CHAPTER X.
Debate in the Lords, May 7, 1849, on second reading—Speech of the Marquess of Lansdowne—Lord Brougham—Condemnation of Mr. Porter’s statistics—Protected and unprotected Trade—Voyages to the continent—Napoleon’s desire for ships, colonies, and commerce—Earl Granville—Earl of Ellenborough—Increase of foreign peace establishments—Earl of Harrowby—Earl Grey—Lord Stanley—Admits need of modifications—Canada not our only colony—Majority for the Bill, 10—Duke of Wellington votes for it—Proceedings and debate in Committee—Lord Stanley’s amendment—Rejected by 13—Earl of Ellenborough’s amendment—Claims of Shipowners, and fear of competition—Amendment rejected by a majority of 12—Bill read a third time—Timber duties, &c., admitted to be grievances—Lord Stanley’s protest—Royal assent given, June 26—Coasting trade thrown open, 1854—Americans, October 1849, throw open all except their coasting trade.
Debate in the Lords, 7th May, 1849, on the second reading.
Speech of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
Although the majority in favour of the Bill had slightly increased since the division had been taken on the second reading in the House of Commons, the Shipowners were not discouraged, believing it would be thrown out by the Lords. They knew that the ministry had staked their reputation upon it, and that the fate of the Government depended on the result, but they confidently believed that the Upper House would reject “so pernicious a measure.” The Bill was at once carried up to the Lords, and read a first time on Tuesday, 24th April; and on Monday, 7th May, the Marquess of Lansdowne moved the second reading in a long and elaborate speech. He contended that the origin of the Navigation Laws during the Protectorate of Cromwell did not arise so much from a commercial or political want as from a desire to punish the Dutch for their loyal support to Charles I.[120] He admitted, however, that there were then good grounds for trying the experiment how far the national arm could be strengthened by restriction, and how far the naval force of the country could be thus increased. The noble Marquess next traced at length the changes contemplated by Mr. Pitt, and the incidents of the war with Napoleon, contending that the law, by successive changes, had ceased to be a suit of impenetrable armour, and was now only an imperfect garment of shreds and patches, manufactured out of parchments from statute books. He, further, showed the increase of our shipping since the relaxation of the shipping laws, maintaining that the dread of foreign competition was altogether irrational, and demonstrating, by statistics, the large share of the American direct and carrying trade we had already secured in open competition with American ships hence, and with foreign ships from their own ports to American shores; while we were, at the same time, able to bear off the chief share of the Russian trade from the Baltic ships even within the heart of their own country. He briefly referred to the colonial bearing of the question, and said that the West Indies were subject to great troubles, and Canada engaged in a difficult competition with the United States, the whole trade of the St. Lawrence depending on the repeal of that part of the Navigation Laws still in operation, the complete opening of that river alone, he thought, being sufficient to enable her to retain the trade now fast passing through the United States. The Marquess quoted Bonaparte, whose aim, when at the summit of his power, had been to obtain ships, colonies, and commerce. Bonaparte conquered one-half of Europe; the other half he seduced or entrapped into negotiations. He could create monopolies everywhere, and did so unscrupulously; but the genius of English commerce overcame those monopolies. Ships he could not get; colonies he could not acquire; commerce he could not establish; and was this, he asked, a consequence of the British Navigation Laws? No; it was British commerce and enterprise, which, in spite of restrictions in all parts of the world, secured a footing; and, in spite of edicts enforced by a million of bayonets, was established and conducted successfully. The Marquess then explained that the Administration depended upon this question, and were prepared for all the consequences of a hostile vote.
Lord Brougham.
To the astonishment of the country, Lord Brougham, in one of the ablest, or at least the most rhetorical speeches[121] he perhaps ever delivered even in his best days, opposed the second reading of the Bill. His Lordship had supported the other great measures of Free-trade, and now did not escape the charge of inconsistency, which he most eloquently denied. “I will only say,” he exclaimed, “that I glory in what forms the subject matter of this taunt. I glory in having obtained those immortal victories over antiquated error; in having made to triumph the soundest principles of political philosophy, sweeping away the groundless prejudices by which its progress was obstructed heretofore. But if there is one passage of my political life dearer than another to my remembrance, and any drop in the cup of exultation more particularly sweet to my palate, it is the recollection of those worthy, eminent persons, leaders of the revilers, the distinguished statesmen whose support I enjoyed after passing a long life in opposition to them on this very question, and who crowned themselves with honour by abandoning their own errors in vindicating the truth. But it is not now with them as with me. I make no change in my opinions.” The noble Lord then plunged into the Orders of Council[122] during the war, in the discussion of which he took such a conspicuous part.
Condemnation of Mr. Porter’s statistics.
In speaking of the tables from the Board of Trade and Customs, he said a lively impression prevailed on all sides, that they could prove anything and everything. Indeed, it had been remarked, give me half an hour, and the run of the multiplication table, and I’ll engage to pay off the National Debt. In statistics it is easy to add a little here, and subtract a little there, quietly to slip in a figure—it may be a cypher among your data—slyly to make what seems a reasonable postulate in your premises, but which turns out to be a begging of the question; and, behold, you gain your point and triumph; until, it is found that your adversary, having access to the same stores of arithmetic, proves his case, and refutes yours, with the same facility. Such are statistics when severed from sound principle and plain reasoning. But how little are these to be relied on when prepared by those in the employ of one party? To trust oneself among such details would be perilous in the extreme. “My noble friend has fared forth into the labyrinth with such bad success, that his fate seems to warn me how I venture to follow his perilous course. But there remains to deter me, like a beacon on the same coast, the sad wreck of another adventurer, the good ship Board of Trade, G. R. Porter, Master, cast away on the shoals of these faithless waters.” The noble Lord then assailed Mr. Porter with the whole force of his sarcasm. He said: “Mr. Porter, showing the comparative progress of English and American tonnage, takes the whole of one part and only part of the other, and thus makes out the result which suits his argument. Lord Hardwicke, the chairman, put this question to the witness, after stating the entire difference of the two returns, the difference being total in one case and partial in the other. ‘Then, consequently, these returns are not to be taken compared together, as showing in any degree the comparative value of British and American tonnage?’ Mark the answer of the hapless Mr. Porter. ‘Certainly not.’” The noble Lord then went on tearing, in the opinion of the opponents of the Bill, Mr. Porter’s evidence to shreds. “I am reminded,” said his Lordship, “of the cooking of the returns. But here we had called up the chief cook to examine him. We asked, ‘Is this dish pure?’ ‘Not at all,’ he answered. ‘Is it nutritive?’ ‘Nothing of the kind.’ ‘Is it safe and wholesome to eat?’ ‘Certainly not?’ ‘Have you any means of correcting its poison by an antidote?’ ‘I am not sure; I rather think I have; but I am not certain.’” The noble Lord then referred to the reciprocity treaties; the fact being that these treaties were all respecting differential duties; all of them were grounded on the comparatively sound principle of only relaxing our monopoly in favour of those States who agreed to give us the quid pro quo; whereas the present scheme was to give the quid without the quo; to sweep away all restriction at once with every country before we secured an equivalent from any one; and so far from proportioning our sacrifice to our gain, to sacrifice everything before we gained anything.
Protected and unprotected trade.
“On the statistics of the protected and unprotected trades,” continued his Lordship, “it is, that the greatest errors have been committed. It was among these shoals that Mr. Porter had left a wreck, as a beacon to warn us how we follow his course. He, no doubt, had steered to the best of his ability, and quite unconsciously had been cast away; but, that he acted under the bias of a strong prejudice in favour of his ally and relative, the author of the present Bill, is very much to be suspected, for we all know that the Bill is really Mr. Ricardo’s, who, in 1847, moved the Committee on the Navigation Laws, the Government being afterwards pushed on by their supporters, impatient at seeing them hold their places and do nothing.” After dissecting these tables with a ruthless hand, Lord Brougham asked how any rational man could place reliance upon tables thus framed, and thus abounding on their face with errors the most fatal. Their great concoctor is asked about these errors, and he cannot deny them, so he says the heading of the return is wrong, and that instead of “unprotected,” it should have been “less protected.” Indeed! But that is just giving up the whole value of the table, and making it utterly useless—utterly unfit to be the ground of any inference whatever—utterly foreign to the present question. For, observe, we can understand what is meant by a trade unprotected by the Navigation Laws, and compare it with one that is protected; but a trade “less protected,” how is that to be defined? Less protected than what? What does this tell us? What makes more, what less? How can we compare them together? All depends upon how much more and how much less, and this Mr. Porter does not affect to show.
Voyages to the continent.
“But,” exclaimed his Lordship, “this is not the worst of it by a great deal!” He then sifted the whole returns about the voyages to the continent, to which I have already referred. “My Lords, I will readily give a large licence for exaggeration to that lively class of persons who contribute to our amusement by their powers of imagination, drawing upon their fancy for their facts, and on their memory for their jests. To these men I render all grateful homage, as among the gayest of our sad species; so far as fourfold, or even tenfold, I am willing to extend my licence. But what shall we say of a hundredfold, nay, a hundred-and-fiftyfold, and that, not by the lively wit, but by the plodding dealer in returns, tables, and trade and shipping statistics. I must really send them away to bury themselves and their errors in the recesses of the trade department, and no longer hope to obtain any faith here. I have done with such food, such dry food even when it is honestly prepared and fairly served up.”
Lord Brougham then entered fully into the merits of the general question, calling upon their Lordships not to part rashly with what had been called the miserable remnants, the fragments of a worn-out system. “Fragments, indeed! They are of gigantic size; they are the splendid remains of a mighty system; they are the pillars of our navy; the props of our maritime defence.” He showed that there remained the almost entire monopoly of our home trade, and the perfectly rigorous monopoly of our colonial trade, employing above a million and a half of shipping, and 20,000 seamen, with a capital that gave export and import to between fifteen and sixteen millions sterling in the year. He further insisted that the restrictions affecting Canada could be easily removed without unsettling our whole policy.
The policy of the Navigation Laws rested, in his opinion, on the position that, without such a partial monopoly as they gave to British shipping, we never could maintain a sufficiently ample nursery for our navy, an object of primary importance to every insular empire, and, therefore, to be sought at a considerable sacrifice of the wealth unfettered commerce might more rapidly accumulate.
Napoleon’s desire for ships, colonies, and commerce.
The Emperor Napoleon I. has been cited as having wished “for ships, colonies, and commerce.” The quotation is not quite accurate.[123] He inveighed against “the ships, colonies, and commerce of England,” and mentioned these as the object of his hostility; whence Mr. Pitt, at a Guildhall festival, gave as a retaliatory toast, “the ships, colonies, and commerce of England,” a retort which derived its point from the French Emperor’s hostility against these special objects. Lord Brougham, in his splendid declamatory style, showed how Napoleon must have wished in vain—for we had swept the seas of his navy, captured all his colours—because we had created our own marine, which, he argued, owed its existence entirely to the encouragement the Navigation Laws gave to ship-building, and the facilities lent by the same laws to the manning our fleets, which that encouragement had created. For nearly two hundred years, he continued, we had abided by that policy; and holding steadily our course, neither swerving to the right nor to the left, never abandoning it, only adapting it to varying events which have altered the distribution of dominion in other regions, we have upheld the system which has made our navy the envy of our rivals, the terror of our enemies, and the admiration of the world. “Are you,” exclaimed his Lordship, with one of those bursts of ready eloquence for which he was so conspicuous in debate, “prepared to abandon a system to which you owe so precious a possession, not only the foundation of your glory, the bulwark of your strength, but the protection of your very existence as a nation?”
“The Bill,” continued Lord Brougham, “contained the seeds of fresh agitation and new demand.” The coasting trade, as well as the manning clauses, “would excite new agitation by other Ricardos and other Cobdens.” In framing his judgment on this great question he had listened but to one voice, the voice of public duty, sinking all party, all personal considerations. He did not on any account, personal or public, desire any change in the government. But he was prepared to encounter that, rather than see the highest interests of the empire exposed to ruin. This measure he could not bear, because our national defence could not bear it. To sweeten the bitter cup which it would fill, we are told, and he firmly believed it, that it would encourage slavery and stimulate the infernal slave-trade; since, whatever cheapened navigation between this country and the mart for slave-grown sugar—whatever lets in the Americans, the Swedes, the Danes, the Dutch, to bring over the sugars of Cuba and the Brazils—must of necessity increase the African slave-trade, by which the increase of those sugars was promoted. “When this new ingredient is poured into the chalice commended to my lips to-night I can no longer hesitate, even if I felt doubts before. All lesser considerations of party policy or Parliamentary tactics at once give way; and I have a question before me on which I cannot pause or falter, or treat or compromise; and, regardless of the comfort in any quarter, careless with what arrangements of any individuals my voice may interfere, I know my duty, and will perform it: as an honest man, an Englishman, a Peer of Parliament, I will lift that voice to resist the further progress of the Bill.”
Earl Granville
Earl Granville, in replying to Lord Brougham’s speech, defended Mr. Porter, and especially his statistics; but, as the reasons he and his party gave in support of the measure have in a great degree been confirmed by events, and by the success of the change they then so boldly advocated, it is more desirable to record at greater length the opinions of the opponents to the Bill. From these a lesson may be taught to other nations, which still cling to a policy in favour of which no more powerful arguments could be adduced than those urged by some of the ablest men of the period, arguments, however, which experience has shown, in almost every instance, to have been fallacious.
Earl of Ellenborough.
Lord Ellenborough[124] was unwilling, under existing circumstances, to diminish our marine by one ship, or our seamen by one man, and this Bill would tend to undermine the strength of our navy, both in ships and men. He contended that, as there had been a much larger increase in the British tonnage employed in the trade with the British North American colonies than in that of all the rest of the trade with America, fragmentary as the system might be, it evidently produced the effect it was intended to produce, the maintenance and increase of British navigation, and, therein, the security of this country. The noble Lord then drew a picture of our colonial empire, and pointed out the great and increasing demand on our naval resources for purpose of defence. He next directed attention to the well-appointed navy of the United States, of Russia, France, Austria, Naples, and other Continental Powers; and said we should do wrong if we did not consider the present state of the navies of foreign Powers in conjunction with the changes which have taken place in their military position. The military peace establishments of foreign Powers were now equal to their war establishments of former times; while the substitution of railways in the place of ordinary roads will enable States to bring a preponderating force, suddenly, from the most distant quarters to the port of embarkation, and then they will find “a steam bridge” from the continent to these islands.
Lord Harrowby, in an exhaustive speech, argued that wherever the “interests of commerce and navigation were at variance” those of navigation must predominate, as essential to the defence and security of the empire; but his Lordship, and all other speakers, entirely failed to prove that they ever were at variance. Nor can they be so. They rise and fall with each other; and are essentially one and the same. Indeed, if closely scrutinised, they will be found to have no antagonistic principles; and further, that whatever antagonism existed was caused by the operation of the Navigation Laws. Lord Grey, who followed Lord Harrowby, clearly showed that while these laws were of no advantage to the Shipowner, they were, from their practical working, serious drawbacks to his success, and that, instead of affording him any real protection, they were detrimental to his best interests. He further showed that the Navigation Laws were unfavourable to the development of the warehousing system; and, afterwards, dwelt at great length on the colonial part of the question and on the claims of Canada; asserting, also, that we could only perpetuate the connection between the mother-country and the North American colonies by engaging the confidence and participating in the affections of their people. The Navigation Laws were, he remarked, among the proximate causes of the revolutionary struggle which had ended in the independence of the United States. He concluded with an impressive appeal to the House not to peril the interests of the country by rejecting the Bill.
Lord Stanley.
Admits need of modifications.
Lord Stanley,[125] on the second night of the debate, rose at a quarter-past one o’clock, to answer Earl Grey, then Colonial Minister. After alluding to the recent Free-trade policy, with which this question was not connected, his Lordship asked whether they were prepared to abolish a system which, for two centuries at least, had formed the basis of our national greatness and the foundation of our naval strength. He had no objection to the modifications the Navigation Laws had undergone, nor might he object to some further modifications now. But it was not on the modification of these laws that the House had now to decide, but upon the momentous question of their entire abolition. Were they prepared for such a step, when it was admitted that, if taken, it must be irrevocable? Earl Grey, he said, treated the Navigation Laws as disadvantageous to the mercantile interests of the country. The merchants had not made this discovery, but the Queen’s Government had made it for them. The whole case, as based on its assumed benefits to the commercial marine, therefore fell to the ground; and the objection to the Bill, founded on its injurious tendency, so far as the navy was concerned, remained unchallenged and unrefuted.
Canada not our only colony.
Majority for Bill, 10.
In Canada, as in all other colonies, the withdrawal of Protection was regarded as a great grievance, hence the repeal of the Navigation Laws was demanded by them only as a consequence of that event. But our North American colonies were not confined to Canada. The shipbuilding colonies of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were opposed to repeal. The exceptional case of Canada might be met without entirely abrogating these laws. Having severely condemned Lord Palmerston for his circular, Lord Stanley then endeavoured to show that the warehousing system owed its origin to existing prohibitions, and that its increase or permanence depended upon their maintenance. He strongly objected to the proposal of admitting a foreign-built ship to British registry. It was essential, he maintained, to keep up the number and efficiency of our private building-yards, which would speedily decrease in number were such a proposal adopted. The question, indeed, could not be decided by one vote. The British merchants, the British Shipowners, the British seamen, and the British mechanics would not be satisfied with a Bill passed by a bare majority of the House, under pressure never heard of before, and with menaces such as had been thrown out. The people of this country will never know when they are beaten. The Marquess of Lansdowne having replied, repelling in indignant language the charge of having used menaces, the House went to a division at half-past four o’clock on the morning of the 10th May, on the question that “now” stand part of the motion. There appeared, Contents, present, 105; Proxies, 68; Total, 173: Non-contents, present, 119; Proxies, 44: Total, 163: Majority, 10!
Duke of Wellington votes for it.
This division was regarded at the time as of great political importance. Much uncertainty and speculation had before prevailed as to the relative state of parties upon the question in the House of Lords, and the fate of the Administration was generally supposed to depend on the decision as to the second reading of the Bill. The Shipowners were in the highest degree exasperated that they should be defeated by that which they called a pocket majority of proxies, as they had actually a majority of the Peers present adverse to the Bill. Perhaps that which occasioned the deepest mortification to them was that the Duke of Wellington, who had recently called attention to the state of the national defences, voted with the majority. With so narrow a majority as ten against them, the Shipowners resolved to make fresh efforts to obtain another division in committee, when, as proxies could not be accepted, it was anticipated that the obnoxious measure would be so altered, as to deprive it of its most objectionable features.
Accordingly Lord Stanley on the 18th May gave notice that he intended to propose the rejection of all the repealing clauses, i.e. the first and second, and, in point of fact, make the principle of the Bill one of conditional legislation. He proposed, farther, to enable British ships to bring the produce of Asia, Africa, and America indirectly, and to modify in the same spirit the clauses relating to the European trade. It should be remarked that the alarming news of an extensive rebellion in Canada had reached England since the day of the second reading, and a growing desire was felt that this great question of repeal should be finally settled one way or the other.
Proceedings and debate in committee.
Lord Stanley’s amendment.
In committee on the Bill (21st May), Lord Stanley brought forward his amendment, Lord Wharncliffe having given notice of one of the same or nearly similar tendency. The object of Lord Wharncliffe’s[126] amendment was that, until her Majesty should be fully satisfied that foreign countries would grant full reciprocity and commerce to this country, her Majesty should have no power to abrogate or repeal the Navigation Laws, so far as they affected the ships and commerce of those countries. Lord Stanley’s aimed at the same object. His Lordship said the distinction between his measure and that of the Government assumed this shape. Should we proceed to repeal, and then to re-enact a small portion, yet a portion, of the Navigation Laws which was the most burdensome to the British owner and the least advantageous to British commerce? or should the repeal be made conditional, by an enabling clause which conferred on the Queen the requisite power, when satisfied that reciprocity was accorded to us?
Rejected by 13.
The question gave rise to a very long and animated discussion, in which Earl Grey, the Earl of Harrowby, Earl Granville, Lord Colchester, the Marquess of Clanricarde, Lord Brougham, Lord Fitzwilliam, and the Marquess of Lansdowne took part; Lord Wharncliffe severing himself from Lord Stanley, and, in fact, voting against his amendment. The division which terminated this discussion was decisive of the fate of the Bill. On the question of Lord Stanley’s amendment there appeared, Contents, 103; Non-contents, 116: Majority against the amendment, 13! As no proxies in this division influenced the result, Lord Stanley at once withdrew all opposition to the repeal of the 8 & 9 Vict. cap. 88, which he only wished amended.
Earl of Ellenborough’s amendment.
Claims of Shipowners,
and fear of competition.
The Committee of the Lords sat again on the 24th May, when Lord Ellenborough moved an amendment that instead of the Bill coming into operation on the 1st January, 1850, it should come into operation on the 1st January, 1851. This amendment was in accordance with the prayer of a petition from the General Shipowners’ Society, urging various reasons for delay. It was admitted, his Lordship said, that one of the chief objects of the measure was to diminish the rates of freight; and it was contended that the greater the competition between the shipping of foreign States and the shipping of this country the greater would be the diminution of the rate of freight generally; but, added his Lordship, British Shipowners have not the means of diminishing their expenditure at once, so as to enable them to compete with foreign shipowners upon equal terms, before the Act came into operation. The time allowed for preparation, he continued, was only seven months; but, during that period, a large number of British vessels would not have arrived from distant places abroad, and, therefore, there would be no means of making changes in the modes of sailing and manning them. The contemplated reduction of men required to be made by the owners of ships to enable them to compete with the foreign owners was held to be of great importance. It was computed that five men were employed in every British vessel to every 100 tons; while, in foreign vessels, only three or four men were required for the same amount of tonnage. Assuming 230,000 as the number of seamen employed by British shipowners, there must be a reduction of one-fifth; in other words, 47,500 British sailors must be thrown out of employment.
Amendment rejected by a majority of 12.
In mercy, therefore, exclaimed his Lordship, to all parties interested, a sufficiently long time ought to be given for preparation. There was not less, it was said, than 200,000 tons of American[127] shipping in California, which might return by the port of Calcutta, and then be brought into competition with the tonnage of this country. The effect of the sudden competition from the Americans in the freight-market of India on the trade of Australia would, in his opinion, be most detrimental. Our own vessels carried out emigrants to that dependency, and they could only find return cargoes by going to the ports of India; but there, again, they would meet American tonnage from California, and be disappointed of freights. Seven months was not sufficient time to frame treaties with foreign Powers. The timber duties ought to be taken off, and this could not be done in time. His Lordship recapitulated many other objections to such precipitancy, but all were unavailing. The Ministers resolutely persevered in their measure, and opposed delay, and, indeed, every other amendment proposed. In fact, it was believed that they were afraid, if the delay of eighteen months were conceded, that a change of ministry or of public opinion might defeat the measure entirely, and this was the more to be dreaded as all parties admitted that immediate distress to the Shipowner must follow the first passing of the Bill. However, the throwing open the trade of the St. Lawrence was made the ostensible ground of resisting delay, and upon a division only 40 Contents appeared for Lord Ellenborough’s amendment; Non-contents, 56; Majority, 12.
Earl Waldegrave next moved a very long amendment,[128] the general effect of which was to prevent foreign ships from receiving British registration. On a division there were, Contents, 37; Non-contents, 49: Majority, 12.
After this division Lord Stanley relinquished all further opposition to the Bill in committee. He withdrew an amendment which had for its object to meet the complaint of Canada, that there were greater facilities for the transmission of their produce by the way of New York than by the St. Lawrence, because, at New York, the Canadians had the choice of an American or a British ship, while, from Montreal or Quebec, they could only send their produce in a British ship. Lord Stanley proposed to effect the object, not by enabling ships of all countries to enter the St. Lawrence, but by enabling British or American shipping to convey from either outlet the produce of Canada or of the United States. His Lordship seemed to feel himself that this was, if not an impracticable, at least a very imperfect scheme, as it did not legislate for other colonies, and so he relinquished it together with his general opposition. Lord Wharncliffe, finding Lord Stanley did not support him, withdrew his amendment also, leaving conditional legislation to the discretion of the Crown; that is, leaving the Queen’s Government to judge of the expediency of asking for restrictions in particular cases. The remaining clauses were agreed to.
Bill read a third time.
All effectual opposition to the Bill was now hopeless. But, on the third reading, Lord Ellenborough took the opportunity of observing that he could not refrain from touching upon the measures which it would be absolutely necessary to adopt for the security of British shipping under the new system. It was only fair that the Shipowner, among various other burdens which he named, should be relieved from all duties on timber. Government should promptly introduce measures for the examination of masters and mates before their appointments, and for their trial upon the loss of ships; also for the establishment of a fund for the support of worn-out seamen, similar in principle though not in extent to that existing for the seamen of the Royal Navy at Greenwich Hospital; also a measure for the registry of ships, the present system being altogether erroneous and deceptive.
Timber duties, &c., admitted to be grievances.
Earl Granville agreed with Lord Ellenborough as to the reduction of the timber duty; and, as to the new registration, he was not prepared to say that he saw any great objection to it. With regard to the Merchant Seaman’s Fund, the attempt to restore it made last year, he must remind their Lordships, was opposed and defeated by the Shipowners themselves; the subject was, nevertheless, deserving of the best consideration. It was intended, he added, to bring in a Bill to improve the discipline of the mercantile navy.
Lord Winchelsea, a staunch Conservative, complained that the measure had been carried by the votes of the bishops; and warned them of the danger of carrying secular matters injurious to the best interests of the country by their votes, as in that case England would wish to see Convocation restored, and the bishops represented by a few of their body. Lord Stanley and Lord Brougham satisfied themselves with saying, “Non-content,” and inveighing against the Bill to the last. The Marquess of Lansdowne replied; and the opposition Peers now withdrew in a body, and the Bill was read a third time.
On the question “that the Bill do now pass,” the Bishop of Oxford proposed to add a clause by way of rider declaring that “the said privileges” should not extend to the ships of Spain or Brazil, or to the ships of any foreign country, until the Queen should declare by Order in Council that such governments had given full satisfaction as to the fulfilment of the treaties respecting the suppression of the slave-trade. The motion was resisted by Lord Howden in a very argumentative speech, and rejected upon a division by—Non-contents, 23; Contents, 9.
Lord Stanley’s protest.
The various reasons urged against the Bill for the repeal of the Navigation Laws were briefly summed up by Lord Stanley in a protest which he entered on the Journals of the House against the third reading.[129] In this protest the great advantages we surrendered, without any equivalent, were fully recited; and a dissent expressed, because the Royal Navy was mainly dependent for its efficiency upon the commercial marine, and the classes of the community connected therewith. This Bill, he urged, by discouraging the employment of British shipbuilders, ships, and seamen, tended directly to the reduction of the commercial marine, and, thereby, to the diminution of that naval strength which was the main foundation of the greatness of this country, and the surest defence of its independence.
Royal assent given June 26.
But all remonstrances, denunciations, petitions, and protests were disregarded. The Bill passed the House of Lords on the 12th June; and, although a petition from the Shipowners[130] was presented to the Queen by Sir George Grey praying her Majesty to withhold her approval of the Bill, the Royal assent was given on the 26th of that month, and thus the Navigation Laws of Great Britain, which had endured practically unchallenged during two centuries, were almost utterly abrogated.
Coasting trade thrown open, 1854.
It may be convenient here to dispose of the question of the Coasting clauses, which it will be remembered were withdrawn from the Bill of 1849. Notwithstanding the opposition brought to bear against this portion of the measure, and the continued reluctance of foreign Powers to reciprocate, the Coasting trade of the kingdom was, in 1854, unconditionally thrown open to vessels of all nations without any opposition from our Shipowners, indeed, some of them then expressed deep regret that this trade had not been opened to foreign shipping in 1849.
Americans, Oct. 1849, throw open all but their coasting trade.
The actual repeal of the Navigation Laws having, in the summer of 1849, become an accomplished fact, the consternation among all classes connected with British shipping was almost universal, mingled with feelings of curiosity and doubt as to the course which the Americans would now adopt. These doubts were, however, soon removed by a prompt notification of the Government of the United States,[131] issued on the 15th October, 1849, honestly and boldly putting the law of 1828 in motion, but retaining the coasting trade of that country in all its integrity; and, to this day they decline, on alleged constitutional grounds, to consider the voyage from New York to California as in any respect different from the voyage between New York and Baltimore, or as in any way resembling the trade between London and the Cape of Good Hope or Australia, though, in both cases alike, the voyage can only be made by passing the coasts of foreign nations!