towards Old England would be diminished, until at length the land of their birth would be almost obliterated from their minds, and a decay of loyalty and affection ensue as a necessary consequence.

THE CHINA TRADE,

which England fought for single-handed, and obtained, would be rendered unprofitable to her, were the Navigation Laws repealed. American ships would either go from the United States direct to India and China, with the produce of their own country, and ship teas for England; or else would bring cotton to this country, take in a cargo for China at any price, and there ship teas for the most promising market, wherever that might chance to be-whether America, England, or Sydney. British ships, unable to compete with the cheaper built, cheaper sailed Americans, must succumb; and our merchants would decline to contend with people equally with themselves energetic and alive to business, and engaged in a race in which they are unencumbered, while the Englishman is greatly overloaded with debt and taxes. China would be virtually reclosed against us, to our inexpressible chagrin and grievous loss. coasting or opium trade is now in the hands of all nations, but it is of a character too lawless to be affected by any legislative enactments, whether restrictive or otherwise.

The

THE AUSTRALIAN TRADE

may in a few years, if duly nurtured, become most lucrative and important to this country. The supply of British shipping has ever been (with the one exception of 1847) ample for the trade of Sydney, Port Philip, Van Diemen's Land, South Australia, Port Adelaide, &c., and neither the merchants connected therewith nor the colonists as a body desire a change. A continent so extensive as that of Australasia is of too much moment to be trifled with. Duly

tended and succoured, our fellow-countrymen in that hemisphere may afford a profitable source of employment for the overgrown population of the mother-country, and yield a three-fold return for the care and assistance we may bestow upon them. But by rendering the communication between the two countries less frequent, we may ultimately break the link by which mutual interests are now united.

BRITISH WEST INDIES.

Already legislative enactments press with dire severity upon West Indian property. Once rich and prosperous men are now drawn to the brink of penury, and many, alas! are already engulfed in its depths. Let us not add to their miseries by destroying the slender twig upon which their dependence now rests. By demolishing the protection afforded by the Navigation Laws, foreigners would not only bring home what small quantity of produce might still chance to be grown in the British West Indies, but they would be enabled to glut the sugar markets with the produce of Cuba and Brazil, until every other description were thrown out of cultivation. Neither East Indian nor Mauritius sugar could compete with that grown by slave labour in Cuba and the Brazils. In that case the British public would learn to its cost that an indestructible monopoly had been created, and would find itself at the tender mercy of slave factors, with whom competition by unprotected free labour would be a matter of impossibility.

THE MAURITIUS.

There appears no reason whatever for opening the Mauritius trade upon the score of want of moderate-priced shipping. The chief security planters in that island have for a steady supply of freight consists in the law as it now stands, and the abrogation of which would render supplies fluctuating and uncertain, without being more economical.

THE CANADAS.

There seems a diversity of interests in the Canadas which can hardly be reconciled. The people of Montreal, at the top of the St. Lawrence, are in favour of repeal, while those of Quebec, which is lower down the river, are for protection. It is scarcely possible to abolish restrictions in one case and to retain them in the other, and it would be most unfair to form new laws of a retrospective character. The people at Montreal by settling there made themselves liable to the evil as well as to the good resulting from their location, and it would be manifestly unjust to relax laws simply for their pleasure which are beneficial to their neighbours. The unavoidably heavy expenses of navigating the St. Lawrence above Quebec are such, that it may be doubted whether the repeal of the Navigation Laws would have the slightest effect in inducing a greater number of ships to ascend to Montreal.

THE UNITED STATES.

If we repeal the Navigation Laws we shall admit into direct, but unequal competition, as far as this country is concerned, a people to whom business is as meat and drink, the object of whose most devout worship is comprised in dollars and cents, and whose ambition is only controlled by the all engrossing consideration of money. Richly endued with the most consummate art, by which they have hitherto been able to blind and juggle "Britishers" to any imaginable extent, they wait until we destroy the protection we enjoy from the Navigation Laws when they will rob us of our colonial trade and, ultimately, of our colonies also. They will then throw off the mask and work our certain ruin.

Our most valuable sailors now find protection and employment under their flag, and a few years of the freetrade system would also put them in possession of the

best of our ships, which they had purchased at their own price. We might for a time be induced to believe that we were receiving an equivalent, (we could never hope for more,) in exchange for the trade we should open to them, but it would be found ultimately that this was only a lure to entice us within the range of a well-laid ambuscade, and "check-mate" would be the unexpected but inevitable end of the game. The delusion would only be made apparent when it was too late for us to retrace our steps. Conclusive evidence has been adduced to show that the Americans build, man, provision, and sail their ships more advantageously than we can ever hope to do. Their maritime laws, like the laws in the Southern States, are to the last degree vigorous. If an 66 unbroken*" British sailor finds himself, whether as a passenger or as one who has signed articles, on board an American ship and refuses to work, it is enough to warrant the infliction of the severest corporal punishment. I know not that such is the written law; but it is the invariable practice: the fact is too notorious to be the subject of controversy. Punishments which are hardly tolerated by a British public when inflicted under responsible surveillance, are permitted to exist in the marine of that mis-called land of liberty without the slightest kind of compunction. An appeal to the law in America by a lacerated sailor is of no avail if the admission be made that he refused to work. There can be no question that the effect of this arbitrary power is such as to deter men from skulking, and to exact the full modicum of labour from each individual on board the ship; but if our humanity shudders at empowering British captains to resort to equally stringent measures, how can ships sailed under the British flag be expected to compete with those, cheaper in every respect, displaying the stripes and stars of

Captain Briggs, in his evidence before the House of Commons, says he prefers British seamen to any other "after they are broken in."

our Transatlantic rivals? The Americans evinced no compunction when narrowing the confines of the red aborigines of their soil, neither will they hesitate to clip the mane, draw the teeth, and dock the tail of the British lion if ever the power to do so is within their reach. Already the tonnage of their mercantile navy equals our own; and the secretary to their treasury estimates that in 1857 it will have doubled its present extent. And the prediction will be fulfilled if we are only good enough to repeal our Navigation Laws.

THE BALTIC.

For a series of years prior to 1824 the trade between. Great Britain and the Ports of the Baltic was considerable. The trade was then protected by an alien duty, and by the additional pilotage, light, and dock dues which were levied upon ships of those countries, but which amounted to little, if any, more than a set-off against the lastage duty and other imposts payable by British ships in those ports. The Reciprocity Act, inasmuch as it enabled Prussians, Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians to come into direct competition upon the same terms with the dearer ships of England, naturally occasioned a depression among the latter, and a corresponding elevation of the former. The amount of trade remains pretty much the same*, the difference being that whereas it was formerly carried on in British ships, it is now done by the ships of those countries. By repealing the Navigation Laws according to the Labouchere plan, the shipowners of those countries would, without doubt, enter as largely as the Americans would allow them into our colonial trade; consequently we should in this case also be extremely liberal to those nations without being just to ourselves.

* In 1824 the trade between England and Prussia amounted to 256,285 tons, and in 1845 to no more than 305,945 tons. The trade between Sweden and Norway and Great Britain in 1824 amounted to 203,857 tons, and in 1845 had only increased to 236,292 tons. See p. 97, ante.

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