nation. These were noble sentiments, reflecting the highest honour on a city which, though not so conspicuous for trade as London or Liverpool, has nevertheless been always distinguished by its learning and sagacity. Committee on the foreign trade of The presentation of these petitions to both Houses of Parliament was attended with the happiest effect, and a committee was appointed to inquire into the means of improving and extending the foreign trade of the country. The session being far advanced, the committee had not sufficient the country. time to exhaust the inquiry. But they conferred a great service by exposing the numerous restrictions which fettered the trade of the country, and their report laid bare important facts for further consideration. The restrictions then in force had been imposed for the improvement of British navigation and the support of the British naval powers; for the purpose of drawing from commerce, in common with other resources, a proportion of the public revenue, and also to afford protection to various branches of domestic industry with a view to securing for them the internal supply of the country and a monopoly of the export trade to the several colonies. Upwards of a thousand laws were moreover in force hindering trade in every direction, and upon a review of all these circumstances the committee had no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion, that by far the most valuable boon that could be conferred on trade was freedom from all these interferences, as unlimited at least as was compatible with what was due to the vested interest, which had grown up under the existing system. This the committee recommended, and they concluded their report with a brilliant passage entirely subversive of the principle of protection and of the grounds on which it had hitherto been defended. The time when monopolies could be successfully supported, or would be patiently endured, either as respects subjects against subjects, or particular countries against the rest of the world, seems to have The committee consisted of Mr. Frederick Robinson, Lord Castlereagh, Mr. Tierney, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Baring, Mr. Lamb, Mr. Thomas Wilson, Mr. Irving, Mr. Canning, Mr. Finlay, Mr. Wilmot, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Althorp, Mr. Wallace, Lord Milton, Sir John Newport, Sir N. W. Ridley, Mr. Keith Douglas, Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Sturges Bourne, Mr. Astell, and Mr. Alexander Robertson. CHAP. I.] REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN TRADE. 155 passed away. Commerce, to continue undisturbed and secure, must be, as it was intended to be, a source of reciprocal amity between nations, and an interchange of productions to promote the industry, the wealth, and the happiness of mankind. If it be true that different degrees of advantage will be reaped from it according to the natural and political circumstances, the skill and the industry of different countries, it is true also that whatever be the advantages so acquired, though they may excite emulation and enterprise, they can rouse none of those sentiments of animosity or that spirit of angry retaliation naturally excited by them when attributed to prohibitions and restrictions jealously enacted and severely maintained. They feel that a principle of gradual and prospective approximation to a sounder system as the standard of all future commercial regulations may be wisely and beneficially recommended, no less with a view to the interests of this country than to the situation of surrounding nations. Upon them the policy of Great Britain has rarely been without its influence. The principles recognised and acted upon by her may powerfully operate in aiding the general progress towards the establishment of a liberal and enlightened system of national intercourse throughout the world, as they have too long done in supporting one of a contrary character by furnishing the example and justification of various measures of commercial exclusion and restriction. To measures of this nature her pre-eminence and prosperity have been unjustly ascribed. It is not to prohibitions and protectious we are indebted for our commercial greatness and maritime power; these, like every public blessing we enjoy, are the effect of the free principles of the happy constitution under which we live, which by protecting individual liberty and the security of property, by holding out the most splendid rewards to successful industry and merit, has in every path of human exertion excited the efforts, encouraged the genius, and called into action all the powers of an aspiring, enlightened, and enterprising people.' Mr. Wallace, the chairman of the committee, on June 18, 1820, brought up the report of the committee. He spoke of the evil effects of the navigation law, of the restricted nature of the warehousing system, and of the multiplicity of acts tram Mr. Wallace on the foreign trade. melling the action of the merchant; and concluded his remarkable address with these words: It had been a reproach to us among foreign nations, that our mercantile system was so full of restrictions against them that they were compelled in self-defence to impose similar restrictions against us. I trust, however, that it will be so no more; and if we should still be compelled to continue any of our present restrictions, either from the pressure of taxation, our compacts with foreign nations, or with our own countrymen, or from any other cause whatsoever, it will be understood that we do so from a principle of justice, that it is a sacrifice to our sense of duty, that it is a matter not of option but of necessity, and not caused by any ideas on our part of promoting our own commercial interests by it; and whatever may be the exclusion or restrictions which foreign states may think it expedient to keep up upon trade, they will no longer have the opportunity of justifying themselves by saying, “Such is the example and such the conduct of England."' Mr. Huskisson's Policy.-The Navigation Laws.-Trade with Asia, Africa, MUCH required to be done in order to develope the resources of the country after the severe straining to which they had been subjected, and earnestly did the Government and the Mr. Huskis nation give themselves to the work before them. son's policy. Fortunately for the inauguration of the new policy, the president of the Board of Trade under Lord Liverpool's administration was Mr. Huskisson, a man well trained for the onerous duties of his position by his earnest studies in political economy, by his former residence in France during the first years of the turmoil of the Revolution, and by his services in other departments of the state; and now the agreeable task is before us of examining the steps he took for gradually liberating trade from the many trammels by which it was clogged. First and foremost demanding consideration stood the navigation laws, which, although political in their scope and origin, interfered more or less with the whole trade of the The navigacountry. Even after the political motive had ceased tion laws. to exist, a narrow commercial jealousy for the Dutch still supported the navigation laws. Our merchants and shipowners, at that time one and the same interest, could not bear to see Dutch ships carrying both British and American produce into the very ports of England. They conceived it a grievance that Dutch ships should be freighted at lower rates than English ships, and they did not admit that the consumer had any right to get the produce of the world brought home as cheap as possible. Therefore, as a check to the growing prosperity of the Dutch, and for the encouragement of British shipping, the legislature enacted that no goods or commodities whatever, produced or manufactured in Asia, Africa, or America, including the British colonies, should be imported into this country or into the colonies except in British ships. But Dutch ships regularly visited France, Germany, and other countries in Europe, to find freights for England; and from this trade also they must be excluded by providing that no goods or manufactures of Europe should be imported into Great Britain or her colonies except in British ships, or in ships of the countries to which such produce belonged. The Dutch often did the people of this country the good service of bringing in fish of their own catch, but to take such fish was to encourage Dutch fisheries. Therefore, no fish should henceforth be imported except those caught by our own fishers. Of course the people-the consumers-suffered by these restrictions, and complained; and a war with the Dutch was the immediate consequence; but that was not worthy of a thought if at any cost British shipping and navigation increased. And thus, for more than one hundred and fifty years, the navigation laws remained in the statute book. Trade with and Amer The moment, however, the committee of the House of Commons began to inquire into the causes of the depression of commerce, the working of the navigation laws became Asia, Africa, most apparent, and some amendment of them, if not their total repeal, was felt to be absolutely necessary. The navigation laws provided that all goods imported from Asia, Africa, and America' should be in British ships, and that the produce of those countries should not be imported in ica. 1 No goods or commodities whatsoever of the growth, production, or manufacture of Africa, Asia, or America, or of any part thereof, or which are described or laid down in the usual map or cards of those places, (shall) be imported into England, Ireland, Wales, the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, or town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, or any other ship or ships, vessel or vessels whatsoever, but in such as do truly and without fraud belong only to the people of England or Ireland, dominion of Wales, or town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, or of the lands, lands, plantations, or territories in Asia, Africa, or America to his majesty |