The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-06-01 00:00:00

Mmlaaion 4+.

The Samna Pitts. commenced publishing yesterday mom.
ing at half.paat eve o'clock.
LONDON. THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 18245.

The French Papers received last night are barren of
intelligence. We make the following extracts from the
k.toile of Tuesday
[From the Etolk, dated Tuesday, May 30.]

MADRID, MAY la.
Several mal-practices having taken place in the employment of
the funds destined to the maintenance of the Royal Volunteers have
led to a decision that their management shall be no longer con-
fided to the civil officers of such corps, as hitherto, but to the War
Department only, which, in concert with the Inspector-General of

those troops, shall make the distribution of the sums required.

VALLADOLID, MAY 12.

Merino el Royo, Cuevillos, Zabala, and other Guerilla Chiefs,
have come all at once to this city, where they have been received
with great festivities by General Longa, Governor of the Province;
and by the Es-Intendant, Peres. The inhubitants of this city
ascribe only to their name the truly royal reception which has been
given to them.

Ltsnov, MAY 13.

The Newton, English packet-boat, has arrived here in 91 days
from Rio de Janeiro, and in 49 from Bahia, where it stopped 17
days. It brings despatches from Sir Charles Stuart to the British
Ambassador at this Court. It was said that his Majesty would be
back at Rio de Janeiro by March 25.

PARIS, MAY 29.
The acoounts from Trieste say that the news of the fall of Mil.
solonghi hai excited the most profound affliction in the lonian
Islands, where that place was already considered as an advanced
post of European civilization.

The Greek fleet is gone to the Archipelago, whither it is sup-
posed that It will be followed by the Capitan Pachs, who has sailed
towards the south. Ibrahim is gone to Tripotins, whence he will
proceed against Napoli di Romania; and the Seraskier is commis-
sioned to make himself master rf Corinth. Discord still reigns
among the Greeks, who are potted up with pride at the appearance
of success, and reduced to despair at each disappointment. It is
feared that that unhappy country, without order and without go-
vernment, will soon fall into complete anarchy.
There is no truth in the assertion which we find in a Journal,
that the Duke dcl Infantado has tendered his resignation.
FIIENCH FUNT/11.—PARIS, MAY 29.—Five per Cents. 91If.
gilt. ; Three per Cents. 8.5 f. SOc. ; Bank Stock, 201.5 f.; Rentea de
Naples, 741.41 k. ; Royal Spanish Loan. 46i. Exchange on Lon.
don—One month, 2u., toc. 4 Them Jdooths, 2U. 300.-...Csar•
A mthcutique.

The Session is now terminated, and we MO at liberty to
look back to its commencement, in order to Patna it with
its termination. All the hopes of Parliamentary opposition
to Ministers, which were indulged at the outset by the few
who still continue adverse to the measures of Adtninistra-
Lion, have been completely falsified by every division which
has taken place during its continuance. Wee have seen, in
the case of the Salk Trade, a clamour ra:aed against Minis-
ters, biSth in Parliament and out of doors, which nothing
but the conviction of possessing upright motives and sound
principles could have enabled them to withstand, and
eventually to overcome.

A similar clamour has recently been raised by another
class of the community. The Shipowners, it seems, feel
aggrieved by the alterations in the Navigation Laws.
These gentlemen, like other advocates for monopoly, are
desirous that the principle of free trade should be tried on
every branch but their own. They argue, plausibly enough,
that the prosperity of the shipping interest ought to be se-
cured at all hazards in this country. But they make one
very important mistake in their reasoning. They state the
question as if it were merely whether they should or should
not enjoy the exclusive privilege-of carrying goods both
for home and foreign consumption; but the real ques-
tion is, simply, whether they shall consent to make a
compromise with foreign countries, and thus preserve

a large portion of the trade of the world ; or whether
by continuing our restrictive enactments, and thus pro-
voking similat:' measures in other States, they shall lose by
their obstinacy by far the greater part of our foreign trade,
both carrying and direct? If the Navigation Laws are cal-
' culated to secure advantages to this country, these laws
must be equally advantageous to other countries, and con-
sequently other countries must desire to adopt them, as
they already have in some measure done. The result
would be the annihilation of our carrying trade; and if it
be admitted by the Shipowners that they cannot contend
with some foreign nations, in point of cheapness, in import-
ing goods from other foreign nations, it surely will not be
denied by them, that it is utterly itnpossihle for them to
contend with these :aces in supplying their own market
with our productions, or in carrying their productions to
other countries. We admit here, for the sake of our argu-
ment, that the Shipowners are right in affirming that they
could not contend, in point of cheapness, with these na-
tions; but it may be well to observe by the way, that we
deny that this is the case. The admission, in the mean
time, shows very clearly the inconsistency of their argu-
ment►.

Now if these nations possess such advantages in
cheapness over us, these advantages would not be con-
fined to the case of carrying their own productions to
this and other countries, but would be equally useful
in enabling them to carry goods from all other nations
whatever into this country. This will appear by the
following argument. On what principle, we would ask,
aro we to determine that a vessel belongs to the
United States ? North America contains people from
ill quarters among her citizens, and she may man her
vessels with the natives of every corner of the globe,
who would still continue to be her citizens, or if not her
'cititens before, might agree afterwards to become so. Thus
we cannot determine the country to which the vessel be-
longs by its crew, in this case at least. The manner in
which the Spanish trade with its colonies was formerly car-
ried on will chew bow easy it is to conceal the real owners
of vessels. The circumstance of a vessel's being built

in a country could not be made the distinguishing mark
in such a case; for an American merchant, by purchasing
an English-built vessel, might then trade on the same
footing as an English merchant. Thus, neither the dis-
tinction of crew, owner, nor building, could supply a dif-
ference sufficiently marked to prevent the participation of
other nations in our trade, in spite of the Navigation Laws;
nor could all these distinctions united prevent the contra-
vention of the spirit of these laws; for the crew and the
owner might be Englishmen, though American citizens,
and the vessel might be English built, though belotiging
to an American. It cannot, then, be the Navigation Laws
that have prevented the destruction of our trade.
The continuation of the restrictive laws on shipping
would not therefore prevent the effects of the commercial
enterprise of foreigners; but the establishment of restrictive
laws in other countries would be highly injurious to this

country. The cause of the alarm of our Shipowners is the
difficulty of contending with foreigners, from the higher
wages of labour in this country, whether employed in
building or navigating the vessels. If our Shipowners
wished to engage in the carrying trade of other countries,
after these countries had adopted restrictive laws, they
would be obliged to employ foreign-built vessels and fo-
reign crews ; and their prosperity would then become
almost as detrimental to us, as it "mold be productive of all
the evils which can be apprehended from the increase of

sailors in foreign countries. If we really cannot contend in
cheapness with foreigners, to pursue any measures which
would induce them to retaliate, would be only to precipitate
a result which, if we had come to the same conchs-
Rion as these gentlemen have done, we must consider to be
quite inevitable.
Our commercial eminence does not depend on our
Navigation Laws, but on the situation and circumstances of
the country, which renders it necessary to draw supplies
from countries beyond sea, and to repay them by the pro-
ducts of our own soil or industry. America, from similar
causes, must become a great commercial state, and we
must be content to participate with her in her commercial
advantages. It is perhaps in some measure an advantage
in this respect to stand in need of supplies from foreign

countries; because it obliges us to exert our industry at
home, to be enabled to obtain these foreign commodities.
The free-trade system encourages our navigation in this
very way—by producing more wants, and more capacity
of producing exchangeable commodities. When naviga-
tion and commerce are under no restrictions, men naturally
go to the market from which goods can be brought at the
cheapest rate. Some countries are more favourable for
one species of produce, and other countries for other species.
If no jealousies interfered, each country would select for
cultivation that species of produce in preference, which it
could raise with most advantage. Large tracts, therefore,
instead of being parcelled out for a thousand different pro-
ductions, would be devoted entirely to a single commodity
Other commodities would be brought from the different
quarters where they could be raised with the most facility,
in most abundance, and consequently most cheaply. The
effects of this, in increasing navigation, need hardly be
commented upon : this is the very principle upon which
all commerce is founded; and those who argue that the
commercial principles of Mr. !lust; rssoN tend to render us
dependent on foreign countries, might as well object to the
system by which one man is rendered dependent on another
in common life.

If the Navigation Laws prevent us from procuring arti-
cles by the cheapest possible conveyance, they restrain the
liberty of trade as much as if duties were laid on them ;
and in so far they encourage the raising of commodities in
our own country, which might be more advantageously
produced in other countries. And not only does this coarse
diminish our imports, but it diminishes equally our ex-
ports; for, by inducing us to raise commodities for which
our country is not adapted, it prevents us from raising
others which might be furnished in much greater abun-
dance, for the purpose of exportation. 'We maintain,
further, that sailors and ships are one species of pro-
duce (if we may be allowed so to express ourselves)
for which this country is peculiarly adapted: nature has
made us a maritime people ; and if it had not been so,
all the Navigation Laws that ever were or could be in.
vented would not have prevented our losing our commerce
!Ong ago. The Shipowners themselves have furnished us
with the best proof of this, as may be deduced from the
argument in the outset of this article. Our people living
near the coast have an inclination for a sea life, which will
always produce sailors, if there is a supply of exports and
a want of imports to give the means of employing them.
At, allusion was made by the Shipowners to the Corn
Laws, as preventive- them from being able to contend with
foreigners. In this respect Shipowners have the least rea-
son to complain of any class of the community ; for they
have it in their power to supply, and they do actually in many
cues supply, their sailors with provisions from foreign court-

--- -
tries, while the wages of labourers in other departments
must be proportioned to the price of the corn rtquirtd
to support themselves as well as sheir families at home.

CITY, IVEDXTSDAY Exxattwo.
The price of Consols for the Account all day has been
; but
there has been almost a total abaence of business.
In the Foreign Market the settlement has been scarcely noticed,
en
few transactions for time now take place ; and the quotations hare
barely varied a shade, in any of the Securities, from those of me,.
day, excepting in Russian Bonds, which have advanced from 701 t,
81. This advance is attributed to the speculatmv, who sold largely on
the prospect of • war between the Cabinet of St. Petersburdb and
the Porte, being unable to deliver their Stock.

It is said that the merchants who have claims on the Spunisit
Government are becoming impatient at not having received any ea.
tiafactory communication re►ative to their debts. It is rumoured
that a remonstrance will immediately be made to Government
again on the subject.