—— 
1826.] Navigation Laws. 62D 
notia word\to: throw ata dog, ‘much less at /the ‘grin: Prussianso°Our 
days of hectoring are gone by. The Ministry take fright and 1 capitu- 
late”; again); «and with all the. dignity a'state of alarm ‘wills allow—miot 
minch, -everybody knows—they concede the compact! of>* reciprocity” 
with .Prussia,and/ extinguish’ their «own | «. discriminating: duties.” 
Quickly: do. Denmark .and Sweden adopt. the ‘same. course, «andi quickly 
the same compact follows; and then, to shew how just;and‘even generous 
the! Ministers: can: be, when the matter is next to insignificant, they 
make a voluntary and smiling surrender of our rights, anda voluntary 
tender,-of ‘reciprocity, to the free towns of Hamburgh, «Bremen, :and 
Lubeck.. 5 ls aqide dlaiserel 
»But-these are not the only retractions of our Navigation Laws. ‘Fhe 
changes «which have occurred in the great continent of America, since 
the independence of the United States, have occasioned several similar 
relaxations.' The transfer of the government of Portugal to Brazil was 
the first-occasion.. On-terms of alliance as we were with Portugal, ‘we 
were: atonce) obliged to consider Brazil as an European power, and, as 
wehad done with the United States, to put it on the same footing with 
other European states. -The same thing has also been done successively, 
as new states have established themselves in that quarter of the globe; 
and; in addition, we have conceded to them all the compact of ‘ reci- 
procity.” iad 
- Wor does the: list of concessions end here. We have even relaxed) in 
the matter of the ‘enumerated articles,” excepted in the: European 
trade. » In 1820, the shipping-interests made long and loud complaints; 
and urged the Government vehemently for relief The demand | for 
shipping: after:the peace had of course somewhat diminished,’ and the 
tates-of freight had:also in consequence lowered considerably. A’select 
committee tvas: appointed to inquire into the state of foreign commerce, 
which concurred in recommending the Government to permit the impor- 
tation of the enumerated articles’—not generally in the'ships of every 
country;;-but—in the ships of any country into’ which they had “been 
previously imported—Dutch and all. 
‘oe Now tliis:permission to foreigners, by the way, must seem a very odd 
species of) relief. to: the home ship-owners. Be it) remembered, British 
vessels could bring any of the “enumerated” into the country from any 
European port; whilst the ships of every other state were limited to the 
produce of theirown country. To give facilities, then, to’ other countries 
to. import, must have tended still farther to diminish the demand ‘for 
our|shipping.. This is surely the common sense of the thing; and we 
incline to think Mr. Huskisson himself thought as much. » The Legisla- 
ture; says he; adopted the recommendation of the committee; ane the 
ation, he believes, was beneficial to our commerce and navigation. 
Itwas desirable,: he at last brings himself to: add—mustering: up all his 
energies to excogitate something like a reason or two—it was desirable, 
because the restrictions could not fail to prevent the speculations of 
“ British, enterprize’) from flowing in their natural channels, or to divert 
them») intoonew ones; and because they prevented. an advantageous 
assortment, of cargoes. What nonsense is this? The British ships 
were at liberty to fetch any and all of these “ enumerated articles” 
from. every. country/in. Europe, and wanted employment; and, by way: 
of.relief; you:grant a permission for foreigners to compete with you~ 
ororather to prevent you from fetching the “ articles,” by bringing them 
