Star.
London, England, 1826-09-11 00:00:00

-G, SEPTEMBER 11, 1826.

that 'his lii.fjeity's Government have set free, to compete
with the.tonimercial marine of the country, 1 559 ves-
sels, amounting in tonnage to 363,912 tons; a quart-
ti:y nearly equal to one-fourth of the who's shipping of
the country, as it stood in the year 1793, at the corn-
mencem nt of the late N ar.
But this is not all. If the difference of circumstances
under which trade iecarried on, in time cf peace and
in time of war, be taken into consideration, we shall
find that, in the former period, a much smaller number
've,sels is required for the same extent of transactions,
than in the latter. In time of peace, the moment a
ship has landed her c irgo, she is at liberty to sail again,
and is dispatched on another voyage as soon as pos.
sibe. During the last war, we were obliged, in almost
all cases, to place our merchant ships under the pro-
tection of convoy ; and, its spite of all the exertions of
the Admiralty, it was fiequently difficult to provide
iconvoys as expeditiously as the interests of commerce
would have required. Four or five hundred merchant-
inen were sometimes collected together at one point,
before the required protection could be afforded to
them. And when, at length, these large bodies
shipping did proceed to sea, they were under the neces-
sity of keeping together; So that the rate of sailing,
during a whole voyage, 'was necessarily to be regulated
by the progress of the slowest sailing vessel. In time
of peace it is otherwise. Ships can then traverse the
ocean singly, without fear of interruption ; and in their
passage from one port to another, as well as in loading
and unloading, every exertion is used to ensure dispatch.
An instance occurred lately, at Liverpool, of a large
West lndiaman arriving from Barbadoes, landing her
cargo, and sailing again for that Island in the course
of one week. The multiplication and convenience of
Docks have also greatly contributed to obviate delay in
the discharge and leading of vessels. Upon the whole,
I shall not be overstating the proportion, when I say
that two thirds of the number of vessels, necessary in
time of war, are fully sufficient for all the purposes of
the same extent of commerce in time of peace.
There is yet another circumstance to which, before I
quit this part of the subject, I must refer. I mean the
alteration made in the year 1815, in the Foreign Corn
trade of the country. During the war, this trade
afforded regular employment to no inconsiderable quan-
tity of shipping, but since the law has been altered, and
the ports have been generally shut against the impor-
tation of Foreign Corn, that employment has ceased.—
In a desultory intercourse, like that which alone can
exist under the present law, the opening of the ports
being sudden, and, in most cases, uncertain, till the
quarterly average is declared, it is almost impossible
that the trade, when permitted, should not fall into the
hands of the foreign ship-owner. The period for which
the ports may continue open being limited to a few
weeks, the persons who wish to take advantage of that
opening, instead of fitting out ships in our ports, send
their orders to the Continent, with directions to forward
the Corn by any vessels that can be procured on the
spot. Hence the almost exclusive employment of
foreign shipping in this occasional trade.
I must now ;rave the indulgence of the House while
I thew what was the situation of this country, with re.
gard to its shipping, previous to the last war. In 1792,
one of the most prosperous years which the country has
ever known,—.the year immediately preceding the
breaking out of that war, in which we were called upon
to make such immense efforts to maintain our naval
superiority—the number of registered ships in the seve-
ral ports of the British empire was 16,079 ; the amount
of their tonnage 1,540,145 tons. In the present yeas,
that is to say, in the year ending the Slat of December,
1825, the number of registered ships was 24,174 ; and
the amount of their tonnage 2,542,216 tons; showing
an increase of one-third in the number of shipss and of
two-fifths in the tonnage, within that period.
Having stated the number and tonnage of our regis-
tered vessels at the commencement of the late war, I
will now thew what they were at its close. In 1815,
the number was 24,860, and the amount of their ton-
nage 2,681,276 tons. It appears, therefore, that there
has been, since the conclusion of the war, a decrease in
our shipping of 686 vessels, and 139,060 tons; but I
have, I think, shewn satisfactorily that, upon the return
of peace in 1815, our commercial marine was greatly
in excess of what was requisite, in the then altered situ-
ation of the country.
As connected with this part of our inquiry, it is ma-
terial to ascertain the number of vessels that have been
built in the British dominions since the termination of
the late war, and to compare it with the number built
in former periods. It is with much satisfaction that I
find myself enabled to assure the House that, taking the
last thirty-seven years, the number of ships annually
built in Great Britain, instead of decreasing, has in-
creased. The documents which prove the correctness
of this statement are already upon the table of the
House, with the exception of those for the year 1812,
which, in consequence of the calamitous fire at the
Custom House in that year, could not be procured.
From the returns which I hold in my hand, I find the;
the number of ships built last year, in the several ports
of the British dominions, exceeded the number built in
any one year of the whole period to which I have re-
ferred. In the year 1814, when the war with France
first terminated, the number of ships built was 818 ;
the amount of their tonnage 95,976 tons. Last year,
the number of ships built was 1,312; the amount of
their tonnage 171,827. tons. So that, in tact, the ton-
nage of the ships built last year was little short of double
the tonnage of those built in the year 1814, and ex-
ceeded considerably that of any year upon record.
These details, however dry in themselves, appear to
me to involve the elements of the whole question, and
to afford the best criterion by which a judgment can be
farmed, how far the complaints which represent our
shipping to have been in a state of rapid decline are
well founded. The only other omi:nison growing out
of the documents which I hold in my hand, is that of
the number of ships which have entered inwards, and
cleared outwards, to and from the ports of Great ari-
tam, in the several years since the alterations which are
o'sjected to in our Navigrion Laws.
I have provided myself with a return exhibiting
this comparison, from the year 1814 down to the last
year; and f intreat the House to bear in mind that
the complaint, in the petition on the table, is that in

[PRICE SEVENPENCE.

consequence of the alteration made in the Navigation
Laws within the last three or four years, the employ.
ment of British shipping has dicreated, and that of
foreign vessels trading with this country has increased.
I will confine the comparison to the returns of vessels,
British and Foreign, entering inward*: and for this
reason—that it is not necessary for ships, leaving our
ports in ballast, to clear out at all, and theretoie the
returns exhibiting the number of vessels cleared out-
wards must be very imperfect.
I find that, in the year ended the 2.5 th of 13_c. 18i4,
the number of British vessels that entered inwards was
19,164, and the amount of their tonnage 2,364,249 tons.
—The number of foreign vessels that entered inwards
during the same year, was 5,280, the amount of their
tonnage being 694,8130 tens. In the pear ended the 25th
of December 1825—a pear in which the inciiitications
made in our Nadigation Laws were in full operation—
the number of British vessels that entered inwards
was 21,786; the amount of their tonnage 2,786,814
tons. The number of foreign •vessels that, entered
inwards in that year had increased to 6,561, and
the-amount-of their tonnage to 892,601 tons. The year
1825 was, it is well known, a year of unexampled specu-
lation in every branch of toromerce, creating an unusual
demand for shipping, not only in the ports of this coon-
try, but throughout Europe. And what, as regards
British shipping. was the result ? Why, that the posi-
tive increase of British vessels entered inwards, as c m•
pared with the year 1824, was 2,622 ; and of tonnage
+22,595 ton;; while the increase of foreign vessels en-
tered inwards, during the same year, was in number
1,281 ; and in tonnage 197,721 tons. This at least is
no unsatisfactory result. The increased employment of
British shipping alone in that year exceeds the aggre.
gate increase of employment to the shipping of all othtt
nations of the worlds

But as the attention of the House has been specially
referred, by the Petitioners, to the state of the trade be.
tween this country and the northern parts of Europe,
and more especially to the trade with Prussia, I must
beg leave to enter rather more specifically into that part
of the case. lam happy to be able to state, upon the
authority of documents which will be laid on the table
of the House, that by a comparison between the British
and Prussian Shipping engaged in the traJe between
the two countries, during the years 1824 and 1825, the
increase of British was much greater than that of Prus.
sian shipping in the latter year. The number of British
ships trading to the ports of PI ussia in the year 1824.
was 470; in the year 1825, 942; being more than
double the number of the preceding year. The number
of Prussian ships which came to this country.-in the
year 1824, was 682; in 1825, ne number was 887 ;
being an increase of about one fourth.
Such, Sir, if any inference is to be deduced from the
trade between Prussia and Great Britain for the last

year, is the comparative growth of British and Prussian
Navigation. lam aware that the danger of losing our
carrying trade, from the Ports of the Baltic, has been
the main source of the jealousy felt by the Shipping
Interest, and of their complaints to this House. The
comparison between British and Prussian shipping for
the two or three last years, and especially that of the
year 1825, has certainly not borne out their predictions,
or justified their alarms. But it would be uniandid to
deny, that we have not yet sufficient experience to war-
rant a positive conclusion that, prospectively, the ship.
ping of the Prussian ports may nut gain ground in the
competition with our own. lam the more induced to
make this remark, as, from the excessive excitement, and
over-trading of the last year, I am ready to acknow-
ledge that, taken by itself, it cannot be considered as
affording an estimate for the future; neither, on the
other hand, perhaps, will it be fair, in 1827, to form
such an estimate from the experience of the present
year, which, it is much to be feared, as a natural con-
sequence of late excess, will be one of severe depression
in the trade of this country.
Having adverted to the apprehensions which are en-
tertained respecting our trade with the ports of the
Baltic, I have naturally been. most anxious to silt to the
bottom this important part of our inquiry. I know no
mode so satisfactory of ascertaining what have been the
fluctuations in the trade, either as respects our mill
share of it, at different periods, or the prop(); tion which
that share bears to the trade of other Powers wit% the
ports of the Baltic, as a reference to the annual Returns
of the vessels, of all nations, which have passed the
Sound in a given number of years. Fortunately, the
State Paper Office has furnished me with these returns.
This account I hold in my hand, from the year 1783 to
the year 1792, with the exception of the year 1789 ; the
returns for which year have been either lost or mislaid.
I also bold in my hand a similar account, from the year
1816 to the year 1825, both inclusive. The comparison
of these two periods, each of ten years, (both periods of
peace) appears to me to afford a fair illustration of this
branch of trade. lam happy to say that the result will
be found highly satisfactory ; for it will be seen that the
number of British ships which passed the Sound in the
year 1825, was not only positively greater than it was
in any one of the twenty years to which I have referred,
but that its proportion, with respect to the number of
vessels from all other nations, was equally favourable
to this country. It would be going into an unnecessary
detail to give the numbers for every year of the twenty.
I shall, therefore, confine myself 'to the five last year--
The total number of ships which passed the Sound was t
Ships of all
13ritis6 Ships. other Nations.
Ira die year 1821 . . . 2,818 . • . • • GASS
Ditto 1822 . . . 8,0107
Ditto 180 . . . 5,018
Ditto 1824 . . . 5,540
Dine 1825 . . . 5,186

So, that, looking at the proportion which Great Bri-
tain has been able to retain of the trade of the Baltic, it
appears that, last year, when the total number of vessels
which passed the Sound exceeded that of any former
year, British shipping engrossed considerably uuo• e than
one-third of the whole navigation of that sea, and had
increased very nearly two-fifths, compared with the
average of the four preceding years. The papers so
which I have Welled I propose to move for, so that t►.e
House will be able to judge from them of the correct-
ness of my statement.

In cons; quence of the restoration of peace, the de-
mand for shipping, as I have already aeosarked, was

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freight were coasi•'
This gave rise UP
.ae Shipping Interest.
remedy fur their difficulp
year 1820, appointed a Selett
Coromitterestrinemire itvo the state of our Foreign Com-
merce. .My Right Honourable Friend, the blaster of
the Mint, now absent, I am sorry to say, from indispo-
sition, presided over the labours of that Committee, and
prosecuted the inquiry, in several succeeding Sessions,
with a degree of zeal, diligence, and ability, for which
the country is greatly indebted to my Right Honourable
Friend. One change recommended by that Committee,
in the Navigation Laws, was to the following effect;—
that whereas certain goods, which I ha►e already de-
scribed as known in trade under the designation of
•' enumerated artidels," could only be imported in British
ships, or in ships of the country in Europe of which
they were the produce, and directly from that country,
it was the opinion of the Committee that the law ought
to be so fir relaxed, as to allow the importation of these
articles in the ships of any country into which they had
been previously imported.
The recommendation of the Committee was adopted
by the Legislature. That this relaxation has been bene-
ficial to our Co7nriserce and Navigation is now, I be-
lieve, placed beyond all doubt. It afforded a great
facility to the execution of another project, emanating
from the same Committee, and since alto carried into
effect ;—that of establishing a gener.ll system of ware-
housing, so as to make this country a place of entrepot
for all foreign commodities. It was obviously impossi-
ble to give full scope to this system, unless we were
prepared to allow greater latitude to the admission of
foreign goods. The superior capital and credit of this
country afford inducements to send those goods here,
and their being deposited in British warehouses gives a
facility to the British merchant and shipowner to sup-
ply the demand for them in other parts of the world,
through the medium of British adventure and British
shipping, instead of their being sent directly to those
parts in foreign shipping, from the countries of Europe
in which such goods are produced.
It was desirable, therefore, for the interest of our
foreign trade, that we should no longer rigidly adhere
to that part of the Navigation Act which prohibited the
importation of the " enumerated articles," if brought
from countries other than those of which they were the
produce. Such a restraint, it is hardly necessary to say,
could not fail freque t y to prevent speculations of
trade, in which the spirit of British enterprise would'
have otherwise engaged, or to throw those speculations]
into other channels. It interfered, likewise, to prevent
the advantageous assoi tment of cargoes, and other coot•
mercial arrangements, as well in foreign ports as is the
ports r.f this country ; and, in this and many other way%
contributed, directly and indirectly, to diminish the
employment of British shipping.
Another alteration in our Navigation System has
since been adopted, which certainly ought not to have
been so long delayed. This alteration consists in put.
ting the trade between Great Britain and Ireland upoi
the footing of a coasting trade. Every Centimes
must, I think, see that, from the time of the union of
the two countries, it was desirable that their interests
and commercial system should be identified as much as
possible. From that period it was absurd to consider
the commercial intercourse with Ireland as a part of
our foreign trade, and to subject the shipping employed
in it to the restrictive regulations and higher charges of
that.trade.

But these were not the only deviations from the an-
cient rules of our Navigation System. The revolutions
which have occurred in the political state of the
world, in our time, rendered other changes indispensa
ble. There has grown up over the whole Continent of
America, a situation of affairs similar to that which the
United Stater presented, after their separation from the
moth r country. This change, from a colonial to ad
independent existence, necessarily draws after it, in each
paiticular case, the application of the new rule, which,
as I have already stated, unavoidably grew out of the
independence of the Unit, d States.
The first application of that rule occurred in respect
to Braid. From the moment when, in 1808, the House
of Braganza transferred the seat of empiie to Brazil,
that country virtually ceased to be a Colony. Great
Britain had no choice but to apply the Eurorean
principles to the Commerce and Navigation of Brazil,
thiiugh out of Europe, and to admit Portuguese :hip-
ping,—and, since the separation of Poi tugal and Bra-
zil, l3razilian shipping,—coming from that country into
our port•-, upon the same footing as the ships of any
other independent nation.
This principle has been extended, from time to time,
as mew States have risen up in America. When I heard
the Hon. Member for Grampound complain that, in our
Treaty of Commerce and Navigation with Columbia.
and in that with Buenos Apes, we had consented to
place their navigation upon an equality with our own,
I certainly listened to this charge with no small degree
of surprise, being satisfied that what the Honourable
Gentleman censured so severely, was the very wisest
principle that this country c.,uld adopt. Those States
were anxious to encourage their commercial Marine,
'by granting exclusive advantages to their own shipping,
and imposing certain restrictions upon that of this
country. This disposition was frequently manifested
by the Ministers of those States in the course of out
d.scussions with them; and certainly there are not
wanting some who are constantly endeavouring to excite
in these new countries a jealousy of the Naval Poste/
of Great Britain; instigating them to adopt a separate
and novel code of maritime law for the New World,
and to frame their Navigation system upon principles
of giving a preference to their own shipping, and to
that of America generally, over the shipping of this
country, and of Europe.
Have we acquiesced in these views? Have we com-
promised any of the acknowledged principles of Mari-
time Law? No, Sir—Whilst we. have ex; licitly refused
to listen to any such compromise, we have d sarmed all
suspicion as to our commercial pretensions, by frankly
declaring, that we sought no exclusive advantages for
British ships or British trade, and that the principle of
our intercourse with the New States, as with the Old
States, of the World, would be that of a fair and equal
reciprocity.
This brings me to the gravamen of the charge made
against his Majesty's Government; namely, the step
taken by them, in furtherance of this principle, by the
introduction of a law, enabling the Crown, with the
advice of the Privy Council, to remit all discriminating
eludes on the goods and shipping of such countries, as
any agree to impose no higher charges or duties upon
British ships, and the goods imported therein, than
aeon their own ships, and the like goods imported in
such ships. (To be condoned.)

LON1)01V.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1326.
STOCK EXCHANGR, TWELVE O'CLOCK.

Consols opened this morning at 798 for the Account, the same
price as May left off on Saturday; soon after, a large lot, from fifty
to silty thousand, was sold at 79, which had but little or no effect
on the market, as Consols now maintain the opening price, with a
steady market, and little is doing at present. '
The Foreign market is void of the least interest, and scarcely any
thing is doing.
Current prices: Old Spanish 9110, Mexican 8211, Colombian
new 33j, Peruvian 24 26, Russian 82 Greek Bonds 121 Bra-
silian Shares 7 to 8 prem.

CITY, TWO O'CLOCK.
At the commencement of the market this morning, some busi-
ness was done ; since which, scarcely a transaction has taken place,
and Consols may be quoted, during the whole of the morning. at
791 for the Account, and 79
.for Money, without any ductuation.
At present there is a complete stagnation.
The Foreign market is in the same state as that of the English,
with the exception of Mexican Bonds, which have varied a little.

- -,

Ito follow it very emity. Two American vessels were gene to
Admen for pepper.
Oa the sa of April, news from Palembang was received at Bee-
coolen. All was quiet ; and the resident, M. Iteyust, wu gone to
Java. The disorder at Baukatiad abated. The ship Padang, which
saibld last year from Antwerp, with • cargo, chiefly consisting of
the produce and manufactures of the Netherlands, arrived at Padang
on the 15th of April.

A private letter from Groningen gives the weekly statement of
deaths in that city, from 22d of June to 31st et August. During
the first three weeks the numbers were 18, 19, and 53, all children
under twelve years of age. From the 13th July to 10:h of August,
the numbers increased weekly, amounting, from the 54 to 10th of
August, to 106; 10th to 17tb, 82; 17th to '2 4:12 ,97 ; 24th to 31st,
129.-.-Thus it appears that the number of deaths increases in an
alarming manner. The number of the sick amounts to some thou-
sands.—The population of Groningen amounts to 30,000 souls, and
in ordinary times the weekly average of deaths is about twenty.
It is affirmed that Dr. Fuchs, at Munich, of the Academy of
Sciences, has just discovered a method of rendering wood incom-
bustible, and has proved the efficaciousness of it by experiment. lie
has combined caustic akali in solution with a certain earthy sub-
stance, worked and sifted and applied on the wood, to which it gives
a nitreous mane, which renders it also impervious to water and
to all kinds of humidity. The architectural committee of the
Theatre Royal of Munich has made trial of this method on two
small buildings, one of which was prepared according to Dr. Fuchs's
plan the other not. Fire having been lighted in both these buildings
the one was burnt. the other received no injury. The expense of the
application is only twd francs for 100 feet or two centimes per foot.

Ne
- - r
mach 'Dished. and t 4 rates of
WIIPIf °weld aftvr year 1815.
tat complailltloon eparl of the
the hope of findin tome remed
ties, the House, in the year 1820, ;