Though England had been startled by the proceedings on the Continent, and had made preparations for any emergency, she happily kept clear of “entanglement,” so that Parliament had time to direct its attention to other less exciting, but to her more important subjects. Under these circumstances, I consequently, on the 31st January, 1860, renewed my motion,[200] for an inquiry into the state of our merchant shipping, and the operations of the burdens and restrictions especially affecting that interest. After a long and interesting discussion, the House was pleased to adopt my motion, extending the inquiry into various Acts of Parliament then in force;[201] and, on the 16th February of that year, the Committee was appointed:[202] the whole of that session was devoted to the inquiry, and to the complaints and suggestions of the Shipowners and other persons interested, who were heard in detail: no less than 6813 questions were asked, and as many answers given in reply, and voluminous appendices swelled the Report.
Report of the Committee thereon.
No Committee ever commenced its duty with a more fixed determination to grant impartial justice and remedy any existing evils. I shall not venture to offer an opinion on the Report, as it was drawn up by myself, at the request of my colleagues. But I ought to state that the Committee examined most carefully and anxiously, in all its bearings, the great question with which it had to deal, and enabled me to prepare a report which was strictly just and thoroughly exhaustive, and which I hope has rendered unnecessary any further appeals, at least, on similar grounds, for relief to the Legislature. In prosecution of their inquiries the Committee examined numerous persons residing in London and the outports connected with the shipping interests, many of whom were extensively engaged in the home, colonial, and foreign trades. They also examined several officers in various departments of her Majesty’s Government, and others representing two of the corporations, which exercise trading powers affecting shipping, so as to more fully elucidate the subjects with which they were respectively acquainted. They then reviewed in detail the various measures which had been introduced during the previous quarter of a century affecting maritime commerce, directing attention to that part of the evidence which stated that the reason, why the Coasting trade was not thrown open until 1854, was the assertion on the part of the officers of Customs that there would be a difficulty in enforcing effectual regulations to guard the revenue.
Views with reference to foreign countries.
The Netherlands.
Referring to existing treaties, the Committee remarked that, though the Government of the Netherlands placed the ships of England, ostensibly, on the same footing as Dutch vessels, English vessels, however, in consequence of the regulations of the Dutch East India Company, were practically prevented from trading with the valuable settlements of the Dutch in the Eastern seas.
The United States.
When directing attention to the different nations who still withheld from British ships the advantages of their coasting trade, they could not fail to notice the often repeated fact, that the United States of North America not only shut out British vessels from the carrying of goods in the vast coasting trade of their Atlantic and Pacific sea-boards, but that British vessels running between New York and Aspinwall, and between Panama and San Francisco, were denied the ordinary privileges enjoyed by the American national flag; and that, thus, the indirect carrying trade between the eastern and western coast of the United States was, practically, confined to American shipping, as well as the coasting trade proper.
With regard to British colonial possessions the Committee stated that, while the coasting trade had been thrown open to foreign vessels in the British East Indies, Ceylon, the Cape of Good Hope, and Victoria, the coasting trade of our North American colonies was still confined to British vessels; foreign ships being, however, permitted to carry on the inter-colonial trade with our various possessions.
Generally unsatisfactory