Act 3 & 4 Vict., Cap. 56, in Force in 1847, the Governor-General in

Council had power given him to declare all ships built within the limits of the Charter, and owned by those of Her Majesty’s subjects for whom he had power to legislate, entitled to the privileges of British ships within those limits. By the fourth section of the same Act, the Governor-General had, also, the power of conferring the same privileges on ships belonging to States in subordinate alliance, or having subsidiary treaties with the East India Company.

With regard to the navigation of East India ships, it is sufficient to notice, that, by the 20th section of 4 Geo. IV., cap. 80 (still in force in 1847), as well as by the 17th section of the Navigation Act (8 & 9 Vict., cap. 88), Lascars and other natives of Asia were not to be deemed British seamen. But by section 21 of the same Act, any number of Lascars might be employed; provided only that there were four British seamen to every hundred tons of the vessel’s burden: by section 23, however, it appears that British seamen need not be employed in certain voyages within the limits of the Charter.

On the subject of privileges granted to vessels of foreign countries in the trade with India, reference must be made to Act 37 Geo. III., cap. 117 (still unrepealed in 1847), which authorised the Directors of the East India Company, subject to the approval of the Board of Control, to make such regulations as they thought fit with respect to the trade to be carried on in ships of countries on friendly terms with England. The case, however, of America was peculiar, in this sense, that her ships were enabled to clear out from English ports to China, while English merchants could not send a British ship to that country! Thus, the Act of 59 Geo. III., cap. 54, sect. 6, allowed United States ships “to clear out from any port of the United Kingdom for the principal settlements of the British dominions in the East Indies,—videlicet, Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and Prince of Wales Island,—with any articles which could be legally exported from the United Kingdom to the said settlements in British-built ships, subject to the same regulations, &c., as applied to British-built ships.”

It was under the security of this clause that the traders of the United States sent their vessels to the port of London, to clear out, not for the special ports mentioned in the above Act, but for China, the only exclusive trade at that time retained by the East India Company. Whether the omission of the word China in the Act was an inadvertence, or whether it was, in fact, a violation of the law for United States vessels to go to Canton as well as to the other places within the limits of the Company’s Charter detailed in this Act, the authorities of the Board of Trade did not care to distinguish.

As regards the COASTING TRADE, the law—8 & 9 Vict., cap. 88, sect. 8—in force in 1847, declared that no goods nor passengers could be carried coastwise from one part of the United Kingdom to another, or from the United Kingdom to the Isle of Man, and vice versâ, except in British ships, although the original Navigation Act of 1660 did not prevent foreign-built vessels from engaging in the coasting trade. The prohibition in the ancient Act extended only to such as were foreign owned, 12 Car. II., cap. 18, sect. 8. By the Act of 1 James, cap. 18, an extra duty of 5s. per ton for every voyage was laid upon all foreign-built ships engaged in this trade. Subsequently, by 34 Geo. III., cap. 68 (extended to Irish ships by 42 Geo. III., cap. 61), it was enacted, that vessels engaged in the coasting trade should be wholly navigated by British subjects; and this provision was still in force in 1847 by virtue of the definition of a “British ship,” given in the 12th section of the Act of 8 & 9 Vict., cap. 88. The absolute restriction of the coasting trade to British-built ships was not introduced till the consolidation in 1825. The trade of the Isle of Man was put on the footing of a coasting trade in 1844.

Such is an abridged history of the law of Navigation during the intermediate period between 1660 and 1847, comprising the four great divisions of the trade and navigation of the United Kingdom.

No one can rise from a study of these laws without a feeling of amazement at the trouble our ancestors gave themselves “to beggar their neighbours,” under the erroneous impression which too long prevailed, that, by their ruin, our own prosperity could be most effectively achieved. It is, therefore, not surprising that, under such legislative measures, maritime commerce was for centuries slow in growth, and that British merchants and shipowners frequently suffered quite as much through the instrumentality of laws meant for their protection as their foreign competitors, against whom these regulations were levelled.

For the convenience of reference it may be useful to give before closing this chapter a condensed recapitulation of the principles of these extraordinary laws, as they stood in 1847, so that my readers may more clearly understand the discussions in the Lords and Commons preceding their repeal:—

1st. Certain enumerated articles of European produce could only be imported into the United Kingdom, for consumption, in British ships, or in ships of the country of which the goods were the produce, or in ships of the country from which they were usually imported.

2ndly. No produce of Asia, Africa, or America could be imported for consumption into the United Kingdom from Europe in any ships; and such produce could only be imported from any other place in British ships, or in ships of the country of which the goods were the produce and from which they were usually imported.

3rdly. No goods could be carried coastwise from one part of the United Kingdom to another in any but British ships.

4thly. No goods could be exported from the United Kingdom to any of the British possessions in Asia, Africa, or America (with some exceptions with regard to India), in any but British ships.

5thly. No goods could be carried from any one British possession in Asia, Africa, or America to another, nor from one part of such possession to another part of the same in any but British ships.

6thly. No goods could be imported into any British possession in Asia, Africa, or America, in any but British ships, or in ships of the country of which the goods were the produce, provided, also, in such case, that such ships brought the goods from that country.

7thly. No foreign ships were allowed to trade with any of the British possessions unless they had been specially authorised to do so by Order in Council; and

8thly. Powers were given to the Queen in Council which enabled her to impose differential duties on the ships of any foreign country which did the same with reference to British ships; and also to place restrictions on importations from any foreign countries which placed restrictions on British importations into such countries.

It will be remarked, that in the regulations respecting the trade of Europe the restrictions only applied to imports. Exports were not affected; in fact, so far as the Navigation Act was concerned, foreign ships might export any goods from this country. British manufacturers had naturally required that no impediment should be placed upon the exportation of British goods. This was perhaps the only sensible clause in the whole paraphernalia of these laws.

FOOTNOTES:

I daresay at that time Lord Russell had not studied the question sufficiently. I arrive at this conclusion from a note I received from his Lordship in the present year (1875), in which he says, referring to the repeal of the Navigation Laws:—“I felt convinced by the reasoning of all writers, of whom the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Stafford Northcote, was one of the most able, that the Navigation Laws ought to be repealed. I was not frightened by Lord Derby’s sinister predictions, and events have proved me right.” Sir Stafford Northcote at the time was, I think, private secretary to Mr. Labouchere, the President of the Board of Trade under Lord John Russell’s Administration, and it is curious to learn that his Lordship, then the Prime Minister and leader of the great Whig party, should have been made a convert to the necessity of further progress by the young Conservative. Of course these writings could not have been read by Lord Russell at the time when he made the “declaration” to which I refer in the text.

It seems worth while to give here in a note the dates of the several steps taken in the repeal of the Navigation Laws, with the references to Hansard, where the several speeches can be consulted:—

1. Committee moved for by Mr. Ricardo, February 9, 1847. (Hansard, lxxxix. p. 1007.) Carried by 155 to 94. Committee appointed February 16. 2. Lord John Russell proposes to suspend Navigation Laws with reference to the importation of corn, June 14. (Ibid., xciii. p. 472.) 3. Discussion on Navigation Bill, July 2. (Ibid., p. 1138.) 4. Motion of the Earl of Hardwicke for a Committee, February 25, 1848. (Ibid., xcvi. p. 1313.) 5. Committee of whole House on Navigation Bill, May 15, 1848. (Ibid., xcviii. p. 988.) 6. Motion of Mr. Herries in reply to Mr. Labouchere, May 29, 1848. (Ibid., xcix. p. 9.) 7. After five nights’ debate Mr. Labouchere’s motion is carried by 299 to 177, June 9, 1848. (Ibid., p. 664.) 8. Mr. Labouchere moves resolution for Navigation Bill, February 14, 1849 (Ibid., cii. p. 682), which is agreed to (Ibid., p. 741). The Bill is read a first time, February 16. (Ibid., p. 759.) 9. Second reading, March 9, 1849 (Ibid., cii. p. 464), which is carried, March 12, by 266 to 210. (Ibid., p. 625.) 10. Third reading, April 23 (Ibid., civ. p. 622), and Bill carried by 275 to 214 (Ibid., p. 702). 11. Bill introduced into the House of Lords, May 7. (Ibid., p. 1316.) Carried May 9, by 173 to 163. (Ibid., cv. p. 83.)

Hansard, February 9, 1847, p. 1007.

The preceding eighteen months had seen the height of the railway mania.

The Spaniard, he said, would take in a cargo of sugar at Cuba which he would deliver at a French port, and take in wine for us; but we had so arranged that when he arrived at our ports he would be met by a custom-house officer, who would tell him that he could not be permitted to land his cargo. “Why?” the Spaniard would inquire. “I understood you wanted wine.” “So we do,” the officer would reply. Then the Spaniard would say, “I will exchange my wine for your earthenware.” “That will not do,” replies the officer. “It must be brought by Frenchmen on a French ship.” “But the French do not want your earthenware”. “We cannot help that; we must not let you violate our Navigation Laws”.

They did very much; for Mr. Garratt, the partner of Alderman Copeland, said at the time to a friend of mine, that he would ruin every earthenware potter in France if they would allow British earthenware to be admitted free of duty.

The Spaniard was no doubt under a misapprehension. The French wines could not have been brought into our ports in a Spanish ship; wine being an enumerated article which was excluded, “except in British ships, or ships of the country of which the goods are the produce.” (8 & 9 Vict., cap. 88, s. 2.)

We give the words of Adam Smith, p. 203 et seq. of his ‘Wealth of Nations,’ by McCulloch. Ed. 1850. “There seem to be two cases in which it will be advantageous to lay some burden upon foreign for the encouragement of domestic industry. The first is, when some particular sort of industry is necessary for the defence of the country. The defence of Great Britain, for example, depends very much upon the number of its sailors and shipping. The Act of Navigation, therefore, very properly endeavours to give the sailors and shipping of Great Britain the monopoly of the trade of their own country, in some cases by absolute prohibition, and in others by heavy burdens upon the shipping of foreign countries.” Adam Smith, at great length, expounds the principle of the Navigation Laws, admitting at the same time that they are not favourable to the growth of the opulence arising from foreign commerce. “As defence, however,” he adds, “is of much more importance than opulence, the Act of Navigation is perhaps the wisest of all the commercial regulations of England.”

In another passage, Adam Smith says: “To expect, indeed, that freedom of trade should ever be entirely restored in Great Britain, is as absurd as to expect that an Oceana or Utopia should ever be established in it.” P. 207. Same Edition.

The first return of vessels engaged in the colonial trade refers to a year when protection (with the exception of the few Reciprocity Treaties then in force) was at its height; and the second to a year when it had been greatly relaxed. It ran thus:—

Inward Outward Tons. Tons. 1826 Protected 939,321 839,558 Unprotected 1,011,309 897,867 --------- --------- Total 1,950,630 1,737,425 --------- ---------

1844 Protected 1,460,882 1,551,251 Unprotected 2,186,581 2,301,571 --------- --------- Total 3,647,463 3,852,822 --------- ---------

In 1826 the total amount inwards and outwards, } 1,778,879 protected, was } In 1844 Ditto ditto 3,012,133

Showing an increase of 1,233,254 tons, or 69·32 per cent.

In 1826 the total amount inwards and outwards, } 1,909,176 unprotected, was } In 1844 Ditto ditto 4,448,152

Showing an increase of 2,578,976 tons, or 135·07 per cent.

The speech in question (an admirable one) was delivered 12th May, 1826. Vide Hansard, ‘Navigation Laws,’ vol. xv. p. 1144.

The Committee consisted of Mr. Ricardo, Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Alderman Thompson, Mr. Villiers, Sir Howard Douglas, Admiral Dundas, Mr. Lyall, Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Thomas Baring, Mr. Hume, Mr. Liddell, Sir George Clerk, and Mr. Milner Gibson.

This section was originally specially aimed at the Dutch, who had few native productions of their own.

Tangier, opposite Gibraltar, was at that time an important British possession.

Our space only admits of an abridgment, but the reader will find all details about the Navigation Law in a paper by Mr. J. S. (now Sir John Shaw) Lefevre, published in the Appendix to the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons appointed in 1847.

Those of my readers who are curious to study the laws whereby we hoped to bring the “rebellious colonies to order,”—vain hope!—or who may desire to know how the parent treated its own offspring when the children felt themselves strong enough to do for themselves, may read, as I have done, though perhaps not to much advantage, 14 Geo. III., cap. 19; 15 Geo. III., cap. 18; and 16 Geo. III., cap. 5: all passed in rapid succession under the melancholy delusion that they would have the effect of a Pope’s Bull!—and that, too, on an enlightened but oppressed people, who had resolved to govern themselves! My readers may then turn to 23 Geo. III., cap. 26, and 23 Geo. III., cap. 39, where an attempt was made to mend matters by some sort of regulation of trade between the two countries, whereby Great Britain resolved to have the lion’s share; and then to 25 Geo. III., cap. 1; 27 Geo. III., cap. 7; and 28 Geo. III., cap. 6, where certain modifications were made, or rather could be made by “Order in Council,” and where “thirty enumerated articles” the “growth, produce, or manufactures of the States,” might be “carried into the British West Indies from the United States,” but then “only by British subjects in British ships”! If my readers are disposed to go further—though I cannot recommend the research—into this wretched system of legislation, they may refer to 31 Geo. III. cap. 38, where the Governors of the West India Islands were allowed to relax certain prohibitions “in case of public emergency;” and to 51 Geo. III., cap. 47, sect. 6, and 58 Geo. III., cap. 27, where we seem to have gained a little more wisdom by extending certain “privileges”!—rights (?)—to an independent and industrious people.

The grounds of these important modifications of our Navigation System were stated in Mr. Huskisson’s Speech, 12th May, 1826.

The Americans acted on the section of the Act, which says, “any articles which may be legally exported from the United Kingdom to the said settlements.” Thus Canton was deemed a foreign place with regard to the American Trade; but, in that it was included within the limits of the East India Company’s Charter, American vessels could trade there though English vessels could not!

Mr. Lefevre, of the Board of Trade, said he did not know the reason of this; but as a matter of fact, Venice, Spain, France, and the Hanseatic League had Navigation Laws before we had, and would not have our goods except in their own ships. So necessity, not wisdom, compelled us to make this allowance.