the wealth and industry of a country. In France they may be embraced in three divisions,-first, those employed in satisfying the wants of consumers; second, those that are reshipped for foreign countries; and third, the balance, when there is any, that goes to form a reserve in entrepôt, or in transit.

Such is the division of French imports, which together amounted

We see from this that the increase of French importations is almost wholly owing to the increase of that part which is resold to foreign countries:

The importations into England have been

The exportations of products of the soil and of native industry were

We must not forget to remark that the precious metals are not included in the documents of France or Great Britain, and that the official valuation surpasses by a considerable proportion the real value.

In the exportations, the foreign merchandise reshipped is also included. But can this commerce, which has increased so rapidly, be said to belong to France? 'Tis true it takes place on our territory, and helps to swell our estimate, but if we look to the bottom of the subject we will find that we have very little interest in it; that it goes on under our eyes, but without any of us taking any part in it. Other nations have found our geographical position commodious, and have made our territory a rendezvous where they traffic among themselves; and our laws in relation to the transit of goods have given rise to a kind of commerce, of which the variations are owing to causes entirely foreign to our country.

The United States, England, Switzerland, Germany, Prussia, and the East Indies, have sent to us articles not entering into our consumption, amounting, in the period from 1827 to 1829, to 146 millions of francs, and from 1833 to 1835, 334 millions. On the other hand, our exportation of articles of foreign growth amounted, for the United States, Switzerland, Germany, and the Sardinian States alone, to ninety-five millions, from 1827 to 1829, and 297 millions from 1833 to 1835. This increase of the commerce of exchanges through our territory is a remarkable fact, but what renders it particularly worthy of observation is the certainty that all this great trade is carried on without the concurrence of our citizens, that they participate in it neither with their capital or with their ships. Switzerland demands from the United States and England, cotton, indigo, and other commodities. The United States, on their side, resort to the labor of the Swiss and Germans for silks, ribbons, linens, and cloths, which form the lading of their packets at Havre. All this kind of trade unregistered in our official statements and documents, gives a false appearance of life to our commercial relations, and augments their importance by hundreds of millions. The exportation of the products of our own soil in the mean time has increased so little, that if we make allowance for the difference between the official valuation and the real value, we shall find perhaps that we have rested stationary for the nine years.

It remains to examine an important branch, that of shipping, and to consider the comparative progress of navigation foreign to the country, in France, England, and the United States.

2,822 415

From 1827 to 1829, . 1,030
From 1830 to 1832, . 1,073
From 1833 to 1835, . 1,160

From 1827 to 1829, . 990
From 1830 to 1832, . 932
From 1832 to 1835, . 1,076

CLEARED.

1,320 5,957 2,106
1,195 -6,632 2,306 2,919 793
1,467 6,960 2,516 3,676 1,705

The figures speak for themselves, and demonstrate that we are resting stationary, while our rivals are advancing. But there are some other points which, if examined, will leave no doubt upon the mind of any one. French shipping is either reserved and exclusive, as that to our colonies or the fisheries, or it is shared in common with foreign commerce, with only the protection of the differential duties of the customhouse. As to

this last, in which is to be found the proof of our commercial force and spirit, we shall be pardoned if we recur once more to the figures which express its condition.

That is to say, that in the relations of France with other countries, our vessels are employed only to a little more than one quarter of the whole. After a quarter of a century of peace, can any thing be imagined more deplorable than such a result? Still more, if we analyze the causes which have enabled us to preserve even this fourth part of the shipping which enters and clears from our ports, we shall find that we have been compelled to have recourse, as far as England is concerned, to a "reciprocity of commercial repulsion," to protect our shipping in the India trade, by duties equivalent to several times the amount of the freights, and to encourage voyages to the eastern islands, by the most exorbitant immunities; which, on the other hand, have destroyed our commerce with Hayti, and perhaps deprived the inhabitants of that island of the means of discharging their obligations to us.

The prosperity of the merchant marine depends upon the commercial progress of a nation, for in the present day every nation employs as much as possible its own vessels in its own trade. Without a merchant marine there can be no military marine; and this last, as we have seen at Navarino, Algiers, in the Tagus, and lately in South America, is one of the most sure bases of political preponderance and power. Well may we be astonished at the neglect that has been manifested, particularly since the revolution of 1830, in the councils of the nation, for our true commercial interests. Such, however, are the fruits of the perseverance with which the system adopted under the empire, and carefully preserved by succeeding governments, has been followed. The supporters of it pretend that the internal prosperity of the country is ensured by the prohibition of the products of foreign labor. They do not seek to encourage exportation, but imagine they have gained every thing, when they have annihilated some branch of importation. They please themselves with exaggerated praises bestowed upon the industry of the country, and disguise the fact that we are being driven from the markets of the world. That while ignorant of the progress of our rivals, we are neglecting the new duties our country is called upon to fulfil. It is evidently a decline not to march at an equal pace with other nations, and such undoubtedly is our position in respect to that portion of commerce of which we speak.

We have had occasion, in an article in a former number of this review, to dilate upon the ideas which were excited by the grand ceremonies of the exhibition of the products of French industry-the fair of 1834. Since then, Charles Dupin, speaking in the name of the committee to whom was intrusted the decision upon the respective merits of the articles exhibited,

has, in a report which combines the highest scientific information with profound technical knowledge, set forth in the most forcible manner the importance of the manufacturing interests. Doing full justice to a work of so much interest, and fully appreciating the impartiality of the committee, we cannot but regret that they did not interrogate the manufacturers as to the place that their products occupy in the consumption of foreigners and their influence in swelling our exportations. That would furnish the true touchstone of our progress and the measure of our success.

After the exhibition followed an examination. There the same manufacturers who had demanded a recompense for their progress, came confessing their inability to compete with foreigners, and that for this unfortunate state of things there can only be found a remedy in the continuation of protection amounting nearly to prohibition. The government could not struggle against the general wish shared by men of every variety of politi cal opinion, and our manufacturers have quietly gone to sleep, satisfied with the consumption secured to them of thirty-four millions of inhabitants. Our industry has not felt the slightest anxiety at seeing pass through our territory in 1836, 332 millions of francs in foreign products. Of this, some 180 millions were in manufactured articles. What are the causes that prevent us from furnishing this amount? Why is the preference given to Switzerland, Prussia, &c. ? What puts these countries in a state to excel us? Nobody knows. And yet we have no want of men who laud us instead of warning us. We rest in the rear of the march pursued by other nations; and if we perceive that, after having bought the flax, they come to us to sell the linen also, we can find the only remedy in a prohibition of such product, instead of seeking some method of making it at a lower price. The production of the beet-root is regarded as a conquest, protected as it has to be by duties amounting to one hundred per cent upon the prices that we pay our colonies for the sugar we buy of them. We abandon the cultivation of many rich products for that which will properly develop itself only in a hot-house, and which, sooner or later, will exhibit itself a miserable deception to those who have delivered themselves up to it. This epoch will arrive when the government shall have discovered that there are other interests besides those of the landholders, for the mere cultivators are disinterested in the affair. It will arrive when the commerce with foreign countries, the marine, and the power of France, shall have attracted the regard of the Chambers and the Ministry, when they will be willing to abandon the absurd system of encouraging on the one hand by bounties what they destroy on the other by prohibitive duties.

Not that the government is without an idea of the importance of preserving a naval force. It is with the view of creating a supply of sailors that bounties are allowed upon the whale and cod fisheries. But they ought to count more upon the trade of our ports with the colonies we possess, and exercise a due influence in preserving them in a state of prosperity. They ought to think, in relation to them, of what they have done for the coasting trade, that important nursery of seamen, which has been greatly benefited by a recent ordinance removing the tonnage duties of coasting vessels, and extending their licenses to a year. This measure is one that we cannot too much praise, but it cannot exert any influence upon our grand commerce.

The four sugar colonies gave employment to nearly one hundred thousand tons of shipping, and from five to six thousand sailors. Their trade,

reserved exclusively to our own country, has amounted to an average value of from fifty to sixty millions of francs, and it has been decreasing for several years. We have ceased in France to comprehend the value of these establishments, and we look with contempt upon the fine roadsteads of Fort Royal, where France, at it were at home, could collect and shelter the fleets capable of making her name respected upon distant shores. Without colonies, the whale and cod fisheries will become nearly useless. We will just glance at the facts having relation to this branch of navigation, which has been for a long time so highly protected.

The whale-fishery employed on an average from 1827 to 1829, 200 seamen yearly, and produced 13,000 quintals of oil. From 1833 to 1835 the numbers of the crews were raised to 600 men, and the produce amounted to 30,000 annually.

The cod-fishery employed 9,000 men on an average from 1827 to 1829, and 10,000 in 1833-35. The produce amounted to an average of 55,000 quintals, of which 20,000 went to Spain, and ports in the Mediterranean, and the balance was taken to our sugar colonies. These colonies, besides the 35,000 quintals we send them, receive the cargoes which our fishermen take directly from Newfoundland, and in return for which they freight with colonial commodities for the northern country. Their total consumption of the products of the fisheries amounts to 80,000 quintals per annum. The state allows, under various conditions, to those who undertake fishing voyages, a bounty equivalent to between three and four hundred francs a year for each man. In other words, the state pays the wages of the men and leaves to the owners the profits of the voyage. In some voyages of long duration, as in the whale-fishery, the bounties amounted to from 1,400 to 1,500 francs for each seaman. Such great sacrifices have an object, and this object has been once obtained, for without the resources which were found in the sailors engaged in the fisheries, the expedition to Algiers could not have taken place.

If the fisheries, and particularly the cod-fishery, has need of the aid of government to subsist, it has equally a need of a market for its products. Now foreign countries take scarcely a fifth, and it is only by submitting to exorbitant duties, which at any moment may be changed into prohibition, that we retain the precarious and trifling market in Spain. The British Parliament have been recently occupied with the remonstrances of the people interested against the proposed increase of duty by the Spanish authorities, but it does not seem that all the skill of Mr. Villiers has been able to obtain any melioration; and if Spain quiets her internal dissensions, her first care will be to strengthen her system of commercial repulsion, of which we have given her the example. We can place dependence only upon our colonies for the consumption of the products of our fisheries, the existence of which depends upon them. United, these two inseparable branches make two fifths of our whole navigation, and under this point of view we are already so poor that we ought to dread the approach of the time when an additional reduction will be effected. But with the ideas that at present predominate, we have no confidence that our feeble efforts can avail to avert a loss so disastrous. It is necessary, if truth is to triumph, that voices more powerful should be raised in her behalf.

We are far from having exhausted this subject. We have pointed out the evil. Colonies are essential to a commercial people. As for the United States, divided into two grand regions, one of these regions is the