Star.
London, England, 1831-04-29 00:00:00

GENERAL SHIPPING AND COLONIAL COMMITTEE.
Committee Room, Qty of London Tavern,
April Z. HIM
AT a MEETING of the COMMITTEE held this day,
pursuant to Notice, and in conformity with a Resolution of tie
General Meeting of the gist instant. Nauseam Goma, Esq. in the
Chair.
The following Resolutions were unanimously agreed to :
1. That the prosperity and preservation of the West India Colo•
flies, from the extensive, uniform, and certain market for manufac-
tures and employment for shipping, which they afford, are essential to
the maintenance of the general interests and the naval power of the
Empire.
S. That to legislate beneficially for those Colonies, and for the real
,nd permanent welfare of all classes of the population, requires an in-
•ltnate local knowledge of the state of society, and of the habits and
feelings of the people; and a careful reference to the history of the
Establishment of the Colonies, and to the laws under which the British
Capital has been embarked in them, and their cultivation stimulated
'.I the long-cherished policy of the Mother Country.

a. That, when, for these reasons, local legislatures have been esta-
blished, to coerce those legislatures in matters of internal regulation
involving their own private property and personal safety, is, in prin-
ciple, dangerous to all the Colonies, and calculated to destroy their at-
tachment to the Mother Country, which, during the last war, so sig-
nally contributed to her successes, and which even now, in a period of
extreme adversity, has not been extinguished.
t That to effect such a coercion of the Colonies by means of penal
restrictions or lambent on their intercourse with this country, appears
to this Committee to be, not only oppressive towards she non-resident
proprietors, annuitants, mortgagees and others, who, though possessing
much property in those islands, yet have no influence in their legisla-
tures, but also exceedingly injurious to the merchants, manufacturers,
and ship-owners of the United Kingdom, who are directly interested
in this intercourse, and who must be injured by its interruption to the
extent of many millions of capital and many thousands of persons.
5. That the threat, as recently announced by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, to propose the adoption of such means for coercing the
Colonies, is contrary to the uniform usage of Parliament since the
American revolution, and consistent only with those precedent. which
led to that disastrous event ; and a revival of similar measures, for
whatever object, appears to this Committee the most dangerous and
deplorable policy, as the exercise of this odious power of coercion was,
after repeated discussion, virtually abandoned during the American
revolution ;—an abandonment strenuously advocated by the greatest
statesmen this country has produced, and which the calm concurring
voice of all reasonable men has since pronounced to be in conformity
with those principles of sound policy by which all parts of the empire
should be connected and governed.

6. That a perseverance in this unwise and perilous course of
policy cannot fail to provoke measures of resistance, endanger the
peace of the Colonies, and thus put to hazard not only the property
but the lives of all clines of the inhabitants, entirely destroy our in-
tercourse with the Colonies, and ultimately lead to their separation
from the mother coutitiy. .

7. That Petitions be prepared and presented to our most gracious
Sovereign, atul, upon the assembling of Parliament, to both Houses of
the imperial Legislatute, expressive of the sentiments contained in these
Resolutions, and deprecating, in the strongest but most respectful
terms, the anti-colonial policy of this snd other late measures of the
Administration ; beseeching them not to adopt any resolutions which
mast compromise both the commercial intercourse and the political
connection betweeu ibe British Colonies and the mother country, and
earnestly emreating protection for the general Colonial and Shipping
Interests of the Empire.

•. That a Copy of the foregoing Resolutions be transmitted to the
Right Honourable the Earl Grey, Lord Viscount Aithorp, and Lord
Viscount Goderich, and the Chairman be requested to ask for an in.
terriew with their Lordships on the subject ;—and that

W. M. Alexander Esq.
John Bainbridge, Esq.;
Henry Bliss, Eu
Abraham Borraile, Esq.
John William Buckle, E-q.
Be a deputation to attend the I :hai
(Signed) N A TJ

Andrew Co!vile, Esq.
Henry Davidson, Esq.
William Tindall, Esq.
G. F. Young, Esq.

nan at such interview.
ANIEL GOULD, Chairman.