PREFACE.
On publishing the first two volumes of this work, it was not my intention that the following volumes should be preceded by any preface. I have, however, been induced to reconsider this resolution, in order to acknowledge the ready assistance I have received from men of great experience, not only of this but of foreign countries. My first volume treats more especially of the antiquities of the mercantile marine, and closes with the sixteenth century. In the second, I trace the progress of maritime commerce down to about the close of the great French War (1815), when a new era dawned and a new state of things was inaugurated. Details, relating in an especial manner to this period, form the subject of my last two volumes—in one I treat of the Navigation Laws of Cromwell and of the causes which led to their abolition, together with the effects of their abolition; while the other is devoted, entirely, to the rise and progress of steam-ships and to the different branches of commerce in which they are engaged.
In order to render this portion of my labours valuable for the purpose of reference, I have sought the aid of those best able to afford me trustworthy information, and to supply me with documents and tables of unquestionable authenticity.
To none am I more deeply indebted in this respect than to Mr. Farrer and others, of the Board of Trade, whose kindly promptitude I again acknowledge. For that part relating to France I have profited by the valuable aid of Mr. Michael Chevalier, who has not grudged the pains of carefully and critically revising the proofs of that portion of the work, and making many interesting additions to it.
Nor must I omit to record the readiness exhibited by Mr. R. B. Forbes, of Boston, United States, by Commodore Prebble, Commandant of the Philadelphia Dockyard, and by the Presidents of the New York and other American Chambers of Commerce, and to the United States authorities generally, in supplying me with official data with reference to the development of the maritime commerce of the United States.
To my own countrymen, whether Shipowners, Merchants, Shipbuilders, or Underwriters, my thanks are heartily due, and to the Directors and Managers of those large Shipping Companies which arose in the middle of the present century, both at home and abroad. And, in an especial manner I have to thank Mr. John Burns, of Glasgow (Cunard Company), Mr. Alfred Holt, of Liverpool, and Mr. B. Waymouth, the Secretary to ‘Lloyd’s Register.’
To enumerate all those who have so courteously and generously striven to forward the views of an historian whose only object has been to chronicle facts and events, would be to give an undue extension to these prefatory remarks. I have, therefore, contented myself with acknowledging the sources of my information in foot-notes throughout my work; and I trust they will accept my thanks in the sense in which they are tendered.
In conclusion, I must refer to the kind attention paid to my request by Earl Russell, in revising that portion of my work which refers to the repeal of the Navigation Laws when he was First Minister of the Crown; and to other eminent Statesmen (two of whom have gone through the whole of the sheets of both volumes, making many valuable suggestions) for the approval expressed by them of the manner in which I have compressed the debates on these Laws which have now passed into the domain of history.
W. S. LINDSAY.
Shepperton Manor,
18th January, 1876.