The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-25 00:00:00

spect the honour of their nation, and throw around their
commercial marine that protection which they had from the
earliest period of their history enjoyed.—(Great cheering.)
The Army and Navy."
Admiral Sir Lucius CURTIS returned thanks. As an
bumble member of the naval profession, he felt deeply in-
debted to them for the complimentary manner in which it
bad been alluded to. With regard to the ricketty state of
the navy—(A laugh)—he did not dispute but that there
might be some unsound timbers in the ship, but he trusted
whenevtr these ships were called forth to fight the battles
of their country, that it would be found whatever their ric-
ketty state might be, their men had "hearts of oak."—
(Vehement cheering.) He also trusted that when it
should please God that that country should be aga'n in-
volved in war, that the navy would do its duty in a man-
ner to insure for it that high approbation and kind feeling
which it had ever experienced, not only at the hands of the
present company, but of the country generally.—(Cheering.)
Major STEVENS returned thanks on behalf of the army.
He little thought that he would have been called upon to
address that assembly, and although he had the honour of
holding a commission in her Majesty's army, et he had
strong claims also upon that glorious service to which the
gallant Admiral had alluded. He trusted that the two
branches of the service would always co-operate for the
good of the country, as they had hitherto done. It was
the boast of every British soldier, that he should be always
ready to protect the interests of British merchants, and to
maintain the liberty and independence of the glorious
institutions of their country.—(Loud cheers.) He referred
to this with the more pride from having lately read a
passage from the work of M. Dupin, a French author,
who had lately visited England, in which be said,
" the British army, unlike the armies of the continent,
is not employed to perpetuate slavery and oppression,
but to protect their glorious institutions, the right to
which they themselves inherit."—(Much applause.) In
England the protection of property and the vindication
of liberty were the two most prominent, as they
were the most honourable duties, of the British soldier
and sailor. In conclusion, he begged to return them
thanks for the honour they had conferred on the profession
to which he belonged.

The CHAIRMAN said the happy moment had at length
arrived, when in the ordinary course of things the plea-
sing duty devolved upon him of proposing to them a toast,
which naturally arose out of the proceedings of the day.
He had, however, to solicit their indulgent permission
to transfer to another the performance of that duty, to
which he was far more competent than himself—to a
gentleman for whom he felt personally the highest respect,
and the most profound esteem. He alluded to one who
was his honourable colleague in the direction of the affairs
of the Dock Company—who was the senior Director of
that Company, and without desiring in the slightest degree
to detract from his hearty acknowledgments to his other
colleagues, yet he was satisfied they would permit hitn to
say in the presence of that assembly, that the gentleman
to whom be alluded had laboured more heartily than them
all.—(Hear, hear.) The Dock undertaking was a subject
that was near and dear to his heart—he might with truth
be said to be the foster-parent of the undertaking, and
he felt assured that having said so much, they would not
deny to him the favour of calling upon Mr. Heathfield.—
(Loud cheering.)
Mr. HEATHFIELD said that his Hon. Friend had im-
posed on him a duty which he would have performed mulch
more to their instruction and advantage than himself. The
difficulty was increased by the kind manner in which the
Chairman had been pleased to speak of his humble serf ices
in the undertaking. He must disclaim, however, the
honour of paternity, which the Chairman had ascribe d to
him. They had all become its foster-parents, from the
manner in which they had identified themselves with it that
day, and he hoped they would share the duties of paternity
with them to the end of their lives, and transmit them to
their children, from generation to generation. With re-
spect to the great national enterprise they had ju.t com-
menced, it would little avail him to dilate upon the p,e-
eminent advantages this port possessed—upon the security
of their harbour—their depth of uater—their noble break.
water, the Isle of Wight--their contiguity to the ocean,
east and west—or their proximity to Portsmouth, which
might be likened to their right arm and shield of defence—
or, in fact, the manifold advantages which nature, and the
most exquisite naval art of the country had combined to
shower upon their situation.—(Cheers.) The question na-
turally arose, how happened it that a situation so favoured
by nature and art should have been so long neglected ? This
was a problem the solution of which required some insight
into the institutions of their country, and an acquaintance
with those commercial relations by which the trade was
confined to peculiar situations. In order to make that in-
telligible, it would be necessary to refer them to other
great commercial towns. One of these was Bristol, which
owed its commercial superiority to the mineral stores of
coal and iron with which it was favoured. Those mineral
stores led to manufacturing industry, and manufacturing
industry, again, begat a spirit of enterprise. It had led to
wealth—it had encouraged enterprise, and had afforded
opportunies to Bristol, which had been profited by it to an
extent that had raised it to the rank of the second city in
the empire. One of the first advantages of their large manu-
facturing resources was the possession of the African trade,
which was obtained almost exclusively by Bristol—the con-
sequence of this enjoyment, from their position, of the
African trade was a large and free intercourse with the
West Indies—that intercourse led, inasmuch as their con-
centrated capital and labour rendered those islands
valuable, to large West Indian possessions either by right
of sale or mortgage. That, again, led to a new opening
of trade—a greater command of shipping interest, fur-
ther enterprise, and additional intercourse with the Ame-
rican colonies. That state of things went on down to
the American war, because down to that period trade
was conducted upon a different system—a few houses
possessed the entire monopoly, all the exports and im-
ports passing through their hands by prescriptive right,
and were handed down from farther to son, and from ge-
neration to generation. The American war broke up that
system, and Liverpool having advanced from similar causes,
viz., her great manufacturing resources, she acquired the
greater part of the African trade, and the possession of that
trade led to large possessions in the West Indies, on
the part of the great ship-owners. That state of
things went on. The whole trade of Ireland which was
opposite these ports passing through them, and they be-
came the great commercial towns they now saw them.
Next came the port of London ; and its history was not a
little interesting. London did not enjoy a paramount
share in the commerce of the country until the time of
Elizabeth. He did not mean that its trade was small, but
it was so when contrasted with what it now is. In the
days of Elizabeth particular interests were much fostered
by treaties and the granting of charters to one private
Company or another, and more particularly as reger 'ed
the East India trade. London having obtained a monopoly
of the East India trade, had by degrees drawn to itself the
largest trade of the country, and for this reason particularly,
that no general assorted cargo could be made up without
resorting to London for some of the ingredients from the
India or China trade. Thus had arisen its overpowering
influence, and this was why Southampton, being so near the
port of London, was one of the last to avail herself of it ;
but important changes had taken place since then.—( Hear,
bear.) The negro in the West Indies had been emanci-
pated ; the planter had been emancipated from his mort-
gages by the payment of the twenty millions, and there
was no longer a monopoly of the East India trade.—
(Hear.) All the ports of the country were now open to
avail themselves of the East India trade, and in addition
to that, they had obtained a new and most extraordinary
power of locomotion in the steam-engine.—(Great cheer-
ing.) Although manufactures might still be produced in
the greatest quantities in the neighbourhood of Liverpool
and Bristol, the simple question would shortly be (the
facilities of communication from one part of the ccuntry to
the other being now sogreaatt) not what place the goods
were manufactured at, but
what
em-
barked with the greatest advantagep?o—rt
(tHheeyarc,ouhledarb.e)
In
i
fine, the commerce of the country had been brought to that
the
position that it resembledelement of water which
would find its own level ; and that port would obtain the
preference from which vessels could start at the lowest
expense and in the shortest time. It was demonstrable
that the greater portion of the trade rade of that country
could not be carried on
with equalrt advantage
of time and economy by any other port when in
competition with that of Southampton.-_(vehement
e!
ther dent
qchueaeinrtinagn .c)e
withl t wtai
Ise
o n
historythese
of commerce of that coun-
grounds that having
supporter
o port cussbof t
eh t et_ rie_ e
Docks.—(Cheers.)betSouthampton.ter
fitted
when
try that he had becHomeebealinevaedthat
n
that
o f
ich,
fitted for an extensive trade than
Circumstances hitherto had not been favourable for aggre-
gation—for trade was but an aggregation in
which,
seeking for one commodity, you must find another by its
aide. From the peculiar advantages which the port of Lon-
,.on formerly possessed from its monopoly, there had been
-
no concurrence of causes sufficient to justify th
meat of e expendi
the
ture of large ,sums of money on the improve
port of Southampton. The time had at length arrived
when the other ports would find their level as water
the
did, and it might fairly be presumedthat
present period would constitute the commencement
of a series of prosperity and success to their port without
example. Not only was there an aggregation of circum-
stfrexio the.ittevr without example, but the amount to
CI) xpenaed,.._sv put in competition with the results
:We of liejoeproOkced, would be extremely small. The
Tetu4:::ts !lite oe'lcii-I4on which they had the pleasure of
...,
.‘ itlssi djr:y.tylitieafficient to carry on nearly as much
akas9ifeethsd-ocig Of Liverpool, although they ranged
litiiheifese,egai'afc#.itre Mersey.—(Loud cheers.) That
iritook__. otltivti..3c/Siy the convolutions of its quays, and 1

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