and have to bring them back with the Lascars, and, in addition, one British seaman to every twenty tons.

So the ships ride on in idleness, the owners learning not to build many more.

The cotton cannot get to the high prices. It lies law-bound at Bombay.

The growers take a lesson to produce less next year.

Nothing for the Lascars to do, so they look at the ships, and wonder at the wisdom and justice of England. And Manchester spinners and weavers may live or famish, as the case may be; and there really are some people going at large, who are, or pretend to be, of opinion, that such an outrageous absurdity can last.

the best in the world.

Do not let it be said, "those Indian ships are built for their The ships are own coasting trade, and are unfit for long voyages.' The very reverse is the fact, for, generally speaking, they are of a larger tonnage than the average tonnage of British ships. They are built of teak wood, and are the finest ships in the world. "I have seen," says the witness, "a teak ship that was 80 years old, going to sea, and perfectly seaworthy."

It will not do either to say that these Lascars are bad sailors, or hard to manage.

The late Mr. Soames, before the Committee of 1844, stated,

4043.

3787.

3940.

"That going on the East India trade, he would rather have Las- The Lascars are In a warm climate you do not require a greater number of them good seamen, than of British seamen. Their great merit is in their orderly conduct;

cars.

they are as quiet as lambs on board ship."—(619-21.)

Nor can it be said that they are only summer sailors. The entry of the ship Balcarras shows that they came with her at Christmas time; and, on the same point, we have the following conclusive evidence:*

"I believe you can give some opinion of the value of Lascars as seamen when removed into a very cold and variable climate ?-Not from my own experience, but I can give it from the very best I had it yesterday from an officer in the navy; he himself navigated a ship of 900 tons from Calcutta, manned by a crew of

source.

For further information as to the excellence of Indian ships and of Lascars as seamen, see appendix letter of Capt. R. Cogan, J.N.

Lascars, and arrived here in the month of January; he was three weeks in the Channel, and he is as ready this moment to sail in a ship manned by Lascars as in a ship manned by British seamen. My informant is Sir Joseph Douglas, who would be happy to give his evidence before the Committee if required.—(F. C. Browne, 4025.)

OUR OTHER COLONIES.

All exports from the United Kingdom to the colonies must be in British ships.-N. A. VII.

All exports from colony to colony, and from place to place, in each colony, must be in British ships.-N. A. X.

All exports from the colonies to the United Kingdom must be in British ships.-N. A. IV.

Foreign goods must be carried to the colonies only in British ships, or in foreign ships of the same country as the goods, and from the ports of that country; they cannot bring their own produce from a foreign port.*

The ships allowed this privilege must have colonial possessions of their own, and must give as wide privileges as they get, or if they have no possessions, they must give all the privileges they can, by placing us on the footing of their most favoured nation, and they must have an Order in Council, declaring, that having fulfilled the conditions, they are entitled to the privileges. Unless Her Majesty, by her Order in Council, shall, in any case deem it expedient to grant the whole, or any such Privileges, to the Ships of any Foreign Country, although the Conditions aforesaid shall not, in all respects, be fulfilled by such Foreign Country. (Possessions

* A little word sometimes makes a great difference.

In respect of the European trade with England, goods are admitted in ships of the country of which they are the produce, or from which they are imported.

In respect of the European trade with the colonies, goods are admitted in ships of the country of which they are the produce, and from which they are imported. The first is a single, the second a double restriction. In the first, the ship and goods, or ship and port, must be of the same country.

In the second, ship, goods, and port, must all three be of the same country.

Act, sec. 4.) The clause which we have given in italics is important, as giving the Queen power, by Order in Council, so far to relax the Navigation Laws in favour of the colonies, as to allow all foreign ships to import and export, to and from the colonies, on equal terms.

TABLE OF COUNTRIES THAT MAY AND MAY NOT TRADE TO OUR COLONIES.

The following table shows to what extent this power has been exercised by the crown:

Countries west of the Cape of Good Hope who may trade with their own ships to the colonies:

Austria, Order in Council, 7th April, 1830. Treaty, 3rd July, 1838. Prussia, Order in Council, 3rd May, 1826.

Hanover

Sweden and Norway

Oldenburg

Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburg
Columbia

Rio de la Plata-Buenos Ayres

Mexico

Russia

Order in Council, 16th July, 1827.

Bolivia, Treaty, 29th September, 1840.
Chili, Order in Council, 11th August, 1841.

Denmark, Order in Council, 1st April, 1835.

Portugal, Order in Council, 2nd November, 1842.

United States of America, Order in Council, 5th November, 1830. Zolverian States, Treaty, 2nd March, 1841.

Hayti, Order in Council, 23rd August, 1843.

Countries west of the Cape who may partially trade with their own ships

France, Order in Council, 1st June, 1826; 16th December, 1826; 16th July, 1827.

Spain, from Spanish colonies to British colonies, 28th April, 1828. Greece, with British India, Treaty, 4th October, 1837.

Muscat, Europe and Asia, Treaty, 31st May, 1839.

Countries west of the Cape who cannot trade with their own ships to the

Possessions Act, sec. 2.

What the Restrictions on the colonies are.

Direct trade.

Indirect trade.

How the re

strictions work.

SUMMARY OF COLONIAL RESTRICTIONS.

All foreign ships, having right of trade with the colonies must enter and clear from a free port.

All British ships, unless from England, or to it, or to, or from some British colony, must also enter and clear from a free port. Any and every colonial port may be declared a free port.* The restrictions on the colonies, therefore, may be shortly stated to be :

Exclusion of all foreign ships from indirect trade, intercolonial trade, and trade between the colonies and Great Britain.

Limitation of direct trade in foreign ships to certain ships and to the free ports.

Limitation of British ships from or to foreign ports to the free ports.

The prohibition of indirect trade comes to this: a foreign ship cannot take colonial goods to a foreign port, and return with a cargo from that port to the colonies. If she return to the colony from the foreign port it must be in ballast. If she come with a return cargo, it must be from her mother country. For instance :

"A Spanish ship will proceed from Newfoundland with fish to some port in South America, and that ship cannot go to a British colony from South America, or bring anything to it, in order to obtain a return freight there with which to proceed, not to the United Kingdom, but to proceed from that port in the British colony to a port in Europe. A Neapolitan ship taking a cargo of Sicilian wines to Newfoundland, and taking a cargo of fish from Newfoundland to any foreign state, cannot return again laden to Newfoundland for a cargo of fish unless that ship goes back to her own country. A Neapolitan ship can take a cargo from Newfoundland to Cadiz, but that same Neapolitan ship cannot go back laden to Newfoundland again unless she makes a voyage up the Mediterranean to Palermo or Naples, to obtain a freight to Newfoundland." -(723.)

* For list of free ports, see appendix.

set to the in

crease of trade.

No amount of inquiry, no evidence that could be collected, No limit can be can give us the sum, or even an approximate to the sum, of trade prevented by such interferences with its free and natural current. They are founded on some kind of belief that trade every where has attained its utmost capability of extension, that there is an ascertained amount of goods to be carried by sea in certain directions, and that whatever foreign ships get is just so much taken from cargoes for British ships. The answer is, that people believed when railways were proposed, that coaches and waggons carried every body, and every thing that would ever need to be carried, and as not even the most sanguine dreamt of the enormous traffic that has been developed, so can no man venture to say how great a trade may spring up amongst the colonies, under freedom of navigation. But we have abundant evidence, that under protected navigation the progress of such trade is prevented.

Mr. David M'Laren, the London manager of the South Australian Company, lived in South Australia for four years as manager of the Company's Bank there, and states,

Australia and its productions.

"That during the years 1842 and 1843, South Australia was found Australian to be rich in mines of lead and copper, so much so, that during copper ore. the last nine months there have been sold at Swansea, of South Australian ore, 3618 tons, and besides those there were 500 tons lost in a vessel off the coast of Swansea, making upwards of 4000 tons during the last nine months. They could export very much more. At a very moderate estimate they can at present send from 10,000 to 12,000 tons per annum; some parties rate it much higher, but we are justified in rating it at present, at from 10,000 to 12,000 tons of copper ore per annum.

"The sales of land for mineral purposes have greatly increased of late; there have been 80,000 acres sold as special surveys on that account; and besides those, 7800 acres have been sold by public sale in the colony on the same account, for which upwards of £130,000 have been paid in all."—(3473-5-6-7.)

The question very naturally arises, why with all this production and power of production, there have not been more than 4000 tons brought here. The following evidence gives the reason: