Timber duties, &c., admitted to be grievances.
Earl Granville agreed with Lord Ellenborough as to the reduction of the timber duty; and, as to the new registration, he was not prepared to say that he saw any great objection to it. With regard to the Merchant Seaman’s Fund, the attempt to restore it made last year, he must remind their Lordships, was opposed and defeated by the Shipowners themselves; the subject was, nevertheless, deserving of the best consideration. It was intended, he added, to bring in a Bill to improve the discipline of the mercantile navy.
Lord Winchelsea, a staunch Conservative, complained that the measure had been carried by the votes of the bishops; and warned them of the danger of carrying secular matters injurious to the best interests of the country by their votes, as in that case England would wish to see Convocation restored, and the bishops represented by a few of their body. Lord Stanley and Lord Brougham satisfied themselves with saying, “Non-content,” and inveighing against the Bill to the last. The Marquess of Lansdowne replied; and the opposition Peers now withdrew in a body, and the Bill was read a third time.
On the question “that the Bill do now pass,” the Bishop of Oxford proposed to add a clause by way of rider declaring that “the said privileges” should not extend to the ships of Spain or Brazil, or to the ships of any foreign country, until the Queen should declare by Order in Council that such governments had given full satisfaction as to the fulfilment of the treaties respecting the suppression of the slave-trade. The motion was resisted by Lord Howden in a very argumentative speech, and rejected upon a division by—Non-contents, 23; Contents, 9.
Lord Stanley’s protest.
The various reasons urged against the Bill for the repeal of the Navigation Laws were briefly summed up by Lord Stanley in a protest which he entered on the Journals of the House against the third reading.[129] In this protest the great advantages we surrendered, without any equivalent, were fully recited; and a dissent expressed, because the Royal Navy was mainly dependent for its efficiency upon the commercial marine, and the classes of the community connected therewith. This Bill, he urged, by discouraging the employment of British shipbuilders, ships, and seamen, tended directly to the reduction of the commercial marine, and, thereby, to the diminution of that naval strength which was the main foundation of the greatness of this country, and the surest defence of its independence.
Royal assent given June 26.
But all remonstrances, denunciations, petitions, and protests were disregarded. The Bill passed the House of Lords on the 12th June; and, although a petition from the Shipowners[130] was presented to the Queen by Sir George Grey praying her Majesty to withhold her approval of the Bill, the Royal assent was given on the 26th of that month, and thus the Navigation Laws of Great Britain, which had endured practically unchallenged during two centuries, were almost utterly abrogated.
Coasting trade thrown open, 1854.
It may be convenient here to dispose of the question of the Coasting clauses, which it will be remembered were withdrawn from the Bill of 1849. Notwithstanding the opposition brought to bear against this portion of the measure, and the continued reluctance of foreign Powers to reciprocate, the Coasting trade of the kingdom was, in 1854, unconditionally thrown open to vessels of all nations without any opposition from our Shipowners, indeed, some of them then expressed deep regret that this trade had not been opened to foreign shipping in 1849.