The Sun.
London, England, 1832-08-23 00:00:00

sent Cabinet, he can only conduct his business
under an embarrassment that must ultimately
produce the downfal of the interest to which he
belongs. We will not now stop to inquire whether
the projectors of those changes which have taken
place in the commercial aml navigation codes
were justified in acting upon the supposition that
Great Britain must inevitably lose so large u
portion of the trade she had enjoyed during war
at its close, because that inquiry would now be
an unprofitable one, and could not be brought
to a satisfactory result by any analogy of reason-
ing that could be produced; for the political
and commercial operations of the last forty years
are without example in the history of Europe.
But giving the disciples of the new system the
full benefit of their assertion, that England must
at the close of the war be deprived of a large
portion of her trade, and consequently must ac-
commodate herself to circumstances, nothing can
justify the gross abuse that has been practised
upon the public confidence in the various Re-
turns and Reports that have been made as to the
working of the new system, and particularly
in that branch of it now under consideration,
that brings the Tonnage Returns into notice
which relate to the number and nature of the
commercial marine, and the amount of voyages
the vessels connected with it have performed.—
The decisive and indisputable character of these
documents is evident, although, from their ex-
tensive aggregate amount, they cannot be
brought conveniently under public inspection.
In other words, they are too extensive and ab-
struse for general consideration, and conse-
quently the assertions of the Poulett Thomsons
of the day have passed current. We shall have
occasion at a future period to give some tables
that will fully bear out our assertion that the
Tonnage Returns are in favour of the complaint
of the shipowners, that their trade has been ruined
by the experiments of political economists. The
mystification that has been practised with regard
to the Tonnage Returns has been, that they have
been made use of in argument as representing
ships, and not what they really do represent,
the quantity of work performed by ships. If
this tact had been always fairly stated, the
case, we apprehend, would have appeared very
differently in the mind of the most casual
observer, and the shipowners then would not be
charged with madly increasing the amount of
their ships in the face of a constantly decreasing
commerce, as their enemies have been pleased to
infer ; but it would be teen that, whilst exports
and imports have been increasing, and their
vessels have been performing a greater number
of voyages, they have been incurring extensive
losses in consequence of the competition of
foreigners, and the general want of protection
affbrded to them by the Government. We are
aware of the anxiety that this subject is exciting
in the minds of all reflecting persons, and well
it may, for it involves the commercial greatness
and the political importance of the British
empire, both unhappily dwindling larder Whig
mismanagement ; but we are also aware that
it is an uninviting :subject to discuss at any
length for the general reader, and therefore
we shall on the present occasion content our-
selves with the single observation that the Ton-
nage Returns make out a complete case for the
shipowner, who has never denied his amount of
business, but who, with more justice than any
other trader (for he is totally unprotected, and
left to the mercy of foreign competition in all
its extended ramifications), complains he is wot k-
ing for embarrassment instead of profit. We
have now, we hope, in these preliminary re-
marks placed the question of the shipowners
upon its true footing, and prepared it for those
details that we shall shortly offer for the purpose
of showing the precise position of this great in-
terest at the close of the Session of 1832.
Morning Post.