import no commodities, staves and Jumber only excepted, which were not the growth and produce of the countries to which they belonged, and that they should not export from our colonies sugar, indigo, cotton, wool, coffee, or cocoa, As to the history and progress of this bill, it was first brought into parliament, in the house of lords, by lord Holland, who had in vain call ed the attention of the late ministry to the subject, in the preceding sesson of parliament. After a good deal of opposition the bill passed the lords; but in consequence of some informality it was thrown out in the house of commons, and a new bill to the same effect was introduced by lord Temple, which, after much opposition and many long and violent debates, was at length passed into a law. To one who looks back on the transactions of that period, it appears incredible, that a bill, which effected and pro. fessed to effect so little, should have occasioned so much debate, and excited such violence of opposition, These very persons, under whom the navigation act had been deliberately violated for thirteen years past, and who had brought in regu. lar bills of indemnity to excuse the riolation of it, exclaimed against this bill, which had no other object, than to authorize the privy council to do that according to law, which They had done without law; and equally regardless of truth in their statements as of consistency in their conduct, they had the hardihood to maintain, that this was the first de. parture from the provisions of the navigation act, which any minister had ever ventured to propose in parliament. Nor was the spirit of opposition to this unfortunate bill confined to the legislature. The ship owners in different parts of the kingdom were stirred up to present petitions against it; and so successful were the artifices used to impose upon their minds, that long after the bill had passed into a law, they com tinued firmly persuaded, that to this harmless and inoperative measure, all the distresses, which they afterwards suffered, were justly to be attributed. Our limits will not permit us to give a detailed account of the de-. bates upon this subject in the house of commons. They were distinguished, however, by greater length and violence on the part of opposition, than any that occurred during the present session, the debates on the new military plans only excepted. The principal speakers on the side of opposition were Mr. Rose, the master of the rolls, lord Castlereagh, Mr. Percival, and Mr. Can ning; and on the side of the ministry, Mr. Fox, the attorney general, and lord Henry Petty. The following were the chief topics insisted upon. It was argued in favour of the system formerly pursued, that its illegality was a security against its adoption, without a real and urgent necessity impelling the colonial governors to have recourse to it. But to this it was a sufficient answer, that the same measures had been pursued, without interruption during war, since 1793; and, therefore, either the necessity in time of war was permanent, or the argument inconclusive. It was said, that the colonial governors were better judges of the necessities of the colonies than the privy council. Of a necessity arising, of a sudden, from some unforeseen and unexpected calamity, this was G 3 true, true, but not of a necessity like that not only were they able to fulthe present, which was permanent fil that engagement, but to supply and constant, and must continue, the colonies at an expence of not till measures were taken at home to more than two per cent. above what provide against it. That the colo- it cost them at present. nies required a supply of provi- required from parliament was a All they sions and lumber, equal to their select committee to inquire into consumption, was a very plain and facts, and, if that obvious proposition, nor was it re- they pledged themselves to make was granted, quisite to hold the office of a colonial good their allegations. But, if the governor to be fully aware of its shipping interest thought this practitruth; but to ascertain whether a cable now, why had they not atsufficient supply of these articles tempted it sooner? Why had their could be procured from the united sense of interest slumbered so long, kingdom and British colonies in and how came it to be roused by a North America, or, if an additional measure, which made no change supply from the United States was whatever in their situation? What wanted, to determine whether the circumstance had lately happened conveyance of it might be safely en- to lessen the expence of the carrying trusted to the British ship owners, trade to the English, or increase its were pints, it is apprehended, of charges to the Americaus? Were the which the privy council were more ship owners deserving greater credit competent and more impartial than one of the first and most inteljudges than the governors of Jamaica ligent merchants of the city, who and Barbadoes; surrounded as these declared in the house of commons, governors must necessarily be by persons interested in the trade with the United States, and removed as they are to a distance from all intercourse or communication with the shipping interest of the mother country. Had the ship owners truly understood their own interest, they would have rejoiced at a measure, which placed the American intercourse under the control of persons, more accessible than the colonial governors to their complaints, and more likely to be in fluenced by their remonstrances. It was next maintained, that the British ship owners were ready to undertake the carrying trade of the West India islands, and persons were found to pledge themselves, * Sir Francis Baring. as that the ship owners of this country could not supply the coIonics, and it would be dangerous and cruel, as well as impolitic, to trust to them, at the risk of starving thousands, in case they should fail in the attempt." Experience was much in favour of the opinion of sir Francis Baring, as it was contrary to the bold assertions and extravagant promises of Mr. Rose : nor was it any recommendation of the ship owners' plan, that when similar speculators had, on a former occasion, been listened to, the lives of 15,000 negroes had been sacrificed, before the experiment was abandoned. + After all, if these assertions were made with any other view than to gain time, in order to Memorial and representation of the assembly of Jamaica, April 20th, 1805. postpone postpone the bill to another session, the ship owners had only to state their case to the privy council, who had no authority by the bill to open the West India ports to neutrals, but when the necessity of the case should appear to his majesty in council to require it" It was next objected to the Ame. ricans, that, under pretence of this trade, they smuggled great quantines of East India goods and German linens into the West Indies. But Americans, it was replied, were not the only traders, whose propensities to smuggling nothing but the vigilance of the custom-house could restrain. British ship masters were entitled to as little confidence upon that head as Americans, and therefore if this objection was to be listen. ed to, all intercourse between the West Indies and the United States mast be at once prohibited. But, could the West India islands subsist with no other trade, except that which they enjoyed with the mother country and her colonies? Could they derive a sufficient supply of provisions from the United Kingdom, or of lumber from the British colonies in North America? Were they to be reduced to such inadequate sources of supply, in order to favour the sales of the East India company, or prevent the introduction of some German linens? It was stated by the assembly of Jamaica, that they obtained only one twelfth of their North American supply from British North America; and it may be said without exaggeration, that not one-third of the provisions which the British West India islands annually import, are derived from the mother country and her colonies. * It was argued by a learned judge, that though the bill professed to be founded on necessity, and though that necessity could apply only to the importation of lumber and provisions, yet it gave an unlimited power to the privy council, to authorize the importation of any articles whatever; or, as he is made to express himself in a printed account of his specch, which bears all the internal marks of having been revised by so me one intimately.connected with him, this bill, with a force and conciseness beyond all example, strikes out of your statute books, or reduces to a dead letter, •It appears from an account of the principal articles of provisions and lumber, imported into his majesty's colonies in the West Indies and on the continent of South America, in the years 1804, 1805, and 1806, ordered to be printed February 15th, 1808, that, of the total importation of the following articles, the proportions from the United States of America are as follows: Corn, = 65-100 parts, or nearly three-fourths. Rice, = 98-100, or nearly the whole. Beef and pork, = 49-100, or nearly one half. = Sheep and hogs, 90-100, or nine-tenths. Shingles, = 99-100. 97-100. Staves, 96-100. all the body of the laws of this realm made for the support of our navigation, the rule of our colonial system, and every thing that depends on both; and this is said to be the effect of necessity." But, in bring ing forward this triumphant objection, in making it his main argument against the bill, and enlarging upon it in many a declamatory and animated, period, that acute and learned judge seems to have forgotten, in his zeal against the bill, to look into its provisions, where he would have found, that it gave no authority to the privy council to permit a single article to be imported into the West Indies by neutrals, unless when the necessity of the case seemed to require it. But, it would be difficult, we apprehend, to make out a case of necessity for the importation of an article which was not itself necessary to the islands. Nor was there much truth or decency in the insinuation of the same learn ed personage against the authors of the bill," that it contained a meaning, and had an object, which they did not think fit to disclose to parliament ;" for the words of the bill, on which he founded this insinuation, were literally the same with the words of an act of parliament+, trenching more deeply on the navigation act than the American intercourse bill, which had been passed some years before, when the friends of that learned judge were in office, and himself in the same judicial situation, which he continued still so ably to fill. The last objection to the bill, which we shall notice, was, that i was inconsistent with our establish. ed system of colonial policy, and contrary to the provisions of the navigation act. To the first part of the objection it was answered, that necessity compelled us to deviate, in this instance, from our usual course of colonial policy, in order to obtain the means of subsistence for our colonies; and to the second it was replied, that necessity being the ground on which the intercourse of our colonies with the United States was tolerated, the principle, though not the letter of the navigation act, required, that the trade thus permit. ted, because necessary, should be open equally to American and English vessels. For, if not open to Americans, it was in the power of the United States to interdict the trade entirely, without giving ns just cause of offence, and thereby compel us to admit them to a share in it on the same principle, that should we attempt to exclude foreign vessels from the ports of the United Kingdom, foreign nations might compel us, by retaliating, to desist from such a pretension. With respect to the allegation, that "this was the first relaxation of the navigation laws enacted by the legislature," it is surprising that such an assertion should have been made, but most easy to shew that it was made rashly and inconsiderately. Without recurring to the period of the American war, the instances of acts of parliament inconsistent with the provisions of the navigation act were numerous during the last and present Speech of the master of the rolls on the American intercourse bill, July 8th, 1806-Cobbet's parliamentary debates, vol. 7th, p. 987—1008. + 43 Geo. 3. cap. 153, 916. Cobbet's parliamentary debates, vol. 6. p. 1038. present wars* ; and upon one occasion the legislature had thought proper to declare," that the commerce of the kingdom had been greatly benefited thereby +." But, not only had the provisions of the navigation act been set aside by these acts of parliament, but bills had been passed, repealing by name, as far as the objects went which they embraced, the navigafion act itself, as well as the act of William 111. which is regarded as the basis and foundation of our colonial system, and vesting in the privy council the same discretionary powers, which were given to it by the American intercourse bill‡; and yet there were persons found, high in the confidence of govern. ment when these bills were passed, of memory so treacherous, or countenance so unblushing, as to assert in the debates on the American intercourse bill, that such extensive powers of regulation over our colonial system and navigation laws had never been conferred at any former period by parliament. The Tortola free port bill was another subject on which the late and present boards of trade were at issue. This was a bill to confer on the port of Road harbour in Tor tola, the same privileges, which the late ministry had obtained for the harbour of Nassau in New Provi dence. The object was in both cases to make the favoured harbour a place of deposit for foreign sugars. But Tortola being a sugar island, it was argued by the late board of trade, that foreign sugar once imported into the island would be afterwards exported as British sugar. It was answered, that no more sugar than the average produce of the Virgin islands was allowed by the bill to be exported, as British sugar, from Tortola. An important step was taken dur. ing this session of parliament to bring to a conclusion the dif. ferences, which had subsisted for some years between the woollen manufacturers of this kingdom and their employers, by the appointment of a committee to take into consideration the various acts relating to the woollen manufacture, to whom the petitions of the manufacturers were referred, and who were empowered to report from time to time their observations on the subject. Such as the Dutch property acts, 35 Geo. 3. cap. 15 and 80-36 Geo. 3. cap. 76-57 Geo. 3. cap. 12-the act made during peace, 42 Geo. 3. cap. 80-renewed 44 Geo. 3. cap. 30, and continued till eight months after the ratification of a definitive treaty of peace. + Preamble to the ast 42 Geo. 3. cap. 80. The bills alluded to are the Cape of Good Hope bills, 37 Geo. 3. cap. 21, and Geo. 3. cap. 9—and more particularly the act 48 Geo. 3. cap. 153, which trenches more deeply on the navigation act, and confers greater discretionary powers on the privy council, than the American intercourse bill, and yet was enacted when sir William Grant was master of the rolls, Mr. Percival attorney general, and lords Hawkesbury and Castlereagh secretaries of state. CHAP. |