The Express.
London, England, 1852-03-24 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY MARCH 21.

MONOPOLY in shipping is, after all, entirely aban-
doned—is altogethergiven up—by the DEitity cabinet.
It is hopeless to attempt, it is full• to think of re.
storing the navigation laws, says the l'at:wra• 'rho
policy of MIS "is not reversible —restimio nut to
retrorsum," funereally adds Mr. IlmutiEs, the man
of experience. "We never thought of such a thing,
joins in chorus the whole administration—the staple
of whose opposition talk used !o be " protection to
domestic industry of nll sorts and orders." Where.
upon, Mr. Lannuctimix, from the opposition scats,
as well he might, smiled benignantly and approv.
ingly on the penitents of the Treasury bench.

But what said Mr. G. F. l'ouNii whom lately
Lord DERBY invited to take a seat at his Bard of
Trade—what said the 'immutable member fir Scar.
borough, returned to parliament for the very purpose
of reversing the policy of ISI Di—what said this ad.
wirer of the means and measures which OLD NOLL
took to punish the Dutch in the 17th century, but
with which we only punished ourselves in the 19th
—what raid he to this announcement? The poor
man, to do him justice, seems to have beer,
sadly shocked at the immorality of his friends
evading in office the objects for which they
attained office. Notwithstanding. his fatal fluency
and the strange void that exists in his logical
faculties, Mr. YOUNG has a conscience; and it
would twinge, and tweak, and annoy him were he
to falsify all his promises after the fashion of a
Disraelite; so grave ly and deliberately he vowed a
cow :—" if it pleased Got), he pledged himself to
bring this subject under discussion in a new parlia-
ment"—and registered in heaven this practical
rebuke of his lender's treachery.
And what will the out-ports say? What will
Sunderland, and Hu:l, and Scarborough, and iVhitby,
and Yarmouth,and Poole, and Dartmouth, and all
the rest of the little seaports around our coast say
to this desertion of their supposed interests? IVltat
will they say to the distinction which the DERBY
government thus makes between one branch of
" domestic industry" and another ? What will they
think of a cabinet which seeks to raise the price of
provisions on them and their shipping fur the benefit
of the squires around them, and which has resolved
to continue their exposure to foreign competition,
involving, as that very cabinet protesses to think
their serious injury, if not their ruin ? In what
have these places been hoping against hope but in
the advent to power of Lord Dsinti and Mr. HUR-
RIES, and when the Mount Pisgah of official happi-
ness has been reached, to be treated thus, as an old
glove that has been worn and used it., indeed, hard
to bear.

And it was in the smaller ports that some of the
strength of the protectionists was supposed to lie at
the general election. The ports would, it was stated,
sympathise with the squirearchy, and render men
pledged and re-pledged to reverse the policy of
n these boroughs fret-trade candidates were, at all
events, doomed. Alas, to what end? To what use
return protectionists? Under no circumstances will
Lord DERBY lay his hands ou the law of P 415 that
is irreversible; under some he proposes to vary
the law of 161.6—that may be modified.
Let the seaports note this well and understand this
thoroughly. Lord DERBY will not, even with a
majority at his heels, restore their monopoly. But,
having the power, he will, he says, try and raise the
price of food. Suppose then that the smaller sea-
ports aid in giving him a majority, by sending men
who will vote for a tax on bread to parliament;
they will effectually injure themselves; they will
tax themselves for the benefit of the squires; they
will be increasing the disadvantages at which they
navigate their ships as compared with the foreigner;
they will realise the old saw of people biting off their
own noses to spite their faces.

And why this treachery to the shipping interest
—why summary rejection of their claims to protec-
tion when their own friends arc in power—why
this unceremonious kicking of them down stairs—
why this exception in favour of corn and sugar?
No man can doubt. Dear trade is part of the great
territorial system to which Mr. litse.extt has sold
his fine mind. Dear sugar is connected with aris-
tocratic possessions in the Vest Indies. But shipping
is low, is democratic; it is commercial; its connexion
with the landed interest was accidental only; its na-
tural alliance is with trade, with manufactures, with
free imports, with free industry, with cheapness and
abundance. No great lord owns huge fleets of mer-
chantmen' though he may possess great districts in
the tropical colonies; no selfish landlord invests his
rents in ships. They belong to the middle class—to
the class who live and flourish by enterprise, by per-
severance, by industry ; and whose rear interests arc
identical with those of the community generally.
Hence, an aristocracy-supported government cares
little for them. So little, that it will, whilst sub-
jecting them to competition, raise the cost of working
English ships.
But, even in abandoning for ever the shipping in-
terest, the DERBY government tries to deceice it
still further. In announcing that the policy of
1848 " was not reversible ;" in declaring " r,stioia
nulla retrorsum ;" Mr. HERRIES added that it was
possible to devise other means of mitigating the
present distress of shipping. No doubt it is; no
doubt that legislation can relieve British shipping of
many disadvantages. But how ? Why only by
pursuing and fully carrying out the principles of
free trade. Open our coasting trade to America, and
the Pacific ports of the United States will in return
be opened to our long voyage trade. It is by means
of the monopoly American shipping has in tts own
ports in California, that it is able to displace
British vessels in the ports of China and India,
and to bring :produce thence to this country at rates
beneath which the British shipowner can navigate
only at a loss. Lower our port charges, our local
dues, our light dues, and our pilotage dues on Enoch
shipping, and then there is some reason to hope that
England may be able to break down the principle of
the navigation which France incorporated into her
legislation from our bad example. Give to the Bri-
tish shipowner the right of manning his ships on
the cheapest terms by removing all restrictions ou
the nationality of the labour he mar employ.;
give him the right freely to rival him4;lf
of that cheap labour which constitutes the real power
of his labour; remove that spirit of combination to
which he is especially subjected; improve the cha-
racter of British seamen by protecting them from
plunder, and by punishing their insubordination ; do
away with the premium held out by the royal luny
for sailors to desert in foreign ports; abolish alto-
gether the oppressive burthen of salvage; reduce the
present enorinous amounts of consular fees to which
our marine is subjected, and from other excessive con-
sular demands for trifling services; and abandon all
duty on the row material of shipping—timber.
Above all, persevere in our general free-trade police;
prove by its practical results on the fortunes of the
nation that it is beneficial; give up at once and for
ever all intention of reversing or modifying
it, and nation after notion will follow the good
example we have set them, just as centuries ago
they did the bad example ; and at last, in the course
of time, our mercantile marine will be found in every
foreign port, and our shipping be confessedly
the cheapest, the best, and the swiftest in the world.
If these are the means by which Mr. BERRIE., prO•
poses to mitigate the distresses of British shipping.
in them, he will, at all events, have the support of
the free-trade party : for these are their proPo''''
tions, these their remedies. But when such plans
of relief have been brought forward of late year. in
parliament, where then was Mr. llEttlites ; what
support did he then give to such propositions ; and
how can a protectionist have any real faith
t
plans now ?
Protection in British shipping is, however, heaven
be praised, dead and gone for ever' We are. it
seems, to continue to be entitled .o go to the chi:west
carriers for the transit of our commodities. Whur
then, will prevent us going to the cheapest market
to buy our sugar and our bread ? in such