protect domestic industry, but domestic and colonial capi

talists and land owners from foreign competition. In the schedule, "there are, first, 84 duties on foreign colonial productions," says the Edinburgh Review, (Jan. 1841;) "secondly, duties on foreign manufactures of cotton, silk, wool, flax, hemp, glass, paper, soap, earthenware, metals, jewelry, blacking, ink, and every other kind of manufacture, however trivial and unimportant; and thirdly, duties on corn, flour, hops, malt, butter, cheese, bacon, pork, tongues, beef, fish, tallow, horses and asses, spirits, beer, cider, perry, fruits, vegetables, hay, seeds, iron, copper, tin, lead, and the ores of these, metals. The importation of cattle, sheep, and swine, is altogether prohibited. This last list shows with what zeal those who are invested by the constitution with the power of making laws, have used that power to promote, by every practical means, the interests of the owners of landed property. The object of each of these duties is to keep up the rent of land, by preventing the prices of agricultural produce from being lowered by the importation of foreign produce." The same writer adds, with much force: "In whatever degree the duties effect this, they injure those who live by industry; because the higher price that is thus maintained, is paid either out of the wages of labor or the profit of capital, and they benefit only the proprietors of land and tithes. Nothing, therefore, can be more inconsistent with justice, than this scheme of legislation—a scheme for the advantage of comparatively a few, at the

expense of nearly the whole community; and with respect to the prosperity of the country in industry and wealth, nothing can be more inconsistent with all sound principles. Sound reform is clearly wanted. The public interest imperatively requires, that every nation should have liberty to send us every kind of food at the lowest possible price."

If England's policy had been guided by such enlightened philosophy as this, we should search in vain for the evidence of decline and prostration, that now meet our eye wherever we look over the kingdom.

THE DUTIES ON SUGAR, in 1840, were £4,465, 044., or twenty-two millions of dollars. The duty on sugar produced in the British Colonies is 24s. per cwt.; the duty on all other sugar is 63s. ! making every pound used in Great Britain cost fifteen cents more than it would without the restriction! This has excluded all sugar grown by other nations, (except a trifle imported in 1841,) and giving to the British monopolists the power of compelling the poor to pay them any price they please to ask, or to go without it altogether. "The loaf sugar," says Mr. Lechford, in the Report of the Committee of which I have spoken, "which I used to buy at 72s., I am now paying 114s. for; and the moist sugar for which I used to pay 52s. I am now paying 84s. and 86s. for; and we are informed the price will be still higher."

We learn from this report, that in 1820 the

amount of sugar consumed in the United Kingdom and Ireland was 92,301 cwt., more than in 1839, although the population had increased over four millions! This Report states too, that the consumption of sugar in Paris and Vienna is double the amount consumed in England in proportion to the population. The reason of this difference is apparent. The poor Englishman, or Scotchman, or Irishman can make no extensive use of sugar, when he is compelled to pay three or four times as much as it costs in the United States. The West India Islands export their sugar to New York, and after paying the small duty levied by our Government, sell it to us for 5, 6, and 7 cents per pound. They would do the same to England were it not for the enormous duty required!

It is the opinion of the friends of free-trade in England, that the consumption of sugar would increase from 100 to 200 per cent., were the duties no higher than in this country. But what cares the British monopolist, if the poor man is deprived of the common comforts of life?

COFFEE. The revenue derived from this article in 1840, was £922,468, or four and a half million dollars. This Report states that the duties on Coffee are so high, "they raise the price of it 80 per cent. in England above its price in any of the states of Europe." The duty on the coffee of the British colonies is 6d. or 11 cents per lb., (equal to the entire cost of it in New York.) On