The Sun.
London, England, 1822-06-11 00:00:00

'OR THE SUN.

NAVIGATION LAWS.
MR. EDIToR—I have taken the liberty of send-
ing you my opinion on the intended alterations in
the NAVIGATION LAWS which are now pending
before the Legislature. lam induced to do this,
as the proposed measures are of the most weighty
mportance to• the whole country, and, as such,
require the most serious and diligent investiga-
tion. The existing laws are generally acknow-
ledged to have answered well the end for which
they were framed, and perhaps we have seen them
perform greater wonders than those who framed
them ever contemplated froFn their enactment.
Before such a system is departed from, surely the
intended change should be considered in every
possible bearing, for by adhering to the old laws
there can be no danger.
They have now undergone a long investigation,
and, unless the old code, I mean more particu-
larly the Statute of the 12th of CHARLES 11. has
proved most glari'ngly defective, and that the
intended alterations are sure to infuse more vigour
into the system, both for the natural defence and
for the benefit of the country, leaving out all con-
siderations of foreign influence or concession,
then the Legislature ought to pause, and even err
on the side of British interests, in holding to old
principles which have performed so well, and not
rashly and wantonly adopt a new system which
may not succeed, and may involve the country in
disputes, in the event of our being compelled, for
self preservation, to retrace our steps ; those who
are the advocates of anew system should clearly
prove the benefit to be derived from the change.
The Bill has now gone through the House of
Commons, and no one single individual has been
able to show any benefit the country ig likely to
derive, from the measure; indeed, the Board of
Trade, by persevering in carrying the Navigation
Bill, after the miserable majority of nine on the
third reading, skews such an apathy towards the
feelings, petitions, and remonstrances made
against the Bill, by the professional Ship-owners
and Seamen, as perhaps never before was prac-
tised towards any large- body of men, who are
actually insultingly told that the measures are for
their benefit, when they are calculated expressly
for the purpose of the value of ship-
ping, and sending them to compete with the
beggary of Norway and Sweden ; the profession
has always been, used to hardships and hard
usage, but to put them on the same footing as the
miserable inhabitants of Norway and Sweden,
and then telling them it is for their advantage, is
adding the grossest insult to the grossest injury,
and the seamen in this country are too far sailed
to be so credulous ; this may hum the marines,
it will not pass amongst sailors.
You mast be fully aware that the shipping and
seamen come more particularly into direct com-
petition with foreigners than any other class of
men, and that, should the pending Bills receive
the sanction of the Legislature, they then will
be placed in a situatioe in which no other class of
subjects in the realm are placed.—Taking it for
granted that nearly the whole present system of
England is founded on restriction, and which is
fully admitted to be so necessary on the great
qu.estion of agriculture, and to protect the manu-
facturing interests, then, if the pending Bills
pass into law, the whole of the laws which protect
British shipping are repealed, while all the laws
of restriction on them remain entire and in full
'orce.

If a general reform in our system of commerce
is determined on (of which the necessity should
be made clearly to appear), it most certainly
should be general, or it must act unequally on
different classes, and in that event each must
explain the bearing which the alteration will
have on its particular body.
In this instance the shipping are the first that
seem singled out to try the experiment on ;
their situation should be placed in the clearest
point of view, in order that the Legislature may
have the case fairly under their consideration, to
enable them to judge whether it is possible for
British Shipping to compete with foreigners, and
if they are not without some protecting law,then
the question is, whether preserving the Maritime
Interests is essentially necessary to the well-
being and safety of the State, or that the Mari-
time transit must be yielded to foreigners, and
that the British shipping and seamen must fall a
sacrifice to this new system ?

By the pending Bills all the protecting clauses
in the 12th of Charles 11., in favour of British
shipping, are to be repealed, as regards the i
European transit.
The restrictive clauses remain, and those of
subsequent Acts, which require the ships to be
manned in the time of peace with the master and
three-fourths British seamen, (and in a national
point of view this is a most salutary law, indeed
foreign seamen are rarely to be found on board
English ships in times of peace). In time of war
the Acts allow the ships to man with the master
and one-fourth British subjects ; this is on account
of, and to facilitate, the manning of the navy.
By the Register Act the Ship-owners are
compelled to build their ships in England or her
colonies, to entitle them to navigate, with British
privileges, although they are a hundred per cent.
higher than that of the other Northern Powers.
They are likewise compelled to repair their
ships in England, whilst they could have that
done for one half the expence in foreign ports.
All their stores are subject to heavy duties,
say masts, hemp, flax; tar, deck deals, and almost
every other article necessary to their equipment.
If, from the length of voyages, misfortune, or
any other cause, British ships furnish themselves
with necessary stores, they pay heavy duties on
them whenever they return to England, although
they are nearly worn out before they arrive.—
Foreign seamen in the Northern ports of Europe
receive from 12s.tid. to 255., and Holland about 30s.
per month, whilst the British have from 50s. to
455. per month ; the British seamen are victualled
for about ls. 3d. per day, the foreign seamen for
about 6d., therefore if we take the difference in
the value of building, equipping, and sailing ex-
pences, including depreciation in value, and
insurance on the capitals invested, between a
British ship of 500 tons o❑ a twelve months'
voyage, and a foreign ship for the same time, the

difference will be found in favour of the
foreigner between 15001. and 16001. per annum,
forming a profit on the foreign ships of about 31 per
cent. on the capital invested before the owner of
the British ship receives one farthing.
When you consider these circumstances, you
must immediately perceive that foreign ships are
enabled to navigate for one half the expence of
the British, and with these data you will readily
perceive the cause of the opposition which the
Ship-owners, who have embarked their property,
and the seamen who have embraced their pro-
fession, under the sanction of the old laws, now
offer to the alteration of the old system. It is
true they see measures which may be adopted,
and those parallel to the views entertained by
the proposers of the new system, and they are as
follow :

That the English Ship-owner be allowed to build his ships in
the cheapest country he can ; that he be allowed to repair them
where he pleases ; that he shall not be charged with any duties
on stores bought in a foreign port ; and that he may man his
ship with the seamen of any nation he can procure cheapest *.

In whatever way t'he measures in pt ogresss are
viewed, whether we look at the Navigation Bill,
at the Warehousing Bill, the Colonial Trade
Bill, and the whole system they are intending to
establish, there is nothing to be found in them of
the ancient British feeling and practice; they are
altogether new, and more calculated for foreign
interest and foreign consignments than British ;
'they are calculated in every way to give facili-
ties to foreign shipping and seamen, to encourage
foreign manufacture and produce, which will be
brought into this country to vie with our own
produce and manufacture, and they will then
share in our shipments to all parts of the world ;
therefore, what the visionary economists hold out
as a benefit to the kingdom will, in the practice,
prove a most destructive evil, and every well-
wisher to his country must shudder for the fate
of this fine empire under such a destructive sys-
tem, the 'first step of which is highly portentous
of its fate, in sacrificing the memorable Naviga-
tion Statute of the 12th of CHARLES the Second,
which laid the foundation of this now great Em-
pire, and extended the flag and the commerce of
Britain over all parts of the globe. This protec-
tion is now given up as no longer necessary, and
the shipping and the seamen, and all those imme-
diately depending on them, will be the first to
suffer ; but the fatal effect of such measures as are
pursuing will not stop with that sacrifice only, it
will spread its baneful influence throughout our
whole extensive dealings, aad will prove equally
injurious to all the other great interests of the
country.—Naval and commercial greatness never
yet sprang from the school of Political Econo-
mists, nor from learned Sophists—they are the
offspring of ardent robust minds and patient per-
severance. If Boards of Trade are to be go-
verned by' theory, they are sure to prove a great
calamity ; neither will promises of doing good,
and practices in doing evil, satisfy those who
are to suffer; and the measures which are now
advocated by those men will not be long before
they shew their evil tendency.—lt will soon be
seen whether the practical men, or the Sophists,
have the clearest idea on navigation and trade.
NAUCLERUS.

* If this principle is adopted and pursued throughout our
whole restrictive system, every. well-regulated mind must
tremble for the consequences, as it will soonlevel all property
to the value of that on the Continent; therefore, what is now
proposed as a remedy will, in its progress, prove a most de-
structive evil.