The Sun.
London, England, 1806-05-27 00:00:00

OF THE

11.1P-OIfWE.RS OF GREAT BRITAIN;
PETITIONERS AGAINST THE AMERICAN AID WEST
INDIA INTERCOURSE BILL.

211.1 y to; do 6.

Tiit Petitioners represent they have found,. by
experience, that the:frequent Suspensions of the Na-
igation Laws of great Britain have been attended
with the most injurious consequences to themselves,
and to the other Owners of British Ships ; and that
the principles on which such Suspensions are founded,
militate, not only against the maritime, but also the
general interest of the Country, and are diredly
contrary to the spirit and the letter of the various
Statutes which have been enacted by the Legislature
for the encouragement of British Shipping ; although
it had invariably been, previous to such relaxations,
the undeviating aim of the Legislature of Great Bri-
tain to render the Commerce and Manufactures of
the Country, subservient to, and the medium of, the
increase of its Shipping.
That they .are seriously apprehensive there is an
intention to continue to suspend, and to establish a
system-of suspension, of the Navigation. Laws of
Great Britain, and to afford facilities to Neutral
Ships; which Will prOve ruinous to 'British Com-
merce, and in particular to all persons engaged in
British Shipping. .
That .from the advantages under which Foreign
Vessels are navigated, ,their Owners are enabled to
take low freights ; in consequence of which, and of
the Shipping of Great Britain and Ireland being sub-
je& to heavy imposts, duties, and other expellees,
Foreign Vessels have obtained preferences which
they before had not ; and, added to these, the. ope-
ration of the Tonnage 'Duty is highly injurious, in-
asmuch as it totally precludes those partial exports
:which used to be made ,in British Vessels to those
countries, where the balance of trade is against Eng-
land, it being imposed upon the gross tonnage of
British Ships, and not upon the adual cargo : In
consequence of Which, great advantages are derived
by Nedtral Ships which. arrive in Great Britain from
those Countries, and which generally return with
full cargoes ; being enabled, from the cheapness of
their outfit, to lay until they obtain them:
That it will be highly injurious to transfer respon-
sibility from the Governors of the British West India
Islands to Ills Majesty's Ministers in this Conntry,
who, ziot knowing the emergency, cannot judge 'of -
the necessity of admitting American, or other Neu-
tral Vessels, to trade with those Colonies, contrary
to, the provisions of the Statutes in that case made
and provided; consequently, they must delegate
tha, suspending powers to persons relieved from re-
sponsibility, and who may be, in some degree, inte-
rested in the frequency of abuse of those whole•
some Statutes. , That no necessity whatmer exists
for investing or delegating to those Governors
such authority, and no inconvenience can possibly
arise to the Planters in those Islands, except in cases
of hurricane or earthquake, by continuing the Na-
vigation Laws in force; more especially while the
GOvernors of those Islands are permitted to admit,
in cases of extraordinary necessity, Neutral Vessels'
to trade with them in contravention of those Ads:
And it is l'vell-known, that the Governors of those
Islands' have not, in any instance whatever, been
refused protection by the Legislature of the Mother
Country, for having, in cases of extraordinary ne-
cessity, violated the Navigation. Laws of Great Bri-
tain, by admitting, ni , such cases, Neutral Vessels
to trade with the West India Islands.

The Ship-owners also declare, most unequivocally,
that they are ready and desirous to have their Ships
employed -in the Trade between the American Con-
tinent and the British West India Colonies ; and that
the Wl:ping a:Great Britain and Ireland is suffi_

ci,2ut te. insure the carriage of .supplies to those
Islands at no increase of epence to the Blamer t
and, in case the whole British Empire -could not
fUrnish The article,: of supply U 1) ich are. 'wanted in
the:British West India Settlements (the contrary' of
which, however, has been proved), yet there is no
reason why those articles, from. whatever Country
they may be purchased, Should not be carried in
British Ships.
The Ship-owners do not enter into any, detail in
support of the fads before stated, or observe on the
national importance of the Shipping Interest, or
,on
its present depressed state, and the circumstances
which have occasioned it, as they believe. the same
well-known and felt; and the ultimate ruinous con-
sequences to be exPeeted from them can only be
averted by a stria, adherence to the provisions of the
Navigation Ad-, and 1-y_ atm-cling to British. Ship-
owners such facilities and scyzinty as swill at least
enable them to riavigate their Ships Upon an equal
footing with Foreigners. •
That in caie'any doubts should continue to exist
as to the truth and correctness of their statements
respeding the present depressed state of the Ship-
ping Interest 'of this Country, they earnestly entreat
that an investigation into the actual state of the Na-
vigation and Shipping of Great Britain and Ireland
may take pike, being conscious, that the fads which
they can addUce au suipport of such statements will,
too 'truly and fully, corroborate the same.
The Ship-owners therefere trust, the 'Bill now
before Parliament, intituled, " An A& for enabling
" His Majesty in Council to permit thelmportation
" anitEkportation into -armi from His Majesty's Ter-
" ritories in the West Indies Viand Continent of South
" America, of Certain Goodc and Commodities in
" Neutral, Ships itytime of War," •pass into
a law ; •and that• the several Acts of Parliament
enaCted.for the prote&ion of the,Trade and Naviga-
yiVt'i of Great Britain and, Ireland will be strictly en-
forced in future; and that such Laws as authorised
the suspension of them will be discontinued, and
hot renewed.

The Ship-owners are..seriously apprchensive.that
this Bill will be attended with very injurious, con-
sequences to them, and to- the Country in. general,
if it is passed into a law without any inquiry on the
subjea. No evidence has been:adduced in the sup-
port of it, although certain facts are alledged in the
preamble, and which, it is conceived, ought to be
substantiated by evidence, in the usual manner, be-
fore a Committee, in-order-to-ascertain the real, not
imaginary, necessity for it; besides, -the several Pe-
titioners agiiinst the /11l do not admit such allega-
tions to be true, and offer to bring evidence to show
the contrtry. _There has not been :for many years
-a subjea of higher .importance before the Legisla-
ture than The measure in question, which is to
`suspend, for the, first time, by a Legislative Act, the
operation of one of the most beneficial and politic
laws ever devised by human wisdom ; the glorious
results of which have been contemplated with won-
der and astonishment by all the world ; and which
all other maritime Powers, particularly America, are.
at this time most-sedulously emulating by the en-
couragement they afford to their Shipping, in pre-
ference to their commerce and manufactures; indeed
they wisely follow the footsteps of our ancestors,
who did not, for any purpose, either of revenue or
of political accommodation to other States, depart
from the stria principle of those laws, but took spe,
cial care. that we carried on our own Trade in our
own Ships ; and who, invariably, made the com-
merce of this Country the medium of.the increase of
its Shipping. If an inquiry is instituted on this sub-
jecq, it is apprehended a- most lamentable *hue will
he produced of the decrease of Ship-building in
%Great Britain—of -the depreciation in the value Of
Shipping, and of the want of adequate employment
for them generally. It will ben appear manifest
that there is an absolute necessity for confining to
British bottoms the whole of the Colonial Trade,
and of excluding Neutrals frbm it, and of reclaiming
that most necessary principle, that all supplies, _from
whatever country they come„ shall , be conveyed to
the West India Settlements in British Ships. •

The Ship-owners beg. leave-to -court the public
attention to the Reports of the Board of/Trade in
1784 and 1791, now-re-printing; and they are con-
vinced they will satisfaelorily shew the inexpediency,
and, indeed, the impolicy, of.the pn:sent measure.
The Ship-owners rely- with firmness on - the pa-
triotistn of. the Legislature; and that 'the present
Bill will not pass, into a law without a previous and
stria inquiry on the subje&, for it will atfea, by its
operation, not only His Majesty's Navy—the Landed
Interest=—the Manufklurmo- Interests—and all the
various brandies of Trade dependent on Shipping;
but will, in its result, prove ruinous to all persons
engaged in British Shipping, without aiding or in-.
creasing in any manner the Revenue of the Country.

That a ". Knowledge of a disease is half its
cure," is aila 'adage which Lever was, more. fully
verified than in the Venereal Disease, which, Pro-
teus like, 'assumes so many different forms, that it
requires no small portion of experience and know-
ledge to distinguish 'some of its symptoms from
oilier complaints, and to apply with . efficacy- stich
remedies as will produce a radical cure without
undermining the constitution. The A4ti-Impeti-
gin6, or Solomon's Drops, is the long sought for re
medy for all its stages, when Mercury or Antimony,
Nitrous Acid, and Other Medicines so fashionable
of lute, prove abortive. These Drops proVe of the
highest. utility in all cases of " depraved habit, with
atfeaions of the skin;" hence its efficacy in cases
.of Scurvy, Scrofula, or Leprosy, as well as: in. the
contirmed Liles and hence by its sanative power it
expels the virus out of the, system, and restores it
to convalescence when impaired by disease, or the
deleterious preparationSof Mercury, Antimony, and
Aquafortis. This sovereign remedy may .now be
had of all reputable Venders of Genuine Medi-
cines throughout the United Kintrdom, in half-
guinea and 3as. family bottles, containing four lesser
ones.

- Saturday, the mysterious business of the child
with two mothers, underwent another examination
at the. Thames Police Office, when 1\:Ir. and Mrs,
Hopkins, (one of the reputed mothers) Mrs. /lop-
kins' s mother, Mrs. Wells, a Midwife, arid another,
were held to bail, to answer a charge of conspiracy
at the next Middlesex 'Session's, preferred by the
other maternal claiinant,

0 11? D

. .
• Oh. Saturday last, at Lamb Abbey Kent "the Lady of
Dr. tYrme.
The same day, at Bristol llot Wells, of a conSurup:lou;
Mr. Theodore Deai:on, youngest son -of r.irs. Deacon, of
Milk-street.

Yesterday morning, at his hsuse in Hill-street, Berke.ey—
square, {.-K. Typte, Esq..atZed69:
• Lately, at her house in Koss-shire, Lady Munro, widow
of Sir Harry Munro, Bart. of Fowlis.

LONDONkMARKETS, Ecc.

RETURN OF WHEAT IN-MA-RK-LANE,
By Messrs. CKILD A P A 4N1e,11 Weighers,
Including' only from the mill of MAy to the 170 i of _May,
agrecAnty to the new Att.
at. 9.5 i. od 4uo Quart.-vs at Sts ati
at .g.t.s od Ito ---- At SIS
at ges ---= at Sos nd
at Rigs od 17. - at figs
at BSs 6<t 303
at SSs ocl 9S - at 76s ra
at t7s od SS

II Quarters
27

260 --
'2oo
542
i 7 8
9s —_-.

Bgss od
at 4s od
at od

79
34
at. ,
643 cd.
49 At 633 mi
Mrs at 61s,

at 82s 6d
And po Qua
.Total Oio Quarters
2s. qd. lower t

;.—AVerage 7gs. 31d..
han last ltetutn.