Star. — London, England, 1826-05-13 00:00:00

S ...-,;' . 'ARY PROCEEDINGS. ik HOUSE OF LORDS, MAT IS. The Mar** of CAMDENNented Petitions from Maidstone rlptsr d the Pastern parts of „Kent, igainst any alteration in the Corn laid on the table. Noble MarquDi then presented Petitions from Islington, ientith Town, Clerkenwell, Holloway, and the Trustees of the Camden Town Road, against the Metropolis Road liill.—Laid on the table. The Duke of NEWCASTLE presented similar Petitions from the Parish of St. John's Hackney, and from those of Mary-la bonne and Kilborn.— La id on the table. The Duke of MON'PROSE held a Petition from the Bankers. Merchants, and Inhabitants, of the City of Glasgow, connected with the West Indies, complaining of the losses which they had sustained, and the unsettled state of property in the Colonies, in consequence of the measures in contemplation for the emancipation, of slaves. He should move that the Petition be read at full length, in order that their Lordships should know what the Pei. Omen conceived might be adopted for their relief. At the same time, he should not pledge himself to support their wishes. unless the measures which shbtrld be proposed should appear to him likely to prove really injurious to their interests.—Tbe Petition was then read and laid on the table. The LORD CHANCELLOR said he had a similar Pethion to present from the City of Edinburgh, and akhough every man wished to see a termination put to Slavery, he was one of those who thought such an event could only be brought about by a course of gradual and temperate measures ; and he also thought that the de sited end was delayed by the intemperance of some of those who advocated the abolition of Slavery. If any interference with the 1 prosperity of the Petitioners should take place, he did not think it consistent with British justice to overlook their claims, which merely asked for a compensation for any losses which they might sustain. The Petition lives then laid on the table. Lord REDRSDA LE supported the Petitions. Lord CALTHOR PE said, the best answer would be that con tained in a Petiion he - had then to present from Northallertom— The Petitions charged the Abolitionists with a rash intention to accomplish Emancipation suddenly. In the Petitions he had to present in favour of Emancipation, the prayer was for gradual Abo lition of Savory. The Noble Lord accordutgly presented Petitions against Shivery from Northallerton. West Auckland, Nantwich, and Hastings. —The above were read and laid on the table. On the Order of the Day for going into a Cunurtittee on the Metropolis Road Bill, Lord DAC R E proposed to refer the Oil to a Select Committee, for the purpose of having it made less objectionable. A ctwiversatioss then ensued upon the provisions and effect of the Rill.—The Marquis of Comm-the Earl of Eases Lord Emma soaoucst,the Loan CSIANCILLON IL Lord RZASDALII and Lord Ross ism, were the speakers. The Marquis of CAMDEN finally consented to the proposition, and the Rill was referred to a Private Committee. Mr. Wot.t.su, from the Office of Woods and Forests, and Land Revenue, presented the Fifth Report of the Commissioners. Mr. &ILIA& also presented the Second Report of the Commis sioners for building Churches in the Highlands of Scotland.—laid on the table. On the motion of the Earl of finarissanar, the House adjourned to Wednesday neat. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Lord STANLEY presented a Petition front several Importers of Butter of the town of Bolton, in Lancashire, against any altera tion of the laws relating to the importation of Butter.—Referred to the Committee on the Irish Butter Bill. Mr. lIIUM E presented a Petition from the Romah Catholics of Preston, praying for Catholic Emancipation. Ordered to be printed. Mr: J. SMITH moved for a Return of the number of sallow of Whiskey, distilled from wash in Ireland and Scotland, from the 10:h of OctOber. 1824, to 10th of October. 1895.—Ordered. Mr. M. F ITZGERALD wished to know from the Honour able Secretary of the Colonial l)epartment, if he were aware of a mmtt libellous work, which was calculated to throw great public odium on a Committee of the House, which bad beets appointed for one of the best purposes of humanity. This work stated that • ompulsory measures were resorted to, to force the poorer class to emigrate, which assertion was grossly false. lie was only doing his duty in drawing the attention of the Honourable Secretary to the subject. Mr. W I !MOT- H °ETON said. he bad seen various statements to that effect, in the various newspapers, and was convinced they were fabricated fcr the purpose of preventing emigration from this cotintry. He felt assured, however, that when the evidence of that enettosittee, against which such foul aspersions had been cast. was before the public, it would completely allay any angry feeling that might have arisen from these insinuations against the Committee. On the motion of the Lord Awesemm, the Report of the Scotch Rankers' Bill was taken into consideration. _ _ -- - - - The Bill and Amendments were agreed to, and after a few oh serrations from Mr. T. P. Gamer Mr. P. Moose, and the LORD ADVOCATE, the Bill was ordtred t o be read a third time on Thurs- day next. Mr. HUME presented a Petition from Richard Walker, of Worth Shields, requesting as early investigation of his case before a Committee of the lions,. In the year 1513, he proceeded to Lisbon in his skip, and ott recount of a violation of his manifesto, by landing within two days of the time specified therein, his ship and cargo had been confiscated. He had repeatedly applied to the different (Aces under Gnvernment, to interfere in his ease, and as r peatedly had been un•uccerdul in his applications. He now humbly solicited the House to examine the merits of before a Committee of the House.—Ordered to be printed. ALRHOU H LICENNINO NULL. On the motion of Mr. Etereourr, the Report of the Committee on the Alehouse Necrosis; Bill was brought up by Colonel Wood. Mr. HUME moved a clause to the following effect—" that an adjourned !dotting be held every 15th d.ty after the general hem sing day to grant licenses to those victualkrs who had been pre. vested attending on that day, but that no house be licensed on such day. without it had been pre v.ously licensed." Mr. ESTCOUItT opposed the clause, on the ground that there was a Obese to the ante effect. Sir T. Bases and Mr. Alderman Woos supported the clause, and cited a caters( severe hareWrip ander the present Bill. Mr. A DIMLY oboerved, that the case which the clause was calculated to remedy was so hard that be was surprised at the op. position it met with. The generality of these victuallers bad been is the service of Gentlemen, and bad embarked aU their fortune in establishing thent,elvers In this lint of business. By the present Bill a victualler might be ruined in a single day, because (perhaps from illness) he aid not attend on the hiensing day. After a few observations in support of the clause from Mr. Miesscs4 the House divided, when there appeared— Fur the Cl.use Against it • • Majority • • RoYAL COLL.rag or SURGKONS. . VI . 40 . -12 Mr. STUART WORTLEY presented a Petition from several Menthets of the College of Surgeons, complaining of their exclusion float the enjoyment of certain privil• ges wf ich had been granted them by a provision of Government. In the year 1799, Govern. ment had purchased from the executors of the late Mr. John Hunter his valuable Museum, consisting of the finest specimens of human ani cbmparative anatomy, and had also granted the sum of 3.0001. to erect a building for its reception in Lincoln's Inn-fieldt. This purchase hid been made for the purpose of encouraging the stu.ty of asedkine, but the ends of Government had been defeated by the manner In which the present Company. (instituted under a charter of Parliament) confined the days of admission to the Museum to a very limited nut:Weer. It was against this nuisance more particularly than any ether, that the present Petition had been drawn up. Air. MIME supported the Petition • the complaints, he said. were toed and nunneries, and he truste d that the !louse would, in the course of nest Session, appoint a Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of the College, when he was convinced, from all be had heard es the subject. that there would be found more causes of complaint than the one which formed the subject of the Petition. Mr. W. SMITH did net wish to oppose the bringing up of the Petition, but merely wished to inform the House that the Museum was kept in the best possible order, and title the Gentlemen who had the care of the Museum and the College did not wish to con ceal from the public the manner is which the money of the esta blishment was disposed at. After a few observations from Alr. 8. Wourrzxv and Mr. P. gluoaa.the Petition was laid on the table, and ordered tube printed. Sir It. K N ATC II BU LL presented a Petition from a parish in the county of Kent, against any alteration of the Corn Laws.— Ordered to he relied. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER moved a Com snittae of the (Inuit on the Bill for the Importation of Corn. Colinel WOOD rose to move his Amendment. lie bad already stated the tenor of his amendment and therefore would not trouble the Mouse with any further observations. if. did not desire to make; speech, and he would smnd still, therefore, or go on, just as to the discretion of the House might seem meet advisable. Mr. CA LCRA FT advised the Honourable Member to stand still. It would be better that Ministers bad the whole responsibi lity of the present measures, and there would then, in all prohabi. thy, be an after occasion, in which they could come forward with additional power. Sir H. PARNELL thought it better to make no further oppo sition at this time. Colonel WOOD said, as it seemed to be the general Wish of the House that he should not proceed, he certainly would not—( Hear). In reference to his own opinion. be must again state, that it wasps-, changed. It was not he who shrunk from the question. Lord MILTON was happy to find his Hon. Friend ' declined moving his Amendment, which would d asht• less have excited a long and useless discussion. He,, however. thought the mode of proceeding rather singu lar. Those opposed to the measure abstained from presenting their opposition, because they thought they should fight their battle better by not moving their Amendment than by moving it: Whether this would he the case he could not say ; but let the Amendment be moved or nor, he thought it necessary to guard hirnsrlf from being included amongst those who thought 655. a fair import price. After a remission of 27,000,0001. of taxes, all must acknowledge that 6;;s. was a far greater price now than 80s. was in 1815. If the with holding opposition was any generosity on the part of the agricultural interest, he had no objection to it; but if it was with a view to getting better ter ms—if it was only meant as a re , serve for some future and more auspicious occasion, he begged en reject the boon. He was happy to observe that there was no ins port price to be tacked to this Bill : and that the duty was nut to exceed that fixed by Act 3. Geo. IV. lie approved of Ibis, because they would, in all probability, be taken as the foundation of any after Bill, and-they might be axed too high. Mr. CALCRA E T was Sony his Noble )friend should throw out his taunting observations on the representa tions of a par;icular interest in that House. With every disposition to forbeisr, they could hardly sometimes be borne patiently. They had n' desire to fight a better battle, nor did they for themselves want better terms. He was not a stickler for high pikes, but on the eon. Itrary, one who thought 655. or 70f. the highest price that corn ought to t be allowed to attain. He repeated, that the landed gentlemen of England did not deserve the taunts of his Noble Friend. He was for a free trade in corn, with a protecting duty. He said with a pro tecting duty, for we welt in th ,t sophisticated state— the natural consequence of baring to pay sixty millioise of taxes— that we could not have free trade on the same terms as in other countries where they are not taxed so highly. He did entreat his Noble Friend to spare his reflections ; they cut deeply, into the feelings of a class of persons whom he knew his Noble Friend would be the last designedly to wound. Lord MILTON said, he di.claimed any intention of offending any Hou. Members : but he must say there WAS no class of men who had a right to hold themselves so high as to be als.ive observations on their conduct. The whole, argument, as far as he understood it, in , favour of the Corn Laws, was grounded on their being for the benefit of the lan led interest. When he List spoke on this question, on the motion of the Hon. Member for Bridgeoorth (Mr. T. Whitmore) he thought our consumption ought to be confined to our own pro duce. He had since then changed his opinion; for he now thought we ought to enact an import price. But his Hon. Friends contended fora remunerating price, and by re munerating price, they meant that which would secure ample rents to the landholder and profit to the farmer.—(Cries orf " No, no," answered by cries of" Yes, yes !")—lf they did not mean this, what did they mean? He had a high respect foe the landed interest, bet, he must repeat, he bad a right to observe on their conduct. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, he' had hoped that there would not have been any lengthened discussion at this stage of the business. He trusted that the personal course, which looked very like an angry discussion of the Corn Laws, would not be pursued. Mr. CA LCRAFT said, his Noble Friend had observed, there was no class so high as to be retitled to an exemption from having its conduct eisservedupon. He (Mr. C.) would say, dm, was no class so low as not to defend itself when attacked. The whole law had referred to a remunerating price. He could tell the Noble Lord what was the remuneration to which the farmer looked ; he was saddled with three per cent. on his purchase money, and lye per cent. on the capital be expended on his land. It must be admitted that this was a lower remunerating price than could con tent most other classes of the community. Mr. W. L. MABERLY thought it was Imperative of Parlia ment to defend the Agricultural Interest. The cause of those evil which were apprehended to ensue to the Agricultural interest could be very distinctly traced to the impolitic enactment of those laws which enforced the cultivation of the poor lands of the country ; a cultivation which was Witness to the interests of the community, since it necessarily tended to create a fluctuation In the Market. Captain Id ABRRLY considered the measure, as It now stood, more objectionable than formerly, because it had attempted to fix that which ought not to be Axed or limited. Mr. NI ABERLY hoped same pledge would be given to the House that the Corn Laws would be Ltally settled early in the next Session. Culunel WOOD said his sentiments on this BiL were unchanged. There he was with his amendment ready in his pocket—(a laugh) and Ms speech all prepared, at least such as he could make on the subject. He would not have shrunk from making the amendment be had contemplated, had he not discovered that the House did net even now seem disposed to bear him. IA laugh). After a few words from Mr. Baton; Mr. Tame, Sir Wu. ISOILIT, and Mr. BIIMILLZT PORTMAN, the clauses were agreed to, and the Report ordered to be received on Wednesday. SONO= CORN MAL. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER moved that the Bonded Corn and bnpottation of Corn BiU s►ould be committed. Mr. BENETT, after a few words, moved as an Amendment, that the Bill should be referred to a Com mittee of the whole House, in order to consider of the amount of duty to be levieJ on the Corn now in Bond. In the course of his speech he took occasion to observe that this, though an attempt to relieve the lower, and particularly the manufacturing classes. must fail of ever reaching them in the way of lowering the price of bread; and that the only persons bone- Acted would be a set of gambling speculators in the Corn Market. He pledged himself to divide the House on the Amendment. Mr. HUSKISSON regretted that the Hon. Member should have permitted himself, in the warmth of his ob,ervations on a subject particularly interesting to himself, to have stigmatized a set of ♦ery respectable persons as gambling speculators, whose only offence was that they de .1t in corn like any other merchants in any other article, not prohibited by law, from whence they expected to derive an advantage. This was the more objectionable as applied to them, because in fairness the H4.n. Member should take into account that the greater part of this corn had bees in bond, or embargoed he might say, ever since 1522. The price of foreign corn at Rotterdam at the period when this mea , ute was list introduced was above Sss. per quarter, and if to that were added the expenses of shipping, carriage, unload ing, and warehousing, it would be soon seen that, with out taking into consideration any deduction by the loss of interest In consequence of being unable to sell their corn, there could be but a moderate profit on corn imported by them poisons who had been so very harshly characterized by the Hon. Member for Wilt shire. Three parties also were now compelled to bring out all this, cern between this and the 15th of August, or hose their chance of disposing of it. Under these circumstances it was coo much to contend that a duty of 17s. should be levied on this corn, which was alter all only set at Minty to suit the rirposes of the public, and prevent scarcity. Mr. BARING, if be thought the difference of 601 duty would ever be allowed to reach or relieve the wet king classes, or lower the 'Nice of breai, would not throw any interruption in the way et the Right Hon. Gentleman, except perhAps to move that the duty should be lowered instead of being entreated. But the idea teat a mistwiti that any one would reap it) , benefit from it except the speculatota in corn. At the present prices_ abroad, corn court be imported and warehoused hem at 475. which corn, considering the price it woultf fetch here, must yield the dealers in cern a very large profit. This article, in his mind, could, bear a higher duty, and 201. 17s. or cer tainly 13s. would leave a vety fair profit still to the dealer, and he should strongly advocate the 17s. duty, beciuse he thought it would at all times afford a fair profit, and secure us a very abundant supply for all purposes. Mr. HUAKISSON read the extract of a letter, to prove that Corn, on the Ist of May, the day this measure was introduced, bore no higher price at Rotterdam than 354. Id. . Mr. ELLICE. was apprehensive of the consequences of a Axed high rate of duty. The real subject of alarm was that hereafter, at no distant day, we should be obliged to give a bounty to encourage the importation, instead of Axing duties to circumscribe our supply. In proportion to the restriction of the currency the pike of Corn must be reduced to the price of all other relative articles of value, and especially articles of general consumption. Mr. F. WILSON wished the Hop. Member for Taunton to re collect that the House bad already tampered with the Corn Laws, by the resolution lately passed, and thus interfered with the ordi nary supply through the corn dealers, on their own account: The higher duties now suggested he must object to, because he was sa tisfied that Government had pursued the safest and soundest prin ciple, and adopted the most prudent rate of duty. Mr. W. W 11 I rAIO ILK said, it would be highly imprudent to fur ther limit the supply of foreign corn to this country by higher duties. Mr. MONCK justified the conduct of Government, in thus adopting the lower rate of duty, and be trusted the measure would be accompanied by another equally desirable, and be was sure equally efficacious mode of reaching the distresses hut too general out of doors, namely, the reduction of taxation generally. Mr. BENET l', in explanation, disclaimed any intention of wounding •the feelings of that respectable class of our mercantile men, who traded boa fi de in corn ; his observations were only sp. plicable to those selfish persons who turned even public scarcity and distress to their advantage, by upholding exorbitant prices. The Gallery was then cleared amidst cries of " Question." The House, however, dial not divide. On our readmission to the Gallery, the House was in a Committee on the Bill, and Mr. HUSK MON explaining to the Committee, that, in this arrangement for letting out the bonded corn, they must take into the account that a considerable portion of this corn, by lying so long, was not adapted for general purposes, but only fit for being made into starch and other inferior purposes. The rest did not exceed 210,000 quarters; there were 227 quarters also of oats, which were about equal to the quantity that came into this country from foreign ports in the last year. There was also a very small quan tity of barley. In answer to a few observations from Sir Joux Batmen and Mr. CIIIATLIS, Mr. HUSKISSON observed that a great part of the supply of food distributed to the distressed manufacturers of Manchester at present consisted of oatmeal—( Hear.) The clause for fixing the duty at Its. was then agreed to. Mr. STANLEY ruse to propose the amendment of which he had given notice on a former evening. The . object of his mction was to effect only a change in the law, corresponding precisely to the redress of the evil complained of. The evil this law was intended to re dress was only felt by a small portion of the populati"n, and that principally in a limited district. The impor tation of 500,000 quarter: of wheat must lower the price of corn, and proportionably that of ether articles, neces sary for human subsistence throughout all classes. It was desirable to restrict the boon. To make this mea sure for releasing the bonded corn available, to relieve the distress in those districts in particular, he would therefore move as an Amendment- 4 That en a certificate, signed by three Members of any Committee, acting for the relief of the present distress, that beaded corn had been bought by them for that purpose, the corn so bought should be, on application to his Majesty's Treasury, exempted from all duty whatever, and the' sum so saved by the remission of duty should be applied to the fur ther relief of distress in these districts." )Jr. HUS K I SSO N said, if a precedent was established of taking of the duty on foreign corn u a relief to distressed manufacturers, it must lead to most embarr assing results, and would lead the people to look on the Corn Laws u the cause of their distress. There was distress at present all over the manufacturing districts of England and Scotland, and to make the proposed relief general, Committees should be allowed to purchase corn in all places, and pay them a SUM equal to the duty that was to be remitted on the purchase of foreign corn. He was confident that he could find agricultural districts in which the poor-rate was fourfold what it was in any town in Lancashire. • Sir JOHN WHOTTESLY said, he had not met any person from the manufacturing counties who did not think that the pre sent distress was, in a great degree, caused by the measures taken for changing the currency ; and he was afraid the consequence of that measure must be to Increase the distress. Theduty on the bonded corn, howev-r, formed a fund of 41100,000 which Parlia ment might apply to the relief of the general distress. Mr. PEEL thought it would tend to cast a stigma on the tax on corn if it were to be applied at present to the relief of the mane facturers who would be led to suppose it had been the -cause of their sufferings. Mr. BARING said, an extreme case should be made out before he would consent to an application of the public money for the relief cf local distress. General GASCOYNE said, that general principles were against affording this kind of relief, but general principles were equally opposed to the discretionary power about to be conferred upon Ministers. He thought the same emergency which justified one measure would fully vindicate the other. Mr. STANLEY withdrew his clause. _ _ _ Ti. House resumed, the Report WAS brought up, sad ordered to be received on Wednesday. Mr. ARBUTHNOT obtained leave to bring in a Bill for Im proving the pavement of certain parts of Westminster. Mr. BRIGHT, in moving that the Report of the Debtor and Creditor Arrangement Bill be brought up, said that he would at the third reading of the Bill move to add a clause, by way of rider, to extend its provialons to Ireland.—'llse Report was then received, and the Bill ',Meted to be read a third time on Wednesday. Mr. A RBUTIINOT brought In the Westminster Pavement Improvement Bill, which, after a few words from Mr. liens, was read a first and second time, and ordered to be committed on Wednesday next. Mr. HUSKISSON moved that the House at its rising do ad journ till Wednesday next. Mr. HUSK ISSON moved for a return of the quantities of Fo reign Grain of every description imported Into this country up to the Ist May s 11126. SRITISPI COMMIBRCL Mr. HUSKTSSON rose, pursuant to notice, to move' for a return of the number of ships built in the British dominions between the years 1814 and 1325, both inclu sive; distinguishing the number in each year, ani the amount of their tonnage. In bringing forward this motion, it was, he observed, very important to learn, whether the trade of the country. after the alterations that had been made in our commercial system, was in such a state as to give employmeut to the whole of our shipping, or whether those alterations had operated prejudicially to the shipping interest. The Hon. Mem ber for Gi :impound (Mr. Robertson) had, in certain oracular statem..nts, from time to time, foreboded the ruin of that interest. Those denunciations—whe her from the toile of mystery in which they were delivered, or from any other adventitious circumstance—did not, at the moment, make any considerable impression either in that House or through the country. But recently there had been a variety of Petitions presented from per 'sons connected with the poi is of London, and fr ern se veral other important places, setting forth their appre hension that the shipping of the country was in 4 state of decay, and that the security of the empire WAS, in consequence, likely to be undermined. When such im pressions had been made in quarters where the opinion expressed, ill far at the obset cations of the indivi duals went, was of great imp(); tance, lie trusted that it did not requite any apology on his part, if he claimed the attention of the House to 1 5 subject of such deep interest, cnnisected as it was with the maritilie power and greatness of the country. (Hear, hear.) — lit should be obliged. in order to make the subject in telligible, to etrer upon particular and minute. details ; but the importance of the object wis sock, that he felt no apology could be necessary for doing so. The object of our policy had been two-fold : Ist, To cOoain as great an increase to our own commerce and navigation as *as practicable ; and, 2.11 y, to prevent any other State from engrossing too huge a share of the carrying trade of the world. In pursuance of these objects, we had refused to every nation the privilege of importing to this country any goods the produce of a third Power, and confined to each Power the carrying trade of its own produce, in order to produce a certain equ rlity in the division of the carrying trade, sold to prevent any inor dinate proportion of that trade from being engrossed by' any one Power ; and in order also that we might secure to oorselves the benefit of the carrying trade in every case where the commercial marine of the nation with which we traded was deficient or inactive. When he steted that the great object of our policy was to procure and support a great commercial marine, he might safely state, that riff laws or regulations could acco nplish this, without we had employment for shipping, or, in other words, tittles, we possessed the advantage of a great national commerce. Without this, laws or regulations could be of no avail. Whatever, therefore, tended to extend commerce, must tend also to the increase of navigation, for commerce and navigation were inseparably int-rwoven. He knew that this principle was subject to modifications. He knew that the principle:: r f free trade, most wholesome in their ge nes tendency, were yet subject to restrictions. He knew that the interests of commerce were subord.nate to the interests of navigation, if in any instance they could be separated. Our preference to the interests of naviga tion was founded upon the first law of every state, upon tl - e strong 14w of political necessity. This preference aas d.ctated to us by the necess i ty of maintaining our ascendancy upon the ocean, without which we could no longer hold that proud station amongst the nati .ns of the world which had hitherto been ours—( Hear.) — Having thus set himself right with the House—having thus admitted that where conflict could be supposed to etist the interests of navigation were entitled to the preference over every other national interest, he must be permitted to say, that any thing tending to cramp commerce beyond the necessity was injurious, not to commerce only, but also to navigation itself. The questions then they had to consider were simply thee, whether the alterations which had taken place had ex posed these great national interests to jeopardy or hazard; whether they had so operated to the prejudice of any particular part of the shipping interest as to en title it to special or peculiar consideration ; and thirdly,. whether the alterations had been adopted gratuitiously. or whether the state of circumstances had not been such as to render them necessary with a view to avoid still greater inconvenience? He would now attempt to trace an outline of the system upon which our navigation laws were founded. The Act of the 12th of Charles H. was the great charter of our navigation. Its pro visions might be classed under five heads. The first head was that which related to the fisheries. It was enacted that all the property of the ocean, consumed by this country, should he obtained by the industry of our own people. This provision was so obviously just and wise, that no alteration had been made in it, nor was any contemplated. The second was that which g ye the coasting trade of the country exclusi , ely to our own shipping. At the time when this Act was passed, it ap plied only to England ; subsequent events had extended its operation to Scotland and Ireland. Every man would agree that, under this important head,no alteration ought 1 to be - attempted. This valuable monop. ly now remained in the possession of our own commercial mar ine,and must remain, so long as we wish to support our maritime sra premacy. The third head related to our commercial rrt tercourte with the European nations. The ships of every State of Europe were permitted to bring any articles, the produce of such State, or any other produce actu.ily shipped in such sta . e, excepting Holland, of which he' would dry a word by and bye, and with the excepti of certain a: tides, which were known under the denn atination of enumerated articles. The articles e generally of a bulky description, and could be brought only in oritish ships, or in the ship of the State ac tually producing them. Such was our maritime law with respect to Europe generally. It was, however, s mess ha. more rigorous with regard to Holland. The , system was devised, not only with a view to promote our owns direct interest, but under feelings of national jealousy, and with a desire to check the advancement of our maritime rivals the Moth ; the articles accordingly which they were interdicted from conveying were the most numerous. The fourth head comprehended our intercourse with Asia, Africa, and America. The produce of these quarters of the globe could only be brought in Bri tish ships and only from the particular qu suer, 0111Kiitrillg cacti quarter as a tingle country, where it was actually produced.— The fifth head was that by which we sought to avail ourselves of the uttoon advantages which could arise from our own colonies. They were prohibited from sending any part or their producions anywhere except to this country, or in any other way than in our ships, and they were equally prohibited from receiving anything except from us sad in our ships. This was a fair statement of the system, and from the 1 ith of Charles the Second to the peace of 1783, it has not been in any degree invaded. But agr at change if circumstances had since taken place, and the woe of tl:e American war had rendered it necessary materially to Miring'', upon that system. In the year a 757, that war brwic not which/ was generally known by the AIMo of the Seven Years War. France and Spain at that time made war in support of their co lonial claims. The stake involved in the contest was that of colonial supremacy, and It was won by British valour and skill. It was signa lised by the capture of the liavannah, and Kai:bout attained to fhe undisputed rank of mistress of the colouial possessions of the Wyatt rn world. After the seven years war* became the object of our policy to enforce more rigidly and jealously than before, if it were possible, our navigation law. livery attempt made by the New England colonies to evade the existing restrictions and to extend their ' - merce, was met by new regulations ; such, fur Instance, as that which compelled them to come to this country for every thing they wasted; such as that which provided that if a ship from New England was stranded on the coast of Ireland, for Ireland was then treated as a colony, they should send to this country for a ship to . convey whatever portion of the cargo might be preserved. If the conduct of th!s country had been more prudent and less jealous, the American war might probably have been avoided. Ile knew that tae right of taxation was the ostensible and declared ground of the war ; but if they looked to the events between 1763 and 73, it would appear that the mine was already charged, and the train laid by a per severance in petty vexations; and that when the explosion at length took place, it was principally because the minds of the colomus had keen long in a state calculated to produce it. This war was a disastrous one, and we were compelled to conclude it by a humiliating peace, such a peace as, he hoped, the Biitish Crown would never again have to submit to. Then after having submitted to tire foreign enemy, this country found itself compelled to capitulate with the Palialnent of Ireland. Ireland then obtained all she claimed, and was put upon the footing of a part of the empire. The peace with America rendered a change of our Navigation Law indispensable. The peace of 1783, although it bad silenced the din of arms, had not extinguished the feelings of hostility, and it had created 4.r fos tered the spirit of comntercial rivalry and independence oil the part of the Americans. Previous to the Congress, which did nut as semble till the year 1787, each separate state legislated in the spirit of hostility to England, and with a seal proportioned t its sense of interest or its lettings of exasperation. lii souse of the states we were prevented front trading altogether. In others our cumnirt er was charged with heavy duties. They laid a tax upon the ehtry of every British ship of half a dollar, which was attet wards rats, .1 1., a dollar, more than upon their own. They likewise inapost d a dote of ten per ct. on goods, if imported in any tithes than their own Milo. It was obvious to how great a degree these oseasures must have no , :- hated against the Interco's anise navigation. The Board of 1 c Abe of that day adopt.:ci v.,1 tous i• rejects to coui.ttract this nosenta. 016 li Ti A `