The Sun.
London, England, 1829-10-10 00:00:00

MR. SADLER-FREE TRADE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sut,—The recent meeting at Newark, and Mr.
Serjeant Wilde's ahle spvcrit there, has again called
public attention, in some degree, to Mr. Sadler's
long. harangue at AV hi t by.
In that speech the Member for Newark, accord-
ing to the creed of his party, has greatly magnified
the prevailing commercial distresses, and has attti.
tinted them all to the " principles of nee trade."
The folly of this has been so frequently and so fully
shown in your pages, that I need not now enlarge
upon it. The recent failures in the woollen trade,
and those yet more recent in the sugar trade, might,
with as much justice, be attributed to the Duke of
Newcastle's notices of ejectment to his tenants, as
to Mr. Iluskissou's measures with regard to ship-
ping and to the silk manufacture.
It is, however, with the facts rather than the rea-

sonings of Mr. Sadler that I have at present to do.
That gentleman, in his speech at Whitby, laboured
hard to show (by opposing other official returns to
those adduced by Mr. liuskisson), that the mea-
sures of the latter gentleman► had been detrimental
to, arid threatened to be destructive of, the shipping
interest of this nation. The importance of this as-
sertion, backed, as it appeared to be, by official do-
cuments, drew my attention to it, and induced in-

quiries which, as they showed the utter fallacy of
the assertions in question, I should be glad to see
submitted to your readers.
Mr. Sadler states, that " from one of the returns

presented last session of Parliament, it appears that
British shipping has diminished, comparing 1828
with 1816, to the extent of 1768* ships, compris-
ing 275,749 tons, and what is still more to be la-
mented, 23,244 men."

The return laid before the House of Commons,
from which Mr. Sadler makes this assertion, is No.
104, ordered by the House of Commons to be pre-
sented, June 19, 1829, and is as follows :—" An
account of the number of vessels, with the amount
of their tonnage, and the number of men and boys
usually employed in navigating the same, that be-
longed to the several ports of the British empire,
from the year 1814 to the year 1828, both inclusive:
Years. Vessels. Tonnage. Men.
1814 21,415 2,616,965 172,786
1815 24,860 9,681,276 177,309
1816 25,861 2,733,910 178,820
1817 25,346 2,684,986 171,013
1513 05,507 2,674,468 173,609
1319 25,482 2,666,396 174,318
1820.-- 25,371 2,638,593 ..174,514
1821 25,036 2,560,203 169,179
1822 24,649 2,519,044 166,333
1823 24,542 9,506,760 165,476
1824 24,776 2,559,587.. ...168,637
1825......24,230 2,553.680 166,183
1826 24,625 9,635,644 167,635
1827 23,199 2,460,500 151,415
1828 24,095 2,508,191 155,576"

From this return, it will be seen that Mr. Sadler

is numerically correct as to the tonnage and men,
but it should be observed that, instead of taking the
first and last year of the series, lie has carefully se-
lected the very highest year, 1816, for the purpose
of comparing with 1828. For the object of a fair
comparison, had that been his intention, it would
evidently have been fair to have compared 1828
with 1822, or with some one year immediately pre-
ceding the adoption of Mr. Huskisson's measure.
Even then, however, a slight deficiency in the
years 1827 and 1828 will be found, which, upon
the best authority, may be explained and accounted
for in the following manner :—ln the year 1823 an
Act was passed, to take effect from the sth of Ja-
nuary, 1824. (4th Geo. IV., cap. 68), requiring that
all vessels throughout the whole of his Majesty's
dominions be registered, and allowing a period of
two years to fulfil the directions of the Act. In
consequence of this, very many vessels which had
previously stood in the hooks of the Custom-house,
and which had been annually returned, proved, on
investigation, to he no longer in existence. Two
years, from January, 1821, were allowed to com-
plete this return; but the lengthened correspondence
which ensued with owners and reported owners of
vessels prevented the correction of the report of
1826. The return of that year was, therefore, still
erroneously made at 24,625 vessels. The law had,
however, come into active operation previously to
the return of the year 1827, when the number of
vessels reported having been verified was reduced
to 23,199. The reports now made are founded,
therefore, on more certain data. The vessels re.
ported in 1827 and 1828 are actually in existence;
whereas, previously, vessels that had been hors de
combat for years, and that, too, to a considerable ex-
tent, swelled up the reports from year to year.
The same remarks apply to the number of men
employed, the supposed diminution of which Mr.
Sadler so forcibly "laments." The men who had
once formed the registered crews of those " phantom
ships," no longer in existence, were still returned in
thelsame manner in the reports, and were, of course,
in a similar way to be subtracted from the more ac-
curate returns of 1827 and 1828.

Having thus exposed the fallacy of Mr. Sadler's
assertion, that the number and weight of tonnage of
our vessels have decreased, I now beg to notice an-
other assertion, that the number of ships, British
built, had enormously decreased. Mr. Sadler is re-
ported to have said, that ‘‘ by other official reports,
as quoted by Mr. Robinson, the Member for Wor-
cester, it appears that for the three preceding years,
ending January, 1827, 1828, and 1829, the number
of vessels built in each year respectively was 1,719,
1,440, and 1,125. Then, as to their tonnage; that
exhibited a decrease in a much greater proportion,
being 207,088, 163,945, and 128,752, the amount
of the former of the three years exceedi►fg the latter
by the appalling difference of above 60 per cent.
Now here, also, a false impression has been made
by a dexterous instead of a fair selection of the years
to be compared.
He shows truly that the vessels built in 1828 are
less than those in 1827, and that fewer were built
in 1827 than in 1826. Put the whole numbers
built will be more fairly shown by the following ex-
tract from the official report :
Years. Vessels built. Years. Vessels built.
1814
ISIS
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820
1821

From this table I propose to throw out altogether
the years 1825 and 1826, as unfair years, for the
purpose of comparison. Vessels begun under the
extraordinary commercial excitement of 1825, and
probably not completed or registered till 1826.
ought not to be taken into the present account. It
will then be seen that the number of vessels built in
1828 is, with one exception only, greater than the
number built in any one year previous to Mr. Hus-
kisson's measures; that the number built in 1827
and 1828 is 2,625; being 998 vessels more than
were built in 1822 and 1823, and making, what
Mr. Sadler truly calls, " the appalling difference cf
GO per cent." And, further, that the number of
vessels built in the two years, 1827 and 1828, is
greater by 126 vessels than those built in the three
years of 1821, 1822, and 1823. So much for Mr.
Sadler's assertion that Mr. nu,kisson's measures
had been wholly destructive of the shipping inte-
rests of the kingdom. Yours, &c.,
Oct. 8. AN OLD CORRESPONDENT.

4 In the published report of Mr. Sadler's speech, ti e
difference between the shipping in 1825 and 1528, is
stated to be 768 ships. This is prob ibly an error of the
reporter, as the real difference is 1,763 ships.

Despatches were sent off for Sir B. GORDON,
our Ambassador at Constantinople, and Lord SruAar DE
HOTIISAY, at Paris, by a messenger yesterday evening
from the Foreign Office. The mei.sengcr had also des-
patches from th Colonial Office for Sir FRED klucx ADAM,
at Corfu, arid for Sir PULTNEY Leou.r, in the Medi-
terranean, from the Admiralty.