SMITH, ELDER, AND Co., N° 65, CORNHILL.

MDCCCXLIV.

Printed by J. MITCHELL and Co. (late BRETTELL),
Rupert Street, Haymarket.

Letter I.-To THE RIGHT HON. LORD JOHN RUSSELL, on

the effects of the sudden Change in the Channels

of Industry, and on the injurious Revulsion

which would have resulted from the contem-

plated Reversal, by the Whig Government in

1841, of the Commercial Policy which they had

enforced during the Ten preceding Years

Page 1

Letter II.-TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD JOHN RUSSELL, on

the manner in which the Adoption of the Whig

Budget would have altered the Value of Money,

increased the pressure of Taxation, and aggra-
vated the Distress of the People

-

-

23

Letter III.-TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR ROBERT PEEL, Bart.,

M.P., on Commercial Reform

45

Letter IV.-To THE RIGHT HON. LORD STANLEY, on Colo-

nisation, considered as a means of removing the

causes of National Distress

81

Letter V. TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD ELIOT, on Colonisa-

tion, considered as a means of removing the

causes of Irish Misery; and of preventing the

Wages of Labour in England from being per-

manently forced down, by Irish Immigration,

-

-

-

105

to the starvation level

Letter VI.-TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR ROBERT PEEL, Bart.,

M.P., on the distinctive Effects of Taxes upon

realized Property, and of Taxes upon In-

dustry

-

141

Letter VII.-To THE RIGHT HON. SIR ROBERT PEEL,
Bart., M.P., on the expediency of establishing
differential Duties in favour of the British
Colonists; and on the Effects which the impor-
tation of Corn and Cattle from foreign parts is
calculated to produce, upon the well-being of the
Working Classes, upon the progress of Agricul-
ture, and upon the Value of Landed Property
in the United Kingdom
Page 173
Letter VIII.-To THE FRIENDS OF EXTENDED COLONI-

SATION, on the causes of the failure of the
Financial Branch of the South Australian ex-
periment

191

Letter IX.-TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR ROBERT PEEL, Bart.,

M.P., on the Condition of England, and on the

Means of removing the Causes of Distress 227
Postscript.-On the Injurious Effects which would result
from a Reduction of Duties upon Foreign Pro-
ductions, unaccompanied by a corresponding
mitigation of the Duties imposed by Foreign
Countries upon British Goods
331.

Letter X.-To NASSAU WILLIAM SENIOR, Esq., in reply to
the Article Free Trade and Retaliation, in the
Edinburgh Review, No. clvii.

331

Letter XI.-To THE INDEPENDENT ELECTORS OF SHEF-
19.5 FIELD, on perfect or reciprocal Freedom of

Trade

395

Two Letters to RICHARD COBDEN, Esq., M.P., on imperfect

or one-sided Freedom of Trade

408

INTRODUCTION.

WHEN any considerable proportion of the population of a country is dependent upon foreign trade, an accurate knowledge of the circumstances which determine the relative value of the products of foreign and of domestic labour is indispensably necessary, in order to enable us to ascertain the laws which govern the amount of wages, the rate of profit, and the incidence of import duties.

In the Series of Essays comprised in the volume now submitted to the public, I have attempted to apply to the solution of the important questions of Commercial Policy, by which the country is at present agitated, the Principles of International Exchange established by Mr. Ricardo, in his celebrated chapter upon Foreign Trade.

Mr. Ricardo has shown, that "the same rule which regulates the relative value of commodities in one country, does not regulate the relative value of the commodities exchanged between two or more countries. The quantity of wine which Portugal shall give in exchange for the cloth of England is not determined by the respective quantities of labour bestowed upon the production of each, as it would be if both commodities were manufactured in England, or both in Por

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