PREFACE. IT It may appear to many the height of presumption that an Author, unknown in the field of controversial warfare, and with no peculiar claim to attention, should enter the arena as the exponent of a matter so important to the destinies of Great Britain as that which has recently occupied the attention of the British Legislature-the Navigation Laws. I confess that I approach the subject with a kind of religious awe. I feel that I may, by incaution, do injury to my country, and by my want of personal experience damage its best hopes; or, on the other hand, that my efforts may be deemed unworthy of notice. With this absence of selfreliance, however, I trust that there is the less danger of my failing to support the right cause; inasmuch as it has induced me to base my argument upon the experience of others fully competent to advance a sound and disinterested opinion. I have no connection with party, and am totally removed from undue influence of any kind, with nothing to hope for but the approbation of right-minded individuals, nor to fear but their frown. I know nothing of "Free Trade" nor of "Protection;" but I believe that a movement is taking place which, if not checked, will end in our irretrievable ruin; and, as a Briton, I consider I am bound to use my best exertions, feeble though they may be, to arrest it. In common, I believe, with the great mass of my countrymen, I was ignorant of the nature of our Navigation Laws. So unobtrusive are they in their operation, that it was only by those who considered themselves injured by certain Government relaxations that the casual observer was reminded of their existence; and it was not until the annihilation of those laws was attempted that the public took any heed of the matter. It was then by many looked upon merely as "a branch "of the free-trade question;" by others, "a ship"owners' question ;" and by others, that the repeal was objected to only by "National-defence "Alarmists." The most vital consideration was, in my humble opinion, entirely (at least by the great bulk of the community) overlooked. It was not viewed as a question in which the prosperity of our commerce was deeply involved. Without doubt the dispute has an important bearing upon free trade, upon shipowners and shipbuilders, and also with reference to its probable effect upon the reserve of British seamen applicable to the Royal Navy in time of war. But these considerations taken individually are, in my mind, subor dinate to the one grand principle of our exalted state as a nation commercial supremacy. It would be quite possible to our shipowning interest to combat free trade and foreign shipping by transferring the scene of its operations to a more prolific soil, and by employing the weapons of foreigners-cheap ships and cheap sailors. The Royal Navy might possibly be supplied by a cumbrous artificial reserve, although it could only be maintained at an enormous cost to the country; but in each case there must be the presupposition that the balance of trade remained in our favour. It is from successful commerce that our power springs. England must be pre-eminent in the scale of nations by the annexation of wealth with physical energy. Her high position can only be creditably maintained by an undeviating flow of commerce, which will afford the means of defending her rights when attacked, or of chastising the insolence of her enemies. The Navigation Laws have hitherto bound to us by the strongest of ties our colonial possessions, which should be viewed as the choicest jewels of our beloved Queen's diadem. Instead of being separated from the parent-country, as they would most unquestionably have been had not those laws united them to it by what may at times appear to have been a galling chain, they are now linked to us by a community of interests as much as by feelings of consanguinity. But were that "freedom" conceded, which small cliques or insignificant though artful minorities demand, their ruin, or at least their total eventual alienation from Great Britain, must follow. It would, however, be doing gross injustice to the British legislature to imagine that a change so fraught with peril is about to be lightly passed into law: Two Committees, the first in the House of Commons, the other in the House of Lords, have had before them merchants, shipowners, shipbuilders, statists, brokers, and even foreigners, to furnish data upon which to ground their decision; and I do not for one moment doubt, that their verdict will be such as the country will have cause to approve. My endeavour has been to render the gist of enormous parliamentary blue books available to those who do not possess the time, or the patience, to wade through the undigested originals. I prefer no other claim to attention than that which belongs to every Englishman endued with a patriotic spirit, and anxious to render his freely offered services available upon what he considers to be a question of the most vital importance to his country. GREENWICH HOSPITAL, |