vy at the paternal and fostering care bestowed on persons of the same class by the emperor of Russia, one of the most despotic monarchs of Christendom. The contrast is decisive. It reflects honour on the profound wisdom and sound policy of that prince-and, fellow citizens, cannot fail to excite painful sensations in your minds, to reflect how the United States lose on the comparison.

It could never have entered into the mind of Hancock, Adams, Franklin, Washington, or any other of those illustrious men, who in the field or cabinet achieved the independence of this country, that before the lapse of half a century, American citizens should be forced to make invidious comparisons between their own situation and that of the subjects of a despotic empire; and that the protection denied to their industry is liberally afforded to that of the subjects of Russia.

In order to render this extraordinary fact more striking, we shall, fellow citizens, compare the situation of a subject of Russia and a citizen of the United States, engaged, for instance, in the cotton manufacture.

1815, there were, as stated in a memorial to Congress of the cotton manufacturers of the town of Providence, within thirty miles of that town,*

Cotton manufactories

Containing in actual operation,

Using annually,

27,840,000

$2,227,200

$6,000,000

The weaving of which at eight cents per yard

Total value of the cloth

Persons steadily employed

26,000

We may demand, whether throughout the world, there is to be found any equal space devoted wholly to agriculture, which furnishes employment to one-fourth part of the number of individuals, or produces onefourth of the amount of wealth or happiness?

We trust this brief view will serve to remove the film from the eyes of those citizens who, for want of due consideration, have cherished opinions on the subject of manufactures, and manufacturers, so diametrically opposite to fact, and so pregnant with ruinous consequences.

"Honour or shame from no condition rise,

"Act well your part: there all the honour lies."

And the manufacturer of cottons, woollens, watches, paper, books, hats or shoes, who "acts well his part" has no reason to shrink, and we trust he never will shrink, from a comparison with any of his fellow men, whether merchants, farmers, planters, or men of overgrown wealth.

* Weekly Register, vol. ix. page 44.

E

The former, we will suppose, embarks $50,000 in that business. He has no competition to dread but that of his fellow subjects. His paternal government closes the door against his destruction, by shutting out the interference of any other nation. He has a large and beneficial market, and in consequence enriches himself, and adds to the wealth, the strength, the power and the resources of his country.

What a chilling and appalling contrast when we regard the situation of the American engaged in the same useful line of business! When he has expended his capital, established his works, and entertains what he has ground to deem a reasonable hope of success, and of that reward to which honest industry has so fair a claim, the market, on the supply of which he formed all his calculations, is deluged with rival articles, manufactured at a distance of thousands of miles, which can be afforded at lower prices than his, and which accordingly destroy his chances of sale. He casts an imploring eye to his representatives for the same kind of relief which England, France, Russia, Prussia, Denmark, and Austria, afford their subjects, and the refusal of which is a manifest dereliction of duty. His representatives, acting on the maxims of Adam Smith, and disregarding the admonitory lessons of those mighty nations, meet him with a positive refusal; and he sinks a victim of a policy long scouted out of all the wise nations of Europe, and which now only lingers in, and blights and blasts the happiness of Spain and Portugal. Hundreds of useful citizens in every part of the union, with large families, mourn the ruinous consequences of our mistaken policy.

The subject is too important not to warrant us in casting another slight glance at it.

The United States are peculiarly fitted for the cotton manufacture, being, as we have already stated, capable of raising the raw material, in quantities commensurate with the demand of the whole world. And yet cotton goods of every description (except those below twentyfive cents per yard, which are dutied as at twenty-five cents) are freely admitted at the very inefficient duty of twenty-seven and a half per cent. in consequence of which, great numbers of the most promising establishments have been destroyed. The raw material is transported across the Atlantic, 3000 miles, at sixteen to forty-five cents per

pound, and returned to us at the rate of from one dollar to five dollars-thus fostering the industry and the manufactures of Europe, and consigning our workmen to poverty, and often to mendicity-their employers to the long lists of bankrupts which are daily increasing in our towns and cities-and impoverishing the nation. On this system and its consequences we shall descant more at large on a future occasion. For the present we shall barely state that the policy of England during the dark ages of Edward III. and Henry IV. as sketched in our last number, was far superior to ours with all our boasted illumination.

At the close of the war, powerful and eloquent nemorials were presented to Congress from the cotton manufacturers of Rhode Island, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, New London, and various other parts of the United States, in which they besought the aid of government, in the most respectful terms. To narrow

the range of objection, they bounded their requests generally to a prohibition of cotton manufactures, except nankeens from the East Indies, and to such an increase of duties on those from other quarters, as would save the revenue from injury by the prohibition. The memorials were filled with predictions of the ruinous consequences that would result from the contrary policy. Their simple request, enforced by a most luminous train of reasoning, was unhappily rejected: and it is almost demonstrable, that to this rejection a large portion of the difficulties and embarrassments which at present overspread the face of the country may be ascribed. All the gloomy predictions of the memorials have unfortunately become history.

A consideration of the rejection of the first prayer of the memorials, which respects the prohibition of East India cottons, is calculated to excite an equal degree of regret and astonishment. The East India trade, during the continuance of the wars in Europe, when we had markets in that quarter and in some of the colonies of the belligerents, for the surplus of our importatons from beyond the Cape of Good Hope, was possibly advantageous, or at least not injurious. But as at present carried on, it is highly pernicious, by the exhausting drain of specie it creates. On this strong ground, and moreover as the coarse fabrics from that quarter, as stated in the memo

rials, are made of inferior materials: and as we possess a boundless capacity of supply, every principle of sound policy, regard for the vital interests of their country, as well as the paramount claim on Congress from so useful a body of citizens, for protection, ought to have insured compliance with the request. To all these considerations fatally no attention was paid.

Policy of Frederick II. of Prussia.

From the view which we have given of the policy of Russia, we invite attention to that of Frederick II. His integrity and regard for the rights of his neighbours, no upright man will assert. But on his profound wisdom and sagacity as a statesman the world is agreed. A dissenting voice is no where heard. On these points he would stand comparison with any monarch of ancient or modern times, and would rise paramount over ninety-nine out of a hundred. His system of political economy is therefore worthy of the most serious consideration, and cannot fail to shed strong light on the important subject we are discussing.

To the promotion of the industry of his subjects, he bestowed the most unremitting attention, well knowing that it was the most certain means of increasing the population of his dominions, and of course the wealth and happiness of his subjects, as well as his own power. From this grand and paramount object he was never for a moment diverted by his ambitious wars; and notwithstanding the desolation they caused, he doubled the population of his paternal estates during his reign. To foster and protect arts and manufactures, he spared neither pains nor expense; "The king protects and encourages manufactures in every possible manner, especially by advancing large sums of money to assist them in carrying on their manufactures, animating them by rewards, and establishing magazines of wool in all the little towns, for the benefit of the small woollen manufactures."*-He was so completely successful that he not only doubled and trebled the number of artists and manufactures in those branches already

* Hertzberg's Discourses delivered at Berlin, 1786, p. 25.

established, but introduced a great variety, formerly not practised by his subjects; " Before the commencement of this reign, Prussia had but few silk manufactures, and those of little importance. But the present king has established and given liberal encouragement to so great a number, that they employ more than five thousand workmen; and the annual value of the goods manufactured by them is two millions of crowns. In the course of the last year 1,200,250 ells of silk stuffs have been manufactured at Berlin, and 400,000 of gauze.

"The cotton manufacture alone employs nearly five thousand workmen." .”* And thus, instead of being tributary to other nations, as she had formerly been, Prussia was enabled to export her manufactures to an immense extent to distant countries.

"We are in possession of almost every possible kind of manufactures; and we can. not only exclusively supply the Prussian dominions, but also furnish the remote countries of Spain and Italy with linen and woollen cloths; and our manufactures go even to China, where some of our Silesia cloths are conveyed by the way of Russia. We export every year linen cloth, to the amount of SIX MILLIONS OF CROWNS, and woollen cloths and wool to the amount of FOUR MILLIONS."+

The measures he adopted for attaining these great ends, were worthy of the high character he enjoys as a statesman. He made large loans to needy artists and manufacturers, to enable them to establish their various branches of business. "If the king has greatly increased population by his encouragement of agriculture, he has advanced it as much, and perhaps more, by the great number of manufactures and trades of all kinds, which he has caused to be established, or to which he has given encouragement at Berlin, at Potsdam, and in almost every city and town in his dominions." He purchased large quantities of raw materials, and provided magazines, where they sold at reasonable rates. He bestowed liberal rewards on artists and manufacturers, for excellence in their various branches; and moreover exempted them in various places from military service. In a word, he devoted all the powers of his great mind, and made most liberal drafts on his treasury, for the accomplishment of this mighty object, which has

* Idem 26.

+ Idem 23.

+Ibid.