in
1.
25
113
Committee
the
or
Observations on the Report of a
of the House of Commons
in 1847.
Commercial Relations with China, and on
the evidence taken.
The chief portion of the Report is
occupied with arguments, (which
are
certainly
quite unanswerable), on the necessity of lowering
These, if we would possess the advantages
the duty on
anticipated from opening
the
new
Ports in
China. I myself urged nearly the same
arguments as long ago
as December 1843, in
a
letter addressed to one of Her Majesty's
Secretaries of State. The experience of four
years
has since
amply proved that a duty
of 200 per cent on the staple produce of
China, is neither liberal nor
politic, while
on our own manufactures from 5 to 10 per cent is the average duty charged by the Chinese,