text:  This digression though it has led us further astray from our main object than we had contemplated will not be without its uses if it serve to correct some exaggerated notions which prevail about the comparative valuelessness of our commerce with Russia because of its assumed entire one-sidedness--losing sight altogether of its vast consequence to the shipping interest; and of the freightage which is as much an article of commerce and profit as cottons and woollens; oblivious moreover of the great political question involved in the maintenance and aggrandisement of that shipping interest which must be taken to account by the statesman and the patriot as redressing to no inconsiderable extent the adverse action of unfriendly tariffs