Star.
London, England, 1826-09-12 00:00:00

TUESDAY EVENLVG, SEPTEMBER 12, 1826.

NAVIGATION LAWS.•

SPEECH OF THE RIGHT HON. W. HUSKISSON IN THE
HOUSE OF CIMMONS, FRIDAY, THE 12TH of MAY,
1826, ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE SHIPPING
IN TERM'.

(Continued from our last.)
If the system of di.criminating duties for the encou-
ragement of shipping were a secret known to this country
4!nne; if a similar system were not, or could not be,,
put in force in every other country, I should not be
standing here to vindicate the measure to which I have
pi-4 referred, and the present policy of his Maje,ty's
Government. So long as, in fact, no independent
trading community existed out of Europe, and s.) lung
as the old Governments of Europe looked up.ns these
matters,—if they looked to them at one—as little de
serving their attention, and were content, either iron►
ignorance or indifference, not to thwart our sy -tern, it
would have been wrong to disturb any part of it. But
is this the present state of the world? Did not the
United States of America, in the first instance, for the
purpose of raising to themselves a great commercial
Marine, and of counteracting, our Navigation Laws,
adopt, in their utmost rigour, the rulas of those laws,
and carry, even further than we had ever done, in res.
pect to foreign ships, this principle of discriminating
duties against our shipping ? Can we shut our eyes to
the fact that other nations have followed, or are follow.
ing, their example? Do we not see them, one after the
other, taking a leaf out of our own book ? Is not every
Government in Europe, if possessed of sea ports, now
using its utmost endeavours to force a trade, and to
raise up for itself a commercial Marine ? Have we not
boasted of our Navigation Laws, till we have taught
other nations to believe (however erroneous that belief,)
that they are almost the only requisite, or at least, the
sine qua non, of commercial wealth and of maritime
power ? D J these vauntings excite no envy, no spirit
of rivalry, no countervail ng opposition in other
countries? Did the success of the United States of
America create no desire in those countries to follow her.
example?

It would be worse than idle, it would be dangerous,
to dissemb'e to ofirselves the great changes which have
been wrought, since the etablishment of American in-
depenchnce, in the views and sentiments of Eurepe,
upon all matters connected with commerce. and navis
gation. They now oc6tpy a leading share in the atten
tion of almost every Government. They are eiery-
where a subject of general inquiry and interest. Even
in counttiss, of which the institt.tions are least favour-
able to tht discussion of political subjects, these ques-
tions are freely discussed, and, by discussion, the influ•
ence of public opinion is made to bear upon the measures
and policy of their Governments.
In this altered state of the world, k became our duty
seriously to inquire, whether a system of commercial
hostility, of which the ultimate tendency is mutual pro-
hibition,—wbether a system of high discriminating
duties upon foreign ships, with the moral certainty of
seeing those duties fully retaliated upon our own ship-
ping, in the ports of foreign countries,—was a contest
in which England was likely to gain, and out of which,
if persevered in, she was likely to come with dignity or
advantage? I will lay aside, for the moment, every
consideration of a higher nature, moral or political,
which would naturally lead us to look with some repug-
nance to the engaging in such a contest. I will equally
lay aside all consideration for the interest of our manu-
facturers, and for the general well-being of our popula-
tion, who, as consumers, would obviously have to pay
for this s) stem of custom house warfare, and reciprocal
restriction ; and I a ill view the question solely in refer-
ence to the Shipping Interest. In this comparatively
nat raw, but, I admit, not unimportant, view of the ques-
tion, I have no difficulty in stating my conviction,—a
conviction at which I have ar►ived after much anxious
consideration,—that, in the long run, this war of dis
criminating duties, if persevered in on both sides, must
operate most to the injury of the country which, at the
time of enter ing upon it, possesses the greatest commer-
cial marine. How can it be otherwise? What are
these discriminating duties, but a tat upon commerce
and navigation? Will not the heaviest share of that
tax fall, therefore, upon those who have the greatest
amount of shipping and of trade?
Before we embark in such a contest, we owe to the
character of the count! y, as well as to its interests, to
satisty ourselves,—first, that it is necessary for its wel-
fare; and, secondly, that once committed to the trial
with all the commercial powers of Europe, the country
would have the firmness and fortitude necessary to go
through with it. Do not let Gentlemen too hastily
decide this last point in the affirmative. Let them call
to their recollection the famous Orders in Council ;
let them, above all, bear in mind, that we have yet had
but one trial of this discriminating warfare,—the trial
with the United States of Ainerica,—and that we came
out of that trial, after several years' perseverance, by
conceding the very object, for the maintenance of which
it had been carried on. Would it be politic, or dignified,
to engage in a like struggle in Europe, with the risk of
arriving at the same result ? I t commerce, in naviga-
tion, in naval power, and maritime pretensions, the
United States are our most formidable rival ; and we
are now arraigned for not withholding from Prussia and
Denmark, what Parliament and the county, ten years',
ago, concurred in yielding to AMerica!
Under what circumstances did England found her
Navigation System ? Wire•r her commercial marine
was, comparatively, insignificant, her wealth itrconsi•
derable, be.ore manufactures were established, and
a hen she exported corn, wo and other raw materials.
When, on the other hand, Holland and the Netherlands
were rich, possessed of great manufactures, and of the
largest portion of the carrying trade of Europe and the
world.- What has followed? The commercial marine
of the latter countries has dwindled away, and that of
Great Britain is now immense. But, in the progress of
the change, England is become the seat of great manu-
factures and trading wealth, frequently importing, and
never exporting, corn ; drawing raw materials from,
and sending out manufactured goods to, all parts of the
a arid. This was our state, though in a far less degree
than at present, when America became independent:—
She started by applying towards us the system which
we had applied towards Holland. She was then poor,

with a very small commercial marine, without manu-
factures, having corn and raw materials to export ; and
we know what her shipping now is. Let Gentlemen
reflect on these circumstances, before they decide that
it is necessarily wise to enter upon a similar cootest
with other poor and unmanufaCturing countries. Let
them seriously consider, whether a system of discrimi-
nating duties—now that the exclusive patent by which
we held that system is expired—is not the expedient of
such a country as I have described, rather than the re-
source of one which already possesses the largest com-
mercial mann! in the world. They will then see, that
it may possibly be a wise policy to divert such countries
from that system, rather than to goad them on, or even
leave them a pretest for going into it.
Let us for a moment, however, suppose that, at all
hazirds, we have embarked in this warfare of counter-
acting duties, They who recommend this policy have
no right to assume that, in the progress of the struggle,
the discriminating duties imposed in the foreign country,
(Prussia for example), on Bs irish shipping, will not be,
at least, equivalent to the like dirtied levied in England
on Prussian shipping. The Unite4'States did not con-
tent themselves with equivalency,—they went more
boldly to work; so might any European power. If equi
Talent duties be established on both sides, how will they
operate? It is clear that the shipping of each country
will stand in the same relative situation to that of the
ether, as if no such duties had been imposed; •the
duties, therefore, in both countries will be a tax; and
a very objectionable one, upon the interchange of their
respective productions. But, as those productions are
diffeienr, these duties will affect differently the industry
of the contending parties. Oar principal exports to
the north of Europe are manufactured goods and
colonial produce; our imports, timber, hemp, flux,
pitch, tar (..ccasionally corn), and other raw materials.
—The former must be sold dearer in the foreign coun-
try,—the latter in this country,—by all the amount of
the tax. What is this in the foreign country, but a pre-
mium against our manufactures, in favour of the rival
manufactures of other states, or of the importing state
itself ;_and in this country, but a tax upon raw mate-
rials requisite for carrying on our own manufactures?
A ship, for instance, is a manufactured article, and, to
encourage our s' ipping, here is an additional tax upon
the raw materials of that manufacture ! Our cotton
goods, our woollen stuffs, barely maintain a competition
with those of other conntri .s, and here is an additional
tax on their importation iiito those countries, to turn the
scale against us t Our West India planters complain
of the low price of their productions, and we provoke
an additional tax, which tends to shut them altogether
out of the foreign market ! If the end of this warfare
should be, as, pushed to the extreme, it might be, that
each country should export its own productions, in its
own slips, and no country import the productions of I
another, in the ships of that other, which would be the'
greatest loser, the country manufacturing, or the country
producing the raw materials? I will not even glance
at the effect of all• this strife upon the consumers, that
is, upon the bulk of the population ; because I know
that, in certain quarters, I shall be taxed with theory,
if I stand up for the general interest of the community,
against the pretensions of a particular class, when the
interest of that class is supposed to be at stake. Indeed,
I have no doubt I shall be told brsome practical men,
that all this is theory, to which they have a short an-
swer. That answer is, «We do not want anything
from the Baltic. We have plenty of timber, &c. in
Canada, all of which would be brought home in British
Shipping; and, therefore, the powers of the Baltic must
submit to our discriminating duties, without retaliation,
or be content to lose our trade I really know not how
to reason with such logicians. I believe the Baltic can
do to the full as well without us, as we can do without
the Baltic. We import quite as much timber from Ca-
nada as can be used, for the purposes for which that
timber is fit. For other, and more important purposes,
we want timber of better and more durable qualities.
Looking to the Shipping interests of this country, and
to the interests of Canada, I am not ene of those who
think we have done too much for those interest., in the
great preference, in point of duty, which we h eve given
to the Canada timber, and in the consequent sacrifices
which we make to encourage the importation of that
timber, inferior as it is ; but I must say, at the same
time, that the great annual increase of the impoitatii n
from our North American possessions, under the present
duty, thews that the proportion, which it bears to the
Baltic duty, has not been settled to the disadvantage of
the shipping employed in the Canada trade. Were it
necessary, however, to make an option between a con-
test of discriminating duties with Prussia in the timber
trade, or a further reduction of the duty on Canada
timber, for the greater encouragement of our shipping,
I certainly should prefer the latter measure, as the least
injurious of the two to all the other interests of this
country.

For the reasons which I have now stated, his Ma-
jesty's Government have thought it more prudent and
more dignified to enter into amicable arrangements
with other Powers, founded on the basis of mutual in-
terest, and entire reciprocity of advantages, rather than
embark in a itoqest of commercial hostility and reci-
procal exclusidn;—a system, at best, of doubtful benefit
to the Shipping Intesest ;—involving the certainty of
great injury to all the other important interests of the
country; and which would, at last, place Parliament
and the Government in the painful alternative, either.ol
turning a deal ear to the complaints of the many who
would suffer from the contest,—or of terminating it, as,
other contesti of a like nature have been terminated, by
concession, bringing with it not only immediate humi.
liation, but other consequences, which do not end with
the concession itself.

But it is asserted, that we should not have been com-
pelled to make our ch3ics between these alternatives.
Whilst I entreat the House to bear in mind the circum-1
stances which I have already stated, in respect to the
general feeling which prevails in the maritime countries
of Europe, and in America, I must now call their atten-
tion to the steps which had been actually 'aim by
Prussia, (the first power, atter the United States, with
which we entered into a treaty upon this subject) before
the negotiation of that treaty was entertained by his
Majesty's Government.
I bold, fir, in my hand a Report, made on the 6th of

[PRICE SEVENPENCE.

August 1822, by the British Consul at D.tntsic also
Reports of the Vice-Consuls at Konigsberg and Memet,
to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. I will not
trouble the House with reading the while of these die,
patches, but I request their particular attention to the
lollowing extracts:

Extract of a Dispatch from Mr. Consul Gibson, dated Daittsic, the

6tb August 1622.
"Mr LORD—I do myself the honour to transmit t 6
your Lordship a translation of the Order of Cabinet
(which I hare only now been able to procure) respect-
ing an increase of the Government Port Charges in the
Pr ussian Ports, on vessels belonging to countries be-
tween which and Prussia no reciprocity has been filed
by treaty, or which do not otherwise treat Prussian
ships and their cargoes as advantageously as their own.
Prussia has made arrangements with Holland, Den.
mark, and America, for establishing a reciprocity in this
respect, antithe present regulation has evidently for ob-
ject to induce other countries, particularly Britain, to
eater into a similar arrangement.
s 4 At present, Prussian, Dutch, Danish, and American
,hips pay, as public port charges here, about 46f com-
mon groshes, or about 17 2-3 d. sterling, per last of
4,0001 b. (about 4,1401 b. English), or about If tons
British measurement; while British and other vessels
pay about 77 2-3 common groshes, or about 29 2-Sd.
sterling per last, making 811. sterling per ton measure-
ment more. The advance that is to take place will
make, as it will be payable in gold at a losing valua-
tion, wiz.

"On ships coming in with a full cargo of goods, a
40 :
about • • 58
a
" Do. with a quarter of a cargo or less . 29 11-6
" Do. going out with a full cargo 29
" Do. with a quarter of a cargo or less . 141 A. II
" Thus vessels arriving-even in ballast, and taking a
cargo back, will in future be burthened with about
371 d. sterling per ton measurement more Government
port charges than Prussian shil.s ; which however is not
quite so great an advantage to the latter as British
vessels have over Prussian in Britain, by paying lower
port charges, light money, /cc. and less duty on the
cargo, if of timber for instance, which gives the chief
employment to Prussian ships.
" The Prussian Government make this new port
charge regulation professedly from the interest created
by the situation of their shipowners, who are indeed all
going to ruin."

Cabinet Order of the 40th June 1522. for the Encouragement of

Homelpptsg:
" In consideration of the unfavourable state of the
shipping of this country for several years past, and in
consequence of the representations made to me, founded
on divers consultations, that v e unfavourable state of
things operates the more injuriously on the said trade,
as the principles always observed here, of imposing
moderate burthens on foreign ships frequenting Prus-
sian ports, and of levying the same duties on goads im-
ported or exported, whether in foreign or in native
ships, are not adopted in several foreign ports fre-
quented by Prussian ships ; I have resolved, so long as
these relations subsi-t, so detrimental to the mainte•
nance of this important branch of domestic trade, to
grant the said trade greater advantages than it has hi-
therto enjoyed ; I therefore do ordain,
" First. That the coasting trade from one Prussian
port to another shall be considetei, exclusively, a branch
of domestic trade, and shall be carried on ioiely by
Prussian vessels, under pain of ship and property being
confiscated, upon any foreign ship master b ing de-
tected irr it. • Exceptions can only be allowed in very
urgent cases, and only for the public good, by the pro-
vincial authorities

" Secondly. An increase of the hitherto exibeng hay.
boor dues shall take place, iu ill Prussian ports. on Fo-
reign ships with cargoes, In-coming or out-going, but
the same shall not be applicable to the ships of those
nations :

" a. With which Prussia has treaties, placing her ships and their
cargoes on an equal footing with the native ships, or with those
of the most favoured nations, in conformity with the stipulations
therein made."
0 b. Which from other causes treat Prussian ships, with their car-
goes, the same as native vessels with theirs.
With this restriction shall the increase take place, according to
the following rates:
" s. On in-coming ships—R.2 per last of 4,000 lbs.
" b. On out going do 1 do.
" c. (hi ships that have only one-fourth of a cargo or Ins' 011*
half of the above,
" say in-coming

. . I

out-going • • k
" Siiips in ballad are nut subject to the Increased imposts.
" The proceeds of this impost shall not be considered
as an additional source of revenue to the State, but shall
be applied for the benefit of the ship-owners, accord-
ingly as you, the Minister of Commerce, shall pro-
pose to me.
" Thirdly. In order to present, as far as is in the
power of the State, a real source of profit to the ship-
owners, the conveyance of such goods as may be for
account of the Government, shall be effected, in pre.
ference, by native ships, regarding which I refer to my
articular order of Ibis day.
" The first and third of the foregoing enactments shall
be put in force immediately ; but the second point
only in three months after publication of this Order,
which is to be made through the Collection of Laws,
and according to which the needful is to be decreed.
(Signed) " FREDERICK WILHELM."
Egract of a Dispatch from Vice Consul Tithe, dated Konipbeeg,

usel August, 1822.
le SIR—I beg leave to draw the attention of yourEz-
cellency to several new laws and regulations of the
Prussian Government, which ate highly detrimental to
the British trade, and respecting which numerous com-
plaints bare been made to me by the Merchants and
Shipmasters interested in the trade between this coun-
try and Great Britain.

•" By the last tariff, a duty of one guilder per hundred-
weight is imposed on all sax, hemp, and tow, shipped
in foreign vessels. This is probably intended as a
measure of retaliation for the difference of import duty
charged in Great Britain between goods arriving in
British and Foreign vessels. This law has obliged seve-
ral British ships this summer to load flax at the low
freight of thirty shillings per ton, instead of fifty shil-
lings, which they would have got, had not the mer-
chants been obliged to pay twenty florins pet ton export
duty, because the goods were shipped in a British
k vessel. As hemp and fax are, now that the corn