the buffaloes on the Platte, about 350 miles from the white settlements; and from that time lived on buffaloes, the quantity being infinitely beyond what we needed. On the 4th of August, the wagons being in the mean time loaded with the furs which had been previously taken, we set out on the return to St. Louis. All the high points of the mountains then in view were white with snow; but the passes, and valleys, and all the level country, were green with grass. Our route back was over the same ground nearly as in going out, and we arrived at St. Louis on the 10th of October, bringing back the ten wagons, the dearborns being left behind; four of the oxen, and the milch cow, were also brought back to the settlements in Missouri, as we did not need them for provision. Our men were all healthy during the whole time; we suffered nothing by the Indians, and had no accident but the death of one man, being buried under a bank of earth that fell upon him, and another being crippled at the same time. Of the mules we lost but one by fatigue, and two horses stolen by the Kansas Indians; the grass being, along the whole route, going and coming, sufficient for the support of horses and mules. The usual weight in the wagons was about one thousand eight hundred pounds. The usual progress of the wagons was from fifteen to twenty-five miles per day. The country being almost all open, level, and prairie, the chief obstructions were ravines and creeks, the banks of which required cutting down; and for this purpose a few pioneers were generally kept ahead of the caravan. This is the first time that wagons ever went to the Rocky Mountains, and the ease and safety with which it was done prove the facility of communicating over-land with the Pacific ocean; the route from the Southern Pass, where the wagons stopped, to the Great Falls of the Columbia, being easier and better than on this side of the mountains, with grass enough for horses and mules, but a scarcity of game for the support of man."

The North American Fur Company, at the head of which was Mr. Astor, had hitherto confined its operations principally to the neighborhood of the great lakes, the head-waters of the Mississippi, and the lower part of the Missouri rivers. In the year 1822, it became united with another company, under the name of The Columbia Fur Company, when its operations were extended to the head-waters of the Missouri, and along the sources of the Yellow Stone. The more enterprising and successful operations of the traders at St. Louis, now stimulated this company to push their expeditions beyond the Rocky Mountains. They confined themselves, however, exclusively to the objects of trade about the waters of the Columbia, and seldom penetrated into the interior of the country. In 1832, Captain Bonneville, of the United States army, then stationed at one of the posts on our western frontier, having obtained a furlough, with some assistance from the city of New York, left Missouri for the Oregon Territory. He was accompanied with a band of about one hundred men, twenty wagons, and a number of mules and horses, laden with goods, and the necessary provisions, and utensils for hunting and trapping. He was the first who crossed the Rocky Mountains with wagons. Pursuing the usual route along the course of the Platte, he arrived at the mountains so early in the season, as to furnish the opportunity of pursuing his enterprise under the most favorable circumstances. Descending into the vale on the opposite side, he struck Lewis river near its source. He planted a station near the Colorado, where his

party were employed in trading, hunting, and trapping. Captain Bonneville made several excursions over the country, but it does not appear that he reached as far as the Pacific. After an absence of about two years, he returned again to St. Louis with the most interesting accounts of the country he had visited. At about this time, (1834,) a plan was projected by Mr. Nathaniel Wyeth, of Massachusetts, to establish a direct trade between the ports of New England and the waters of the Columbia. In prosecution of his plan, he sent a vessel to the coast, and himself made two expeditions across the continent. He erected a trading post near the confluence of the Portneuf and Lewis rivers, in the southeast corner of Oregon, which he called Fort Hall; and another at the entrance of the Wallamet into the Columbia, on Wappatoo Island, about 160 miles from the ocean. His plan was similar to that of Mr. Astor. Having observed that the waters in this region abounded in salmon, he calculated that the supply of these would be ample enough to meet all the expenses of an expedition, thus leaving a clear profit on the furs. We are indebted to the narrative of Mr. Wyeth for the most interesting and accurate account which has yet been furnished us of the nature, capabilities, and resources of Oregon. His plan for founding settlements was well contrived, and in its dawning operations bid fair to establish an enterprising American colony upon the coast of the North Pacific. The ample supplies which could have been provided to meet the demands of commercial speculation, must have led to an increase of its population, and its consequent permanency and prosperity. But the hopes which it had inspired were blasted by the hostility of the Hudson's Bay Company. The existence of this company has always been adverse to colonization in Oregon, and but one settlement has been made under its auspices, west of the Rocky Mountains. This is on the Wallamet, and is composed of low Canadians who have intermarried with the natives, and families of the half-breed. All its buildings and appliances are subordinate to the uses and interests of the company, and no inducements are held out to encourage a better class of settlers.

There is however another class of adventurers, (if we may be permitted to call them such,) whose operations are not unworthy our interested attention. The spirit of Christian philanthropy suggested the first expedition to this territory which was unconnected with any objects of trade or gain. A small band were sent out for missionary purposes by the American Baptist Society in 1832. These were followed, in 1835, by another party, under the direction of the Methodist Episcopal Society, which planted a station on the banks of the Wallamet, about seventy miles from its month. Since that time their number has been gradually increasing. It is stated in a recent report of this society, that on the ninth of October, 1839, a company of fifty persons, including adults and minors, male and female, left New York for Oregon. These included six missionaries with their wives and children; one physician, wife and child; a missionary steward, wife and two children; two farmers, wives and children; a cabinet maker; two carpenters, and a blacksmith, their wives and children; and five single female teachers. On their arrival at the station on the Wallamet, the number of settlers amounted to about sixtyeight persons. The station, it is stated in the report, was well stocked with cattle, under a fine state of cultivation, and had already become "so productive as to furnish the mission family with abundance."

The

a saw

American Board have stations at Kamiah, in the country of the Nes Perces Indians, on the Kooskoos-ke, a branch of the Lewis river; at Willatpoo, on the Walla Walla, near the great bend of the Columbia, and also on the Clear Water river. At the latter of which a printing press is in successful operation. It is said, in their last annual report, that " mill and grainmill have been put in operation at Clear Water, and a grainmill at Waületpu." Accessions have recently been made to all of these several settlements by emigrants from New York and other places, and they are generally represented to be in a very thriving and prosperous condition.

We cannot but regard these settlements as the precursors of incalculable good as regards the future prospects and condition of this territory. It is now a serious question how far its possession and settlement may be an object of interest on account of the fur trade. The extent to which it has been carried on, and the unceasing avidity with which it has been pursued, have caused the disappearance of most of the animals whose skins and furs were an object of enterprise. The Hudson's Bay Company have found it necessary to restrain the trade, at certain seasons, in order to prevent their entire extinction; and the time is probably not far distant when some other mode of employing capital in that region must be resorted to; while what is now known of the resources of the country affords but little hope of a very speedy return to any other than what has been hitherto the usual mode of investment. The further investigations of science may perhaps give greater accuracy to existing descriptions and localities, but it can develop no new sources of wealth or aggrandizement. The general characteristic features of the country are well understood. Its territory has been traversed, its rivers have been explored, and its mountains have been scaled by the chemist, the botanist, the geologist, the hunter, and the trapper; and the lover of romance and adventure has delineated the variegated attractions of its natural scenery. We must now regard it as presenting no other allurements to the adventurer than such as may be found in a rich and luxuriant soil, a temperate and salubrious climate, and vast commercial capabilities. The ordinary occupations of commerce, agriculture, trade, and manufactures, with industry, frugality, and enterprise, will yield at once an ample, and in time an affluent recompense. And what more could be desired? What more (aside from the religious principle, how much less) was it that encouraged our forefathers to encounter the sturdy forests and rigorous climate of New England? What more was it that has covered the banks of the Ohio with opulent cities, and made the valley of the Mississippi to teem with a flourishing and happy population? What more was it that has made our whole country the abode of prosperity, civilization, and refinement? They who are accustomed to estimate the progress of mankind by the slow and languid growth of ancient nations, may smile at the prediction; but let the existing difficulties be removed; let the interposition of the general government settle the claims of the United States to this territory; let it render the way thither easy and accessible, by establishing permanent posts at convenient distances on the route; let it establish a military post at the mouth of the Columbia to protect the lives, the property, and the interests of its citizens, and Oregon will soon be covered with permanent settlements, the history of whose growth and prosperity shall at least equal that of any of the states now composing our republic.

ART. III.-BRITISH IMPORT DUTIES.

CONCLUSION OF THE EVIDENCE GIVEN BEFORE THE COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON IMPORT DUTIES.* *

THE next important witness examined by the committee was James Deacon Hume, Esq., who had been in the customs thirty-eight years, and nearly eleven years afterward in the board of trade.

Mr. Hume expressed as his opinion, in speaking of the abolition of all protective duties, that no general measure could be more beneficial to the country than a removal of all protections, prohibitions, and restrictions. He could not conceive that a country exporting forty millions' worth of its industry in the year, could effectually and beneficially, for any length of time, protect any partial interest whatever. If the protection is effectual, it can only be so in consequence of the prosperity of the country arising from other means; but if the country should cease to be prosperous, in consequence of being unable to find markets abroad for this enormous amount of exportation, then the parties making those goods that had before been exported would apply themselves to the manufacture of the protected articles, and thus bring them down to their own level very quickly. Spitalfields was invaded by Manchester before it was by Lyons. During the war, and for a number of years, while the cotton trade entirely or nearly was confined to the British, there was little attempt to make silk goods in the British provincial manufacturing towns, and Spitalfields had the trade nearly to itself. But the first distresses of Spitalfields, after the war closed, arose from home competition, and not from the importation of foreign goods. During the period of total prohibition, and before Manchester adopted the manufacture, the periods of distress in Spitalfields must have arisen from changes of demand in a confined market. Manchester devoted itself to the manufacture of silk goods as soon as the cotton trade began to fail them in some degree, and the profits of the manufactories in Spitalfields were reduced. There was an interval of very considerable distress in the cotton manufacture between the high prices of the war and the settling down of the trade to its own level, and then Manchester began to think of the silk trade.

Mr. Hume, in the course of his examination, stated that he could not conceive any circumstances under which a protective duty could confer a permanent and general benefit upon the community. While it operates in favor of the party intended to be protected, it is a tax upon the community, and there is always the risk of its not being able to support itself by its own natural strength; and the protection may some day fail of keeping it up. The real question at issue is, said he, "Do we propose to serve the nation or to serve particular individuals?"

Mr. Hume was persuaded that, from all he had noticed and heard, every protection in some degree lessens the efforts of the party protected to meet his competitors in the market, and that it had, in a most peculiar degree, that operation upon the human mind. "It is rather before my own positive recollection," he said, "but in conversations long ago, with older men

* For an abstract of the report of the committee of the House of Commons, on import duties, and the evidence of John M'Gregor and John Bowring, see Merchants' Maga. zine for August and November, Vol. V. pp. 145 and 422.

in the woollen trade, I have learnt that at the time of Mr. Pitt's commercial treaty with France, the great import which came upon us was the French broadcloths. Previous to that, our own ordinary cloths were entirely protected by the prohibition of the other. They were of a uniform and very inferior character. In the first instance, the French cloths had a very great sale in this country; the habit was always to order a coat of French cloth; and no tailor thought of making out a bill without putting the words, Coat of French cloth;' and my informant assured me that that habit of so charging, lasted many years after there was scarcely a piece of French cloth come into the country. The manufacturers of this country, feeling the stimulus of a competition, soon set themselves seriously to work, to see whether they could not make cloth as good as the French; and the result has been, that, up to a certain point, short of some very exquisite productions, such as are hardly ever required in use, the English make cloths better for the price than the French do, and consequently they have retained the trade to themselves."

66

Mr. Hume believed that all foreign countries, in imposing their duties, have been led by the example of the English. They imagine that England has risen to its present state of prosperity through the system of protection, and that they have only to adopt the same system in order to succeed in a like manner. He felt the strongest confidence that if the English were to give up their protective system altogether, it would be impossible for other countries to retain theirs much longer. Hence, he would remove the British protection without any other foreign country removing theirs, and this, even without asking them. For," continued he, “I dislike treating with foreign countries upon any subject except navigation, and that for this reason, that there would be waste in the matter of carriage between different countries; it would end in the ship always going empty one way on both sides: this would be an enormous waste, from which every country would suffer in its commerce. And, again, a ship in one place is a ship in another; there is no difficulty in the comparison, but there is a difficulty in comparing one description of goods which one country makes with a totally different description made in another, and equal terms can hardly be made; but I feel quite confident if we were entirely to drop our system of protection, in a very little time it would be a race with other countries which should be first, or rather, which should avoid to be the last, to come in for the benefit of that trade which we would then open. I should make our laws according to what I deemed best, which would certainly be to give the freest possible introduction of the goods of other nations into our country, and I should leave others to take advantage of it, or not, as they thought fit. There can be no doubt that if we imported from any country any considerable quantity of goods, and the manufactures of that country were protected, the producers of those goods which we took would very soon find the great difficulty they had in getting their returns; and instead of our soliciting the governments of those countries to admit our goods, our advocates for that admission would be in the country itself; they would arise from the exporters of the goods which we received. I think that we should settle our commerce better by ourselves than by attempting to make arrangements with other countries. We make proposals to them; they do not agree to those. We then after that feel a repugnance to doing that which we ought perhaps in the first