The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-08 00:00:00

Lerd BROUGHAM, in rising to address their Lord-
, ships, was ineouished to have heard of its being said, net
many hours ago, that he, who had all along teen a sup-
' porter of free. trade, should now turn hie beck urn and
refuse to aid in pueing the crown open the last pillar of
its triunaehs. He gleried in the core-pest referred to—
he gloried in having obtained that moral triumph of
what he believed to be the seundest principles of pert-
deal ehilesophy, and over the Most groundless preju-
dices by which its progress was ever attempted to be
obstructed. But if there were any 'one drop in that cup of
eride which was more sweet and palatable to him, it was
the recollection that the most eminent statesmea had
given up 'Lar prejudices against free trade, and had
j. fined him in carry ing the repeal of the corn-laws. He
hoped that after the long voyage their Lordships had
among the dry details of statistics, and which it was
their lute to continue somewhat longer, though not
under the able and enlightened guidance of his Noble
Frio-id (the Mai quis of Lansdowne), they would excuse
him if he would resist the °ppm tunity of enlivening the
sut...ifet', for one moment, by what long experience in
that deliberative assembly Lad proved to him to be mere
interesting than any, however important, statistical
question.—(flour, hear.) But he must first positively
veny the assertion that that was a question of free
trade, or that the navigetiote laws had any rt of con-
nexion with it, fur some of their Lordships considered
that this measure was a miserable fragment of free
trade. He would ask, who was the leader of the
great free-trade principle? Who was the eminent
apostle of that doctrine? Whose work was it that
constituted as it were the Sciiptural volume of authority
for all free traders and all political economists of • that
sett& ol ? Beyond all question, the great apostle of free
trade was Ac am Stui h, the author of " The Wealth of
Nations." And yet Adam Smith declared that as opu-
lence was less important than defence, the navigation-
laws were the wisest of the commercial regulations of
England.—(Hear, hear.) Washington, the revered
founder of the: American. constitution, and the father
of American freedom, signalised his entrance into office,
at the end of the American war, by a statement of the
ebsolute necessity of America's taking measures, by the
enneuragement of the American and the discourage-
ment of foreign shipping, for securing a maritime
ascendancy in weir own ports.—(Fleur, hear.) Again,
Maddistin, who on many questions differed from Wash-
ington, signalised his administration by the adoption of
that course of policy which the navigation-jaws had
sanctioned in this country. His argument was, that
although such a policy might lead to some financial
loss, or to some commercial restrictions, it was right
that the interests of the revenue and of commerce should
yield to the higher object of national security. lie
(Lord Brougham) had also to state that it was the doc-
trine of Mr. Iluskisson—whose opinions upon that sub-
ject had been so misunderstood—that where com-
merce and marine came into antagonism, com-
merce shou'd yield, as it was neon our marine that
the safety of the country mainly- depended.—(Hear,
hear.) His Noble Ft iend had told them that it appeared
from " Pcpye' Diary" that the navigation-laws had
been found to have failed fifteen years after their nnact-
went. But it was not the navigation-laws that had led
at that period to the decline of our marine. The fact
was that Charles 11. had not maintained his navy in a
state of efficiency from a want of the funds necessary for
that purpose, or from a want of a desire to devote the
funds at his disposal to the construction of ships or the
payment of able seamen. His Noble Friend, in the
course of his argument, had embarked in a sea of
fieures ; but he (Lord Brougham) believed that his
N Jble Friend could not emberk on a more dangerous
voyage than by launching out upon the great ocean of
statistics in the good ship " Board of Trade, G. E.
Porter, master."—(A laugh.) Indeed he feared that in
such a voyage the shipwreck of his Neble Friend was all
but inevitatee. During the whole of his experience,
from the year 1808 to 1812, in 1817, its 1824, and 1842
—during all these different crises in commercial
affairs, he thought that nothing but evil ever arose
from any of our statesmen founding Their mercantile.
policy on details of figures .and statistical tables.
There was no propositian which might not be
proved by the statistical tables.—(Hear, hear.) It was
well known that these statistics were done by a process
of cooking.—(Hear and laughter.) The Comtnite e
'which had sat on that question had sufficiently elicited
the process by which those tables were prepared. Yet
upon these his Noble Friend had relied in support of his
case. He h.d desired them to look to the state of Ame-
rican
shipping. His Noble Friend had told them, on
the authority of those tables, that while our tonnage had
increased by such an amount, the American tonnage had
only increased- by such another amount. His Noble
Friend had said that all that was the consequence of pro-
tection. Now, it so hepte ned that he (Lord Brougham)
had access to the same accounts to which his Noble
Friend ht d access, and what did he find was the case?
He had extracted from the report a few questions which
would throw some light on Veit matter. "It appears,"
said a member of the Committee, examining the wit-
ness who had prepared these statistical accounts—" it
appears, in pages 447-57, that you have taken the
whole of the British, and only part of the American
tonnage into your calculation," The witness admitted
as much. " Then," continued the examiner, " can any
clt gree of accuracy whatever ho ascribed to that account,
as a fair statement of the comparative extent of British
and American tonnage?" " Certainly not," said the
witness.—(Laughter.) Suppose one asked his cook—
" Is what you have served up for dinner good food or
not?" and the cook answered, "Certainly not"—(Laugh-
ter)—would that be thought a very satisfactory meal to
sit down to?—(Hear and laughter.) The witness was
further asked, " Have l'ou no means of remedying this
error, or of correcting this inaccuracy?" His reply was,
"I do not know that I have. I rather think I have, but
lam not certain."—(Much laughter.) Such were the
statistics upon which his Noble Friend founded his case.
Now, with respect to the old system of the navigation-
laws, as laid down by Mr. Iluskisson, they did nut
object to his proposition. The policy had been adopted
with the view of arranging the reciprocity system and
the differential duties, and prohibition had been en-
tirely out of the question. Mr. Porter, Mr. Ri-
cardo, and all those who were for repealing the
navigation-laws, had stated that it would be found the
protected trade had not increased near so much as the
unprotected trade. Yet it had been acknowledged that
so false a heading had never been put in a hook as that
which professed to describe the " protected" and " un-
protected" trades. It should have been protected and
less protected. All the following places should be in
a different class from that in which they appeared in
the tables in question. The Roman States. Tuscany,
Gibraltar, China, Java, the lonian Islands, and the South
Seas. That made a difference of no less than 350,000
tons in the account, which was nearly one-half of the
whole. Such returns, therefore, were not those upon
which they could safely legislate. It was another
part of the principle of the navigation-laws to keep as
much of the carrying trade in our own hands as we
could, and to keep other countries as much as possible
from it. It had been said that 215,000 tons of shipping
were now engaged in the carrying trade, which were
likely to be put out of it if that measure were not passed.
Now that west) fiction of the grossest—he was almost
going to say scandalous nature he had ever heard.—
(Hear.) He had never seen a more unfounded misre-
presentation. The calculations of tonnage had been taken
from the number of voyages which the ships made.
There had been 47 ships of about 7,000 tons entirely,
and they having made 32 von ages on the year, the
abovementioned amount of tonnage had been set down
in the calculation.—(Hear, hear?) There was one ship
called the Magician, set down as at 14,200 tons, yet she
was only 96 tons burden, but she made 146 voyages on
the year, and that was the way in which her magical
amount of tonnage bad been made out.—(Hear, hear.)
He would leave it to those Hon. Members of the other
House of Parliament, who called upon their fancies for
their facts, and their memories for their jokes--(Laugh-
ter)— to reconcile such an amount of exaggeration as
that account showed.—(Hear, hear.) Allusion had
been made to the Russian trade with this country. Now
there was no question relative to the navigation-laws
between this country and Russia. No goods could now
be exported from Russia,
_ unless Russia had been the
entrepot fur the same. One of the witnesses examined
had said with regard to the difference between Eng-
lish and Russian seamen, that one of the for-
mer would do the work of twelve of the
latter.—(Hear, hear.) Now he (Lord 'Broughom)
believed that to be au exaggeration. It had been said
that they were now dealing only with the remains or
fragments of the old navigation-laws. But he maintained
that these fragmenti were of a large or gigantic•size,
and in dealing with them he conceived they should not
be dealt with in the contemptuous manner which the pro-
moters of the present measure treated them. Under the
remains of that system no less than 1,500,000 tons of
shipping were engaged—no less than '20,000 seamen
were employed—and a capital of near 5,000,0002 em-
barked.—(Hear, hear.) Yet it was said that the present
s 3 stem could not be continued, chiefly on account of the
discontent of Canada. With respect to the trade by the
St. Lawrence with the United States, he contended
there was perfect freedom of trade between Canada and
the United States, and that either might export to the
other in their own shipping. What had induced Mr.
Pitt to make a change in the navigation-laws of his
time was the great changes which had taken place
in the West Indies, the colonies, and the South
American States, since the rassieg of the 12th of Charles
11. They had to be suited to the new condition of the
world, and it was on that principle also that Mr. Hus-
kisson had acted in later times. Brazil, Mexico, all the
Spanish possessions in South America, ceased to be
colonies, and it became absolutely necessary that we
should adapt our law to them, and treat them as foreign
countries, and not as colonies. But even this had not
been done without great sacrifices. If Noble Lords
would look to our returns of seamen and tonnage for
six years before 1822, and for the six years following,
they would find that our tonnage' had fallen off to the
, extent of 1,300 vessels, measuring 150,000 tons, in the
course of the six years after 1822, and that it did not
recover itself for sixteen years.--((fear.) He rested this
assertion, not on returns made with reference to this
particular question, but on the annual retutns made from
1822 to 1838, before this subject was agitated. He should
now come to what he considered the gist of the ques-
tion, which he could not help thinking his Noble Friend
opposite, conscious of the weakness of his case, had most
carefully avoided. The policy of the navigation-laws—a
policy continued by Mr. Huskisson through all, he
would not say the changes, but the alterations which he
proposed, was founded on the principle laid down by
Adam Smith, that the great object of every island
whose coasts were extensive compared with its inland
territory, ought to be to encourage by all reasonable
means the formation of a mercantile navy, as the foun-
r.a—nu(lldeedart,ohßeoarn.a)parltlet
dation of a military navy, because it was impossible to
have the one without twhhee:thhte
opposite,
and ccmineece," had taken a
of speech than any multiplication of
Noblegtifiagr)euiarn tegesrobfyl Friend
:tii.Bsthuoiodp. is ( A
laugh.) The fact was, that Ilona.
- commerce.—(" No, no " from Noble
dame, in uttering these words, breathed a wish hostile to
ships, colonies, and