It may be here observed, that there is a broad and marked distinction between entire prohibition and reasonable encouragement.  It is one thing, by duties or taxes on foreign articles, to awaken a home competition in the production of the same articles; it is another thing to remove all competition by a total exclusion of the foreign article; and it is quite another thing still, by total prohibition, to raise up at home manufactures not suited to the climate, the nature of the country, or the state of the population.  These are substantial distinctions, and although it may not be easy in every case to determine which of them applies to a given article, yet the distinctions themselves exist, and in most cases will be sufficiently clear to indicate the true course of policy; and, unless I have greatly mistaken the prevailing sentiment in the councils of England, it grows every day more and more favorable to the diminution of restrictions, and to the wisdom of leaving much (I do not say every thing, for that would not be true) to the enterprise and the discretion of individuals.  I should certainly not have taken up the time of the committee to state at any length the opinions of other governments, or of the public men of other countries, upon a subject like this; but an occasional remark made by me the other day, having been so directly controverted, especially by Mr. Speaker, in his observations yesterday, I must take occasion to refer to some proofs of what I have stated.

What, then, is the state of English opinion?  Everybody knows that, after the termination of the late European war, there came a time of great pressure in England.  Since her example has been quoted, let it be asked in what mode her government sought relief.  Did it aim to maintain artificial and unnatural prices?  Did it maintain a swollen and extravagant paper circulation?  Did it carry further the laws of prohibition and exclusion?  Did it draw closer the cords of colonial restraint?  No, Sir, but precisely the reverse.  Instead of relying on legislative contrivances and artificial devices, it trusted to the enterprise and industry of the people, which it sedulously sought to excite, not by imposing restraint, but by removing it, wherever its removal was practicable.  In May, 1820, the attention of the government having been much turned to the state of foreign trade, a distinguished member[2] of the House of Peers brought forward a Parliamentary motion upon that subject, followed by an ample discussion and a full statement of his own opinions.  In the course of his remarks, he observed, “that there ought to be no prohibitory duties as such; for that it was evident, that, where a manufacture could not be carried on, or a production raised, but under the protection of a prohibitory duty, that manufacture, or that produce, could not be brought to market but at a loss.  In his opinion, the name of strict prohibition might, therefore, in commerce, be got rid of altogether; but he did not see the same objection