§ Mr. Emerson Tennentpresented a Petition from the Chamber of Commerce of Belfast, against the equalization of the discriminating duty on Canadian and Baltic timber. The petition, after stating that the present import of North American timber into the United Kingdom was equal to 1,000,000 loads per annum, proceeded to show that the trade carried on by British shipping alone, fitted out by British capital, and giving employment to British Seamen, created a market for British produce to the amount of upwards of two millions sterling per annum; whilst on the other hand, the European timber brought into this country was carried exclusively in foreign bottoms, manned by foreign seamen, and took away none of our manufactures to any extent in return. The petitioners expressed their dread of the effect which any reduction of the duty on Baltic timber might produce on the current of emigration, as well as on the interests of British shipping generally, and they concluded by praying, that if the Legislature in its wisdom saw fit to introduce any alteration in the existing duties, no reduction should be made in those on Baltic timber, without a concurrent diminution on the produce of Canada, so as still to preserve the existing proportion between them, conceiving that a change on any other principle must be injurious to their trade, destructive of their shipping, and highly prejudicial to the progress of emigration. To these general observations of the petitioners, he was not disposed to add any lengthened observations of his own. Whether or not the petitioners had accurately stated the amount of our imports and exports from Canada, he was not immediately prepared to say; but if the former did not amount to 1,000,000 loads of timber per annum, he (Mr. Emerson Tennent) was aware that they were at least considerably above 600,000 an amount which of itself engrossed up wards of 400,000 tons of British shipping, and gave employment to 22,000 seamen nearly equal to the numbers employed in the Royal Navy of England. The importance of this branch of our commerce could not in fact, be rated too highly; in Liverpool alone it occupied between 300 and 400 1102 vessels of 130,000 tons burden. It gave m annual outlet for between 2,000,000l. and 3,000,000l. of our manufactures at least, and a vent for emigration, which ear by year drained off upwards of 55,000 of our redundant population. Compared to the importance of this trade with Canada, what was the value of all our intercourse with all the countries bordering on the Baltic? Even previous to the year 1809, until which period England was almost exclusively supplied with timber from that quarter, our imports in one year amounted to one half the quantity which we now draw annually from Canada, and, as to our exports in return, the whole Baltic never took from us more than 500,000l. worth in any one year, and four-fifths of this was in cotton twists. On what principle then were we to sacrifice our present invaluable trade with our colonies for the sake of aggrandizing our Northern neighbours? As regarded our shipping interest at home, any alteration which would have the effect of bringing European produce into direct competition with that of Canada would be fatal to our shipping, the greater part of which would be thrown entirely out of employment. The same would be the case with the 20,000 seamen who now manned that shipping. This, therefore, was a most serious question. But there was another consideration which suggested itself on this question, the result of which he was not very clearly satisfied about. The whole theory on which they were called upon to make this change, resolved itself into this:—that the people should be supplied with such commodities as they wanted from any country which could supply them on the cheapest terms. Now, before they hastened to destroy one market, with which the country was at present pretty well satisfied, they had a right to be shown that the one which was offered in lieu of it would really be found to be the cheapest as well as the best. The object of the free trade advocates at present was, he (Mr. Emerson Tennent) believed, to reduce the duty on the timber of both countries to the same level; but if the superior timber of the Baltic could be introduced at the game cost as the inferior produce of Canada, the Canadian trade would soon cease altogether. If a remnant of it survived at all, it would be the import of the red pine, which might in some degree vie in quality with the Memel; but 1103 the ordinary American timber would cease to be introduced. Now, it was well known that there were purposes for which this inferior timber answered as well, if not better, than material of a better description; but when it was no longer to be procured, we should of course be compelled to make use of the other, at probably double the price. This might not perhaps be so important a consideration in England, where capital was more abundant, and where, besides, the poorer classes had a comparative resource in the growth of low-priced native wood; but in Ireland, where we had no such substitute, the case was widely different, and the effects of a stoppage in the import of cheap colonial deals, would be felt with corresponding force, since in that country the alteration proposed would thus have the inevitable effect of increasing, instead of diminishing, the price of timber most generally consumed. It was not, therefore, without cause, that he was induced to doubt the result of this experiment, at least in his own country. The petitioners had very properly alluded to another topic in which that country was more peculiarly interested, namely the effects of the alteration which was threatened upon emigration to Canada. This was, to every quarter of the empire, a matter of the most vital moment. Our emigrants from British ports to the British Colonies in America, were close upon 60,000 per annum: from the very town whence this petition was forwarded alone, there were last year between 8,000 and 9,000 passengers for the Canadas and New Brunswick. The rate at which these passengers was carried, was from 3l. to 4l. each, and he had understood that this season and the last, passengers from Londonderry to the nearest American settlement had been taken out for so trifling a sum as thirty shillings each; and how was it that the owners of shipping were enabled to carry them out upon such terms?—solely in consequence of that very trade which it was now threatened to destroy. The vessels which were des-patched for colonial timber, rather than sail in ballast, would carry their cargo of emigrants for almost any terms that would cover the bare cost of transport; and the competition was so great, that the fares were reduced to the trifle which he had mentioned. It was thus we were enabled to drain off that vast superabundant and impoverished population with which Ire- 1104 land was overrun, and to transport to Canada that enormous amount of labour which would otherwise find its way into this country, and inundate England with pauperism. All this would be inevitably destroyed by the contemplated change in the timber trade—since vessels for the sole purpose of carring emigrants, without the ulterior object of bringing home produce, could only take them out on such terms as the impoverished settlers could never afford to pay. But other causes under the same system would produce the same results of checking emigration. Canada herself would no longer afford the attraction; she could no longer hold out occupation and support for the unemployed labourer which now finds a settlement on her shores. Such a measure would involve Canada herself in difficulties and poverty from which generations must pass ere she would be fully extricated. Besides the floating capital of the Canadian houses which is now embarked in the timber trade, and which could only be withdrawn at a positive loss, in order to be invested in such other pursuits as the present limited resources of the colony would afford, what was to become of the vested fixed capital which was then embarked in that trade, and expended in saw-mills and machinery of every description? Not less than 1,000,000l. was at present stated to be so employed; and all this—no insignificant sum in a distant colony—must at one blow be sacrificed, were a change in the trade to be effected. What in such an event was to become of the hosts of British emigrants who now find abundant employment as lumberers in cutting and draining and floating the timber down for exportation? He might be told that they could still betake themselves to agricultural labour; but even for this there could be but slow demand, when the destruction of the timber trade had ceased, as it would cease, to give an impulse to the clearing of the lands. We all knew at present the state of feeling towards this country which pervaded Canada. Even in the midst of our protection of her commerce, she took but little pains to conceal her dissatisfaction at not receiving still further favours. Was it, then, wise still further to provoke such a spirit, by threatening the destruction of the only profitable branch of commerce on which she rested her dependance? Was it wise to drive her to seek a still closer attach- 1105 ment than she already manifested towards the United States? It was a portion of our policy as a nation to afford support and protection to our colonies and our dependencies—we had strained every nerve to maintain and to perpetuate that protection to our colonies in the West Indies by protecting their sugars from foreign competition in our own markets. All that we asked for Canada was, an extension of the same fostering protection; a policy which was the more incumbent on us, since we could not inflict the injury now contemplated on Canada, without giving a blow to our own shipping and marine, which no length of time might be sufficient to remedy. He had to apologize to the House for the length to which these observations had run. But the subject he felt was one of the most vital moment to the nation at large, and his sense of its importance to his own constituents peculiarly, had impelled him to use every exertion to discharge the duty which they had in-trusted to him of conveying the impression of their sentiments to the House.
§ Petition to lie on the Table.