aid, uae \ 6rS* ey av (Dei: 
oinkv Se1W02-orlt dud : esoNsinsyaoont staamovnsish bar aiasmoansteb 
nesTgo1g feuom .tgobs of DNAVIGATION! LAIS.% 50 i ved etetzini Mi ods 
as,the. undoubted source, of the: political, security’ and ‘the ‘p¢ itical 
lory.of their country. Now, all at once, we “hear these “sacred 
ay have roughly been, encroached upon, and are threatened Wi h'still 
ruder encroachments. The daring and desperate hands of speculative 
Ministers have committed violence upon them. The ‘ruin’ of’ the 
shipping-interest is boldly affirmed, and, of consequence,’ destriictiolt 
must; be at. our doors. All the while the country, generally, is thought- 
lessly slumbering on the brink of this fearful precipice ; for, with ‘the 
exception of a few disappointed adventurers, or party tools, or literary 
labourers—no others, we venture to say—scarcely any, man’ troubles 
himself to inquire into the reality or the extent of the danger. There are 
many, however, whose ears these rumours of peril and perdition occa- 
sionally reach, who would be glad perhaps to understand the real’ state 
of the case, if attainable without much labour—more, however, as 
matter of curiosity, or, at the utmost, to estimate the character of the 
Minister and his measures, than from any apprehensions of danger from 
them—because they see no evils exclusively referable to the imputed 
causes, and because of evils. of the magnitude alleged, they feel con- 
fident, such causes could scarcely escape them, Trade, every “mar 
knows, has, gone, on increasing; and that, he, knows also, “ean t 
s0.go on, without augmenting the shipping; he. knows, too, ‘that 
the last year was one of the wildest speculation, and therefore, if he’ eae 
of a.diminution of trade, of disappointments, and gloomy P dictions, 
he is prepared; it is no more than he expects, and it fills him, Wwith'ho 
wonder. , The cry of ruin, too, comes from suspicious quartérs— ainly 
from those who have notoriously overshot the mark, and traded beyori 
their real capital, and. who, suffering from their own imprudence, ‘are 
glad of a scape-goat—glad to shake the blame from theit own’ féeble 
shoulders, and fling it upon the broader ones of the Ministers ;—or it 
comes from scribbling politicians, who must write pamphlets, and whose 
purpose it answers to maintain paradoxes, or tax one part of the Ministry 
for innovation, tojustify their devotion to the other. ha yf ie 
We write not for those who are personally connected with shipping- 
interests—they either require no discussions of this kind, or will not listen 
to them; but for those whose attention is occasionally drawn to measures 
of public interest—to measures which are destined to operate important 
results—to measures which aim at social improvements, and changes of 
policy, calculated to affect, for good or for ill, the political happin ae 
mankind. _ We shall have very little to do with figures; for the q oka n 
really turns not upon figures—no, nor upon, rights, nor abstract aed 
ples, nor scarcely upon expediency—but almost wholly upon NEc# SIT 
In our opinion, the sole alternative with the Ministers has been ‘a change 
of system, or a contraction of commerce. The changes which “they 
have carried into execution are yet partial, and partial changes pro ge 
i “to @aj00 
* Speech of the Right Hon. W. Huskisson in the House of Comméns, 12(May 
1826, on the present State of the Shipping Interest. it bie tslfob 
