Mr. Disraeli assumed the privilege of the last word, and, in reply, quoted the last report of the Shipowners’ Society, which has been already given, intimating their readiness to discuss the policy of amending the Navigation Laws on all points not involving fundamental principles. He next took a rapid review of the effects of repeal on the Australian and other colonies, arguing that, if Canada had not a Protective duty on corn restored to it, as demanded by the Legislative Assembly, Canada would be lost to the British Crown. “Woe to those statesmen and to the policy which plucked this jewel from the Crown of England! No shuffling change in the Navigation Law could compensate the people of Canada for what they had lost, and which they felt so acutely.” Mr. Disraeli then referred to the papers from foreign Powers, arguing that they were valueless, and, especially, that everything respecting the United States was a tabula rasa, all that we had heard last year having been obliterated as an element of consideration. The last division on this famous Bill now took place upon the third reading, when the Ayes were 275; Noes, 214; Majority, 61.
FOOTNOTES:
[109] This may appear unintelligible: while actually masters they could not, it is true, be taken; but Mr. Henley said they might be, while changing from one ship to another, and that he knew of instances in which mates had been impressed, placed on board a man-of-war, and kept there for seven years.
[110] While the second reading was under discussion, ministers did not present the papers from the United States, in which the coasting trade was reserved. They discreetly kept the secret up to the last moment before the division. Had the Bill thrown open the whole coasting trade, we now know the Americans would have declined to reciprocate.
[111] This is quite true, but the reader has had this fully accounted for by the antagonistic interests of the non-navigating and navigating States. The opposite feeling was disclosed in the very first debates of the Republic.
[112] The entries and clearances of foreign vessels in the coasting trade of the United Kingdom are quite insignificant.
[113] In the ‘Shipping Gazette,’ March 17, 1849, there is a list of the 51 members of seaport towns in the United Kingdom who voted in favour of the Bill. Mr. Hudson, Sunderland; Mr. Barnard, Greenwich; Lord J. Stuart, Ayr; and Lord J. Chichester, Belfast, were absent.
[114] The Amendment would occupy two pages; it will be found in ‘Hansard,’ vol. ciii. p. 1206.
[115] Vide Letter of Mr. Crampton, 18th February, already referred to.
[116] At the head of the London petition were the names of Thomas Baring; Charles Baring Young; Fred. Huth and Co.; Ransom, Norton, and Co.; Palmer, McKillop, and Co.; H. Davidson; Masterman, Peters, and Co.; Spooner, Atwood, and Co.; Fletcher, Alexander, and Co.; Bosanquet and Co., &c.