“The Government has increased the duties for the purpose of enabling them to meet the interest on the public works necessary to reduce all the various charges upon the imports and exports of the country. Lighthouses have been built, and steamships subsidised, to reduce the charges for freight and insurance; the St. Lawrence has been deepened, and the canals constructed, to reduce the cost of inland navigation to a minimum; railways have been assisted, to give speed, safety, and permanency to trade interrupted by the severity of winter. All these improvements have been undertaken with the twofold object of diminishing the cost to the consumer of what he imports, and of increasing the _net_ result of the labour of the country when finally realised in Great Britain. These great improvements could not be effected without large outlays; and the burthen necessarily had to be put either through direct taxation, or by customs-duties on the goods imported, or upon the trade by excessive tolls corresponding with the rates previously charged. Direct taxation was the medium employed, through the local municipalities, for the construction of all minor local works--roads, court-houses and gaols, education, and the vast variety of objects required in a newly-settled country; and this source of taxation has thus been used to the full extent which is believed practicable without producing serious discontent. No one can, for a moment, argue that, in an enlightened age, any Government could adopt such a clumsy mode of raising money as to maintain excessive rates of tolls; nor would it have attained the object, as American channels of trade were created simultaneously, that would then have defied competition. The only effect, therefore, of attempting such course would have been to give the United States the complete control of our markets, and virtually to exclude British goods. The only other course was therefore adopted, and the producer has been required to pay, through increased customs-duties, for the vastly greater deductions he secured through the improvements referred to. What, then, has been the result to the British manufacturer? His goods are, it is true, in many cases subjected to 20 per cent. instead of 2½ per cent., but the cost to the consumer has been diminished in a very much greater degree; and the aggregate of cost, original price, duty, freight, and charges are now very much less than when the duty was 2½ per cent., and consequently the _legitimate protection_ to the home-manufacturer is to this extent diminished. Nor is this all: the interest of the British manufacturer is not merely that he shall be able to lay down his goods at the least cost to the consumer, but equally is he interested in the ability of the consumer to buy. Now, this latter point is attained precisely through the same means which have cheapened the goods. The