The National Register.
London, England, 1808-01-10 00:00:00

A'

-

Duterifisheries, as far as that covid

from the British market ; but we have takeikstasiadvantagwei
this dtmiuutinn for tie increase of our own ItOrries.._ That pro
viOon hid' prohibits even British ships from importini; re:-
taillt articles, unless front the eruntry.where they.are produced.
has 2184 an etuially limited operation in behalf: of our shipping :
li`boi merely obliged us to go direct to Franco *or Risen; for
the rospectlve produce of these countries, itwtead ofgoing to ar
interriediate depot in Holland for them, a step witirk.urely, it
ii,*unlikely our merchants should ever be inclined to take. We
extent conceive that a single vessel Os been added to the Bri.
tish shipping, by a regulation evidently superfluous and saga-
to v.

Tv only one of thete provisions, then, which eon have eon-
s itierah! y effected our shipping, is that which prohibits the imm
por;ati en of certain ar&les front the country in which they are
litudact- d, twiess in the vcs-els of that country or in British yes
Put while the manufactures of Britain continue to he I-.
-c=t demand with almost every nation, it is evident that the
ptstig of every country, which cats be spared from its own
trade, will have More temptation to bring its produce
t". great Britain and receive her goods is return, than to any in-
• -) • nation which might afterwards re-export them
• : a., i the British vessels, when they can carry out a sale-
clrgo of theit own goods, w ill always be able to brie,
7.-4,-,r'T-xetistethe produce of.
_the country to which they trade
• • :p as any other' nation. This is sufficient to chew how
timittd must be 'the effect of this regulation of the Na-
.:ion Act is increasing oar shipping: tint the argu-
-ne wilt be still more unanswerable when we shew how little '
'the maritime commerce, either of our own, or of other cowl-
trtez, ems be affected by the whole (lass of its provisions.
.We shall first lake example from the trade of France. Before
the war. in the )ear 1792, while we were still at peace with
that power, the whole vessels emploved in our trade with
France, that entered inward', or cleared outwards, amounted ti
3,101, carrying 217,165 tons. Of these only 2,708, carr,ine
198,857., were British; and this latter number eadd alone be af-
fee.ed by our navigation laws, as these laws were then in fall
force. Bu: the number of vessels emplo.ed in the coasting trate
of Franc•e, that entered inwards, or cleared outwards in the rear
ISO:, amounte.l to 50,1+20, carry in 14190;318 tons ; and
this traffic Lot a single vessel or ton could, even in--t-he event of
1t -ice, he .1 ducted our navigation laws. This example may
s'iew how little eaves they have in dimini'hing tbe shipping of
fore; ot nations; and we have equal proof of their insignificanco
la itterea, cur own.

From co.omerce of the port of London, to Nt Melt all the
Last tAiln commerce, and the greater part of our foreign com-
merce in general is conve ell, an estimate may be farmed of the
proporttun between the extent of that portion of our ship-
hich cAn be tartled by the regulations which we ha• e
stated, and that portion which- cannot. By a statement made
Up Wm the public accounts of the port of London, it appear.
thn:,.'theistimberitf vesitels which transported the commerce t f
liar bt riOltdivii 'for :the. yenr • l 798, amounted to 13,444,
'Carry ink .:117116,9111"t0ng,t Aof these, 10,495 sesselS, tarry ini;
klite.em*pitrieig in the co:icing trade, and mat
• 0,146, Cattr:tiittie6S6,l-4Stotts;'ta irotif war foreign anti roioaini
t ' ltfiitber Wed: .thie kingdom*, the' proportion must I,e
cull grea:tel. ti favottrtof -tale .coaLatiiigt frisk L and we may heat,
Olaf the whole ship itic;'4i3ittia could posriby
:Vde• ted by those regd.lbw* oftenkr...Naatioation law., w
`ie. hive:4lo,Mo; diwasiedi data opt aanstint to above a tw en-
tiet tliirtietg poi of Onzaintitinse trade.. •

Whieb'ron peaitxty.a*rtatsowrefritling a part of
eot.,mveree insry: tsrl!i•be-toasWeredliss;nnnetevklry, and as
Antwatiubs nationisLi
proof* by no means doubtful,
flow, so tau from ditoiuiebing

t:: qa,

KA-writ A, _
T,th•.Att • irttif.

No. H.

j(-)

:tat shipping, wasid wet eyes potent its usual course of
lipientfoir. awing thiClast war, the necessity of our affairs cow-
.pe4ed ui to relax. onr satriga4lo4.-laisa in a degree hitherto un-
known since limit. enactment : for these famous laws,are cairn-
kited for times of peace, when we need 60 increase of our naval
power? but cannot he enforced In the time of war, when we need
;:tich haat depriving our commerce of all that vast Bal
.indispentable•pretnelitsn which it derives from neutral flags. But
daring the relaxation which we have mentioned, what was
orrequence ? A tricanniticn of our shipping and seamen? No--
a prodigious increase even under the most diFadiantrtgetais cii-
eun*tances, And vv hen the tie was every lure to foreigners from
the high price °four native freightage. In the year I7V, the
number of sailors an board British vessels, according"to the re-
ttrus made to Parliament, anwuntell I 18,I8f1. In ‘42, the
amber of rnen empln3ed in our maritime trade was greater by
between twenty and thirty thousand. Yet iu the spat atlf the
,intersCning ten years, a nune.,er of seamen, rl 'naps one hail
r-Oure than the whole of those emplo)ed in our navigation Ti

. _ .
1112. had been transferred falai the merehouit vessels to the nav\ ;
far in 1801, the compliment of tho British navy, in spite of its
numerous losses, amounted to 150,000 men, During the same:
period, there were added to the British merchant shipping nia
less than MS vessels, carrying 385,1,93 tons. What can ho a.
tstronger demanstrattonsof utter inaliffereme to our naval domi-
nion, of repealing those provisions ofthe Navigation l.a s which
we have hitherto colaidered ?
A few observations only will be requisite in regard to t!aa
other provisions, by which ice secure to ourselVes the es (lasi it: ~.
possession of our Coasting and Colonial Trade. As far as re.
later to our Coasting Trade, the regulations are wholly super..
litmus. No nation, after having at all enraged in canumercial
affairs, has ever been supplanted in its own coasting trade : the
Dutch, at the period when this Deeree of Exclusion ptas to
scarcely carried on any part of oars ; and indeed not even tr
most timid entertain any apprehension of our coast jag trade tic:.
snatched out of our hands.
As to our Colonial Trade the argnment is much mare latria:. ,
! ..
though by no means less conclusive. The spirited renionstran....
of the Jamaica planters against this part of the Navigation Lay
Ole &stresses of al! our West Indian Colonies,. which canon!
i)e alleviated by the?r repeal, must call the. attention of tile
Legisiatare aml the ratios: ta this !nib:ice', sw after Parliaintatt
m ;assebles; and we shall, thereiore, take an early opportanifi
if giving our readers as fall and satisfactory an explanation of
it, as much observation and reflection enable as to do.

REVIEW OF POLITICAL II k:CLA I NIERS.

VIE MORNING efutomcl.r.

It is a circumstance little honourable to the cl:orheter of t 373
Nation, though very expressive of the selfish sn.?,.icity of oar
political faction!, that each of them retains in' its interest. two;
or more nowspapers, for the purpose of promoting Its Own 1e:417
among the people. It is the business of the paper that ..ctainc,f
.0 act on all occasions as the devoted tool of its fact:e.o :
vyerse the views, the measures, the ircy private charucters of
their political opponents, whether, in reality* goo.l or bad;
io erect, on the ruined reputation of their antagonists,, in-
.31ushiag trophies to its own patrons. A person imarquainfed
ith this system of political iniquity 'would find it difficult to
believe that men capable of thinking, of 'writing, of feeling,
could be found base enough to prsstitute their talents, their
honour, their conscience* to the ig,nominoiis task of poisouiog
the minds of their conntrymeitty deliberate falsehoods ; of feed-
ing the shameless vanity of their potions at the ex peace of truth
or 'Tatou wad of ::ill more diihanousably fsiastint, by tvanda'

.; . • • pfratisiergt
ard
. uoi, have
a• •
•
1 -4N114-
4
4 N., • =
‘044