The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1851-07-22
THE UNION.


In the Imperial Parliament. the incidental debate on
our new navigation law has given rice 10 various "noss
hat is TO be done On the hand there gaia
saying the fact that there is still unwonled activity 10
most OF the ship building yards OF the United kngdom
Whether that hustle and bJsknes be attributable 10 on,
great shipowners getting nd OF smaller craft and sso
l1os' IN order 10 replace them with vessels oi lager
class OF WIN screw steamers or whe AeI II MAYS ifee
traders with Earl Granville al their head, stouy ailea.-
DC ascoed TO the geaty-enarged and ever enlafTing
commerce oil the world causing increased demand of
nrs' class tonnage is really hard 10 decide. ID must
however De admitted that, from scarcity OF eligible
mage IN The West Indies, ireghis have risen la Demeraa
IRON only about los per ton, their lowest 10 SOS BY The
last auvices while IN Jamaica there has been rise OF
from aus or sos ton 10 COS or more In fact Swedish
vessels have been chartered at New York 10 deliver an
American cargo free in Jamaica. aud on for So.
mother country AS general rule, may be said that
our Wesl indian colonlss get their sugars carried al
nearly hall the rates OF freight they formerly paid OF
course, this economzng enables ihem pro tanio TO bet
ter meet the competition Of the Brazilian and Cuban slave
sugar On the other hand East Indian coonisls are
paying rates OF freight incomparably more reduced Only
yesterday we heard, on good authority that American
vessels were now carrying from the East eos per Ion
his enormous reduction from the rates formerly prevail
ing-tS IN the best times, and f in the average times
cannot but telP most disasousy upon British ship.
owners, who look TO the voyages for remune-
ratiye trade.
In truth, from the amazing influx of American YES.
sell OF The largest class which now frequent this port
perenced and pracsed men who have 10 do with them
officially conceive that the ratio of bodybuilding in the
United States is even greater than in the United kngdom
and that as ananral and necessary consequence OF the
United States virtual monopoly of their marvellous
coasling voyage from the Atlantic States TO California
the American shipping long they for that first
portion OF their protected voyage from E6 to El0 ton
wlll as MT Awyn shows. gradually lower irelghts still
further TO 2Os, TO 1885, TO 1882 or even to IS, from the
west Coast or The East to England rather than TO
as otherwise they must in ballast here 10 take
British cargo home We not blaming Brother Jona
than; far from it. We. principle, admire his prolec
tive policy which jealously guards all their great
tona interests All we say is that il is plainly mposs
BILE tor the British mercantile navy long TO bear up under
such unequal composition, nor unless our rulers take
And why not Where is the difficulty in our giving up
hopeless and endless negotiations, or the Americans
TOO acute ever 10 give up TO foreigners their international
carryng IN our taking our own grievances into our own
Tectihcaton, and in our cutting the Gordian knot by
bottng out OF our own fiscal vocabulary the unfortunate
words colonial trade /" Why not like the Americans
make even the turhemost Ind all "coaslng trade "
We see no adequate remedy but this. True, the colo
nsts would grumbe-ay, and have right to grumbe-
at being forced up again to higher freghts But JUST
Mr. Dsraeli says to the agrcul,usts, would say
to The coloniss-seek an immunity from mposts, or else
nominal duty only their sugars into the mother
country Demand to have the produce of the West In
dian islands freely admitted here the produce of
channel islands Even if we ignored all such terms as
colonial trade, SILL under reciprocity treaties and relative
acts OF Parament-which not only subsisted before the
change in orr navigation laws, but subslsl sti-lbe
ships OF the United States empowered 10 carry
goes OF every kind from the United Kingdom to British
India on precisely the same terms and dules own
British shipping This legal concession not gener
ally known on either side OF the Atlantic Indeed, so
forgotten had 1t become, and rarely IL claimed,
that few ago. after American vessel bad loaded
here Tor Calcutta. before she could be "ceaed, an ur
gent appeal had be made 10 the India House to decide
that the 50 George ILL.,, 81, still in force Be-
sides all this, other foreign vessels well American
were, as above, admitted conditonay 10 trade from
our western aud eastern possessions 10 their own OF
other foreign countries Surely, then, Teserving all
such legal rights, no country earth could have any
grounds OF complaint least oil all the United States,
II we simply initiate their own shrewder policy and
refuse, Tor all purposes Of trade and navigation
any longer TO employ TO recognise any such phrase
as the colonial trade of Great Britain" Let ours
TOO, be all coss,ing trade. Nothing else will meet
the emergency. Realiaory duties, for which illusory
powers were taken in the navigation CODE without
any honest intent OF using those powers seem either
inadequate inapplcabe. Al all events the !" extra
twenty per cent. first "capped on by Canning which
Lord Granville cited still leved-we believe levied
now illegally-on cargoes in Belgian vessels Is The
merest bagaiee. Ii is twenty per upon the
value, Is in the pound but generally pence
10 the pound and nothing at all II the article orii-
nary free OF duty Such an additional" retaalory
lnpost tand this trlfe was about the usual maximum
formerly is the verest chllds play Then, TO retail
iatng by tonnage dutes-ceralnly the feasible oil
the two-stll, that risks the imposition OF yet higher
extra tonnage duties on our own ships In the ports oil
non reciprocatng countries and which countries,
have been assured. know not how truly, could
and would, al the tme set retaliatoTy
prohlbltory provisions AT defiance, lust because Other
general reaxaons Of navigation laws enable them IA
enjoy almost equal advantages by habtuay resorng 10
making use OF some "inermediate" port, such
Antwerp or Hamburg, &c. We warned our readers OF
all these loopholes before the navigation law was
changed. and still feel persuaded that the sole ade
qnate remedy is both nomnaly and really draw ou
British possessions closer the mother country and
tirey expunge colonial trade" from fiscal vocabu.
larry There is nothing else for it, II is idle dreaming tc
talk of returning the antqualed, complicated
checkered, Misunderstood and almost unntegbe old
navigation law.
i From he Louis, snaD Den tic Dapn