The foreign and British tonnage with the United States, Canada, and the West Indies, in the year 1847, stood thus, viz.:-- | |British tons.|Foreign tons.| Total. | | +-------------+-------------+---------+ |British North American Colonies | 953,466 | 3,724 | 954,190| |British West Indies | 243,388 | ... | 243,388| | +-------------+-------------+---------+ | Total protected | 1,196,854 | ... |1,197,578| |United States of America | | | | | (unprotected) | 437,095 | 651,189 |1,088,284| --_Parliamentary Paper, 3d April 1848._ So that, while our West India and North American colonies, under this Protective system, support 1,196,854 tons of British shipping against 3,724 of foreign, or 300 to 1 nearly; the American trade with the United States only maintains 437,095 of British against 651,189 of foreign; in other words, about 2 to 3 nearly! But the Free-traders think it better to adopt the system which makes the foreign shipping to the British as 3 to 2, than uphold the one which has brought the foreign shipping to the British, in the colonial trade, as 1 to 300! Observe, too, the decisive proof which the same return affords of the vast superiority, in every point of view, of our colonial trade to our foreign, even in the hands of our best free-trade customers, the Americans. For while less than 3,000,000 of souls between the West India and North American colonies furnished employment to 1,197,000 tons of British and foreign shipping, of which 1,193,000 was British; twenty millions of Americans in the United States only furnished employment to 1,088,284 tons of shipping, in all of which no more than 437,095 were British! And this is the pet instance of the Free-traders--their favourite _cheval de bataille_--to demonstrate the great superiority of free and foreign over protected and colonial trade! Again, if we take the comparative progress of British and American tonnage in conducting the trade of the United States, since the reciprocity system was begun in 1823, the same conclusion is forced upon the mind. Not only is the American shipping, throughout the whole period, superior to the British in the proportion generally of 3 to 1, but this superiority in their favour remains undiminished in any material degree. We take the following returns from Mr Porter:-- Year. British American tons inwards. tons inwards. 1823 63,606 165,699 1826 47,711 151,765 1829 64,343 162,367 1832 95,203 167,359 1835 86,383 226,483 1838 83,203 357,467 1841 121,777 294,170 1844 206,183 338,737 1845 224,089 444,609 1846 205,123 435,399