From the Mercantile Gazette
As Published in The New York Times
December 6, 1852

Labrador
( From the Mercantile Gazette)

Our readers, in common with ourselves, no doubt have always believed, until the late notices by our contemporaries appeared, that the Labrador coast was as nearly a wilderness, and as entirely barren and desolate, as any place might be, which was from time to time visited by a few Esquimaux and fur traders. We were surprised to learn the faces set forth in a petition lately presented to Parliament by Mr. Matthew H. Warren, representing that the petitioner has a large mercantile establishment on the coast of Labrador, where he, and many others, import goods, the produce of Canada, which pay no duties; that Labrador has a sea coast of more than a thousand miles; is frequented during the summer season by more than twenty thousand persons; has a resident population of over ten thousand, who import all the provisions they consume, and who export the produce of that country to the amount of 800,000 Lbs to 1,000,000 Lbs annually; that a large and increasing trade (which the United States now almost monopolize) would be done with Labrador, were it not for the imposition of duties by the Colony, on the produce of that country.

The petitioner, therefore, prays that, while the produce of Canada is admitted into Labrador free of duty, the produce of that country may be admitted into Canada on the same terms.

This trade gives employment to about 150 vessels from the United States, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. We do not suppose there will be one dissentient voice to an immediate concurrence in the prayer of the foregoing petition. The Herald suggested sometime ago, that our Board of Trade should look into the matter, and urge, the adoption of free intercourse with Labrador, upon out Provincial Government. The recess in the season will give them an opportunity to do so. We feel somewhat ashamed that our merchants have allowed our American neighbors to take the lead of them in this trade.