THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. [From the Times.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 814, 21 May 1853, Page 4

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. [From the Times.]

The Message of the American President, though partially deprived of its importance by the period of its delivery, is invested, from the nature of its topics, with even unusual interest for English readers, and exhibits, if we may be allowed the criticism, a considerable improvement upon the traditional character of these documents in condensation and style. As Mr. Fillmore is on the eve of quitting office, he cannot, of course, communicate to the world any authentic or circumstantial views of a policy which will soon receive its shape from other hands, and we must wait till next spring for an exposition of the principles on which the Government of the American Union is likely to be based for four years to come. Events, however, hue recently occurred which at one time threatened the relations of Great Britain and the United States with some disturbance, and there are other points besides on which the external policy of tht Union has been regarded with sufficient uneasiness to render any official assurances on such subjects extremely acceptable. Three months ago we were reduced by the recess of Parliament, and the contradictory assertions of the Ministerial press, to considerable uncertainty on the question of the North American fisheries, and it did not receive any satisfactory elucidation in the statements with which Parliament was favoured at its opening in November. We can now, however, discern that the estimate which we then formed of this transaction was substantially correct. The proceedings of the Derby Ministry did impress the American Government with the belief that Great Britain intended to enforce, for the benefit of her colonists, those provisions of the treaty of 1818 against which the Americans had long protested, and, though this impression was afterwards removed, it bad certainly not been conceived without reason. The difference of understanding, as respects: the terms of the convention, still remains unsettled, but it is gratifying to observe that the two Governments no longer entertain any distrust of each other's intentions, and that the way has been paved by this transient error to a permanent adjustment of the whole subject, on conditions of reciprocal advantage. As tar, therefore, as the fisheries are concerned, there is do reabou for apprehending that the amity which should subsist between Great Britain ami

America is ia any danger of interruption. On the question of the Lobos Islands, too, the declarations of the President are aa cltar and as candid as could be desired, apprising us, indeed, in terms honourable to the American Government, that " the temporary wrong which had been unintentionally done to Peru from want of information had been repaired by an unreserved acknowledgment of her sovereignty." There are two other points on which tbe proceedings of the Federal Government are viev/ed with considerable interest on this side of the Atlantic — the designs upon Cuba, and the expedition to Japan. In so far as a plain uncompromising condemnation of lawless aggression, can be taken as a pledge of forbearance, Mr. Fillmore's observations on the former subject are certainly assuring ; but we cannot remark without regret that a design which points to nothing less than tbe territorial spoliation of a foreign State in time of peace should be argued rather as a question of expedience than as a matter of principle. la Mr. Fillmore's estimate of the results which would probably ensue upon the annexation of Cuba to the States of tbe Union we are disposed to concur, but, from such a description of the case, it naturally follows that those who disbelieve in the consequences thus predicted may see no further impediment to their own conclusions. Considering, too, the elaborate statement which has recently been issued^ ascribing the whole policy of the Union ia this respect to its apprehensions of foreign aggression upon Spanish rights, it seems difficult to understand how Mr. Fillmore could have seen anything "unconstitutional, impolitic, or unavailing," in a proposal to set these and all other apprehensions at rest for ever by a solemn compact on the part of the suspected Governments. France and England offered to join the United Slates in a formal and collective disclaimer of all intentions to obtain possession of Cuba, and in a virtual guarantee of the island to its rightful owners. This proposition the American Government declined, but in ao doing it undoubtedly furnished grounds for belief that the suspicions it has itself professed to entertain are less reasonably founded than those which have been expressed elsewhere. With respect to Japan, we are assured that the objects ' of the expedition are limited to the requirements of maritime hospitality, and that our own example in China will be followed by the extension to all nations indiscriminately of any advantages obtained. In arguing, however, that the American Government could make these overtures more satisfactorily than that of any other State, in consequence of its known indisposition to aggrandizement, we think the President has ventured on assumptions not unlikely to be disputed. The financial and domestic affairs of the Union are represented as most flourishing. All branches of manufacturing industry are generally prosperous, the public debt is in process of effectual liquidation, and there is a surplus in the Treasury of some £3,000,000 sterling. Nothwitbstanding these prospects, Mr, Fillmore profesies an inflexible adherence to the ancient dogmas of Protection. Like certain statesmen nearer home, he publicly declares that his " views on this important question remain unchanged," and he proceeds to tbe advocacy of his opinions with the most obsolete fallacies of this inveterate imposture. He argues that agriculturists need a manufacturing population to consume their produce, that manufacturers require capital and skill, and that capital and skill can only be created by the prevention of foreign competition, or, in other words, by the exclusion of all who may possess capital and skill in greater perfection than those who are endeavouring to create it. So universal is the jargon of Protectionism that we actually find an American President contemplating European populations as " untaxed foreigners," and talking of the " ruinous competition from abroad" to which his own countiymea may be subjected. It wiil occur, we doubt not, to Mr. Fillmore's successor that the best way to call capital and skill into being is not to dispense with tbtir employment by a protective tariff, and that agricultural pro- : duce will be most likely to find a market when every branch of industry is left to derelope itself in its natural direction. I It is interesting to remark the gradual but; irresistible tendency of the American Government to those peculiar measures of policy which have bee.i supposed to characterize order and less' democratic institutions. Though " intervention" ; in the affairs of Europe is still formally repudi- ' ated, the " Department of State" has become so overburthened with increase of business from , foreign negotiations as to require material relief andext:nson; the army — small enough, to be sure — it ov rvrorked even by frontier duties, and the fortifications recommended will be continued, an American journal predicts, *'as long as there is a dollar in the Treasury." It will amuse some readers, and instruct others, to learn that much anxiety is felt in America about manning ■ the navy, aud the establishment of a permament . corps of trained seamen is suggested ; that the : administrative system of the various departments of Government is marked out for reform; that a building is urgently needed for the national records ; and that great embarrassments are experienced in adjusting the relations between the citizens of the outlying States, or, in other words, the colonists of the Union, and their savage neighbours. On tbe whole, however,while the contents of tbe Message should certainly be satisfactory to the American people.its spirit is undoubtedly creditable to the Federal Government 1 nor could the most Conservative Statsman of Conservative Europe have spoken with greater discernment or boldness than Mr. Fillmore, in assuring his countrymen that not only " the present necessities," but "the permanent safety and interest" of a nation, are test consulted by " a stern sense of international justice," and that any aggressive " propagandism" is M more likely to result in the overthrow of Republican liberty at home than its establishment abroad."