We now request your attention to the policy of a mighty empire, whose situation bears considerable analogy to that of this country.

Russia, like the United States, possesses territories of most immoderate extent, which are very slenderly peopled. The cultivation of her vacant lands, according to the captivating and plausible theories of many of our citizens, might find employment for all her inhabitants. And as other nations, if" the freedom of trade were restored, could furnish her with commodities cheaper than she could manufacture them," she ought, according to Adam Smith, to open her ports to the merchandize of all the world.

But, low as we fastidiously and unjustly rate her policy, she has too much good sense to adopt a maxim so pernicious in its results, although so plausible in its appearance. And let us add, its plausibility is only in appearance. It vanishes on even a cursory examination.

Russia fulfils the indispensible duty of fostering and protecting domestic industry, and guarding it against the destructive consequences of overwhelming foreign competition. This is the great platform of her political system, as it ought to be of all political systems; and it is painful to state, that so far as respects this cardinal point, she is at least a century in advance of the United States. She is not satisfied with the imposition of heavy duties for the purpose of raising a revenue, which, with too many statesmen, appears to be chief, if not the only object worthy of consideration in the formation of a tariff. No. She prohibits, under penalty of confiscation, nearly all the articles with which her own subjects can supply her, unaffected by the terrors, so powerfully felt in this country, of giving a monopoly of the home market to her own people-terrors which have probably cost the United States one hundred millions of dollars since the war-terrors which the profound and sage maxim of Alexander Hamilton, quoted in our last number, ought to have laid in the grave of oblivion nearly thirty years ago, never to raise again to impair the prosperity of the nation, or the happiness of its citizens.

The annexed list deserves the most pointed attention, and cannot fail to surprise the citizens of a country, where unfortunately nothing is prohibited, how great soever the domestic supply, and where there are hardly any duties

deserving the name of prohibitory, and few affording adequate protection.

List of Goods the Importation of which is prohibited into the Russian Empire.*

Beer of all kinds, except English Caps of all kinds.

* Rordansz, on European Commerce, page 54.

An appalling reflection arises from the view here given of the policy of Russia; a reflection which we would willingly suppress, but which, fellow citizens, justice to the subject forces us to present to your minds. We are imperiously led to offer it from a conviction that to induce a patient to submit to medicine or regimen, it is necessary he should be convinced of the existence of his disease. And in the present disordered state of our manufactures, trade, and commerce, it is absolutely necessary to “hold the mirror up to nature," and "nought extenuate, nor aught set down in malice."

The United States, as is admitted by writers of various nations, enjoy the best form of government in the world. It would therefore be natural to presume, that with such a government, and with a representation probably as freely and fairly chosen, as any legislative body in any age or country, the interests of its various descriptions of citizens would be more scrupulously guarded than those of any other nation. Yet we have before us the most cogent proof of the extreme fallacy of such a presumption, so far as regards the large and important class of citizens engaged in manufactures, on whose success and prosperity so much of the strength and resources of nations depends. This description of citizens* must look with en

* It is too common, we apprehend, for many of the farmers and planters of the southern states, to regard with disesteem, or, in common parlance, to look down on manufacturers as beneath them in point of respectability. To this source may probably be ascribed the inflexible refusal of that protection which was so earnestly solicited for the manufacturing interest throughout the union It is hardly possible to conceive of a greater absurdity. We touch this delicate subject freely. We, however, mean no offence, and hope none will be taken. Our object, we trust, will be regarded by liberal-minded men as not only innocent, but laudable. It is to correct a deep rooted and pernicious prejudice, which tends to produce jealousy and alienation between the different members of one family, who ought to cherish for each other kindly sentiments of regard and good will, and who are so closely connected in point of interest, that it is impossible for one to suffer heavily, without the others being deeply affected. We freely ask. and request a candid reply, can there, in the eye of reason and common sense, he found, on the most impartial scrutiny, any superiority in a South Carolina or Virginia planter, surrounded by five hundred slaves, over a proprietor of one of the extensive factories in Rhode Island, in which an equal number of free, independent, and happy workmen, with their wives and children, are employed? As our object is conciliation, we forbear to assert any superiority on the other side. But in order to afford a fair opportunity of deciding this important question, of the merits, demerits and usefulness of the different descriptions of citizens, we state some important facts which bear forcibly on this subject. In the year