The Sun.
London, England, 1822-05-24 00:00:00

NO

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WEST INDIA INTERCOURSE.

PETITION FROM SOUTH SHIELDS.

To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of

Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled.

The Humble Petition of the Undersigned SHIP.
OWNERS and Others of SOUTH SHIELDS in.
terested in British Shipping ;

SIIEWETH—That the general depression on the Shipping of
the Country renders your Petitioners extremely anxious on the
measures which are before your Honourable House, and which
so materially bear upon the Shipping Interests of the Country.
That while your Petitioners have recently had under their
consideration the Bills pending before your Honourable House
for altering the ancient Navigation Laws, their attention is
again drawn to the consideration of other Bills which are
brought before your Honourable House for an extension of the
Warehousing System for cargoes brought into this Country in
foreign bottoms, and likewise for an alteration of the ancient
Navigation and Colonial Policy (which have been so long and
so successfully pursued between Great Britain and the West
India Islands), by which pending Bills foreign shipping are
now to be allowed a direct intercourse with the British Colonies
in the West Indies, and likewise a proposed extension for
British Shipping to trade from the Colonies to Europe.
That your Petitioners are under the necessity of appealing to
your Honourable Houge against such sweeping concessions
which tend to the entire abrogation of the old system of Colo- !
nial Laws, thereby depriving the British . Ship-owner of that
part of the Colonial Trade which Ire has hitherto, under the
wise and provident Legislation of our ancestors, enjoyed. H
the pending Bills pass they will open the Colonial carrying
trade to American shipping, at a juncture when the British
shipping and seamen are unable to enter into competition with
foreign shipping, from the pressure of taxation and other ex-
pences to which the exigencies of the State and the restriction
they are under of purchasing every kind of stores in England
subjects them to, even on many of the articles requisite for re-
fitment in a foreign port, which have been rendered necessary
by misfortune.

That should Cite proposed Bills pass into Law, the number
of British ships which are at present engaged in the West
India Trade must of necessity be greatly diminished ; and
considering the effect of the proposed American Intercourse
Bill in conjunction with the other relaxations and abrogations
of the Navigation Laws, which are so well calculated to suit
the American and other foreign shipping, that your Petitioners
.are firmly of opinion that they will become the carriers of the
world in preference to the British ships and British seamen.—
And your Petitioners are fully sensible of the fraudulent prac-
tices such concessions are calculated to introduce in smuggling,
to and from the Colonies, and the facility with which foreigners
provide themselves with simulated papers of the origin of goods,
and likewise the destination of ships and cargoes to and from any
part of the world, as best suit their views, and that the pending
Bills are calculated to lead to an ncrease of such practices,
should they receive the sanction of the Legislature.
That the wisdom of the Legislature of this country has for
centuries given encouragement to British ships anti seamen,
and thereby provided for the protection of the country, and se-
cured the freight and transmission of goods from various parts
of the world, and more particularly from our own colonies in
Britith ships manned with native seamen, and under these wise
enactments the maritime strength of the country was always
rearing in every clime a hardy race of seamen, able and willing
for th service and protection of the 'State. How they have
performed that service the naval history of the country suffi-
ciently confirms, in relating the bloody wars with the Dutch for
the maritime ascendancy, and the late tremendous struggle with
all the combined powers of Europe, in which the professed ob-
ject was to wrest this ascendancy out of our hands, and thereby
destroy the great bulwark of our safety and our wealth, which
the navigation principles adopted and consolidated into the
statute of the 12th of Charles the Second have been the means
of establishing. The value and importance of those principles
has.- been so self-evident, that your Petitioners never contem-
plated that any change would be suggested more than to sim-
plify the law by repealing those statutes which had become ob-
solete ; they trusted that the effects of those laws had satisfied
every Englishman of their utility, and convinced them that
they were the foundation on which rested our protection—the
source of our greatness—the surest preservation of our power—
and the best bulwark of the British empire.
That your Petitioners are totally at a loss to account for the
strange revolutionary principles in the commercial intercourse
of the country contained in the Bills which are pending before
your Honourable House, which will effect a radii al change in
oar navigation and colonial policy, and the old laws which have
been acknowledged as being deserving of particular veneration
for their merits and wisdom. 'Your Petitioners find in the
Rending bills principles diametrically opposite, and your Peti-
tioners cannot disguise their sentiments, but candidly state that
there appears a deliberate intention to depart from the old prin-
ciple, and to adopt in lieu an untried theory against both pro-
fessional opinion and that of practical results; the old system has
brought us to the high pre-eminence in which Great Britain now
stands. It is true the more modern economistsdeny that any re-
strictions arc necessary, even to employing native shipping, if the
foreign shipping can be procured on lower terms. Your Hon.
House must be fully aware that the rise and progress of this
nation to greatness is to be dated from the provident determina-
tion to carry our commerce on with native ships ; the enact-
ment of those laws made our commerce and marine to grow up
together ; and this principle of wholesome restraint has caused
them to rise and to flourish, which they have done alternately,
as cause and effect, accelerating each other's progress. Our an-
cestors watched this rise and progress with the greatest care
and attention, ever jealous and forward to check any precipi-
tate, wanton, or apparently systematic infringement of their
favourite system.
That your Petitioners, in expressing these sentiments, are
only following the opinions that have been advocated by some
of the wisest men the country has produced, such as Lords
Clarendon, Bacon, Loughborough, Sheffield, Liverpool, Sir
Walter Raleigh, Child, Temple, and others too numerous to
detail, and beg to submit to your Honourable House, that the
high pitch of wealth and power the country has obtained since
the enactment of those laws, has caused them to be considered
as objects of attachment and veneration by every British sub-
ject ; and they humbly solicit that the wisdom of your Honour-
able House will deliberately weigh and consider the great
benefit derived from them, and not suffer a system, with no
other foundation than a speculative theory, to preponderate
against so much positive good.
That your Petitioners beg leave to state to your Honourable
House, that the Ship-Owners are labouring under the greatest
depression ; that they arc fast sinking their capitals; tht their
ships yield them no return adequate to pay the expences ; that
any more foreign competition must accelerate their ruin; that
they are no more able to compete with foreigners in the,sailing
expences of their ships, than the agricultural interests are able
to compete with them in growing corn, or any otherproduction
of the land.---Your Honourable House most be sensible of the
danger of tampering with such an important system for the
purposes of a small additional (if any) speculative commerce
and increase of foreign shipping, which must force the British
to decline in the same proportion ; the British Ship-Owner will
cease to embark his capital in a pursuit that must prove ruinous
to him, the effect of which must be the reduction of the num.
ber of British ships and British seamen : thus will the coun-
try lose her natural defence; and the freight on the imports
and exports thus will be lost—that which we had been taught
to venerate as the palladium of British security.—We there-
fore trust that your Honourable House will retain these laws
as the source of our greatness, the surest preservation of our
power, and the best bulwark of the empire.
Your Petitioners, therefore, humbly pray, that no.altera-
tion may be made in the Colonial Carrying Trade, as
now established by law, detrimental to British Shipping.
South Shields, May, 11322.

.

PRICE. SEVP.4I.I?F,NCE*.

PARLIAMENT,

110115,X,0F:1,:04,P5, I.*.i,tspAT, MAY.

The douse sat till' five o'clock in a Committee
of. Privileges, and heard Counsel on theaWarch-
mont Peerage. -
The Bishop' of EXETER presented a Petition • from 'the
Clergy of the -Aradesconry of Exeter against the Catholic
Peers pill.—Laidon the table.

IgESSA(IX 11MM 'Till; COMMONS.
,
Sir JAI4ES GRA.UADIt VHILLI*OIitE Mr. pENT.T.,T,
Lord STANLEY,. and others,.brought, up from the (cup*Oils
the Irish Epoplwurent: 'of. the Poor Bill, the. Mairiage, Act
Amendment Bill, the Manslaughter Bill, and the Frauds on
Creditors Bill.

The Earl of LIMERICK postpone/a, the 'ft;rther cor.siders...
tion of the Doyle Divorce:, Jill 6/1 the first Monday after the
recess.

The Earl of BLESINTON postponed the Irish Deeds Re-
gistry Act to the 3d of Juue.

IRISH POOR.

On the motion'of: the Earl of LIVERP0011; the-Irish Err -
ployment of the Poor. Bill was rend a first time.
The Order of the Day for taking.the Orders •of the House
into consideration having been read,
The Marquis .of LANSDOWNE said, that it would- be
quite unnecessary for him to justify the proposal whiehlie.was
going to make. Unwilling-as he was to allow the suspenSion
of the standing Orders of the House to grow a general prantice,
on ordinary occasions, he had no doubt that after all thattheir
Lordships had heard respecting the state of Ireland, they. would
think with him, that this was one in which such a course ought
to be adopted in justice to that country. They would be the
more confirmed in that opinion, when they reflected that at the
opening of the Sew.ion, having suspended those standing.. or-
ders for the purpose of passing a measure of rig;our.when a
measure of mercy and protection to Ireland was proposed,
they ought to display an equal degree of activity. "He should
therefore move that their Lordships' Standing Orders he sus-
pended this day, to allow the present Bill to pass through all
its stages.
Lord KING was persuaded that there would be but one opi
nion with respect to this motion. As to the measure itself, he
lamented that it was not of a more comprehensive nature. It
granted fifty thousand pounds for the employment and
relief of the Poor in Ireland, where it appeared that .about
one million of people were in a state of starvation. It would
be too much to say that no part of that money would be inter-
cepted in its application in the shape of jobs, but even seppos-
ing that to be the case, the relief would only amount to one
shilling a head. He knew that a learned individual in another
place bad taken great offence at what had been said respecting
the rapacity of the landlords of Ireland, but if the same had
been said respecting the rapacity of the Church and Govern-
ment in Ireland, it would have been but just.
The Earl of LIMERICK vindicated the character of Irif*th
landlords, and lamented that the Noble Lord should have used
such language with respect to the present measure, as seemed
to be throwing down the gauntlet for no other purpose than
that of exasperating. There were bad landlords in Ireland as
in other countries, but to cast on Irish landlords in general a
charge of rapacity and plunder, was most unbecoming and un-
founded. As to the asserted propensity of the Irish to jobs, lie
had no doubt that if Government money were to be scattered
over English counties, that propensity would reveal itself in
England as well as in Ireland. lie trusted that such irritating
topics would be avoided, as nothing would more effectually
conciliate the people of Ireland than the act of justice and pro-
tection now doing. He regretted he had detained their. Lord-.
ships so long, but he should have thought himself a degraded
man if he had not stood up to vindicate the character of the
landlords of Ireland.

Lord KING did not mean to use any exasperatinglanguage.
He had only said that the relief now proposed was not suffici-
ent, and that he wished more should be done. The conduct of
Government in this instance reminded him of that of the Mem-
bers of the Society for bettering the condition of the'Poor, who,
after voting every heavy tax that passed upon the pour, came
with their half-penny roll to their relief. Government had
loaded the people of Ireland with oppressive taxes, and now
came to relieve the oppression which they occasioned with•the:
mighty boon of 50,0001.

The-Duke of ATHOL was very sorry that his Noble Friend
should have used what he could not help considering to be ex-
asperating language. He said that little was to be done, but
that little was as much as could be done under existing circurn.
stances. At a time when every Peer in that House, and
every man in the kingdom, wished to conciliate the people of
Ireland, he had hoped that such language would not have
been used.

Lord KING was glad to find that the Noble Duke was so
well disposed to conciliate the people of Ireland, as an oppor-
tunity of doing it with most effect would shortly offer itself,
when the Catholic question would be before the House.
The Duke of ATHOL should take what opportunity he
pleased for speaking his sentiments in that House, and neither
his Noble Friend nor any other person should ever dictate to
him on what points he should address their Lordships, or what
opinion he should express.
The Earl of BLESINTON also vindicated the character
of Irish landlords. He disagreed with the Noble Baron next
him (Lord King) in all that had,fallen from him, except what
regarded the smallness of the sum proposed to be granted. He
understood that an Extent in Aid had been issued against one
of the Irish counties for not having repaid a former loan, and.
thought that the present was a most improper time for issuing
such a process.
The Earl of LIVERPOOL considered the measure now
before the House advisable under present circumstances, hut
standing on a principle of a very ambiguous nature. If am
thing had been advantageous to England, it was that almost ail
its improvements had been made by the exertions of indi-
viduals, and not by the capital of Government. He be-
lieved that such a course afforded the best chance of furthering
improvements in any country, and of money being employed
honestly and effectually, as individuals would of course take
care of their own, whilst that granted by Government was
liable to be abused. Jobs would exist in all countries, in
England as any where else. As to the extent of the measure.
he would have no difficulty in going farther, if he saw his way
to any certain benefit. But as the principle was doubtful, it
was proper that Parliament should proceed ca.utiously. If it
appeared that, under the arrangement proposed by the present
Bill, practicable efforts were likely to result, from which great
benefit might be hoped, he would have no objection ip increase
the sum. This was no party measure. Gentlemen of all
~arties had been consulted by his Majesty's, Government on
the subject; and nothing would more tend to thesgeneral ad-
vantage, than for individuals to lay aside all party feelings,
and to assist on the one hand in carrying the measure into exe-
cution, and on the other in preventing abuses in its applica-
tion.

The Marquis of DOWNSHIRE expressed his satisfaction
at finding that the attention of his Majesty's Government and
of the Legislature had been honestly directed to the sieuation,
of Ireland.- He considered the present measure, however, as
only temporary ; and trusted that Government, aside
all party feeling, as the Noble Earl had recommended, would
look deeper into the state of Ireland, and into the causes of its
distress and disaffection. The first cause he believed to be the
tythe system, and that if the Noble Marquis at the head of.the
Irish Government would institute an inquiry, the end of -k,•
was persuaded, would be the revision, of that system, which
was most unfit for that country.. He was unfortuhately a great
proprietor of tythes, and he should be happy to make any 5..-
crifice to facilitate• a full inquiry, and a new regulation or
system.. With respect to taxatioo, he had presented•two Peti.
twos on the subject to the House ; he should be glad to kzioa.
whether the Noble Earl opposite had taken it into consideratioe,
and whether, as it was reported in Ireland, it. was intended
that some alteration should take place in the taxes which af.
fected that country.
The Earl of LIVERPOOL was understood to reply, .that
this depended on other measures to be brought before Parhie....
ment, and that if they were approved of by the other House,
they would yield relief, as they would be attended with some
alteration.

The Earl of DARNLEY said, that it was the want of em-
ployment which agiravated all the evils of Ireland, and
produced insurrection more than the system of tythes. He
wished that what was now -done had been done sooner, and
thought that it would haie been more gracious to vote as inueh
for the suffering people of Ireland as Parliament had' dares
for the Russians, the Spaniards, and the Portuguese? than
only one half the mini- as was now proposed. With re-
spect to Landlords.
inlreland, he knew that prejudices ex.

:steel, but he disclaimed any thing like a system of oppression'
oa their part.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE, after what had fallen from
the Noble Marquis, should take this opportunity of giving no-
-tice, that if no measure of a more general nature than the pre-
sent should be proposed, he should himself call the attention of
the House to the measures calculated for the permanent con-
ciliation and happiness of Ireland. He should not fix a day
at present, as the only one on which the House would sit
next week was already occupied by an important subject.—
But he stiro ld probably be able to bring on his motion the
week after the next.
The -motion was then agreed to, and on that of the Earl
oaf LIVERPOOL, the Bill went through all its stages and was
passed.
The Duke of DEVONSHIRE said that the notice of his
Noble Friend (the Marquis of Lansdowne) would relieve him
from the duty of bringing forward the subject of tithes in
Ireland, as it would of course form a part of his Noble
Friend's Motion.
• The Earl of LIVERPOOL said that the system of tithes
had been under the anxious consideration of the Irish Govern-
ment, and that a Bill would be brought into the other House
,o a the subject. It would, however, only. embrace one part;
but other measures were in contemplation, which were not
sufficiently matured to be introduced hi the course of the pre-
sent Session. It was fitting, however, that the House should
.know that his Majesty's Government would not rest satisfied
with a partial measure, but that other important branches were
also undergoin,, investigation.
Lord HOLCAND conceived that the measure mentioned by
the Noble Earl would be not only a partial measure, but one
,calculated to throw additional difficulties in the way of a final
settlement. At all events, it could afford no inducement to
,his Noble Friend to abandon the motion of which he had given
-notice.

• •
The conversation having dropped,
• Mr. SHIPTON presented the Annual Account of the Re.
veipts and Expenditure of the Dover Harbour...—Laid on the
,tahle.—Adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Mr. DAVENPORT presented a Petition from the Nobility,
'Gentry, and Freeholders of the County of Chester, complaining
of distress, and praying for a reduction of those taxes which
bear most heavily upon Agriculture.
After a few words from Mr. LEYCESTER, MreCURWEN,
. and Mr. EGERTON, the Petition was ordered to be printed.
Mr. DAVENPORT next presented a Petition from the in-
habitants of Nantwich, in the County of Chester, against the,
Poor Removal Bill. _ .

-
Mr. Alderman WOOD presented a Petition, signed (as he
stated) by a vast number of most respectable carcass butchers
resident in Whitechapol-market, in favour of the Bill for pre-
venting the infliction of cruelty upon animals.
Ir.ESTCOURT presented a petition from the inhabitants
of the Town of Devizes, praying for a revision of the Criminal
.Code. _ _ .

Mr. T. WILSON presented a Petition from certain Silk
:Merchants of London, against the Navigation Bill.
Mr. W. SMITH said a few words in support of the Peti-
tion. Although favourable to the principle of a free trade, he
was of opinion that, under the present circumstances of the
.ccuntry, burdened as our shipping was with taxes, it was im-
possible for it to compete with that of foreign countries.
Mr. GRENFEIIL presented a Petition from the inhabitants
of Redruth. in the county of Cornwall, praying for a revision
..of the Criminal Laws. The same Hon. Member gave notice,
. that on Thursday next he would present a Petition from cer-
tain persons residing within 65 miles of London, against the
renewal of the Bank monopoly. •
Mr. CURTEIS presented a Petition from the Select Vestry
9i the parish of Northiam, in the county of Sussex, complain-
ing of agricultural distress.

Irish PoOr Employment Bill was read a third time, and
passed ; as was also the Marriage Act Amendment Bill.

THE NAVIGA'TION BILL.

Dlr. WALLACE moved that the Ireport of the Committee
on the Navigation Bill be brought up.
Mr. ROBERTSON addressed a few observations to the
House from under the gallery in a low tone of voice. We un-
derstood him to oppose the Bill, on the ground that it was
aimed directly against the general industry of the country. He
called upon the Members who represented the landed and ma-
nufacturing .interests to unite with him in opposition to the
Bill. The landed interest was particularly interested in this
question, because, in his opinion, the old Navigation Laws
lead been instituted chiefly for their advantage. The effect of
the Bill would be to throw the whole carrying trade of Europe
into the hands of the Dutch, who could equip and navigate
their shins at 1-4th of the expence at which we could.

Mr. DAVENPORT and Sir. D. BROWNE declared them-
selves hostile to the Bill.

.Nr. WALLACE expressed his surprise at hearing the
..flouourable Member (Mr. Robertson) assert, that the Navi-
g.,.*.ion Laws had grown out of the landed interest of the
country.
Sir THOMAS LETHBRIDGE believed the Bill likely
materially to affect the landed interest ; and thought that the
attention of the country should have been more distinctly called
.to it. Any measure which struck at our shipping interest
.would bring the persons to whom that interest gave employ as
paupers upon the public. The. Hon. Baronet concluded by
observing that the Bill would probably not be read a third
time until after the holidays ; in the mean time he would turn
the subject in his mind, and state the result of his deliberation
inure fully to the House.
The Report was then agreed to, and the Bill ordered to be
-Teal a third time on Thursday., May 30.
MISCELLANEOUS. •

The Ancient COMmercial Statutes' Repeal Bill went through
~a Cotninittee.,L-Report agreed to, and the Bill to be read a third
time on Thursday, the 30th inst.
The RepOvt of the Importation of Goods Repeal Bill was
brought up.—Bill to be read a 3d time on Thursday, the 30th.
The second reading of the 111-treatment of Cattle Bill was
postponed till to-morrow,
Tne Committee on the Corn Importation Bill was also post-
poned till to-morrow.
The Slave Trade Acts Consolidation Bill went through a
- Committee.—Report brought up, and ordered to be farther con-
sidered on Friday the 31st inst.
The ScotCh Distillery Act went through a Committee.—Re-
..part to-morrow.
The Committee on the Cocoa-nut Shells Act was postponed
Ain to-morrow.

.`The Assessed Taxes Composition Act went through a Corn-
sziaec.—Report to-morrow.
The Marriage Acts Amendment Bill was read a third time
.acti passed.
The ♦%/eights and Measures Bill also went through a Corn-
msftee.—Report received, and ordered to be farther considered
on Thursday, the 30th