Excites great indignation when known in England, January 1848.
When the correspondence transpired in January 1848, it created great astonishment, if not alarm and indignation, throughout the country, especially among shipowners and all persons who considered that their best interests were interwoven with the maintenance of the Navigation Laws. The Conservative press loudly reproached Lord Palmerston for having made known the intentions of Government with regard to this important measure to the American Minister before communicating them to Parliament; nor could the Liberals approve of the course that had been adopted.
Parliament re-assembles on February 3, 1848.
Lord Palmerston admits the correspondence with. America.
On the evening of the 3rd February, 1848, the day of the re-assembling of Parliament, there was considerable excitement in the House of Commons, and, amidst it, Mr. Robinson asked the Foreign Minister whether any correspondence or communication had taken place between him and the Minister of the United States about the Navigation Laws; and, if so, whether he would lay it upon the table? Lord Palmerston, with the ready tact for which he was distinguished, and with the smiling coolness so characteristic of him, especially in times of excitement, at once and frankly avowed that there had been such a correspondence; looking, with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his lip, at Mr. Robinson, as if to inquire in turn, and “if there has been, what is there to make such a fuss about?” adding that the correspondence would, at once, be laid on the table.
This announcement, perhaps more from the manner in which it was made than from the fact accompanying it, that Ministers intended immediately to submit to Parliament a proposition on the subject, quieted the House, but, at the same time, awakened the shipowners out of doors to what they considered their dangerous situation. They felt conscious that, in the House of Commons, a Free-trade majority would sanction any measure the Government might have the courage to propose. On the other hand, in the House of Lords, where popular passions prevailed less, they hoped to find a less prejudiced tribunal; hence, they prudently resolved to change the “venue,” and to appeal to the Upper House for the perpetuation of Protection. With this view they selected Lord Hardwicke as their mouthpiece and champion; and, in order to complete the inquiry commenced by the Lower House in the preceding session, resolved to move the appointment of a Committee of the Lords to inquire into the policy and operation of the Navigation Laws; the shipowners being sanguine that there, at least, they would be able to make out a satisfactory case, and counteract the one-sided evidence they conceived had been given by the repeal party before the Committee of the Commons.
The Earl of Hardwicke’s proposal, February 25, 1848.
Accordingly Lord Hardwicke on the 25th February, pursuant to notice, moved the appointment of a Select Committee of the Lords.[85] Recapitulating in his speech the events of the preceding year, and, dwelling in terms of indignation on the dissimulation which, he said, had been practised, he charged Ministers with having deceived the country; and stigmatised the whole evidence before the Committee of the Commons as one-sided and unfair. He complained that a distinguished officer of the Royal Navy, Sir James Stirling, had given his evidence in favour of the abolition of the Navigation Laws; but that, before he could be cross-examined, the Committee were informed, that the duty of the gallant officer required his absence, and that he had sailed from England. His Lordship then entered into numerous details, pronouncing Mr. Porter’s evidence to be false; he, and the statistical officers of the Board of Trade, “being learned in that description of theory which was so popular now-a-days;” whereby forty-seven vessels of 7101 tons, which had, in 1846, entered inwards from French ports, were converted, by multiplying the number of entries inwards, into 228,186 tons, and by treating the clearances outwards in a similar manner magnified to such an extent that they represented 556,824 tons; while the Prince Ernest, a passenger and mail boat, employed between Calais and Dover, of 145 tons, figured in the Custom House returns as 24,215 tons of British shipping![86]
Earl Grey grants a Committee.
Earl Grey, in granting the committee, took care to express an opinion, that no further inquiry was necessary. He defended the course taken by his colleague, Lord Palmerston, contending that no understanding had been come to with the Government of the United States with regard to the repeal of the Navigation Laws, and that the correspondence implied nothing more, than that a mutual relaxation of existing restrictions would be beneficial to the maritime commerce of both countries: he concluded by defending Mr. Porter’s returns, and added, that “their Lordships would find that, on strict examination, the allegations of falseness would vanish altogether.”