The Sun.
London, England, 1822-05-18 00:00:00

COMMON COUNCIL,

Yesterday the Loan MAYOR held a Court of
Common Council, in consequence of two Requisitions, and
for the dispatch of other public business, which was fully
attended.
A fler the proceedings of the last Court had been read, Mr.
Baron MASERES attended, and tendered his resignation of the
office of one of the Judges of the Sheriffs' Court, which si-
tuation he had held upwards of 42 years. The Court were.
pleased to accept his resignation, and referred it to the Com-
mittee of City Lands to consider the nature, duties, &c. of the
said office.
A Petition was presented from the Philanthropic Society,
for purchasing the fee-simple of their premises in St. George's-
fields, and referred to the Bridge House Committee.
SUFFERING IRISH PEASANTRY.
The Loan MAYOR. then laid before the Court the Requisi-
tion for a Subscription towards the Fund collected for the Re-
lief of the Suffering Irish, which being read,
Mr. 01.6F1A.K addressed the Court on the subject, and con-
cluded with moving that the Chamberlain subscribe the sum of
f 251. as the gift of this Court towards the said fund.
Mr. Sheriff VENABLE s seconded the motion; and after some
observations from Mr. Favell, .Mr, Alderman Waithman, Mr.
'Taylor, Mr. Alderman Brown, Mr. Dixon, and several other
Members, it was agreed to, and the Chamberlain directed to
pay the same.

LONDON BRIDGE, &C.
• The. Bridge House Committee presented a Report of their
proceedings in Parliament, in endeavouring to carry into effect
the wishes of the Court for obtaining an Act for removing the
Water-Works, and enlarging the present water-way of London
Bridge ; in which they were unable to go further, the Commit-
tee of- the House of Commons, with one exception, being of
opinion that a new bridge was requisite. They therefore re-
commended a Petition to the House, to be heard against the
'Measure prayed for by sundry inhabitants of the Borough,
'and the provisions to be introduced into the Bill, so far as they
lnii,7ht he prejudicial to the City's interests,—which, after con-
siderable debate, was agreed to, and the Petition recommended
by Lae Committee adopted. •
ELECTION OF mit. DENMAN.
The requisition to consider the circumstances of the Memo-
rial presented to the Court of Aldermen by several Members of
the Court, upon an old Bye-law against the late Ele-rtion of Mr.
Denman as Common Sergeant, was read.
Mr. Ountraikr. addressed the Court at some length, and con-
cluded with moving for a Committee to be•appointed to inves-
tigate the same, and whether there were any other Bye-laws
affecting the rights of the Court on the Election of their Officers,
and to report. . • •
Mt. SLADE seconded the motion. • -
'After• 'a. conversation between Mr. Deputy Saunders, Mr,
DixOn, -Mr:- ravel?, Mr. Crocker, Mr. Alderman Waitian,
and ether. Members, the motion was agreed to, and a Cern.
mittee of the Aldermen present, and a Commoner from each
Ward, appointed.
The Lo RD Mt on laid before the Court the resignation of
Mr. WOnuier of the ofice of Upper Marshal, which was ac-
cept..-d-
Mr. Nevin Brown was appointed to the above situation, and
the next Court Ex..:d. for tiling up the vacancy of Under
Marshal.

A Court Martial has been holden in Dublin,
on a Captain• of the Ist Dragoon Guards, on a
most extraordinary prosecution. rt seems that a
restive horse had been prohibited from being
sent out on a detachment, that this Captain had
sent it out, and that the man who rode it was,
lin consequence, drowned. (Limerick Chronicle.)

FOR THE SUN.

NAVIGATION LAWS.
Mr. EDlTOR.—Before the old Navigation Laws
and Colonial Policy are expunged from the
Statute Book, as that time, from appearances, is
near at hand, and we are to commence a new
era in which those two great principles are to be
given up for an untried, unexplained, system under
the guidance of philosophers, sophists, and po-
litical economists, permit me to address a few
words to the country.—When BUONAPARTE made
HAUTERITE rave, it was for liberty, equality, and
the freedom of the seas. Our Political Econo-
mists commence their operation under liberal
ideas and freedom of trade—therefore I hope
you will indulge me again through the medium
of your valuable journal to give my opinion
on the intended measures, in which I will
attempt to prove that the new theories are
fraught with the rnoF,t mischievous and ruinous
consequences, and that the measures proposed
are those which the enemies of this country have
long been promulgating, and endeavouring to en-
force, by every stratagem in their power, whe-
ther in war or in peace, as the sure means of de-
stroying the Commercial; and thereby the Naval
Marine, on which the security of our indepen-
dence rests.—Should those measures receive the
sanction of the Legislature, it may be fairly as-
sumed that Great Britain has run her career of
glory, and arrived at or "passed her meridian
height, and will fast descend lo the rank of a
subordinate State : not by conquest, nor for want
of energy in her people, nor financial means to ex-
ecute all her wants, but by improvident measures
in Legislation. The Abbe DE PRADT says, that
" war is no longer the method by which she
" can be subdued ; it is peace alone that can oblige
" her to make restitution ; when negociation, more
" efficacious than force,may obtain that which force
" could never extort l" And there seems a question
now whether in peace negociation, more efficacious
than force, has not obtained that which force
could never extort !—But first let us glance over
the rise and progress of what has so long been
considered as the great leading interest of the State;
that Britain depends on her Marine for defence is
confirmed by every page of her history, from the
first descent under ULIUr C/ESAR to the late threa-
tened descent under NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE ;
the want of a naval defence was the cause of those
descents practised successively by the Romans,
Gauls, Saxons, Danes, Norwegians, and finally
by the rapacious Normans, who divided the
spoils and the country amongst them, and held
the nation in comparative slavery ; for centuries
after this the Marine was recruited, and as
often fell into decay, and was again resuscitated;
the dread of the Spanish Armada gave a fresh
impulse to naval affairs, during the reign of
ELIZABETH; but after her death the signal vic-
tories gained by VAN TRUMP fixed the trident of
Neptune in the hands of the Dutch, which they
long preserved by industry in commerce and
fisheries, until that usurper of power, CROMWELL,
was so rapacious and so invidious, as the Hol-
landers termed him, as- to have recourse to the
services of the brave BLAKE, and the British sea-
men, to endeavour through their means to secure
the benefit of naval commerce and fisheries to
Britain; and furthermore to secure those benefits,
he had recourse to the enactment of that famous
edict, which with some slight alterations is
now known as the Navigation Statute of the
/2th of CHARLES 11., by means of which, as a
nursery for seamen, and for the maintenance of a
naval preponderance, were fought those furious
and bloody contests which destroyed the naval
power of Holland, and with it produced the ra-
pid decay of her commerce, and as firmly fixed
the trident in the grasp of BRITANNIA ! which in
the late contest most certainly saved the British
nation from the desolation of that revolutionary
mania, which, like a volcanic eruption, laid waste
the fairest kingdoms of Europe, and armed all
the navies in the world to destroy the naval
power of Britain (under pretence of restoring the
liberty of the seas), and thereby to destroy her
commerce and wealth,—these are pretty strong
proofs of the wisdom of the enactments; there-
fore, venerating, as I have been taught to do, the
Navigation Laws of the country, and fearing
that a general relaxation of opinion on the policy
of maintaining that system is manifested in cer-
tain quarters, and mixed with a disposition, at
the expence of that fundamental law and the sa-
crifice of the British Marine, unwisely to court
and conciliate other Governments, by pursuing
measures totally abrogative of their spirit and
principle, and venerating, as I have been taught,
the names of the great men who had enacted and
assisted in maintaining them as the greatest be-
nefit they could bestow on their country, and
knowing, or having read, the opinions given on
this great national policy by the leading Mem-
bers of the present Administration, and many
others of our own day, then let us inquire by
what strange destiny or fatality has this wonder-
ful change in the political mind of man taken
place—that if they had been drenched in the
waters of Lethe could not have effected a more
complete oblivion. The political writers of all
nations have given credit to those who framed',
those laws for the wisdom of the measure ; the
Abbe Donors states them to be the palladium
or Tutelary Deity of England, and the Abbe de
PRADT maintains that on their preservation rests
the double base of our power, viz. the Maritime
and Colonial Policy, " as in them you behold
" that profoundly combined system that has raised
" that unrivalled island to that high pitch that
cc war is no longer the method by which she can
"be subdued !" It was before asserted that
the sublime theory which is now engaging the
Legislature is not a new theory, as those old and
tried frienc; of Old England, Sieyes, Talleyrand,
De Pradt, Buonaparte, Hauterive, Schlegel,
and many other philosophers and economists,have
long considered that Great Britain was quite a
monopolizing power in colonies and in commercial
navigation, and her navy of such preponderance
that it had become quite an evil to other nations.
That good and worthy citizen Hauterive, the
then French Under Secretary of State to Talley.:
rand, endeavoured to develope the sublime sys-
tem of the Government of Buonaparte, that all
caticus might concur for restoring that liberty

and equality on the seas and for this very justi-
fiable purpose the United States of America
joined in the memorable scheme. The Reader
will keep in view that Hauterive, De Pradt, and
Schlegel wrote to serve the revolutionary
views of BuonapaTte ; therefore England has
no claim on them, and Hauterive proposes
that the maritime preponderance of England
ought to be terminated by two regulations
which would form the maritime law of na-
tions for the nineteenth century. The first
proposition is " the abolition of maritime capture,
in respect to property going under the protection
of neutral flags." This modest proposal at once
would have nullified the whole British navy from
making captures : and the second is, " to repeal
all prohibitory laws in time of peace," with the
exception of coasting from one port to another,
belonging to the same nation, and the navigation
between the Colonies and the Mother Country.
In this it must be observed that the English
Economists have gone much further than Haute-
rive, as the exclusive trade to the-British Colo-
nies is about to be given up, and all our prohibi-
tory laws, which are much more extensive than
Hauterive's maritime laws for the nineteenth
century. The Ex-Bishop de Pradt, in his pub-
lication on the Colonies, 1516, more particularly
dwells on the Naval and Commercial power of
Britain, and leaves nothing unsaid to induce Eu-
rope to join in a federal association of Commer-
cial states, to throw down the pale of prohibito-
ry laws, and proclaim a perfect freedom of trade,
and by this means compel Great Britain to ac-
cede to the maritime code of the nineteenth cen-
tury, in order to share with her part of her gains,
as England, swelled with the spoils of the
world, now rules over every sea, and over every
colony, the maritime equilibrium is entirely de-
stroyed by the naval power of Britain." And
the Abbei further informs us, that since the
balance of power has, to all appearances, been
restored to some reality by the articles of the
Congress at Vienna, that certainly all the efforts
of another Congress should be directed towards
the restoration of some equality at sea, towards
securing safety on the road which leads to the
Colonies. That there would be still more ample
scope for this Congress (for adjusting the mari-
time equilibrium) than there was for the Con-
gress of Vienna. The Jesuitical Abbe and Ex-
Bishop stops without informing us more of the
Congress for restoring the maritime equilibrium.
But we have lately been informed, in an expla-
nation on a Russian tariff, that at the Congress at
Vienna in 1815,
" it seemed generally felt that freedom of commerce was
" necessary to repair the injuries caused by the yoke under
" which Europe had groaned for ten years. Almost all Go-
" vernments resolved to introduce free commerce. But cape-
" rience and more accurate calculation soon made them deter-
, " mine not to renounce the prohibitory system !!" England,
" Austria, and France, thought right to continue protection to
" their manufactures and trade ; and Prussia has found it ne-
" cessary to follow the example of the rest of Europe, and this
" makes it the duty of Russia to return to laws, the necessity
" of which appears to be acknowledged by all nations."
—Was England a party to this Congress that
, had consented to this freedom of commerce ?
England, insulated from the rest of Europe, de-
pending on her marine for the protection of her-
self and colonies, and freed from the expence of
maintaining her seamen, who in time of peace are
employed in her mercantile shipping—could
England, whose rise and progress to greatness is
built on restriction, become a party in a sort of
military Congress at Vienna, and consent to a
freedom of commerce with those that had nei-
ther ships, colonies, nor commerce ? Was Eng-
land's wealth, glory, and security to be bartered
away, to conciliate any foreign power, to con-
sent to a system much more extensive than
Hauterive's maritime code, and to the full
extent of the Abbe de Pradt's ? However this
may be, there certainly is an intention in the
political economists to effect a radical change in
our system, whether we date its rise from the
treaty of Ghent, in which that sort of reciprocity
in trade was conceded, that has given the United
States in the proportion of six ships to one Bri-
tish in trading between England and America, or
from the Congress at Vienna, in which a freedom
of commerce seems to have been under discussion,
or from whatever cause this mania for free trade
has arisen, sure it is that no sooner did a Ger-
man writer inform us that "no person acquainted
" with the real principles of national wealth and
" industry can ever regard the Navigation Act as
" the foundation of England's commercial great-
" ness ; it has been in spite of that Act, and not
" by means of it, that her foreign commerce has
" acquired such a wonderful extent," than this
was afterwards echoed from the highest authority;
and no sooner was the signal given than swarms
of foreign merchants and brokers re-echoed the
assertion that had ever been so congenial to
foreigners' minds (they bear to England no
allegiance) and the words liberal ideas and free-
dom of trade have been echoed and re-echoed as
loud as the liberty and equality of the great
nation was in the furious days of Sans Culottisrn—
this free trade is now to be the Infallible nostrum
for all the diseases of the state, and it is to be so
universal and comprehensive that no one has as
yet undertaken to define its meaning nor extent,
and must for some time remain incomprehensible ;
hints have been thrown out that the great South-
ern and Indian Oceans are to be again thoroughly
searched for babbles, beads, and birds' nests.—
Let us take the liberty to remark, that through-
out the late tremendous struggle for maritime
ascendancy, in which Buonaparte was joined by
all the maritime powers to conquer (on tile ocean),
the liberty of the seas, or, in plain English, to
destroy the power and wealth of Britain—in this
struggle, the British seamen notonly defended our
own shores and our own colonies from invasion,
but by their valour destroyed the hostile navies,
and added colonies to the power of Britain in
every clime, it was then acknowledged that the
enact-rneuts of our ancestors (which Lad reared
those seamen) was the Palladium or Tutelary
Deity of England by British and Foreign States-
men.—ls it then destiny or fatality that has
brought about this most unaccountable and un-
called for change of opinion ? As for Britain
voluntarily to surrender those hitherto highly
valued principles without any even the shadow of
equivalent ? indeed no equivalent could he found
for sacrificing the Tutelary Deity of England—
the very Report on the subject anticipates that

the new untried theory, if adopted, may fail, 19
may be gathered from the, following words :
" That notwithstanding your Committee are able to see no
" serious objections to the adoption of the measure, yet feeling
" it impossible to calculate with certainty all the bearings and
" consequences of an alteration so:extensive in its operations,
" they should offer it with more diffidence if they were not con-
" vinced that it is easily susceptible of modification, should
" circumstances arise to render such modification essential to
" the protection of any of the great tikjects which every cocoa-
" aeration of national safety and power imposes a duty of in-
" flexibly maintaining."
If then there are so many doubts as to the ef-
ficacy of the measure, what has driven England to
make this desperate experimental surrender of her
national safety,that has hitherto imposed " a duty
of inflexibly maintaining ?" Has negociation at
Ghent or Vienna, or in any other part, CC obtained
that which force could never extort ;" then what
are the benefits that England is to receive for this
dangerous innovation on her maritime system ?
Has any thing been conceded in return from any
one foreign power ? Has any one, either foreign
merchant or broker, or any other person, made it
manifest, by a clear substantial demonstration, w-
what manner England is to benefit from the
change of her policy ? Have the British Ship
Owners and Seamen, and those depending ea
them in the maritime districts, solicited by Fe'
tition for the change ? No, on the contrary, they
have petitioned strongly against it, as most irg-
politic and ruinous; but the foreign merchant and
broker approve of it, and in consequence, the
Legislature is requested to allow those conces-
sions to foreigners 64 to flow from the spontaneous
" and liberal feelings of Britons," on this condi'
tion, that should this measure be found inconsistent
with the regard due to other objects, " it rrai
" be subject to modification," or even,if necessary,
" be absolutely revoked;" and on such approval 7
and on such a recommendation, is Great Britain
requested to abrogate the most vital laws in her
Maritime Code—our ancestors, who lived under
the dread of invasion and continental oppression?
are gone off the stage, and have carried with thew
the experience of which we, their sons, stand 5°
, much in need, to make us earnest to preserve
the blessing. It was the dread of invasion which
gave rise to the Navigation Laws, which since
their enactment have been the bulwark of our
liberties! And those who still advocate them
have the guide of history, and the experience a
centuries, confirmed by the sentiments of the
wisest Statesmen, who have assisted in these
enactments, and in maintaining their spirit Oa
principle ; while those advocates of the nevi
school have nothing to offer but uncertain prie'
ciples, pregnant with mischief ; the flimsy foundv
tion is vague visionary speculation and conjee'
tural opinions, characteristic of the school from
whence they flow. Having endeavoured to shelf
the high importance of the laws which are about
to be abrogated, and the high value set on their'
by our ancestors, and likewise, that foreign
Statesmen acknowledge the enviable pitch tbai'
Great Britain had attained by their means, 90°1
therefore they, as enemies to us, sought by eve.r'
means to have them revoked ; having likewise
c
read of the high estimation, even our pretee4
Statesmen professed to entertain for them, an
contrasting those professions with the measttref
now under the consideration of the Legislature,
am obliged to consider their conduct incornpre:
hensible,in going beyond the system promulgated
by Buonaparte, Talleyrand, Ifauterive, and D'
Pradt, as their utmost vengeance and utmost
,1
efforts to cramp the resources of this country, 315;
bring her into subjection. It having la wtlY
been considered
That the country that possmes the dominion of the ~dl
" commands the commerce of the world lie who cetritaa'lld
" the commerce of the world commands the wealth of the 71°'),,,
" —and he that commands the wealth of the world may
" said to command the world itself."
Hoping you will excuse the length of this
Letter, which nothing but the subject could Alfi:
logize for, I shall conclude with quoting an 0,1-
nion given on it by the late Earl of LlvEn?°°
the present Minister's venerable father : ;tic
" They cannot doubt my being zealous in their cause, for ;tic
" the cause in which I have interested myself from the ear ~d
" period of my life. By the measures which have been not
" are now taken, it is evident that there are persons l'ih°!..jos
" daring to attack the Laws of Navigation and. the Ylalliad
" Rights of the Country openly, are endeavouring to s. e
sap re
" undermine them, deceiving the ignorant, under vario,l9 :
" tences. I wish that my infirmities did not prevent me a
" affording the little assistance my talent might enablesnat
" give, but my principles are manifest in what has sw`fost
" been published, and in the protest I bilve entered egswill
" many attempts of this nature, which one time or other„ftr
" always be seen by the public."—(raltaCi from the 107
10th March, 1807.—1 n Ty uE Stns, 12th MarchNAUCL 4q,
LOURSE, OF EXCritiMiE, May 17, f,
Ametetdarn .. . ft e c•
Ditto, at Sight l9 5
Rotterdam 149
An!werp . l9 3
Hamburgh.
Altona 37 7 =20.,
Paris,S Day's sight 95 SO 0
Ditto
Bourdeaur, ditto
Frankfcrton the Main .. .
Madrid
Cadiz
Baca.. 3(4 Ele'
Barcelona
iev:ile
Olbraltar
Leghorn 4B
ital. Lir. 97 60

Cirt 4,,,t ... 444---Venice,
Malta ..... 45 -Naples 4oi r 01'
P/Oerrno
Llsbon
Oporto
RieJantivJ
iltibiln ..,. 91. „. ~.. Cork - 91, re: CeLat
BULLION,

Portugal Gold, in Coin Ls) o 0 Pli 00'
Foreign (-1,.,1d, iii Bars ..... 2 17 10i
New Doubloons ...
New Dol!ars
Silver M Bars, Standard 0 0 °
COAL-31ARKET,--M-Ar-11.
Ships at Market. Ships sold . Price' 3•I
13 Nto 4'e ‘J,I
Newcastle _ . g 203 6,1 to 4vi
3 Sunderland - - 1 • : - ~...5 Od 4
On the 16th inst., in Chlianitflstir;et, Cavendish-square' tl'e
Lady of Henry E. Roberts, Esq., of a daughter.
On Saturday morning last, at//antenant,--County of Lure'
rick, the Lady of T. H. Royse, Esq., of a scn and heir.
MARRIED. orie'
On the 13th inst., at Ratlifainh am Churc ,DonouDh 9..
Esq., brother to Sir Edward O'Prian, Bart., to 1-A Pl'
Ann Semple, of Terenure, County' of Dublin.
DIF:D
Of a nervous fever, on the 4th inst., at his residence, rr'°''
plemore House, Sir Arthur Carden, Bart. cola=llekLin.., r 0
On Sunday last, at Coston, near Buck-niinster,
in the 73d year of his age, the Rev. Wm. Hervey, 11-e`,;av, of
that place. He was nephew to the Rev. James nos's
Weston Favell, author of the " Meditations," 6."-c•
.),- SO
at ••••
Printed and Published for the PIIQPRIETOES,
Qt,s-Tl,;.a, No. 112, Stza.7d, by J. Be CARITZAg•

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