The Sun.
London, England, 1834-01-08 00:00:00

--- --
Pease. Beans.
2fis Pd Od
24s Od 2,s Od

15s Od I 22, Od
market, 4'6 whereof,
—0 Grey.
2/. Ifs 51. 3.l2ths

—s 0,1
were sold.

" From communications received by your committee,
they are induced to hope that the causes of the detention
of British vessels at Constantinople, referred to in the last
annual report, have been removed, as it is representel to
them that &mane are now, with rare exception, obtained
in twenty-four hems.
" Your committee, regretting the delay wl ich took
place in the publication of the Nautical Alm,,nark for
the year 1834, felt it their duty to urge on the 13,,a,(1 of
Admiralty the necessity for expediting the same. Tie y
have reason to believe that the'delty was unavoidable, and
trust that the advantage of the improvements eff cted %via
prioveaof its publication.compensation
ifi
rtthe inconvenience occasioned by
the lateness
" A memorial was intrusted to your committee from
certain individuals interested in the trade with the is and
Sr.of Christopher, complaining of the enormous charges
imposed on British ships by the colonial legislature of that
island. This grievance was urgently represented to his
Majesty's Government, and from the tenor of •1 refs, nt
communication from the Boatel of Trade, your committee
believe that measures have been taken to procure the re•
peal of the most ohjsctionable portion of the taxes com-
plained of
" Propositions having b-en submitted to the Thames
Navigation and Pott of London Committee, for variens
alterations in the Acts of Parliament and by-laws by which
the harbour service of the port ie regulated, the attention
of your committee was considerately invited by them to the
question. The whole subject was in consequence carefully
investigated, and as the proposed changes would most ma-
terially have effected the interests of the owners of vessels
engaged in ti e coal trade, communications were held with
the shipowners in the north of England. Your com-
mittee, conceiving after such communication, and a full
and impartial inquiry, that the proposals involved many
erbitraty and vexatious provisions, and that the existing
laws, if properly enforced, were sufficient for the due re-
gulation of the port, intimated this opinion to the Port of
London Committee, and are satisfied that no change in,
jurious to the interests of the shipping will be sanciioned
by that body.
" Among the great variety of individual representa'ions
of public grievances which have been submitted to your
committee, they deem it right to particularize the case of a
complaint made by• Captain Freeman of the ship Frede-
rick, of improper conduct on the part of the licensed
pilots on hoard the cruising vessels at Deal and Dever.
This case was laid by your committee before his Grace
the Duke of Wellington, as Lord Warden of the Cinque
Ports, by whom it was investigated with most scrupulous
care, and it was also made a subject of inquiry by the coin •
mittee of the House of C immons on Cinque Port PiliitSge.
The confliciing nature of the evidence rendered it diffi-
cult to ascertain satisfactorily the exact merits of the par-
ticular case, but it induced a general revision, under the
personal superintendence of his Grace the Lord Warden,
of the course pursued by the pilots in relition to the
cruising system, and the consequent promulgation of direc-
tions which it is hoped will prevent a recurrence of simi-
lar complaints.
" A proposition for the erection of a light house en the
Start'Point, on the coast of Devon, having been submitted
to the notice of your committee, was carefully investigated
by them, anti explanations being given, which satisfied
them that a light so placed would he of sufficient advantage
to shipping passing up and down the British Channel to
to justify its establishment, they were induced to acquiesce
therein, expressing at the same time to the Hon. Cornera-
tien of the Trinity House their anxious hope, that in con-
sideration of the severe distress of the shipping interest,
they would review the charges now existing for other
lights, in order th it, by every practicable reduction of ex-
pense, shipowners might be exonerated from additionel
charge, and relieved as far as possible from 'the present
btu diem

" The attention of your committee being drawn to a
notice of an intended application to Parliament " for
makinv, a port at Redcar, in Yorkshire, and levying tolls
and duties from all ships passing the lights of the harbour,
as well as from those making use of the same," an intima-
tion was conveyed to the srlicitor for the proposed under-
raking, that if it were designed to persist in the attempt
t,t itnpos- a passing toll on shipping, the co►ntnittee wou!d
feel bound, im the part of the shipping interest, to give
the me-sure their strenuous opposition, and their watchful
care will continue to be directed to this subject.
" Your committee regret that they are unable to con-
gratulate the society on the fulfilment of the expectati,,n
,ntimated in their last annual report, of a consider able
eduction in the enormous amount charged on sbi, p ng
rr the port of Lonuon canal and dock duty. A variety
of impediments intervened, which they were unahl- to
•urtn:unt previous to the conclusion of the last session of
Parliament; but from the communications that hays
taken place, they entertain a sanguine hope th it ere many
months shall have elapsed, maritime co:nm-rce wi I be
relieved from every part of this oppressive burden, except
the small portion requisite for the maintenance of the liar
hour service. In the course of the year 1831 the deht
due to the consolidated fund will be entirely discharged ;
sod, as under the existing pressure of the shipping intereat.
it ,s of the last importance that no imposts should ha
levied except such as are indispensable for some object of
immediate necessity, it will be the endeavour of your com-
mittee to procure the repeal of that clause of the Act 3)
George 111.,.cap. 69, which provides that after the ix

tlnc,ion of the debt, the tax be continued, until a

am.itint has been raised ano invested in the national mods
sufficient to provide, try the intrrest the eon, for the ex•
pens, sof the harbour service. Such an impost en existing
commerce, in its present depre.sed stay, for the porpo:e
of procuring ex-mprioa for suec•edinz interes,, seem. to
your committee equally unjust and impolitic; anal their
efforts will he directed to obtaining the substitution of an
authority fir levying hereafter, year by year, such sums
alone as tnay be absolutely necessary.
" At an early period of the year, Nahaniel Gould, E q.
presented to your committee some vtlua'ile intelligence ~f
the latitudes and longitudes of the various points in the
river Sr. Lawienee, and of Anticosti, together with direc-
tions for the navigation of that river ; ,nd as it wa• repre-
se,ited that many shipwrecks at Anticosti have happoed
from the incoriectneis of the charts now in use, t. e com-
mittee deemed the information of sufficient importance to
the extensive trade to that part of the wend to direct a
number of copies to be printed and oisliliuted among the
prison. interested in the North American trade in London
and at all the vationa outports, for the lenefit of ships
about to depart fir Quebec; and your commi+tee are in.
farmed that the coloni,l legislatures of Canada and New

Brunswick, aware of the dangers of this navigation, are
acting in corjunc ion to adopt measures for establishing
various light-houses.
" The sate of the export trade from this country to
Spain, in which an advantage approaching to monopoly is
enjoyed by Spanish shipping, in con‘tquence of the heavy
discriminating duties imposed on importations into S,,aitt
in British ships, has eng ged the attention of your coin-
ini tee. They have not yet been enabled to procure a
redress of the grievance, but cannot believe that the Bri-
tish Government will much longer permit so njurims a
system to continue, without recourse to those treasures of
iirotective retaliation which are provided fur by the .13.-ei-
vroc;ty of Duties' Act; of the alleged advantages of which
Act the Spanish Government has hithertn refused to avail
i.ser, It should be observed, that the official returns of
British and foreign tonnage clearing from the p, its of this
country to Spain, do not exhibit the real merits of this
question, which has reletence only to freight on goods
eicitirted, of which those returns cony y no informmion.
" The progression of the session of Parlitment imposed
~n your committee a succession of duties of a character not
less arduous than important, in watching the various mea-
-tir.s introduced into the L.gisl Attie, affecting initnediately
or indirecly the shipping interest.
" Among the ealte,.t of these was an inquiry ley rt se-
lect cointiiit:ce of r he House of Corn twins into the seen ri'wn
of the Deal and Dover boatmen, and the system by which
die pilotage within the Cinque Port jurisdiction is regu-
lated. Ysur committee have already, in a gunner report,
,apressed their hope that the period net tar distant,
wh,ti a thorough revision and amendment of the .3, tem of
,ilutan- •
will take place.' It would have Lfforded them
e 0
sitisfa,:tion to h tve availed themselves of I.;e. appointment
w. the seltct committee referred to, for bringing under the

consideration of the Legislature, in a comprehensive form,
the anomalous portion of that system connected with the
Cinque Port pi;otage. But peculiar circumstances attending
the measure restricted them to the endeavour to prevent
the imposition of any new charges on shipping ; and after a
laborious inquiry, and considerable correspondence on the
part of your committee, the session of Parliament closed
without any attempt at founding a legislative measure on
the report. It is, however, satisfactory to your com-
mittee to refer to a confirmation in that report of the re-
commendation of the select committee on foreign trade in
1822, that British constant traders, not exceeding 200
tons burden, trading between the ports of Boulogne and
the Scaw inclusive, should be exempted from the com-
pulsion of taking pilots, whether inward or outward-
bound, and whether entering the river Thames by the
north or south channels.' To the whole question the
vigilant attention of your commi:tee will continue to be
directed.
" Your committee have now to advert to the most im-
portant feature of the whole session to those who are
interested in the state and prospects of British navigation.
"At an early period of the session a notice had been
given by the chairman of this society, in his place in
Parliament, of his intention to move for the appointment
of a select committee ' to inquire into the state of the Bri.
tish commercial shipping interests.' But on the 3d of May,
the Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer having
brought forward, on notice, a motion for the appointment
of committees of inquiry into the state of agriculture,'
and of trade and manufactures,' unexpectedly altered the
latter to a proposition for inquiring into the present state
of manufactures, commerce, and shipping,' which was
adopted. The intense interest excited by the investiga-
tion is sufficiently attested by the communications received
by your committee from almost every sea-port. The re-
sult is exhibited in the published report of the Select
Committee of Manufactures, Commerce, and shipping,' in
which is recorded evidence on the state of the shipping
interest, given by 25 witnesses from most of the principal
ports of the United Kingdom, on 9 consecutive days of
meeting, which were exclusively devoted to this portion
of the inquiry. The limits of a report wiil not admit of
any detailed analysis of this remarkable testimony, nor of
any elaborate reasoning on the conclusions to which it
irresistibly leads ; but it may be safely averred, that never
were opinions more triumphantly vindicated—never were
assertions more unanswerably established, than are the
opinions and assertions which have been from time to
time advanced on the part of the recognized organs for
conveying the sentiments of British shipowners, by the
concurrent spirit and bearing of the evidence. Many of
those important questions which have been most vehemently
contested, must now be considered as finally set at rest.
The long continued and still existing depression of the
shipping interests—the partial production and great aggra-
vation of distress caused by continual changes in our
navigation system—the utter impossibility of the successful
maintenance of an unrestricted competition with foreign
navigation—the gross injustice of the imposition of pe-
culiar and exclusive burdens on maritime commerce, for
purposes put ely national, while exposed to that competition
—the declining quality and estimation of British tonnage
—the embarrassment, decay, and ruin of the British
shipowner—may now be viewed as incontrovertible posi-
tions. Nor is the light less valuable which has been
thrown on those facts, which, appearing difficult to se-
concile, have heretofore been insidiously perverted to the
detriment of the cause of the shipowner, and artfully
adduced to invalidate the truth of his statements. The
increasing state of an individual in shipping can no longer
be advanced as conclusive evidence that the capital already
embarked is profitably invested. Tenacity of pursuit of
maritime commerce is shown to be perfectly compatible
with long-continued loss, and to afford no prcof of any
present prosperity or approaching improvement. Even
the production of new ships is proved, from the peculiarity
of many of the circumstances by which it is induced, to be
by no means inconsistent with the same apparently inter-
minable depression.' To these inferences front the recorded
testimony solemnly given before a Parliamentary tribunal,
your committee are especially induced to advert, because
if generally known and forcibly urged, they can scarcely
fail to exercise a powerful influence on public opinion and
cn future measures affecting the shipping interest. That
interest, it must now be perfectly obvious, is in such a
condition tht, while it will be the part of shipowners tin
use every endeavour to adapt themselves to the altered state

of the times, and of the relations of the country, foreign
and domestic, it must no less plainly be the duty of the
Legislature and the Government to afford to British navi-
gation every relief from burden and restriction that
may be compatible with the general interests of the
nation, and every protection and encouragement that
may not be inconsistent with national faith. ' British
maritime commerce will not bear the hazard of further
experiments; by which, not merely will its suttees row
be compromised, but its very existence endangered. And
after the publication of the mass of evidence now referred
to, your committee can scarcely doubt the universal ad.
mission of the justice of that alternative fur which they
have long contended, though under opposition, misrepre-
sentation, and obloquy,—either that those peculiar burdens
and restrictions to which, for objects of national policy,
and in which he has no separate or exclusive interest,
the shipowner is exposed, should be removed ; or that
protection should be extended and continued to him equi-
walent to the disqualification created by those burdens.'
" The strong and universal expectation of advantage to
be derived by the general shipping interest from the open-
ing of the trade with China, induced the anxious attention
of your committee to be directed to the legislative ar-
rangements rendered requisite by the approaching expi-
ration of the East India Company's Charter. Hence, on
the first introduction of the China Trade Bill, it was
with disappointment and regret they perceived that
power was proposed to be given for levying a duty on
tonnage for payment of the consular establishments in
that country, which they bad reason to believe it was in
contemplation to form, on a scale of expenditure calcu-
lated to impose an alarming burden on British navigation.
Deeply impressed with the injustice and impolicy of such a
regulation, your committee omitted no effort by urgent re-
presentations to the Government and petitions to Parlia-
ment, and by every endeavour, to remove the unaccount-
able apathy which appeared to pervade the public mind
on the details of this interesting question, to avert the
impending evil; but, notwithstanding their endeavours
and the indefatigable exertions of their chairman, and a
small number of commercial members in Parliament, the
phowious provision has poised into law, mitigated, how-
ever, by the transfer of a portion of the charge to goods
imported into, and exported from, China, and by the limi-
tation of that on ships to bs. per registered ton. Your
committee have since been favoured by the Lords of
his Majesty's Hon. Privy Council for Trade, with various
communications relative to the projected arrangements for
giving effect to the law, but perceiving with every
renewed consideration, increasing reason for believing
that, under any practicable modification, the application
of its provisions mutt be almost fatal to the export
trade in British ships, as well as to that between China
and the continent of Europe, while it could not fail to
operate most inconveniently, vexatiously, and injuriously
on all tonnage engaged in the general trade, they
have felt it their duty to decline offering any suggestions
for the apportionment or levying of so impolitic an impost.
They have, however, again called the especial attention of
shipowners at every principal outport to the subject, and
invited the co•operation of the mercantile interest of Lon-
don, and from the universal expression of disappointment
and alarm, and the unequivocal manifestation of a feeling
which, if earlier exhibited, might have prevented so ob-
jectionable an enactment, they are still not without hope
that the clause may be repealed, and a provision substi-
tuted fur the maintenance of an eitablishment for the
protection of British interests in the Chinese empire, more
constitutional in its character, and less subversive of the
;nterests of commerce and navigation, than this obnoxious
tax.
"In tbp hope of obtaining some benefit for British
al.ipping, an endeavour was made to procure the introduc-
tion of a clause into the Sugar Refining Bill limiting the
permission to refine foreign sugar in bond to such sugar as
should be imported in British ships, or in ships of the
country of which it should he the production, or from
whence imported, but your Committee regret to report
hat the iff.rt was ineffectual.
On the introduction of the Bill authorizing the pur-
chatie, at the public expense, of the rights of the corpora..
tion of London to levy on goods imported in the ships or
on account of aliens, the duties of scavage and package,
your committee considered it incumbent on then to oppose
the principle of the Bill ; to this course they were not (as
has been invidiously averred) impelled by any illiberal
indisposition to the extension of relief to commerce ; but
while they could not but view the payment of public
money for the abrogation of a municipal impost, on the

. . _
grounds of its injurious effects on the local interests of
the very city by whose corporation it was imposed, as
indefensible in itself, and dangerous as a precedent, while
they further considered it as an improvident waste of the
public money, that the produce of the tax should first
bsigready increased by a temporary act, in the power of
Vae Legislature at any time to repeal, and the purchase
Ire'tbetr_ calculated on the actual produce so ternpora-
_'accumulated—it became, independent of these
lidefirlions, their bounden duty to protest against the
i ry inflicted on British shipping, by the permanent
rerooYul of - the discriminating charge imposed oo
..,.

goads imported is foreign vessels, expressly for
the protection of that shipping. The utter disregard of
this avowed object of the duty, when contrasted with the
readiness to purchase municipal acquiescence in its abro-
gation, by a payment of such questionable propriety, did
not afford a very favourable indication of a disposition to
give just attention to the claims of British naligation ;
and although your committee were unsuccessful in their
opposition to the measure, they are persuaded that a dis-
passionate examination of the question from which they
are precluded by the limits of the report from offering
more than a mere outline, will be found abundantly to
vindicate the propriety of the course adopted by them.
" Much excitement prevailed throughout the country
on the subject of a notice given by the Right Hon. the
Vice-President of the Board of Trade, for the introduc-
tion of a series of bills regulating the commerce and na-
vigation of the country, and the attention of your com-
mittee was carefully directed thereto, but, being acts of
consolidation alone, they were passed without opposition.
" It is with regret your Committee have to notice the
failure of their efforts to obtain a mere equitable arrange-
! ment of the sale of duties rendered payable under the
Stamp Duties Act o❑ policies of marine insurance. The
unjust and unexplained limitatio❑ of the relief afforded by
the Act to policies the premiums on which shall not
exceed 30s. per cent., and the exclusion of time policies
from all participatio❑ in the benefit, have deprived the
shipping interest of a great portion of the advantages they
were led to anticipate ; but your Committee trust the
subject will soon again undergo revision, and that the
duty will either be entirely repealed, or, at all events,
further and more equitably reduced.
" Application was made for the assistance of your
Committee in obtaining permission for shipowners to take
wine as stores for ships' use, free of duty, instead of
spirits. Your Committee, conceiving it their duty to give
every assistance in their power to the promotion of habits
of temperance among seamen, by the encouragement of
voluntary abstinence from indulgence in the use of ardent
spirits', made accordingly such representations to the Hon.
Commissioners of Customs as induced the required per-
mission to be considerately granted.
" Your committee having received an intimation that
an honorary distinction had been conferred on Captain
Frederick Marryat, R. N. C. B. by his Majesty the King
of the French, for his invention of a code of marine signals,
and having been applied to by Captain Marryat for their
opinio❑ of its merits, deemed it a duty to bear their
unequivocal testimony to the important benefits rendered
by him to the interests of maritime commerce, and they
trust that an invention long adopted in the British navy,
sanctioned by the general attestation of the public, and
already rewarded by the honourable notice of one foreig❑
Power, may soon be duly and universally appreciated.
" Representations have been made to the Board of
Trade on the subject of an alleged infraction of the Order
in Council relating to the commerce of the British pos-
sessions abroad, dated 10th of August, 1827, by the
practice of importing French wines into the Mauritius
from the island of Bourbon, which representations are
now under the consideration of his Majesty's Government.
" A scientific committee, appointed by the Government,
have long been engaged in the consideration of the best
mode of altering the Registry Act for the admeasurement
of ships for tonnage, and have lately furnished your com-
mittee with some copies of a pamphlet, containing various
plans for a better mode of measurement. These have been
forwarded to the principal outports, with a request for
the opinion of the shipowners of those places on their
respective merits, and the subject will then engage the
serious attention of your committee.
" The funds of the two registry-books of shipping
having proved inadequate to meet their expenditure, a
union of the Committees has taken place, and arrange-
ments entered into for the production of one book for the
classification of shipping, on principles intended to be
satisfactory to all the interests concerned. The co-ope-
ration of your Committee being invited, they did not feel
justified in shrinking from the task by any consideration
of its invidious nature, its difficulty, or the labour it must
❑ecessarily involve. But having been favoured by the
united Committee with a draught of the plan they pro-
posed to pursue, and finding it to include many propo-
sitions which in their judgment were objectionable, they
submitted a sketch of the principles o❑ which they con-
ceived the classification of shipping ought to be founded.
These principles have, after anxious and liberal discussion,
been adopted by the united Committee as the basis of their
plan, and your Committee are consequently engaged in the
endeavour to assist them in maturing a system of classifi-
cation of shipping property, which, whether desirable or
otherwise to shipowners, appealing to the commercial
world indispensable, has become inevitable.
" Your committee have been reluctantly compelled, by
the necessity for a rigid adherence to the regulation inti-
mated in their last report, to decline the investigation of
the merits of a great variety of nautical inventions that
have been submitted to them ; they desire to repeat the
assurance that this decision is not the result of any in-
difference to the advancement of science and the progress
of improvement, but is forced on them by the conviction
of the absolute impossibility of their doing justice to such
inquiries, or even bestowing on the multiplied subjects to
which they refer, the most cursory attention, without
sacrificing the more urgent considerations which continu-
ally press on their time. They avail themselves of this
opportunity for acknowledging the receipt of many valuable
publications o❑ ❑autical subjects, particularly of 20 copies
of a series of maritime and nsercintile tables, illustrative
of the trade and commerce of the British Empire, by
William Richmond, E•q., of North Shields."
A resolution confirmatory of the report, moved and
seconded by Mr. GREY and Mr. SOANO, was unanimously
agreed to.
Mr. BUCKLE, in moving a resolution of thanks to the
committee for their services, begged to congratulate the
meeting on the nearly approaching period (1834) when
the shipping of the port of London shall be relieved from
the obnoxious, because local, and oppressive London canal
and dock duty. He hoped the Legislature would he in-
duced, by the unanimous voice of the British shipowners
at large, to abandon the tonnage duty on British vessels
trading to China.
Mr. Alderman THOMPSON seconded the resolution,
which was unanimously agreed to.
Mr. CHAPLIN proposed a resolution to the effect of
urging the committee to persevere in their endeavour to
obtain relief from the Legislature for the British shipping
interest, from its present unparalleled distressed condition.
Mr. BEA UMONT seconded the resolution.

Mr. YOUNG (father of the Chairman) felt that the pre-
sent was a great national question, and not one solely af-
fecting the British shipowner. It was as a Briton, and
not ao a shipowrer, he gave the resolution his cordial sup-
port. Great Britain was an island, and as such dependent
on its maritime resources. Its navy depended on its com-
mercial marine, and it upon protection against foreign
competition. It was impossible for a country not a conti •
nent, like England, oppressed by a debt of 800,000,0001.,
and with a population the main increase of which was
upwards of 1,000 souls a day, to compete with foreigners
comparatively free from fiscal burdens, and where labour
was cheap and abundant, upon the present free trade
terms. Foreigners derived all the advantages of a reduc-
tion of duty, and would monopolize the carriage of foreign
corn, contrary to the doctrine that day advocated in one
of the public journals. The theory of going to the cheapest
place was untenable—nay, was wicked, inasmuch as the
more it was acted upon, the greater the number of our
own native-born, working, and industrious people who
would be deprived of their only means of employment.
Mr. PAL)SIER (mover of the 4th resolution) was a
member of the committee appointed to inquire into the
best mode of amending the Registry Act, and introduced
a classified system of tonnage admeasurement, and hoped
that ere long the society and the public would be in pos-
session of a classified and perfect book of registration of
British commercial shipping. It was, indeed, proposed
by some theorists that tbey should discontinue, not only
the " green book" and the " red book" registries of British
tonnage, but all other classified registers ; but besides
that, this would appear to foreigners a recklessness, the
effect of despair at the prcspec,s of the British shipowners,
the result of which would be disasterous to our commerce.

It was proposed that surveyors should be appointed to ad-
measure and report upon the tonnage of all British ship-
ping, and that these surveyors should be paid by fixed
salaries, and not at all by fees or perquisites. An accurate
and classified system of registration, which would pay its
own expenses, would thus be insured to our shipping trade.
Mr. Alderman Thomcsorr said that a uniform and per-
fect system of registration of tonnage was a long felt desi.
deratum in our commercial policy. The shipowners of
Sunderland—in which more ships were built than in all
the other ports together—justly complained of the present
system, under which their vessels were, without regard to
age or worthiness, all placed in the second class. All they
asked for was a fair and uniform adnieasurement according
to the intrinsic qualities of the vessel. The cost of a
registry should, to be generallybeneficial and to pay itself, be
much less than at present. A well-digested registry book
would find a place on the desk of every merchant's count.
ing-house, and would pay the expense of the surveyors
engaged in its production.
Thanks having been voted with acclamation to the
Chairman, the Society proceeded to ballot for four mem-
ber s of committee, in the place of those who went out by
rotation.

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