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of the present crisis. I see that the nation is on the brink of a yawning gulf, but I am convinced it may yet be saved. Let the minister return at once to the path of duty, let him revert to principles of government truly popular, truly patriotic, truly constitutional; and the danger will disappear. But should the minister still resolve to act upon the principles which you profess, should he still trust for safety to the strong arm of power, should he still dare to aggravate the frenzy of the people, by proclaiming in their ears that he despises their opinion and disregards their clamor as the passing breeze, then indeed shall we be forced upon that one step which is to hurl us from the summit of the precipice into the gulf of ruin. The question then must come to this short issue -who shall prevail? The minister or the people? Tremendous must be the conflict, dreadful the result. Nor let the minister vainly indulge a hope that a single patriotic sword will leap from its scabbard to aid him in the conflict. TO THE EARL OF LIVERPOOL therefore do I now address myself to him I make my last appeal. The day is now at hand when you my Lord, must emerge from that retirement in which for some weeks passed you have been secluded; and must give to your fellowcountrymen some decisive token by which they may be enabled to judge what hopes may be indulged or what fears must be entertained with respect to your future conduct. To the 23d of Januadoes the whole nation look forward with intense anxiety, with trembling apprehension. The people regard it as the commencement of an era which may decide their future destiny: on that day some decisive step must be taken-wavering policy or temporizing measures will no longer avail. The people feel that on the resolutions of your Lordship and your colleagues for your conduct on that important day, may depend the future happiness or the future ruin of the country. They know that your Lordship has the power, they believe that you have the ability, and they require that you should have the will to rescue, the kingdom from impending ruin. Already perhaps have you formed your resolution, and determined within your own bosom what measure you will pursue. The decisive step however is not yet taken, nor, if your resolution be hostile to the cause of which I am the feeble champion, is it yet too late to retract. I implore you then my Lord, as a man of honor, of judgment, and of feeling; as a statesman and a patriot, to reflect well on the situation in which you at this moment stand, Listen, I intreat you, to the well founded clamors of a suffering people, pouring thick upon you from every quarter of the island. Despise not their ignorance, defy not their passions, spurn not their complaint; hear and redress! Let no party feelings, no prejudices, even in the highest quarter, no selfish motives of individual inte

ry

rest, deter you from the strict path of duty and of patriotism. Cause the laws already in existence to be executed firmly but impartially, alleviate the burdens of the people-retrench the expenditure of the state-concede to the prayers of the people a moderate constitutional reform of the abuses which exist in every department of the state. If you cannot act thus consistently with your own ideas of duty, then my Lord I call upon you as a great and noble-minded man, while it is yet in your power voluntarily to make the sacrifice which every minister ought to make, and must eventually make, when he ceases to possess the confidence and good opinion of the people. The nation demands it at your hands. The interest of the minister must bow to the opinion and yield to the welfare of the people. In one word my Lord retire from your post. Thus indeed may you preserve the empire from impending ruin. Thus too in the esteem and gratitude of your country, and the warm congratulations of an approving conscience, shall you obtain a rich reward, in brilliancy surpassing all which the splendor of your past administration can diffuse around you, in honor and in worth exceeding all which you can ever hope to arrive at by adopting in your practice the principles of Cato; principles alike hostile to liberty, hateful to the people, and pregnant with the greatest danger to the laws and constitution of the country.

January, 1821.

ON

THE PRESENT

TIMBER AND DEAL

Trade,

AS

REGARDS EUROPE

AND THE

BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES,

RESTING

ON PLAIN AND UNDENIABLE FACTS.

ORIGINAL.

LONDON:

MY LORD,

HAVING had the honor of addressing your Lordship on the present corn laws, I hope that my apology for intruding again, though on a different subject, will be accepted by your Lordship.

In tendering the annexed Statement, on the present timber and deal trade, for perusal, I have but one view, namely, that this important subject might be considered in all its true bearings, and upon them alone, and not on mere individual assertions, a conclusion come to. In whatever way I might have been formerly interested in that trade, here and abroad, I can assure your Lordship that having no interest whatever in that trade at present, no private motives can be ascribed to me, as to have been influenced one way or other, in drawing up that Statement; and I therefore flatter myself that it will deserve so much more attention, and perhaps be found a proper object of being laid before the committees now investigating that subject.

Knowing the great value of time to your Lordship as well as to all persons connected with Government, I lament the length to which that Statement has grown, and which perhaps may make it less an object for consideration on that account alone, than would otherwise be the case. I must, however, assure your Lordship, that the manifold interests involved in that question, and owing to this language being foreign to me, (for which I trust sufficient allowance will be made) did not enable me to abridge more of what I found necessary to say on that subject. Should it, however, be thought superfluous to have that Statement taken into consideration, or the question on which it treats, be already finally decided, as to the course his Majesty's Government mean to adopt, I humbly beg your Lordship will then have the goodness to direct that that Statement be returned to me at the earliest convenience.

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STATEMENT,

&c. &c.

THE question of the timber and deal duties having now been in agitation for a long time, and an official report having gone forth, which recommends what would materially injure some of the nations of the North of Europe, with whom this country is at present on a liberal footing of commercial intercourse, namely, as regards a free and encouraged trade in British manufactured goods and colonial produce; I humbly beg to submit the following Statement for consideration, which my own experience in the wood trade here, and in foreign countries, has enabled me to support by facts, and not by mere loose assertions; and to the correctness of which, I shall be prepared to give the most satisfactory proofs, whenever it should be found requisite to call for them.

Owing to the several heavy duties imposed on European wood, a considerable encouragement has been given to the Canadian people, whereby to enable them to supply this country with that article to the extent they have done of late; and when Government is now called upon to continue that encouragement to them, or embrace other measures, whereby some of the nations in the North of Europe must become most serious sufferers, and which ultimately would affect England, in her present intercourse with them also, surely it becomes a matter of the first importance, minutely to ascertain whether such encouragement is actually of that benefit to the Canadian people and to this country, as to require the sacrifice of trading with other nations; and whether the other measures proposed, do not chiefly rest on a misconception of the statements made by individuals.

The first view I take upon this subject is to consider—

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