The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-08-12 00:00:00

' Dum singuli pugnant omnes vincuntur.'

" But it is not the commercial classes only who are in.
terested in this matter. In the present position of affairs
in Europe, the question of national defence occuries the
first place in the minds of statesmen ; and how are national
defences to be maintained, if we take a step directly calcu-
lated to reduce the condition of our mariners, drive the
younger men into the service of America, and deter others
from entering ours ? We are informed by Alison, in his
profound and statesmanlike History of Europe,' as well
as by other authorities, that some thirty thousand of the
seamen who manned the fleet of America in the late war
were British ; and that, too, at a time when the men in
our navy were receiving unusually high wages. If, then,
we are prepared now to reduce still further the condition
of our mercantile seamen, we cannot expect to have them
at command, even if we should adopt the policy of wait-
ing till the outbreak of a war before seeking for their aid.
It is easy, indeed, to say that whatever the condition of
the Mercantile Navy, the advantages offered to seamen
will keep them in the Royal Navy ; but is it our policy,
or that of any other nation, to keep up such a marine as
will require no additions in a time of war ? To this
absurdity, or that of expecting to depend on the chivalry
of foreigners, or the enthusiasm of our own seamen, for
a country which year by year makes their condition lower,
are the advocates of a repeal of the Navigation Laws re-
duced. But suppose the difficulty about seamen got
over—suppose that we found foreign seamen trust-
worthy, or our own contented, under the new sys-
tem, where would be the naval artizans that now oc-
cupy the dockyards of Britain ? Are they to remain
when their wages have fallen two-thirds, and employment
has passed over to the continental ports ? It was the
wonder of the world, He Witt informs us, with what
alacrity in her chargeable war with England, Holland
built and fitted out shipping ; but we would present a
wonder to the world of another kind—a country once pos.
sessed of the greatest naval resources of any in the uni-
verse rendered powerless by her own act. Are not these
considerations sufficient to make the country pause and
consider whether or not the theorists are guiding us safely ?
It would be little consolation for us to know, once a fierce
steam warfare in the Channel had commenced, how accu-
rately political economists could prove that we ought not
to have lost our seamen and naval artizans by the over-
throw of the navigation system. We have our history to
point to in support of the rules that have hitherto pre-
vailed—ground sufficient to refuse to enter on a new
career, while even a doubt of its success could be whis-
pered ; but how much more firm a ground for refusing to
adopt a course condemned by its own working where
attempted, by the opinions of the most experienced, and
recommended only by the facts that it is theoretical and
new."

What the repeal has done, may be easily gathered
from the report of the Shipowners' Committee,
and it certainly carries out the opinion of Mr.
Browne. Amid a quantity of verbiage, always
useless in a document addressed to commercial men,
the Shipowners' Committee have given some
valuable statistics, of which the following are con-
clusive respecting the evils done by the repeal of
the Navigation Laws :