622 Navigation Laws. . (Dee: 
-themselyes,,; This, then, could never be,the,real, motive.» ;Nos,the tatuth, 
is, and .Mr, Huskisson, lets it-out,, almost inadvertently,—-this,relaxation! 
‘afforded, a,great facility for the execution of another-projeet. of ;the 
same, committee, .and, which was afterwards.carried into. ,.eflect-—(to, the: 
depreciation, we, will.venture to add, of all fair and,regular,dealing)— 
the establishment, of a, general system of warehousing-——$,so_as, to. make, 
this;.countryja place) of entrepdt for all. foreign, commodities.) It, was 
obyiously impossible, adds Mr, H,, to give, full scope. to .this),system, 
unless we were. prepared to allow greater latitude,to the admission:of; 
foreign goods, .The superior -capital and. credit, of ,this | country, afford, 
inducements, to. send those goods here, and their, being deposited im 
British, warehouses, giyes a facility to the British, merchant,,andship-, 
ewner.to, supply the demand for therh in. other parts. of| the .world,| 
through, the medium of British adventure and British,shipping, instead 
of,their, being sent directly to those parts in foreign, shipping, \from)the, 
countries of Europe in which such goods are produced.” 44 .5inoyeo0n! 
A.noble expedient this for augmenting the demand (for, British ship- 
ping ;—and a capital inducement to other countries—to have two freights 
to,.pay instead of one. But other countries must, look .to/ themselvesi; 
and that indeed they are well disposed to do, and growing well able,,also. 
The relaxations, which enabled foreign vessels to bring the enumerated 
articles, previously imported, was evidently well calculated, to, add; to 
their employment, and to promote the warehousing system ; but, how 
these manceuvres were to augment the demand for British shipping—+the 
professed object, observe—is not quite so obvious. For,ourjown parts; 
we cannot help thinking this demand would rather have been.augmented 
—encouraged, or not—by British ships.themselves fetching the-article 
fromthe country producing, and themselves carrying jit to|the country 
requiring it. But this warehousing—of which, Mr.\Huskisson,( speaks; 
we are quite sure has done more harm than good,,,,,1t. has suggested. and 
awakened. a vast deal of hazardous speculation.,, Goods|are> imported 
before they are wanted., The duty is not payable till,.the goods\are 
withdrawn ;—but warehouse-charges must.be paid: .Those.chas'ges; must 
be added also to the article, and when that article is, fairly, sold, tocthose 
who really want it, must be paid by the consumer. Injhew many,in- 
stances, again, do commodities lie in the warehouses,,,accumulating 
expenses, till the. importer is obliged to, bring them into the’ market 
before they are, wanted, and sell, at any price, to the;injurty\ofthesfair 
‘dealer, and the ruin of creditors .at home—to-enable him; to, make: his 
payments abroad? It is, in truth, a system, the evils. of which are of 
prodigious extent, and, which we cannot now, without wandering, from 
our ,point, attempt to exhibit ; but to which we shall. have, occasion, 
another time, to return. 7 to eieewt 
-. Well:,but even this long list of encroachments upon) our Navigation 
Laws—the palladium. of the British marine—does, not. -exhaust !thent, 
We have not yet said a word of the changes relative to our colonies, 
The original law,; be it remembered, confined the trade,of the colonies; 
inwards and outwards, as the phrase is, to British ships. Not-am article 
could the colonies import, not an article could they export, butin: British 
bottoms,—and to and-from the mother country only. 0 ditiqa Be 
So early, it seems, as the year 1783—the very year; .says Miidi5 
quite innocently, in which we recognized the independence of»: i 
-~as if that very independence were not.the very cause+<it oceurred 
