Constitutional Whig

To the Editor of the N. Y. American.

In asserting that foreign vessels are not permitted to export Sugar and Coffee from the British West India Colonies, your correspondent, Mercator, displays a degree of ignorance on the subject, which should have prevented his communication from obtaining a place in your columns, particularly considering that its object is evidently to create feelings of animosity towards a country, both the Government and people of which have evinced the most friendly disposition towards those of the United States.

The acts of Parliament of 1825 (Sec 6, Chap. 4,) permit the free exportation, in foreign vessels, of the produce of the North American and West India Colonies, without a single exception, to any part of the world out of the dominions of Great Britain; and if American ships are admitted to the benefits of these acts, they will be at liberty to export any description of produce or merchandize, which they can procure in the Colonies, to any foreign country whatever.

For example: they may clear out with a cargo of Canadian flour, German linens and French wines, or a cargo of Jamaica sugar, Caracas cocoa and Mexican dyewoods, for the Hanse Towns, without payment of duty.

I am anxious, on this question, to avoid giving offense to any one, or renewing discussions which, now that the matter is likely to be definitively settled, could only have the effect of producing angry feelings, without leading to any beneficial result; but I cannot help remarking, that the very insertion of such a communication, as the one above referred to, sufficiently accounts for the many mistakes which have, from time to time, appeared in the American, in the discussions on the Colonial question. I remain, Sir, yours respectfully,

A FRIEND OF TRUTH.