Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-03-04 00:00:00

our shipping in any wise

especially guarded against
stated in the house, during the brief ..discus
sion to which the motion for inquiry gave
rise, that the Liverpool shipowners did not de-
mand that Parliament should adopt a re-
trograde legislation—they only asked that
they should not - be placed in a disadvan-
tageous position as' regarded the foreign
shipowners. That is to say, that their shipping
should not be subjected to burthens and restrictions,
from which foreign shipping is free. DoUbtless„
it is also to be complained of that, as the same
hon. member observed, there is such an utter
absence of that reciprocity on the part of foreign
nations to which our more liberal measures so
fairly entitle us. But this evil cannot be reme-
died by legislation, without departing from the
great principle of maritime and commercial
freedom that has been adopted ; and- this
Committee of Inquiry has been assented
to, on the part of the Government, .on the
clear understanding that that question was not to
be opened. It was distinctly stated, on the part
of the Government, that they would have resisted
the appointment of the Committee if it had been-
intended that it should involve any question of the
repeal of the Navigation Laws ; and. the setting

aside of an attempt to carry an amendment, for,
the Committee to inquire further into the opera-
tion of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, the
Merchant Shipping Amendment Act, 1855, the
Passengers Act, 1865, and the Chinese Passengers•
Act, 1855, was upon the ground that it was most

inexpedient to go into• the general question of the
liberal policy that has been adopted..
It gave confidence, no doubt, to. the House,.
when called upon to entertain this: motion for
inquiry, that it was brought forward by an• hon..
member (Mr. LINDSAY) who is himself largely-
connected with the -.Shipping Interest, and is , the'
representative, moreover, of a shipping consti-
tuency ; and hiS argument, that if within the last.;
few years. foreign shipping had. increased in ru
greater proportion than our own, yet the lattor
had increased in a greater proportion than ever it:
did before ; that the comparison should: be' not.
with foreign nations, but with our own, and that
the depression of the Shipping Interest was due,
to other causes, could not fail to satisfy the.
House, that it was with no covert design of attack-
ing, or in. any way impugning„, the present
Navigation Laws, but simply with the object of
ascertaining what are the undue restrictions, and
oppressive burthens
.to which British Shipping
is now subject, with the view to. their removal.

Still it was contended by Mr. LAB:OM/ERE and
others, that with every readiness to remove any
real disadvantage of which there might be
just reason to complain, it must not be supposed
that the British shipowner was in a position which
prevented him from a fair competition with the
foreigner ; and the opinions expressed by two
other former Presidents of the Board of Trade,
Mr. CARDWELL and Mr. H.E.NLEY,—the one, to the
effect that although the inquiry ought to be as
full as possible, yet that rA, )st of the evil was
beyond the reach of legislation, and that too much
must not be expected from it; the other, that such
inquiry should be confined to the burthens. on
British Shipping, and on no account touch on the
general policy of the Navigation Laws ; combined
to show that where there have been the best oppor-
tunities of learning officially and practically the
operation of those laws, there exists the most reso-
lute opposition to their being in anywise interfered
with.

It is understood we believe that the inquiry will
be immediately gone into by the Committee, and
it will be for the Shipping Interest, therefore, to
bring forward all the evidence they can, if the
complaints they have to make be well -founded.
With them it must rust to prove their case—as
doubtless they are prepared to do ; and having
done so, there can be no reason to apprehend