The second is restricted to English vessels, or vessels of the country producing the article-the master and three-quarters of the crew of that country or to vessels of the place where the article is first shipped. By 6 George I., ch. 15. Timber from Germany confined to English vessels. Certain enumerated articles admitted from Europe. The trade with Asia, Africa, and America, restricted to British colonial vessels of hers, by 12 Charles II., ch. 18. 3. Exceptions in favor of the Portugeese, 48 George III., ch. 11. ucts direct from Brazil, in Portuguese vessels, owned by subjects of that Government, resident in said country.

H. OF R.

'the increase of shipping, the extension of our foreign trade, or the strength of our navy-they have all advanced to a degree of consideration 'unexampled, and they owe that advancement to this system."-(Reve's Law of Shipping, cited in Chitty's Law of Nations.)

These are some of the features of the celebrated Navigation Act of Great Britain, and of some of the laws relating to the same subject. Let it not be said that she will not relax in her colonial Prod-system when we see she has relaxed, even in relation to this country, when it was for her interest. But what reason has she to relax her restrictions if you do not retaliate them? Relax Exception to the United States, 37 George III., them, did I say! Nay, she will add to themch. 97. American products in American and favor the trade of her own subjects at the expense British ships-the master and three-quarters of of your trade, unless you countervail her acts. the mariners of the country. "Any goods, wares, The very trade between our country and her or merchandise, the growth, production, or man- colonies, which she allows in her own bottoms, is ufacture, of the United States, not prohibited by a relaxation of the old colonial law, which relaw," section 37, this act to continue in force so stricted that trade to the mother country. And long as the treaty between His Majesty and the what has been the consequence of this direct United States shall. The treaty ceased, but this trade in British ships between her colonies and statute was continued, by sundry acts, to 1808; this country? That some of these colonies have then continued another year; and the 49 George prevented, by high duties, the introduction from III., ch. 59, re-enacted the same, without any lim- neighboring islands, to which our vessels can go, itation. (Imparlance of these legislative acts not (except from Bermuda,) of all commodities from repealed by law.) This act then is permanently this country, because they can receive them cheapin force, except when affected for a time by our er direct from this country, and can send their non-intercourse, embargo, or the British retalia- produce, such I mean as they permit to be sent, tions thereof. Some exceptions from the general chiefly rum, sugar, and molasses, directly to us. law, as to unmanufactured tobacco, indigo, and And, sir, it is principally by this colonial trade of cochineal. Exceptions and permanent absence Great Britain, the decided advantage which that of all restrictions as to masts, timber or boards, affords, which enables her almost to engross the pitch, tar, rosin, hemp or flax, by 47 George III., direct trade between this and Great Britain-the ch. 27, 2. May be exported in any vessel belong- advantage of double voyages: thereby enabling ing to any State in amity with His Majesty, nav- her ship-owners to underbid us in our own ports igated in any manner, (since altered ;) also bul--(I mean, to carry for less freight.) In relation lion and prize goods, by original act of 12 Charles II., ch. 18, 15; also temporary suspensions during the war. By said original act, the trade of Great Britain with her colonies (which was the third branch above named) is confined to her home and colonial shipping. Exceptions by 45 George III., ch. 57, enacts that wood, cotton, wool, &c., mill timber, horses, cattle, &c., may be imported into certain ports, viz: Kingston, Savannah, La Mar, &c., from the country of their growth, production, or manufacture, in vessels of such country; also tobacco; also permits certain exports. (since altered.) When war is declared, the King, by proclamation, shall permit merchant vessels, &c., to be sailed differently from the navigation laws.

to that part of Mr. Jefferson's report which refers to some of the British islands which might equally with ourselves be the victims of the restrictive laws of Great Britain, it is sufficient to remark that some of her colonies, (I do not refer to the islands,) have urged her on to the adoption of some of her laws injurious to our navigation. Nay, some of her colonial assemblies have themselves passed laws in relation to their trade with this country of which we have reason to complain. On the subject of trade in plaster of Paris, the assemblies of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have passed laws of the most offensive character: laying a duty almost equal to the price of the article in the Boston market, on all the plaster exported from their provinces, and The great object of these laws is to enlarge and landed to the east of Cape Cod-the duty, I think, strengthen the maritime power of Great Britain; is twenty shillings sterling the ton; and this act, and, as one of her political writers remarks, they contrary to all expectation, has received the impose burdens on foreign to encourage domestic sanction of the Prince Regent. Thus, to enable industry; that the act of navigation is, perhaps, the British vessel to carry the article to the place the wisest of all the commercial regulations of of consumption, a distinction is made in our England. "If the wisdom of any scheme of pol- ports, and a preference given to some of our ports 'icy is to be measured by its effects and conse-over others. Can Congress for a moment suffer quences, our navigation system is entitled to the 'praise of having attained the end for which it was designed. Whether we regard the primary or inferior objects in this system-whether it is

a preference of this kind? Suffer a foreign Power to do that which the Constitution will not permit you to do? Where will these encroachments end, if not met by the most decisive

measures of retaliation? Sir, I fear this whole business is a sacrifice of principle to a little temporary interest. We hear it said, it will do no good to pass these laws; Great Britain will not relax in her restrictive laws; sir, it will do this good: it will prevent her wealthy merchants and ship-owners from rising into importance on the misfortunes and the bankruptcies of our citizens; it will prevent her already gigantic naval power from rising still higher on the ruins of our own. One word more respecting this trade in plaster of Paris. Its importance, and the motives for passing the colonial laws on the subject, may be collected from the resolutions passed "at a meeting of the merchants, ship-owners, and other inhabitants of the city of St. John's, New Brunswick, on the 19th February, 1816"-they say,

"That, by the best estimate, this trade, duly regulated, will employ 15,000 tons of additional British shipping, being more than is used in all the rest of the trade of the province."

JANUARY, 1817.

statement of the amount of tonnage for 1815, laid on our tables yesterday, there were 1,368,127 tons; but the actual amount for that year may be rated at 1,250,000 tons: allowing one seaman for every twenty tons, which is rather under than over the usual proportion, it would require 62,500 seamen to navigate this tonnage, if generally employed. The original cost of this tonnage, on an average of forty dollars the ton, is $50,000,000: the actual value, at any given period, will be found by deducting one-third of the original cost; this will give you an actual capital employed in navigation, for 1815, of thirty-three millions and a third of dollars. The whole of this tonnage requires to be replaced once in ten years, in consequence of loss and decay. There must, therefore, be annually built 125,000 tons, equal in value to $5,000,000, which give employment to more than 10,000 artists and laborers in the construction. This appears a fair estimate from the amount of tonnage actually built in this country when commerce and navigation flourished, say in 1805-6. Ships of war in England, built in the King's docks, of the materials there generally used, are now estimated to last fifteen years; those built in the merchants' yards, ten years: giving an average of twelve years and a half; our merchant vessels may, therefore, be estimated to last ten years. The trade of ship building is extremely bot-important in certain parts of our country not so highly favored as other portions of it, as to soil and climate; taken in connexion with the employment of the ships, it is essential to their prosperity; nay, their population must greatly decrease without this employment. The people of this country formed the Constitution of the United States, among other things, "to promote the general welfare;" is not this done by promoting the welfare of every part? If the people of any part suffer peculiar privations and losses by the injurious acts of foreign nations, and it is in the power of this Government to prevent them in future, is it not its duty to do it? The bill on your table will, it is presumed, remedy some of the evils inflicted on this country, by the restrictive laws of foreign nations.

"That the contraband trade between the ports of the Bay of Fundy and the United States of America, has been baneful to the prosperity of the country, not only by the introduction of illegal merchandise, but by its ruinous drain of specie from it."

"That another prominent evil arising out of this trade is, that a great portion of the numerous vessels belonging to the out-ports of the Bay of Fundy, are only nominally British, but virtually American

toms," &c.

After other observations, and after adverting to the interest which their "sister province of Nova Scotia" had in this trade, they resolved,

"That a petition to the Legislature of this province, now in session, be immediately forwarded, expressive of the substance of the foregoing resolutions, and humbly praying that effectual regulations be enacted, to the end, that no plaster of Paris may be delivered in the neighborhood of the American lines, or anywhere to the eastward of Boston, in such way as to enable the American coasting vessels to carry it from the said lines to the places of consumption."

Hence, the plaster law above mentioned; but, as Boston must be the victim when anything like a port bill is in agitation, no plaster, by the act, can be delivered east of Cape Cod, without paying the prohibitory duty.

But, to return to the subject of our navigation; consider the number and variety of persons emI will now, sir, for a moment, take a view of ployed in the construction of a ship-take a ship the navigation of this country; and of its import-of two or three hundred tons. A gang of ten or ance not only to the individuals who may own its tonnage, not to that part of the country where the principal part is constructed, but to the tion at large, in relation to the hands and materials employed in its construction, the amount and value of the tonnage, and, above all, in a national point of view, for manning our navy in case of war, with the number of seamen required to navigate it. The amount of our tonnage in 1816, as stated in the Treasury report, was over 1,400,000 tons; but this is presumed to be, by the author (a member of this House, Mr. PITKIN,) of a statistical view of our commerce, (a work distinguished for accuracy of research and correctness of remark,) greater than the actual amount, which he states at 1,250,000 tons; by the Treasury

fifteen men are first employed about a month in cutting timber; a different set of men are then na-employed, with their teams, in hauling it to the ship yard; ten or fifteen carpenters are then employed for two or three months in building the vessel; before she is launched, a different set of men, the caulkers, perform their part; after being launched, the cordage having been manufactured, the riggers fit and put over head the rigging; and the blockmakers, sailmakers, and blacksmiths, furnish their several parts; so down to the pauper who picks the oakum that is driven into her seams. She is then ready to receive on board those enterprising and gallant seamen, who, in the merchant's employ, carry the products of our country to the most distant nations, and, in our

naval service, have spread their own glory and the fame of their country through the world.

H. OF R.

measure proposed, if it produces the desired effect, will be equally beneficial to the islands and to this country.

Some inconveniences of a temporary nature may result from the adoption of the regulation proposed; and it is my sincere desire, as far as in my power, to consider the measure in its most important bearings. It will for a time depress, in our market, the price of those articles which are now carried in British ships to their islands. In the North and East, the value of our lumber will be less; but, if the merchants concerned in that trade can see, that what they may lose in the price of the article will be gained by another and equally deserving class of their fellow-citizens; that, in a national point of light, nothing will be lost, and the measure will tend to equalize the benefits of trade throughout the country, they ought and will be satisfied; in this view, it is a call upon their patriotism, which will not be disregarded. The effect upon the price of the products which we receive from their islands, in British vessels, must be small indeed. Rum, sugar, and molasses, are the principal articles which we thus receive. Their rum we can well dispense with; if there never should be another gallon imported into the country, it would be a favor to the nation. We now receive large quantities of sugar and molasses from the Havana, and some from other islands than British; we formerly received considerable quantities of sugar from the East Indies and South America-(Brazil;) we now obtain considerable quantities from the Southern portion of the United States, and with suitable encouragement, a great proportion of our whole consumption could be obtained from that source.

But what is the situation of our navigation, and of our gallant seamen, at this moment? Owing in part to the causes to which I have alluded, the restrictions imposed by one nation, at least upon our mercantile enterprise, and the many privileges and advantages which the ships and seamen of that very nation enjoy in our ports, in reference to their colonial trade, and even to the direct trade with Great Britain, and in some degree, no doubt, to the general peace throughout the country; more than one-half of our tonnage is now useless-dismantled at the wharves, and literally rotting at the docks. Many of our seamen are reluctantly compelled to seek employ in foreign countries, and to sail under foreign flags. Our ship carpenters, too, destitute of employ, are obliged, for a living, to go into the British Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, there to cut timber, even for the royal navy of England, and to build vessels to carry it to Great Britain. Thus, British merchants, with British capital, employ our carpenters to build many vessels which are not only employed to carry on the direct trade with Great Britain, but to carry our lumber, our live stock, and our provisions, to their colonies. Hundreds of our artists and laborers, formerly employed in ship building, are reduced to poverty, and the owners of our ships, there being neither sale nor employment for them, are, many of them, bankrupt, without even the last consolation of unfortunate merchants, a bankrupt law to save them from prison, and many of our towns and villages, once flourishing by commerce and navigation, deprived of both, now rapidly decay. Will the bill on your table have a tendency to relieve some It has been pretended by some, that the trade of these misfortunes? I think it will. If it should now carried on between this country and the not open the British islands to us, it will at least British islands, is not a profitable one; and we employ many of our ships and seamen to carry see calculations in some of our public papers, some of our productions, necessary for the British made, no doubt, by British merchants or British islands, to other islands in the West Indies, to be agents among us, to this effect. But why do carried thence in British ships into their own they persevere in this trade if it be unprofitable? ports; giving us the privilege of carrying, nearly Why not not permit others to participate in the to the port of consumption, many of those arti- loss? The suggestions on this head remind me cles which now are only carried in British vessels. of a circumstance mentioned respecting the first It will, too, prevent some of their merchants, and merchant in New York who shipped flaxseed to some portion of their navigation, from flourishing the Irish market. On the return of his ship, he was on the ruin of our own. But we have every asked how the article answered? Not at all, was reason to suppose that, by a measure of this kind, the reply, it was a ruinous business; but it was we shall render the British Government a little observed he soon loaded another vessel with the more inclined, because it will be for her interest, same article, and then another; still, on the return in any future negotiation, to allow us a partici- of each, the story was-that the trade was most pation in the trade with many of her islands, ruinous. His friends asked him why he perseequally beneficial to them and ourselves. The vered in such a losing trade? He replied, that bill on your table must have an injurious effect he must do something to support his family. So upon the trade of those islands. Although the those British merchants and agents, who complantations are in the West Indies, many of their plain that the colonial trade with this country is owners are in England, and there form a numer- a losing one, get something to support their famous and wealthy class of subjects. Their com-ilies; and what is more, greatly to benefit the plaints, at least, will be attended to by the British English nation. Cabinet. Far be it from me, sir, to wish to inflict any suffering on the British colonies; their commerce, like our own, is too often sacrificed to the interest of the parent country; and the

It may be asked, will not this measure aid in building up the neighboring British colonies on the continent of America? Sanguine calculations, I know, have been made, by some Eng

lish writers, on this subject: that large quantities of lumber are, and will continue to be, exported from the Canadian territory, by the St. Lawrence, including that which they receive from the United States by Lake Champlain, &c., there can be no doubt, and much valuable timber will be exported from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; but to suppose that anything like an adequate supply for the British home market, and for the British West India colonies can thus be obtained, is erroneous. The climate interposes an insurmountable obstacle to a regular supply. The St. Lawrence is closed by the ice from three to five months in each year.

Not to detain the Committee longer, it does appear to me, that whether you consult the interests of your fellow-citizens, or the honor of your country, this prohibitory bill ought to pass. If it be done now, rely upon it, sir, that a future Congress will, in defence of the rights and privileges of this nation, be obliged to adopt a similar measure, under circumstances more adverse than the present. I can only add a fervent supplication, that Congress may so decide on this, and on every other occasion, as will redound to the peace and prosperity of these United States!

Some amendments here were disposed of, as moved by Mr. BIRDSEYE, and others.

Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, then addressed the Committee. The subject of this bill, he said, was one of great importance and great delicacy. Apathy appeared to prevail in the House during its consideration; and yet never had any subject been before Congress more important in its consequences. It had been observed to him, he said, by an honorable friend, that, in general, navigation and commerce were considered and used as synonymous terms, though materially differing and distinct from each other. It was the correct policy of this country not to attempt to aid the navigation of the country by measures which might be greatly injurious to its commercial interest. It was equally its true policy to accede to any propositions which could not prove materially injurious to commerce, and were at the same time greatly beneficial to navigation. If then no material injury could result to commerce from the passage of this bill, but a great benefit to navigation, the House ought to pass it.

By promoting the navigation of the country, we secure the materials with which we man our Navy, an establishment so necessary to protect the honor and interest of the country. Without an extensive navigation, commerce could not be protected. Some sacrifices therefore were occasionally required from the commercial interest of a country, to attain the great object of an increase of navigation. It was not proper for us perhaps to say that foreign nations, having established colonies which they are bound to protect, should have a right to secure to themselves the whole of the navigation and commerce of those colonies. Such had been the course of all nations, to secure to themselves, in repayment of the expenses incurred by the colonies, the exclusive right to navigation to and from their ports. If we had colo

JANUARY, 1817.

nies, Mr. S. said, he did not know that we should not pursue the same course. So far as the history of our Government affords any example on this head, there was an illustration of the same policy on our part, in our refusal to foreign nations of the right to trade with the Indians within our limits without special permission-and he believed a proposition was now on the table to forbid foreigners from trading with them on any conditions. But if a foreign nation, thus holding colonies, derives great advantage from trade with our country, and yet excludes our vessels from any participation in it, if we can coerce her to abandon that policy, we are bound, attending to the interest of our navigation, to do so, if we can do so without the hazard of too great injury to other interests.

The friends of this bill then ought first to show that we can coerce Great Britain to admit us into a participation of the trade with her colonies, without material injury to the commercial and other interests of the country.

The effect of this measure on the commerce of the United States, Mr. S. said, must be considered in two lights: first, as regarded importation, and, secondly, as regarded exportation.

Shall we lose anything, he asked, by prohibiting importation from the West Indies, unless in vessels of the United States? The principal articles of importation are coffee, sugar, and rum. Shall we injure the revenue of the United States, or raise too high the prices of those articles in the market, by the proposed measure? Mr. S. said he thought it could be clearly shown that no injury of this sort would result from it. Not only did we get enough of those articles (rum excepted) from the West Indies and other countries for our consumption, but a surplus was left for exportation. If we are now able to export ten or fifteen millions per annum of sugar and coffee to other countries, and distribute them among the nations of the world, there could be no doubt we should always have enough (supposing our communication with the British colonies to be cut off) for home consumption and to maintain the revenue. Rum indeed could be got only from the West Indies, except in small but increasing quantity from Louisiana, and except a description of that liquor called taffia, which our people will not drink. But suppose we could get none, the brandies of Europe are equally good, and equally if not more healthy; and the whiskey of our country (give it age, or turn it into gin,) was not inferior in his opinion to either. On this point, he said, he spoke experimentally; he had of that liquor six or eight years old, and he preferred it to brandy-though others did not. The people, he said, would get accustomed to it, and it would be generally preferred to rum, which was in no view an indispensable article. From documents on the table, Mr. S. said, it appeared that the revenue from importations in British vessels from the West Indies was about two millions per annum. That revenue, he said, would not be injured, because we must consume the articles on which that rev