New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-05-03

pettou Of all the world to cog il with restrictions Is
TO the nationality Of the men it must employ. Abso
lute freedom Of choice this point is essential to
fair trial Of the ability Of English nsvgatOrs to success
fully compete With those of other nstions
We see BY some interesting statistics introduced by
Lord EDenbOrOueh that the experience Of the shipping
interest has not been OF the most catering nature OF
90 successful as vas anticipated by the promoters OF the
scheme which has exposed it the rivalry Of foreign
bottoms II appears that the foreign tunnsge is stead
II gaining on the British Lord Peterborough says
4seemeo to him real quest for them consider
wasis al the increase offoregn navigation been e4ukt
the increase n nsvg cation We had beard mach The
subject number OF ships Now. he found referring
toth-se returns ths there was no ooe year since l5 IN
which IL Of vessels built British ports had been
equal wba; Il IA the i-9, ls4o l>i sad Ia
ard looking uh into the returns OF the for Ign trade
entered nwards he found this result that taxing The aver
age of the fuI mage entered wards foreign and British fjr
the lea and s5 which preceded the alterations
made in 40, and comparing the average OF those tao
YEAR win the average of the yes l>j0 and -5l, which
TIE lest 10 hs account he found that the tlnnage Ut
tbs country bad increased u per cent end that The un
usge Of foreigners coming this country had increased
rather than c6 per cent He found that the total IN
crease Of British unnsge was $4,000 uns while tia total
increase Of foreign nnage 900 thAt the actual
Increase in reign tnnage 2j % more than IN the
Birth while the proporonate increase % l. the 10
crease the foreign tunnage being 10000 and The British
only 1000 The petitioners stated that In their particular
ennvu eui-that Of the coiershe tunna-e rad oecres
20 IL i-Il compared with TIE year s9 hat the de-
crease was not les than ships representing 80 600
fun and that the number OF employ ed from 5000
"a 1900 less in ISL that 1t was IN ls50'
We have our own views on this question OF maritime
rivalry And We are convinced that England maritime
gores eliminated under the much-sbused protective
policy. England bad comparatively no shipping two
hundred years ago At that tine the genius OF Oliver
Cromuell spoke her mercantile marine as well as her
armed fleets into existence II isa fiction OF the poet
10 say that the British flag has brayed the battle and
the breeze for thousand years IL is scarcely tro hHH
Gred years since England became power the ocean
and she was only made in virtue the hghestsoned
protective legislation The ProsPeri, of the shipping
interest under t, demonstrated the woodworking
power of that legislation. Systematic protection car
red the tunnage of the United Kingdom from the mea
gre show Of few thousand tuns in 1850 to upward Of
four millions of uns at the period of the repeal Of the
Navigation laws AT that time she owned two htths of
all the tunnage Of the globe. We have had very few
years experience under the repeal OF the system under
which British shipping thrOye wonderfully The re-
suits are ntmaed in the eXtrac. quote above from
Lord Peterborough. The aggregate of English tunnage
is to-day nearly rSaled by that of the American. The
year ls60 will tunnage much the greatest Eng
lard thus rapidly passing from the first TO the second
rank as maritime power. The growth of the shipping
ofNorthern Europe is rapidly increasing. The navga
ton interests of the Hanse Towns, Denmark, Prussia
snd of Norway and Sweden were more aOurshing
than now The ships of the two former are rivals Of
both England and the United States in every great
mart of commerce on the globe We find no fault with
all this We are living in free trade times Bat Brit
sh policy on the Navigation question already points
moral, whose significance we here note, and which we
have no doubt will deepen with the lapse ofyears.