“I have lost no time in communicating to my colleagues your note of the 3rd inst. on the subject of the Navigation Laws which regulate the commerce of the British Empire and that of the United States with each other.
“This question has already engaged the serious attention of her Majesty’s Ministers, and we observe with pleasure that the sentiments we entertain with regard to it are shared by the Government of a country, with which we are so closely united by the ties of an extensive commerce and of a common origin.
“We do not, however, think that we should be justified in advising the Crown to enter into an engagement which would be at variance with some of the most important principles of the existing Navigation Law without the previous sanction of Parliament; but it is our intention to propose to Parliament, without unnecessary delay, measures which would enable us to place our commercial intercourse in regard to the matters to which your note refers on the most liberal and comprehensive basis with respect to all countries which shall be willing to act in a corresponding spirit towards us.
(Signed) “Palmerston.”[82]
practically giving prior information to the Americans.
Lord Clarendon tells Shipowners’ Society that the laws will not be altered, December 26, 1846, and repeats this assurance, March 15, 1847.
It thus appears that the English Ministers communicated their intentions formally and explicitly to the American Government, and, through that Government to the American people, a day before they chose to inform the English Parliament and the nation, somewhat vaguely, in the Queen’s Speech, of the course they might, eventually, be led to pursue. A year previously, on the 21st of December, 1846, the Shipowners’ Society of London had had an interview with Lord Clarendon at the Board of Trade. On that occasion, as appears from the Minutes of the Society, they were graciously received, and assured in distinct language, that no intention was entertained on the part of her Majesty’s Government of making any alteration in these laws. Three months later, on the 15th March, 1847, these gentlemen, entertaining a feeling of mistrust in the then governing powers, went again to the Board of Trade and asked the same question, and were once more assured that there was no intention on the part of Government to interfere with the fundamental principles of the Navigation Laws; that an individual member, Mr. Ricardo, had indeed mooted the subject of a committee, which Government could not refuse, but that the committee should be a fair one, with Mr. Milner Gibson[83] as chairman, as they were desirous to give satisfaction to all parties interested. So far no intention was expressed of tampering with these laws; and we have seen that Mr. Robinson, on scrutinising the terms of the Queen’s Speech in November, acquiesced in its propriety, no suspicion having entered his mind, that, already, these laws were foredoomed by Ministers, still less that, the very day before Parliament met, they had communicated their intentions to a foreign maritime Power—a nation, too, which, at that moment, was straining every nerve to wrest from us the supremacy of the ocean. Under such circumstances as these, the following article, first published in the ‘Washington Union,’[84] created intense astonishment. Nor is it surprising that it should have done so:—
Interview between Lord Palmerston and Mr. Bancroft published in ‘Washington Union.’
“Repeal of the Navigation Laws.—A correspondence has taken place between the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs and our Minister at that Court relative to the repeal of the Navigation Laws of Great Britain. Mr. Bancroft applied to Viscount Palmerston early in November to learn whether Ministers would consent to establish with the United States a perfect system of reciprocity, in making all vessels of either country, fitting out from any port of the world, free to trade to any port of the other nation, whether home or colonial. Viscount Palmerston, after the lapse of some weeks (it was just fourteen days), replied that, although her Majesty’s Ministers did not feel at liberty to advise her Majesty at once to make such a change in the commercial system as was asked by Mr. Bancroft without the consent of Parliament, yet as soon as that body should meet, a measure would be introduced which would embrace all the views put forth by Mr. Bancroft in his note. It is not doubted that Parliament will at once act favourably on the Bill. The importance to the United States of such a measure can scarcely be exaggerated. The British colonial system has been a most grievous restriction on our commerce, and its annihilation, as promised by Lord Palmerston, will open to our enterprising merchants the lucrative trade of the East and West Indies, and of the other British settlements from which they have been hitherto debarred. This will be the greatest stride yet taken by Free-trade: and it is not to be doubted that all Europe will follow the example of Great Britain! The liberal commercial treaty made by Hanover with the United States has been in no small degree instrumental in disposing the British Government to this wise measure. The Rhine provinces have recently imitated the example of Hanover towards the United States; and everywhere silently but steadily our commercial relations are being put upon the most advantageous footing. The repeal by Great Britain of the laws restricting the trade of the United States with her colonies will be far more beneficial to this country than any commercial treaty ever made by our Government.”
Such was the announcement put forth in the American journals semi-officially, and the reader will judge how far this “puff direct” of the American executive was borne out by facts, or the dates and tenor of the correspondence given between the American Minister in England and the English Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. The spirit of the most perfect liberality, and, I must add, complete reciprocity, seemed to pervade all Mr. Bancroft’s professions when communicating with Lord Palmerston and Mr. Labouchere, promising “little, much, and all,” according as the same could be obtained from Parliament. In his special despatch, he described the concessions his Government was prepared to grant, as universal reciprocity in its widest sense, which, if it meant anything at all, meant the opening to our ships of their extensive coasting trade in return for the opening of our still more extensive colonial trade to the ships of the United States; or, if such was not his meaning, it meant that, when we opened our coasting trade, they would do so likewise. But the latter portion of his despatch, and the semi-official announcement in the ‘Washington Union,’ contain, in other respects, many vague generalities and, as subsequently appeared, the Government of the United States never had any intention of opening its coasting trade to the ships of Great Britain.