The Portland gazette. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1818-1824, 1818-06-23


rights against them.
BY the English act of navigation, the TRACE
the colonies is restrained to the domnions q ths
mother country, and none but English ships arr
allowedto engage in it.
So long as colonies are within such ilmlts a
leave TO other nations convenient resort to lol-
esn markets for the exchange otthe goods Whicf
they have to sell, for those they want to buy, 50
long this system is tolerable but the power O
State enables it to increase the number Of It's
colonies and dependent territories so that 1T be-
comes the mistress of the great military and COM
,nercial stations throughout the globe, this extern
sion ofdominion, and the consequent monopoly,
Of commerce, seem to be Incompatible with, and
necessarily to abridge the equal rights OF other
States.
Ia the late debates ofthA English Parliament,
the Minister in the House of Lords, stated, THAT
instead of seventeen thousand men, employed
abroad in 1871, forty-one thousand were then
(816) required, exclusive OF those that were SER
wing ia France and in India. That England now
has forty-three principal colonies, IN al Of which
troops are necessary that sixteen ofthose princi-
pal colonies were acquired since 1871, and six
of them had grown into that rank from mere coll
onial dependencieso And, in the House Of
Commons the Minister, abiding to the acquisi-
lions made during the war with France, said,
THAT England had acquired what, in former
days, would have been thought romance-she
had acquired the keys of every great military
station,
Thus the commercial aggrandizement Of Eng
land has become such, as the men who protested
against monopoly, and devised the navigation act
to break it down, could never have anticipated !;
and il may, ere long, concern other nations to in
qaire whether laws and principles, applicable to
the marrow limits of English dominion and COM
merce, at the date of the navigation act, when
colonies and commerce, and even navigation It
self, were compal stively in their infancy laws
and principles aimed against monopoly, and
adopted to secure to England her just share in the
general commerce and navigation of the world,
ought to be used by England to perpetuate in her
own hands asystem equally as exclusive, and tar
more comprehensive, than that which she was the
chief agent to abolish.
Our commercial system is an open one--our
ports and our commerce are free to ALIVE neiA
ther possess, nor desire TO possess, colonies nor
do we object that others should possess them, I'M
less thereby the general commerce ofthe world
be so abridged, that we are restrained in our in
tercourse with foreign countries venting our sup
plies, and furnishing, III return, those which we
stand in need Of.
But, it is not to the colonial system, but to a
Incorporated with those OF the navigation act,
that we now object. According to this act, no
direct trade or intercourse can be carried on be-
tween a colony and foreign country but, by
the ree-port bill, passed in the present reign, the
English contraband trade, which had been long
pursued, IN violation of Spanish avs, between
the English and Spanish colonies, was sanctioned
and regulated by an English act Of Parliament
and, since the independence Of the United States,
England has passed laws, opening an intercourse
and trade between her West-lndia colonies and
the United States, and, excluding the shipping of
the United States, has confined the same 10 Ing
Iish ships and seamen departing by this law not
only tom the principles OF the navigation act,
which she was at Liberty to do, by opening a d.
rect intercourse between the colonies and for
eign county, but controlling, which she had no
authority to do, the reciprocal rights of the Uni
Ted States to employ their own vessels to car
ry it on.
Colonies being parts of the nation, are subject
to its regulations---but, when an intercourse and
trade are opened between colonies and foreign
country, the foreign country becomes party,
and has reciprocal claim to employ its own yes
sells, equally in the intercourse and trade with
such colonies, as with any other part Of the ma
ton to which they belong.
Governments owe it to the trust confided 10
means to promote, the general welfare; and
while, on account Of small or doubtful incon-
they viii not disturb beneficial inter
course between their people and foreign country
they ought not to omit the nterposition of their
authority, whenever an important pub |
iic interest is invaded, or the national reputation
Affected" as good not to try experiments in |
States, unless the necessity be urgent, the u
tlllty evident and well to beware, that il be |
the reformation that draweth on the change, and !
not the desire of change that pretendeth the re-
tormation.n
IN this case, the Importance Of the reformation
is seen and acknowledged by every one, and the
delay that has occurred in the making of it NAV
call for explanation.
We unable to state with accuracy the ton
mage and seamen employed before the revolutions
in the trade between the territories Of the United
States and the other English colonies. but II j.
known TO have been q principal branch OF the
American navigation.
The colonies that England has since arauired
from France, Spain and Holland, together with
the increased population of the old colonies. re-
quire more ships and seamen to be EMPLOYED in
the trade now than were engaged in it before the
independence Of the United States
Without reference to the tonnage ana trade
between the United States and the English west
India colonies, during the late wars between En-
gland and France, which, by reason of the sus.
pension OF the English navigation act. and the
Of the United States. will afford M
standard by which the tonnage and trade Of
peace can be ascegtained-the present custom
20 0rpf 1o h1oA