several articles,-gum Senegal, coarse calicoes for the African trade, cotton wool, goat skins, &c.,-from any place, was permitted by the Acts 25 G. 2, c. 32; 5 G. 3, c. 30 ; 5 G. 3, c. 52, s. 20; and 15 G. 3, c. 35, ss. 1, 2. By the Act 14 G. 2, c. 36, the Russia Company were allowed to import in British shipping from any Russian ports, any commodities of the growth of Persia, purchased by barter with woollen or other commodities (but not with gold or silver, either in coin or bullion), exported from Great Britain to Russia, and thence carried into Persia, or with the produce arising from the sale thereof. By a subsequent Act, 23 G. 2, c. 34, the necessity for carrying the British goods, or the produce arising from their sale, into Persia, was done away, and it was made legal to import Persian goods purchased in Russia. By 20 G. 3, c. 45, the Turkey Company were allowed to import any goods which had theretofore been usually imported from the Turkish dominions within the Levant seas, from any port or place whatsoever, and either in British ships or in ships of countries in amity with us and navigated by foreign seamen; subject, however, to the payment of aliens' duty if the ships were of foreign build. By 37 G. 3, c. 84, the privilege of importing Levant goods from any place and in any ships of countries in amity was made general for a limited time; but this was one of a great number of Acts passed during time of war, relaxing the Navigation Laws in particular points when they could not be strictly carried out, which it is perhaps, unnecessary minutely to describe. The following statutes may be referred to as instances of such relaxation :-39 G. 3, c. 95; 39 & 40 G. 3, c. 34 ; 41 G. 3, c. 97; 42 G. 3, c. 95, s. 9 ; 45 G. 3, c. 34. By the Act 27 G. 3, c. 19, s. 11, it was made lawful to import into this country from Gibraltar in British ships, the produce of Morocco imported into Gibraltar from places not lying to the southward of Mogadore; and see 3 G. 4, c. 43, s. 9. The Act 7 G. 1, st. 1, c. 21, provided that no goods the produce of places within the limits of the East India Company's charter should be imported into Ireland, the Channel Islands, or the British possessions in Africa or America, except from Great Britain. This rule continued in force (except as regards Ireland) till the Consolidation of 1825. By 33 G. 3, c. 63, it was made lawful to import the produce of places in Asia, Africa, or America, not being within the limits of the Company's charter, into Great Britain from Ireland. The sections in the Act of 1822, 3 G. 4, c. 43, which relate to this portion of the subject, are the 2nd, the 8th and the 9th. They prescribe pretty much the same regulations as those which at present exist; that is to say, the 2nd section limits the restriction as to the places whence the produce of Asia, Africa, and America may be brought, to a prohibition against importing it from Europe; and the 8th and 9th sections establish the exceptions as to the dominions of the Grand Seignior, &c. very nearly in the same terms as the exceptions in the present law. NOTE ON THE EAST INDIA TRADE. The trade with the East Indies has always been treated as exceptional. The exclusive right of trading within certain limits long enjoyed by the Company, and the peculiar nature of the Company's jurisdiction, have no doubt contributed to render it so. The two points most worthy of notice are, 1st, the concession of the rights of British ships to ships not fulfilling all the usual requisites of the law; and 2nd, the admission of certain foreign ships to an equality in some respects with British ships. On the first point reference should be made to the statute 21 G. 3, c. 65, s. 33, which provided that ships belonging to the East India Company should be held to be British-owned, although the stock of the Company was held by a considerable proportion of foreigners. The next important statute is 35 G. 3, c. 115, (continued by 42 G. 3, c. 20,) which allows to ships, built within the territories of the Company, or in places in the East Indies under British protection, and owned by the Company, the privileges of British ships in trade with India, though such ships be not British-built or duly registered. When the exclusive privileges of the Company were broken in upon (by 53 G. 3, c. 155) the same privilege was allowed to be extended to similarly circumstanced vessels, the property of private individuals, by Order in Council (s. 30). This privilege was continued by 54 G. 3, c. 35. But by 53 G. 3, c. 116, the registry laws of this country were extended to India, and from that time nothing but British-built ships were to be entitled to the privileges of British vessels. Exceptions were made as to ships under 350 tons burden, and also as to ships the property of British subjects, and built or building before 1st January, 1816; but these classes of ships were only to be employed in trade within the limits of the Company's charter. This Act was repealed by the statutes 4 G. 4, c. 41, and 4 G, 4, c. 80, which extended the British law of registry to India without any exception. But by 6 G. 4, c. 110, provision was again made for the trade of ships built prior to 1816, and having continued in the possession of British owners ever since; and by a subsequent Act, (3 & 4 Vict., c. 56), which is still in force, the Governor-General in Council has power to declare all ships built within the limits of the charter, and owned by Her Majesty's subjects for whom he has the power to legislate, to be entitled to the privileges of British ships within those limits. By the fourth section of the same Act the Governor-General has the power of conferring the same privileges on ships belonging to states in subordinate alliance, or having sub- With regard to the navigation of East India ships, it is sufficient of the charter. On the subject of the privileges granted to the vessels of foreign Notice should also be taken of the Act 59 G. 3, c. 54, s. 6, permit- See also 41 G. 3, c. 37, which allowed rice and other grain to be III. TRADE WITH EUROPE. Law in 1660. "No goods or commodities of Law in 1847. brandy-wine, shall be imported into England, Ireland, Wales, or · town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in any ship or ships, vessel or vessels whatsoever, but in such as do truly and without fraud belong to the people thereof, or some of them, as the true owners and proprietors thereof, and whereof the master and threefourths of the mariners at least are English and no currants nor commodities of the growth, production, or manufacture of any of the countries, islands, dominions, or territories to the Ottoman or Turkish empire belonging, shall be imported into any of the aforementioned places in any ship or vessel but which is of English build, and navigated as aforesaid, and in no other, except only such foreign ships and vessels as are of the build of that country or place of which the said goods are the growth, production, or manufacture respectively, or of such port where the said goods can only be, or most usually are, first shipped for transportation, and whereof the master and threefourths of the mariners at least are of the said country or place." -(12 Car. 2, c. 18, s. 8.) N.B.-The exception which is placed in italics was held to apply to the whole clause, and not to Turkish goods only. N.B. 2.-See also the 2nd rule relating to the trade with Asia, Africa, and America, and the 1st and 4th notes thereon, all which partially apply to the European trade likewise. used therein, except in British ships, or in ships of the country of which the goods are the produce, or in ships of the country from which the goods are imported."—(8 & 9 Vict., c. 88, s. 2.) N.B.-But such goods, not being otherwise prohibited, may be warehoused for exportation, though brought in other ships."-Ib. s. 22.) N.B. 2.-Her Majesty may allow ports to be used as national ports by the ships of countries, within the dominions of which the ports do not lie, but for the exportation of the produce of which they are convenient outlets.”—(See 3 & 4 Vict., c. 95.) Y INTERMEDIATE HISTORY OF THE LAW. The rule established by the Navigation Act relative to the European trade, was considered unsatisfactory for two reasons: first, because it permitted British ships to import European goods from any part of Europe, though they were not of the growth or produce of that part, and, consequently, enabled our Dutch rivals to collect all manner of articles in their ports, and thence to send them over to this country, thus competing with us in the longer part of the voyage, and being excluded only from the shorter part; secondly, because it enabled them to do the same with respect to goods from the plantations, provided they subjected them to some manufacturing process so as to give them a Dutch character. To prevent these evasions of the spirit of the law, it was enacted by the Statute of Frauds (13 & 14 Car. 2, c. 11, s. 23), that no sort of wines, other than Rhenish, no sort of spicery, grocery, tobacco, potashes, pitch, tar, salt, rosin, deal boards, fir timber, or olive oil, should be imported into England, Wales, or Berwick, from the Netherlands or Germany, in any sort of ships or vessels whatsoever. The following are the several instances in which this rule was subsequently relaxed; by 1 Ann, stat. 1, c. 12, s. 112, it was made lawful to import from Hamburgh wines the produce of Hungary; by 6 G. 1, c. 15, certain descriptions of German timber may be imported in British ships from German ports; by 22 G. 3, c. 78, drugs, wines, and thrown silk, of Hungary and Germany, may be imported from the Austrian Netherlands, or from any port of Germany, as from the place of their production; by 27 G. 3, c. 13, s. 22, it was made lawful to import French wines and olive oil from the French dominions in the Netherlands; by 56 G. 3, c. 37, prunes, the produce of Germany, may be imported into this country. Some embarrassing questions having from time to time arisen as to the right of importing the produce of particular European states, in ships built in countries incorporated into those states subsequent to the passing of the Navigation Act; for instance, a question whether Prussian produce might be imported in ships built in East Friesland; it was enacted by 22 G. 3, c. 78, that the enumerated articles might be imported in ships the property of subjects under the same sovereign as the country of which such goods were the produce, although the country or place where such ship was built, or to which she belongs, was not under the dominion of such sovereign at the time of passing the Act of Navigation. It will be observed that this statute not only effected its immediate purpose of putting all the dominions of and sovereign on the footing of one country for the purposes of the Navigation Law, but also extended the right of importing, originally confined to ships "built in" the country of |