PROGRESS OF FREE TRADE. (From the Times, February 23.)

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 827, 6 July 1853, Page 4

PROGRESS OF FREE TRADE. (From the Times, February 23.)

Among the indirect consequences of the repeal of the Corn Laws must be reckoned the rapid augmentation of our commercial- intercourse with countries which had before that event comparatively little produce to tend to our markets, aDd the increased political interest with which we naturally regard States and territories that are henceforth to supply a large portion of the food of the English people. "We have therefore pursued with interest and instruction a report on the trade in corn from the Mediterranean and Black Seas iv the year 1352, from the pen of Mr. Mongredien, a respectable broker in the city ; for, although this document is merely intended to convey mercantile information to that gentleman's customers, it throws light on some topics of far more general interest. It is proved by the returns of the foreign corn trade in the last few years, that a change is taking place in the principal sources of the supply of food. The Uuited States and the Baltic are no longer by any means our largest producers. Their yearly surplus falls short of our yearly wants, and it is from the fertile districts and fine rivers of Eastern Europe that we now draw our greatest and most inexhaustible supply. In 1841, when the total imports of wheat into this kingdom were 2,400,000 quarters, only 230,000 quarters^, or about one-tenth, came from Russia, Turkey, or the Mediterranean. In 1852 the total import of wheat (exclusive of flour) was about 3,200,000 quarters, of which 1,700,000 -quarters came from the ports of those countries, and taking the nhole import of corn at 6,750,000 quarters, the supply from the East was 3,350,000 quarters. Of this quantity a large proportion is shipped at Galatz and Ibraila and other Turkish' portf, which are the natural channels for the abundant produce of Hungary, and of "the fertile provinces south' of the Danube. Egypt alio sent us in 18J2 no less, than 272,000* quarters in 143 vessels, M. Mongredien points out that this large and increasing trade is almost exclusively in the hands of Greek merchants established in England, with branch houses iri the Levant, and that the ingenuity and perseverance of tht Greeks are displayed to an extraordinary degree by the manner in which they have contrived, in about thirty years, to found and retain .this -extensive commerce. The Greek firms in England amount to about 200, and the yearly amount of their transactions in the grain trade alone, is computed at no less than fonr millions.. Their business is conducted with the utmost diligence and exactness, and even in this" conn fry the Greeks successfully compete with the traders in corn from all parts of the world. These facts, to which we cursorily , advert, suffice to show that this country has now in the Levant interests of » far more direct and serious importance than an abstract desire to prolong the existence of a barbarous system of government which i» called the Turkish Empire, or than the mere dread of the dissolution of that unwieldy body. With the utmost political caducity, with a total want of ability and integrity in the men who are still its rulers, with a declining Mussulman population and an exhausted treasury, the Porte unites, as if by way of derisory contrast, a dominion over some of the most fertile regions, the finest ports, and the most enter-, prising and ingenious people of Southern Europe* Indeed, the -signs of vitality still susceptible in its ports and cities are mainly attributable to the commercial energy of the mercantile population in their transactions with other countries. Bat. whenever, as is every day more probable, the feeble remains of Turkish military and political authority give way before any shock from within or from without, it is of essential consequence

to our own interests that the connexion which has gradually been formed by the exchange of the produce of the East for our manufacture* should not be impaired. This point, and the maintenance of a free communication by the present orerland route to India, are two conside* rations upon which this country will continue;, under all circumstances and at all hazards, to lay the greatest stress. It is scarcely necessary to add that if ever a change fa roar able to civilization and 'good government should be brought about in the East, both these points are susceptible of incalculable augmentations and improve* ment ; and although the present generation may not live to see it, we have no doubt that trade and traffic will one day overthrow the military despotism of the Turkish invasion, and restore to our fai h and our manners those territories which were the finest provinces of the Roman Empire and the first scenes of Christianity itself- Mahometan barbarism has hung over them far een* turies like a curse, though even under the yoke of Turkish Pashas the native population has retained, to a large extent, its faith, and its energy. It is hard to comprehend how so great a positive evil can have been so long defended by politicians as a relative good ; and, though we are not insensible to the difficulties attending any change in the territories of so huge an empire, we are' disposed to view with satisfaction, rather than with alarm, the approach of a period when it will be impossible to prolong the domination of such a Government as that of the Porte over such a couutry as that which is now subject to itsauthority. Perhaps that period is less distant than is commonly supposed ; and it may be the part of wise statesmen to provide against snch a conjuncture, which it is beyond their power indefinitely to postpone. We do not believe, and we do not mean to imply, that any combination of Russia and Austria- hostile to the territorial claims of the Ottoman Empire is now in existence, or is likely to be formed without the knowledge of other European Powers. Neither, of course, is any weight to be attached to the rumour that a treaty or any otber v sort of engagement has been entered into by this country with France to defend Turkey against the possibility of aggression. The Court of Austria has, on the contrary, given positive assurances that its views are pacific and its policy towards the Turkish Empire unchanged. But at the same time, Count Leiningen's mission to Constantinople has not 1 yet been crowned with success, and the active operations of Oraer Pasha again&t the Montenegrin! are, unhappily, resumed. The French papers state that Prince Menschikoff has just left St. Petersburgh upon an important mission, accompanied by a son of the Principal Minister for Foreign Affairs ; but they profess their ignorance of the object of this mission, confined to so great a personage. We have strong ground to believe that Prince Menschikoff is sent from St. Petersburgh to Constantinople upon a special embassy, for the express purpose of declaring, in the name of the Emperor Nicholas, that as the Head of the Greek Church, be cannot submit,. or allow the Eastern Church to submit, to the conditions of the firman recently obtained by the French Ambassador with reference to the Holy Shrines in the Holy Land ; and, if this be the case, it would seem that the negotiations opened between Russia and France on this subject have led to no result. But the occurrence of these extraordinary missions, these movements of troops on the frontiers, and these reiterated demands on' the Divan, show a state of uneasiness which is not devoid of peri). There is a growing opinion that the present state of Turkey cannot be perpetuated or even much prolonged. The Empire exists, in fact, only by the forbearance and mutual jealousies of the great European Powers, and its dissolution would not be the overthrow of an independent State so much as the emancipation of- whole nations and races of oppressed and tributary subjects. Yet., by a strange paradox* it would seem as if those politicians who profess on- all other occasions the greatest eagerness for the independence and progress of nations less free than we are ourselves are reconciled to consign the provinces and possessions of the Ottoman Empire to perpetual servitude. In this doubtful stat« of affairs in the East it would seem to be the best policy and the duty of this country narrowly to watch the course of events, and though we do nothing to accelerate the approaching catastrophe, to be prepared, whenever it does come, to act with vigour. The East is the granary of Europe, and we are already more extensively interested in its trade than any other country. We cannot, therefore, negltct every opportunity to sustain our political influence in that portion: of the globe at the tame height as our mercantile transactions.