The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-24 00:00:00

ColallaflrrYE ON THE NA.r.ratie
TION LAWS.
The Select Committee appointed by the House of
theßmcyrh.th.Apirviw.
Commons, to inquire into the operation of the na 'arra
tion-laws, met again on Tuesday. The follovw.irn; Members were present :—Mr. Liddell, Mr. T. Baring,
Mr. Ricardo, Sir Howard Douglas, Admiral D
,ndanaid
Mr. M. Gibson
Sir George Clerk, Mr. Villiers, Mr. Mitchell;
Mr. M'Carthy. In the absence of
lasi.l7.staviliariasencnbaylLeMdHra.nßdicardo.
examined.
shipbroker, and had conesidwaerasblae
shipping. If the navigation-laws
the value of British shipping
be reduced to 30 p,
very unwilling to own ships *
such,vnt,onwanoduladhendoi
could purchase shipping in a Foreign
much lower rate than he could heze• shipowner
experience andi
1
country at
_
gatien-laws were repealed
terms. He
there were
many ports abroad to which they wouldn
mitted, while all ships would be admittenclet intobe
aut
ports. From the cheapness, it would be anavan° -
tage to the British ship- owners to buy foreign ship-;
and to navigate them with foreign sailors. Mr. 0,31'
quhoun stated in his evidence that a ship could be
built, coppered, and copper-fastened at Lubeck, and
fitted for a voyage to India, at from 81. to Si. 16s.
per ton ; a similar ship could not be built and fitted
out in England under from 161. to 171. per ton.
Taking the statement of Mr. Swale, that the wages
of a crew of thirteen men on board a Hamburg ship
of 3'50 tons amounted to 25/. 2s. 10d. per month,
while the wages on board a British ship of the same
tonnage amounted to 401. 10s. per month, many foreign
countries gave their own ships great pr;vileges, which
was an advantage to them. Mr. M‘Gregor stated
in his evidence that a British ship could take French
produce to the United States ; he (Mr. P.)
knew of an instance when, by a mistake of an agent
at Liverpool, some articles of French produce were
shipped on board a vessel with a British cargo, and
that vessel, on its arrival in the United States, was
placed under seizure, and the owner was put to a
very great expense. Mr. M`Gregor had, he thought,
made a great many mistakes in the course of his
evidence. If England repealed her navigation laws
and foreign countries maintained theirs, it would be
an advantage to the British shipowner to own foreign
ships. If a foreigner could own a French ship, it
would be a fortune to him to trade between Havre
and India, as the French navigation laws were so
exclusive. He understood that the expense of build-
ing a good oak ship at Danzic, with the exception of
coppering and fitting her for sea, would be 8,3001.
for a ship of 800 tons, or 101. 17s. 6d. per ton.
The freight received on her voyage from Danzic to
London, with a cargo of railway sleepers, would pay the
expense of coppering her and provisioning her for an
Indian voyage. Such a vessel could not be built in
England under 151. per ton, and there would be a
difference in the rate of insurance. The Prussian
ship would stand quite as long as the British ship.
The expense of building a similar ship in the United
States would be about 121. or 131. per ton. As a
general rule, all foreign ships were navigated cheaper
than English vessels, and, of course, every one would
employ the foreign rather than the English seamen.
With regard to ship-building, if the navigation laws
were repealed, the number of naval artisans would
be greatly reduced; and in consequence, the Govern-
ment, when it wanted hands in the dockyards,
would be very much inconvenienced, unless they
also employed foreign shipwrights. About 200,000
seamen would either be thrown out of employ-
ment, or compelled to serve at a much lower
rate of wages, and rather than do that he
thought they would seek some other employment,
In fact, he believed that the repeal of tae navigation-
laws would involve pecuniary loss to about 2,000,000
of people in this country. The greatest disadvantage
from the repeal of those laws would be the difficulty
of manning the navy, which could not be obviated
in any emergency unless they also employed
foreigners. At present, in any emergency, the navy
could obtain from 10,000 to 20,000 seamen from the
British mercantile marine. The effect of throwing
open only the foreign trade, and not the coasting
and colonial trade, would be a disadvantage, as they
had all the restrictions to submit to which they were
willing to put up with while protected, and in foreign
ports would have to compete with the foreigner who
had not those restrictions, who were badly paid
and badly fed. In taking a cargo to South Australia
he should be obliged to charge a higher freight
in consequence of the impossibility of obtain-
ing a return cargo, and from there on going to India
the ship would come into competition with the cheap
foreigners. If a return freight from the colonies were
to be obtained, it would not be of so much importance;
but it was notorious that 19 ships out of 20 did not
obtain a return cargo from the colonies, but were
obliged to go on to India for a cargo. He had been
much amused at the statements made by former wit-
nesses that the Australian colonies were inconveni-
enced by a dearth of British shipping to send their
produce home. The admission of Asiatic and
American produce in all bottoms would deprive the
British shipowner of the greatest advantage he at
present possessed, by giving the foreigners the long
voyage, as they built and navigated thir ships cheaper.
The repeal of the navigation laws of America and
Great Britain would throw into the American ship-.
ping the great bulk of the carrying trade to this.
country, as they would as a matter of course use their
own ships. The trade between America and this
country was almost exclusively an import trade.
By Mr. Mitchell.—The Americans at the present
moment were in possession of the great bulk of the
carrying trade. The American ships were nearly as
cheap as the cheapest foreign ships. The advantage
that would arise from allowing foreigners to compete
with Americans would be very small in this trade,
while the disadvantages would be very great.
By Mr. Ricardo.—The reciprocity treaties put the
United States on a better footing than we were,
because we admitted them to trade to our colonies,
and they had no colonies. He did not think that the
Americans had anything to fear from the ships of the
ports north of Europe. The north country ships
were more cheap, but more clumsily built
and fitted out. Our case with regard to com-
petition with these ships was very different from
that of the Americans. The Americans had many
great advantages over us. For example, they built
their ships cheaper, and they manned them as they
pleased ; they were subject to no restrictions such as
were under the Merchant Seamen's Act, and they
usually sailed with a very fair proportion of fo-
feigners. On the whole they navigated their ships a
great deal cheaper than we did.
By Sir George Clerk.—Although the navigation
laws had been suspended, he was not aware that ad-
vantage of the privilege to bring provisions to this
country had been taken by foreign ships up to the
present period. He believed the reason was that at
the time those laws were suspended foreign ships
were frozen up in their ports, and were unprepared
for the trade. Now, he understood, that several fo-
reign ships were on their way to . America, for the
purpose of bringing provisions tnootthitshienokuntthrayi
By Mr. Mitchell—He did a re-
duction of freight of 1/. per ton on sugar from the
West Indies would ever be felt by the consumers of
the article ; the difference would be absorbed by the
importers and the exporters.
By Admiral Dundas—ln his opinion the repeal of
the navigation-laws would cause a great reduction in
first-class shipping of the country, and that
40,000,0001. of capital, which was at present em-
ployed in shipping here, would be transferred to
foreign countries. He was an advocate for the
examination of masters and mates.

By Mr. Ricardo—The Americans could build
ships 30 per cent. cheaper than we could, but our
ships lasted 30 per cent. better. He did not think
that we could build as cheaply as the Americans
with the exception of insurance, because after a
certain number of years all ships, foreign and
English, lost class at Lloyd's. The Americans for
the same amount of capital were enabled to send one-
third more vessels to sea than the British ship-
builders.

The Committee adjourned till Thursday.

PARIS AND ITS CITADELS.
According to an official return, when the whole of the
citadels and fortifications round Paris are completed, the
following will be the number of troops that will occupy
that capital and its vicinity in the course of the present
year :—Mont Valerian, 3,000 men, of which two com-
panies of engineers and one company of foot artil-
lery. 2. Charenton, 2,500 men, one regiment of ar-
tillery and one company of engineers. 3. Togy, 1,800
men, two companies of artillery and engineers. 4. Ro-
mainville, 2,000 men, two companies of engineers. 5.
e 2
1.0000 men,me one company
n.
8.
Isey, 1,600 men, one company of artillery and one
companyooff engineers.engineers,
7. M
6. I 3
onietertorneg' 1,200
Vauves, 900 men, of which one company of engi-
neers. 9. The four forts of La Double Couronne, St.
Denis, De la Beeche, and Stains, 3,200 men, one
company of artillery. 10. Fort de I'Est, 800 men.
11. Fort d'Aubervilliers les-vetus, 1,100 men, one
company of engineers. 12. 1 Fort de Noisay, 1,300
men. 13. De Rosny, 1,000 men. 14. De Nogent,
el
de 1,500
men, one company of engineers. 15. Citadel
eries are
Vin-
cennes,
3,200 men, of which four batteries
Parisian artillerycitadels
and two companies engineers.
peaceT an army of E 4,800
and forts will occupy in time of
of Paris will form an
men, which with the garrison
infantry,
and artillery •
effective force of 60,000 cavalry,
and 1,962 cannons, 80-pounders, mortars, &c. The
-
above force is exclusive of the National Guards. The
of Paris and the faubourgs is upwards of
population
950,000 inhabitants, besides 70,000 foreigners, of whom
1 the English residents are above 25,000.

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