The internal affairs of the Union arc not in so
satisfactory a con- dition. The Revenue and Tariff Bill had passed into law. Two previous bills were vetoed by the President, because they directed that the proceeds of the sale of public lands should be distributed among the several States ; and the actual expiry of the act regu- lating the import-duties could not induce him to waive his opposi- tion. The clause to which he objected was thrown overboard, to save the revenue, and all the evil consequences which would have resulted from the duties being continuously levied under an ex- pired law ; and the President assented to the bill. Its provisions are not favourable to this country ; the duties which it imposes being protective to the extent, in sumo instances, of prohibition : but the measure is regarded as merely temporary, and likely to be annulled under the next shifting of parties. The way for us, who 'set the example of protection and "breed it on the Ame- ricans in self-defence, to promote the repeal of the injurious tariff, is to encourage the admission of American produce— in fact, to reverse the action of the engine under whose pres- sure the Americans move. Senators from the Western States opposed the bill ; and a direct appeal from England to the West and South of the Union could not fail to obtain the response of an eager acceptance of our manufactures in exchange for their agri- cultural produce. We must enable them to be our auxiliaries in a grand division of employments—not rivals in a particular branch of commerce, which, if undertaken by both, becomes pro tanto _profitable to neither. A fresh "excitement" was anticipated from a new law to regu- late the election of members of Congress in the several States; -which, although to our notions, as induced by the practice of the House of Commons, a strict exercise of Parliamentary right, is re- el rded by many in the Union as an infringement of State rights. This question, and some other matters, promise to break the tedium which the Republicans might otherwise feel at the cessation of the ." questions" with England which have fed the popular taste for ,pungent political food.
