( B.)

A Statement of the Duties collected on the Importation of Articles which were afterwards re-exported, without being entitled to Drawback.

dollars, 1.531.618 32

No. XXVI,

The following Extracts have been selected from recent Publications, as they relate to some of the Proceedings of the Society of Ship-Owners of Great Britain.

Extracts from a work intituled "A Vindication of the "Principles and Statements advanced in the Strictures "of Lord Sheffield, on the Necessity of inviolably "maintaining the Navigation and Colonial System of "Great Britain." Edition 1806. By the Rev. I. Alley.

INNOVATIONS thus direct, contributed, in a most essential manner, to impair the interests of British shipping. The extravagant prices, in this country, of all the necessaries of life; the weight of taxes; the rapid advance of wages; the high rate of ship's provisions and stores; and various other depressing circumstances, tended, already, sufficiently to discourage speculation in shipping; and it was admitted, that a foreign vessel might be sold in the Thames, on considerably cheaper terms than a vessel British built, of the same species, and same tonnage. These difficulties are of a permanent nature, and the rates of freight have been such as to afford little compensation. The hire of the vessel should naturally have borne a due proportion to the expences of outfit; but according to the following table, the freight on two great articles, for five years, ending in 1784, was nearly equal in sum, and much superior in value, to that which was paid in the five years, ending in 1804.

Under these circumstances, with all the disadvantage of dearness on the side of the British ship-owners, and all the advantages of cheapness on the side of the foreign; and with rates of freight, which, even without competition, would have afforded inadequate compensation to the former, for the increased expences of his outfit, the suspension of the Navigation Acts deprived the English ship-builder of the protection, which he had hitherto experienced in his own ports. What was the result? Every tide bore neutral bottoms into the harbours of England. Speculation in English shipping, instead of being stimulated by the full enjoyment of the English market, was checked and deterred by the intervention of foreign competition; and our own naval artizans were, consequently, deprived of occupation, and, in many instances, dispersed abroad, in search of the employment which they should have found at home.

That these statements are by no means exaggerated, it would be abundantly easy to prove, by a more minute reference to facts. There are now before me copies of memorials, which have been presented to ministers, and of various letters, and other documents, which would enable me fully to detail the mischiefs that have been here imperfectly enumerated. For more ample evidence on this subject, however, I shall here refer but to the following extracts from authentic papers, relative to one branch of our trade, furnished by merchants of unquestionable authority on subjects of this nature.

"It is obvious to every man who has ships trading to the ports in the Baltic, or the White Sea, that provisions, cordage, sails, masts, tar, pitch, &c. are much cheaper in them than in England, and wages to navigate neutral ships, is 31. 10s. per month, for each seaman; and British ships are at present paying from 51. 5s. to 51. 10s. per month, with the addition of from three guineas to four for procuring them. By the suspension of the Navigation Act, foreign ships have got our trade, and the foreign seamen, which in former, wars manned our ships, followed it; and the reason why they will sail for less wages in foreign ships than in English is, they are not liable to be taken by the enemies of Britain, nor impressed into her navy*. The crews of foreign ships can abide on board, to deliver and take in their cargoes, and complete their rigging for another voyage; when a British ship-owner must hire riggers at six shillings per day, and labourers to load and discharge his cargo at five shillings per day. Besides, the insurance of a British ship and cargo will be one half more than that of a neutral in time of war; added to which, the British ship has a detention in getting her seamen, and waiting for convoy, which time may, in general, be computed at one third of a Memel voyage from London and back. Considering, therefore, the whole of the disadvantages which the British ship sails under, it may be asserted that the neutral ship, in time of war, sails under a protection of from 35 to 40 per cent. ; and what is stated here respecting a ship from the Baltic will hold good as to American ships, except in cordage and sails."

From all these circumstances, the ship-owners throughout the country are, at this moment, labouring under great. depression; and unless the. Navigation Act in future is strictly enforced, and means are adopted to put the British ship-owner on a level with the neutral owner, the mari time interests of the country in a very few years will be annihilated. Indeed, in a memorial recently presente d to the Board of Trade by the ship-owners at Sunde rland, they intimate that many of them are apprehensive of

*This observation is peculiarly worthy of notice. At a period when so many of our seamen are required for our navy, it is obvious how injɩ triously every measure must operate which enables the foreign seamen employ red in our service to find, so readily, safety and occupation in foreign botto .ns. In such measures there is irresistible temptation: in such temptation there is the greatest mischief to English trade.