CHAPTER VII.
A PETITION.
Petition from the Manufacturers of Candles, Wax-Lights, Lamps, Chandeliers, Reflectors, Snuffers, Extinguishers; and from the Producers of Tallow, Oil, Resin, Petroleum, Kerosene, Alcohol, and generally of every thing used for lights.
"_To the Honorable the Senators and Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled._ "GENTLEMEN:--You are in the right way: you reject abstract theories; abundance, cheapness, concerns you little.

You are entirely occupied with the interest of the producer, whom you are anxious to free from foreign competition.

In a word, you wish to secure the _national market_ to _national labor_.
"We come now to offer you an admirable opportunity for the application of your--what shall we say?
your theory?
no, nothing is more deceiving than theory--your doctrine?
your system?
your principle?
But you do not like doctrines; you hold systems in horror; and, as for principles, you declare that there are no such things in political economy.

We will say, then, your practice; your practice without theory, and without principle.
"We are subjected to the intolerable competition of a FOREIGN RIVAL, who enjoys, it would seem, such superior facilities for the production of light, that he is enabled to _inundate_ our _national market_ at so exceedingly reduced a price, that, the moment he makes his appearance, he draws off all custom from us; and thus an important branch of American industry, with all its innumerable ramifications, is suddenly reduced to a state of complete stagnation.

This rival, who is no other than the sun, carries on so bitter a war against us, that we have every reason to believe that he has been excited to this course by our perfidious cousins, the Britishers.