on the suffering which its condition has entailed on the communities dependant upon it. If this distress were likely to be temporary, an interference with it might be questionable, but it has now lasted more or less through three years, and during the past year has not improved, and there are reasons which preclude the hope, that any sufficient improvement in the price of foreign iron is likely to occur soon; the iron interests are at present obviously dependant for an improvement of their condition on a considerable rise in the price of foreign iron.

The tariff of 1846 was established by the party which has always been opposed to any but the most moderate scale of protection. The rate of duty on iron established then, was conceded to be necessary to the encouragement and sustenance of the iron manufactures of the United States. The spirit of this concession, not the letter, is all that is asked for now; the protection which by that law was intended, and which at the time of its passage was given, is all that we understand to be sought. The governing circumstances, as they existed then and now, are very different; had the present low prices prevailed then, the duty of 1842 would not in all probability have been interfered with.

The protection given now to iron, is dependant on the price of English iron, and varies with it. We say English iron, because the mass of that iron which enters our market, exceeds so much that of other countries, as to rule the market.

The same article of English wrought iron, (British bar) which was quoted in the first quarter of 1847 at ten pounds sterling, ($48.80) is now quoted (25th of Oct. 1851) at five pounds seven shillings sterling ($25.80).

The same article of Pig iron, (Clyde No. 1) which was quoted in London in the first quarter of 1847 at three pounds fifteen shillings sterling ($18.30), is now quoted at two pounds one shilling sterling ($10.00).

These prices are fair samples of the change in the price of iron in foreign markets, and of the consequent modification in the value of American iron in our own markets.

The amount of protection to pig iron is reduced over two fifths by the depressed state of the English iron market. The amount of protection to wrought iron is reduced somewhat more, but it cannot be definitely stated, in consequence of the mixture of foreign pig, which enters into its manufacture.

Now, is there anything unreasonable in the demand of the iron masters, for such an increase in the amount of protection, as will place them approximately in the position given them in 1847 by the bill of 1846. The fall of prices which has since occurred, has been entirely unexpected, otherwise some provision would have been made in that bill to meet it. And we cannot believe but that, if those members of Congress who were instrumental in passing the tariff of 1846, would give to the different complexion of affairs now that just consideration, which in common fairness they would apply to any similar transaction in private life, they would correct with some good-will the accidental distress, which the bill has created, and was not intended to create, by modifying it proportionally, and in such a manner as to meet future exigencies of a similar description.

There are good reasons for believing, that the depression in the price of foreign iron is not likely to be corrected soon.

In 1846-7, when the present tariff was adopted, the iron imported from England to the continent of Europe, amounted to rather more than one half of her entire exports of that article.

The present disturbed state of the continent of Europe has reduced most materially the amount of her exports to that continent, including that of iron, and to all appearance, must continue to do so for a long time. Deprived of a ready sale in Europe, the iron manufacturers find their ability to supply, to be greatly in excess of the demand, and hence the reductions, which have been going on in the prices of English iron during the last three years, until they have attained their present very low rates. In Austria, in Germany, and in France the probabilities of further disturbance and civil commotion are greater now, than of continued tranquillity. The present situation of continental Europe does not warrant for a long time to come, any expectation of that political rest, which will renew commercial activity there. There is therefore but little probability of the English iron market improving materially in prices, for a long time to come. But in the present position of the tariff the protection to American iron is measured by this foreign market. In other words, our iron masters have protection, when English prices are high, and no protection when English prices are low. The protection which is dependant on causes so entirely beyond our reach, demands a remedy, if it admits of one. The remedy is in the power of the same influence which established

the present measure of protection, and the advance desired on the present duty on iron, seems to be nothing more than strict equity would admit under the discouraging and entirely unexpected circumstances, which the last three years of European discord have developed.

It may probably be said with truth of nearly all political questions involving extreme party views or prejudices, that the people have arrived at some fair understanding of their true value, before their representatives have been able to throw off the mist of obstinacy produced by the heat of party contests, and growing out of the unfair arguments adduced then on either side of the question.

A moderate tariff of protection is beginning to be admitted by all parties to be necessary and beneficial to a new country, and the difference now is not in regard to its principle, but to its amount. Under any other action, all new countries must remain for a long time mere dependancies in regard to the useful arts of the old established states, and would have fastened on them in the course of that time a fair proportion of their prejudices and influences.

The farmer can understand that although with no tariff he might. obtain a cheaper supply of many articles of manufactured goods from abroad, than he obtains them at home, the mechanics resident abroad, could not afford to pay him so much for his grain by the cost of its freight across the Atlantic. But of greater value than any consideration of this kind, every man must concede to be, the methodical and industrial education, which the mechanical pursuits created by all descriptions of manufactures, produce and propagate. There is no kind of education or study, which is more corrective in its own small way of errors of judgment. Every defect in construction or workmanship will sooner or later expose itself, if it is not in the outset exposed by the quicker perception of a man's neighbors. Agriculture may be pursued as experience amply proves, from generation to generation after a slovenly and ignorant manner, and does not seem in its exercise sufficiently to interest the common mind to draw out its native capabilities. The arts and mechanical pursuits are enemies to mental indolence, and are constantly impelling those engaged in them to improvement, and suggesting new advances towards perfection. The effect of this healthy mental excitement cannot but improve the entire character even in the first generation, but in after generations its im press is more pleasantly perceptible, and the ambition, which it

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stimulates, leads progressively to a higher standard of civilization both in public and private life. The opportunity to acquire this kind of education, and to live within its influence will be admitted to be of itself worth a very considerable sacrifice.

But the object of these remarks is not to advocate any particular tariff, but to interest the reader in the present position of the iron interests sufficiently, to induce him to give that branch of the subject a fair consideration. And this is done not disinterestedly, but because justice done to that interest, removes one difficulty in the way of the admission of those just claims to aid, for the important railroads now commencing in Missouri, and in the other Western states, which all our interests here are concerned in establishing.

Without a donation of lands from Congress in aid of these railroad improvements, the difficulties which the Western states will have to contend with in procuring capital to complete them will be discouraging and oppressive. It will be somewhat like the case of a good steamboat driven to sca with one wheel fit for service, instead of two. We shall have to pay extravagantly for the accommodation from abroad, which our position will render necessary; and the party or sections of country which shall have placed us in that position, will acquire our hearty ill-will, which it will take many years of after fondling to dissipate.

The changes proposed in the tariff are not now, as mere measures of protection, of the same importance to the Western states, as to the Middle states, because those interests in the Western states, and especially in Missouri, lie dormant as yet; but this state of inaction cannot endure very long; the iron, lead, and copper ores, which are so abundant there, will form bye and bye the basis of an extensive home trade in the metals, competent to the supply of the entire Mississippi valley, and with future facilities, to the supply also of the California and Oregon coasts. So long as the protection secured by the tariff to these and certain other branches of manufactures is not, in connection with its advantages, placed so high, as to be more burdensome than profitable to the community, the Western states are in view of the future, as deeply interested in the admission of such a tariff as any of the Atlantic states. encouragement will enable them in the outset to command the large capital necessary to the successful establishment of the numerous furnaces, foundries, and rolling-mills, required to make available

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their metallic deposits. The protection of the manufacturing interests of other sections of the country, is not therefore to be consented to by the West, for the sake simply of certain advantages, which these other sections can control, or for the sake of the general home comfort, which the success in the arts of those border sections of our common country might and would communicate; but the arts and manufactures waiting to be developed in the West are to be equal gainers by such measures, and are evidently to a great extent dependant upon them for their early prosecution.

Without some tariff, those interests in the West cannot be sustained, and any tariff of protection must, to effect its end, be sufficiently high to insure on the average profitable prices.

We are not able, nor would it seem to be necessary, to pursue the subject further at present. K.

ARTICLE III.

THE COTTON TRADE.*

From year to year, almost without exception, the reports of a short crop are circulated everywhere on this side of the Atlantic; and on the other side, with the same regularity, are heard the tales of ruinous prices of goods, and of bankrupt brokers and manufacturers. These rumors are not, however, peculiar to the dealers in cotton. They are common to all the pursuits of business where the supply and demand are irregular and uncertain. The bulls and bears in Wall-street are engaged in the same efforts as the cotton sellers of New Orleans and the buyers of Manchester. The trade in flour, tobacco, and coffee, as well as in wines, spices, and fruits, is subject to the same false reports. They are found everywhere; they are unavoidable, and they cannot be prevented.

These reports sometimes imply fraud and falsehood- but often this is not the case. In a country like ours, where cotton is cultivated in every variety of soil and climate, the drought which is so disastrous to one is often a blessing to another. The frost, the worm, the rust and the floods, are seldom universal. Partial

• This is the ninth number of a series of reviews of the cotton trade, compiled annually by Professor C. F. McCay, of the University of Georgia, and published in the Merchants' Magazine." That for the year 1850 was copied into the Western Journal; vol. 5, page 233. These articles will be found useful to our readers in every part of the country, for every importart pursuit throughout the Union is, in some degree, affected by the cotton trade.