amended and augmented from time to time, according as new objects of commercial traffic came into the markets of the world, as the bait is changed by the fisherman when a new description of fish appears in the waters.

But at last it has come to a dead fix.

The first and smallest of our concessions to foreign countries, in respect of the navigation of the seas, was to admit the produce of each country in its own ships, and although the raw material from which the article is made may have been imported, yet the process of manufacture causes it to be held as the produce of the country so manufacturing it.

duce.

All the quibbles and dodges of diplomacy could not there- Sugar refined in Europe deemed fore last year enable the Board of Trade to deny that West European proIndian sugar refined in Holland was Dutch produce, and might be brought here as such under our Navigation Laws; and so no equivocation can prevent American corn from being ground into flour by the millers of Havre and sent here as French produce, and as flour and sugar are not included in the enumerated articles, they may be brought from Europe in ships of any country.

So with tobacco from Cuba, bark from Peru, silk from India or China, and many other articles.

Twenty-seven millions of francs' worth of wrought hides were, last year, exported from France. They might all have been brought here under our laws, but had they been raw hides, they must have gone back to the continent of America (whence, in all probability, they originally came), before they could have become available to our manufacturers. They are not allowed to be sent here from Europe, for our artizans to fashion into use; but let the foreigners work them up, and, in the eyes of our act of parliament, the sting of their admission disappears.

Till the year 1843, copper ore imported from abroad Copper-ore. was permitted to be smelted in bond. Accordingly, it was brought in ships of all countries, who took out freights to South America, brought back copper ore to Great Britain,

Copper smelting commencing abroad.

Effects of the Navigation law on the copper trade.

Evidence of Mr. Lefevre, 103.

and thence returned to their own ports with a cargo of British produce.

But, in that year, the prohibition on the import of foreign copper ore was repealed, and a duty was substituted. About this time, too, it became an article of export from Australia, so that South American or Australian copper ore became admissible into this country, if brought in British ships.

*

England exports more of her own copper than she consumes, and, up to that time, supplied the world with manufactured copper; but, being thus deprived of the power of bringing foreign ore in any ships that were available, our manufacturers are unable to meet the demand from abroad, and smelting establishments are springing up on the Continent and the United States, to compete with us. Hamburgh cannot bring us copper ore to smelt, for her ships must have a back freight from South America; so that ore is brought to her to smelt for herself.

Thus we lose two profitable transactions: first, the exchange of our manufactures for the copper ore; and, again, the sale of the manufactured copper. At the same time, we do not deprive the Hamburgher of his freight, while our own ships absolutely lose that proportion of the trade which they could legitimately command.

We may alter the map to suit our charta maritima; we may twist our interpretation of its provisions to fit in with our general policy; we may wilfully misunderstand treaties as long as we can hoodwink our neighbours; but the force of these things is too strong for diplomacy or delusion, and whatever rags or tatters of the old law may be left, the principle of enumerating particular articles to be imported in particular ships, must be utterly and irretrievably extinguished.

The trade between the Channel Islands and foreign countries, and the same Islands and our Colonies, is perfectly open to all goods and all ships.

* Or ships of the country where produced-a facetious alternative -for these countries having no ships, British ships have the entire monopoly.

Importations from Malta, Gibraltar, and Heligoland, are subject to the same rule as importations from Europe; but exports to them, though they are Colonies of England, are free from the Navigation Law. So that any foreign vessels might carry coal to them from England. How came the committee of shipowners so far to relax their vigilance, as to submit quietly to this audacious infringement of their prerogative?

AN ACT FOR THE REGISTERING OF BRITISH VESSELS.

8th & 9th Vic., c. 89.

The first thing to be done by a man who wishes to sail under the English flag, is to inform the authorities where he was born, and where he lives. And if he prove to be a genuine Englishman, living within the rules of the Navigation Act, the law which has defined his habitation, dictates to him where he is to build his ship, and how he is to man her. His natural course would be to buy her in the cheapest market, and to navigate her in the cheapest manner; but the law constituting itself a better judge than himself of his interests, by way of superinducing more ships and more sailors tells him what an English ship shall be. And this is constituted a genuine British ship by chap. 89, 8th and 9th Victoria.

Every vessel shall once for all be named, and have the name on black, in four-inch-long white or yellow letters, painted on her stern, the name once given never to be changed; the ship must be surveyed, and have and keep in constant readiness a certificate of survey, describing her with such accuracy as to build, tonnage, and all other particulars, as at any time, like a traveller's passport, may ensure identification. The ship too must be entirely of the build of the United Kingdom, or some of the British possessions, or a prize in war, or condemned under some slave-trade convention. No foreigner may own any share in her, she must belong out and out to

Sec. xii.

Englishmen, and they every one of them must live at home in England, unless they live out of it in some British possession, or reside abroad as partners in, or agents for English firms, or be members of some British factory.

Vessels the property of a corporation or company, are registered in the name of the corporate body. Very recently a question was raised as to the construction of this clause;

"The question arose whether foreigners could hold any property in a ship belonging to a corporate body; and the evidence which was in possession of the officers of customs that foreigners did constitute a part of that corporate body was so strong, that we refused registration to the ship; upon which they moved for a mandamus in the Court of Queen's Bench, and the decision of the Judges was, that a corporate body must be deemed to be an individual, and that foreigners might therefore hold a share in a ship belonging to a corporate body. An application was made to the collector and comptroller at Liverpool for the registry of a ship called the Equador, belonging to the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. In the first instance, the said company required registry as a joint stock company, and three members, who had been duly elected or appointed trustees, attended at the Custom-house, Liverpool, to make and subscribe the declaration of registry, in conformity with the provisions of the 13th and 36th sections of the Act 8th & 9th Vict., c. 89 (the Registry Act). It will be seen by a reference to the 13th section aforesaid, that the trustees of a joint stock company are, in common with all other owners of British ships (excepting those owned by corporate bodies), required to declare 'that no foreigner, directly or indirectly, hath any share or part interest in the said ship or vessel).' The trustees in question stated that they could not make that declaration; because in point of fact, foreigners did hold shares in that ship, and also in the other vessels belonging to the said company; and they requested the collector and comptroller at Liverpool to expunge that part of the declaration above recited. Those officers having no legal authority to comply with that request, refused to make any such alteration. The company then addressed the Board of Customs, requesting that they would direct their officers at Liverpool to expunge from the declaration the words above recited; and the Board, after taking the opinions of their practical officers and their solicitor, refused a compliance with the request. The company's secretary then demanded registry on behalf of the company as a 'corporate body,' and claimed to make the declaration contained in the 13th section of the Act aforesaid applicable to corporate bodies. It will be perceived that that declaration does not, as the other declaration does, exclude foreign interest; and if in the first

instance the company had claimed registry as a corporate body, the probability is that it would have been granted as a matter of course, without raising the question of foreign interest. But the collector and comptroller at Liverpool, with a full knowledge that foreigners were proprietors of the vessel, and adverting to the 12th and other sections of the Registry Act, refused registry; and the Commissioners of the Customs, acting upon their solicitor's opinion, supported the Liverpool officers in their refusal to grant such registry. The company then moved for a mandamus in the Court of King's Bench, and after the usual proceedings in such cases, it was decided by the Court on the 3rd December 1846, that as the company applied for registration in its corporate capacity, the Court could not take notice of its constituent members, whether they were foreigners or not; or, in other words, that an English incorporated company was a British subject for the purpose of the Registry Act."

J. Braysher,

Esq.

own a British ship as shareholders in a

corporate com

pany.

Thus foreigners incorporated can own a ship, but they Foreigners can cannot own a ship individually. They may, in common with British subjects, own part of a ship belonging to a corporate body, and if all the shares in a Steam Navigation Company, which was incorporated, were held by foreigners, it would be considered, in point of law, that those ships could be duly registered under that decision of the Judges of the Court of Queen's Bench.

A foreigner would not be allowed to have a share in a sloop, but he might be the owner of all the shares of a corporate body which possessed ships registered as British.

A ship loses her privileges of registry, and can no longer be a British ship, if in any foreign port she be repaired at a cost of more than twenty shillings the ton, unless the Commissioners of Customs should decide that such repairs were of absolute necessity.

Furthermore, ships once captured can never again be British, unless recaptured or condemned for slave-trading. Doubtless this last provision is a legacy of the reign which was so prolific of Navigation Laws.

In 1670, an Act was passed "for preventing the commanders of merchant ships from delivering such ships to Turkish and other pirates, without fighting."

Sec, ix.

22nd & 23rd Charles II.

cap. 2.