1S4 



" The memorialists also stated that the monopoly of which they complained 

 was 'to the almost total exclusion of those whose means or influence was not so 

 great as to obtain limits.' 



" There was here a remarkable instance of men of high position descending to 

 meddle with other people's affairs, and being thereby led to commit themselves to 

 vulgar errors on matters of which they were themselves wholly ignorant. 



" It will be seen that in the above they asserted two distinct grievances as the 

 cause of the monopoly they complained of ; first, that those without a certain 

 amount of means could not obtain " limits " or timber berths ; and, second, that 

 (failing means) they might be obtained by influence. The first must indeed be 

 admitted. Men of means will acquire timber berths, as well as houses and lands 

 and ships, to the ' exclusion of those whose means are not so great as to obtain 

 them ' ; it is an old grievance for which governments have not yet found a 

 remedy. 



" And even if, at the suggestion of these memorialists (who, by the way, were 

 not of the class who usually advocate such a doctrine), the government had taken, 

 or should yet take, some undefined way of throwing the timber berths into the 

 hands of those who have not means to obtain them in a legitimate manner, those 

 who possess means would (provided the tenure justified the investment) imme- 

 diately buy them out, and then there would be the same cry for a repetition of 

 the operation. 



" With respect to the second grievance, it is sufficient to say that it is not to 

 be found in the law or the regulations affecting the trade ; and as it could only 

 exist in violation of both, the memorialists should have established the fact 

 before they claimed credit for it as such, whereas they did not attempt to 

 substantiate even one case of such violation. 



" They suggested, in conclusion, that if the license holders were unable or 

 unwilling to pay, etc., their timber berths should be thrown open to competition, 

 and they, the memorialists, believed that, notwithstanding the depressed state 

 of the trade at that time, they would be readily taken by others without loss to 

 the revenue. 



" It is difficult to write seriously on such a proposition ; there can be no doubt 

 that if the opportunity had occured and had been taken advantage of to submit 

 to public competition, privileges which have already been in many cases dearly 

 bought, and in the development of which on the whole, hundreds of thousands of 

 pounds of private means have been expended (as shown by returns laid before 

 Parliament in 1852), they would readily be taken without loss to the revenue, 

 but it was an issue not more reasonable nor likely than that the ships of the 

 memorialists would have been made available to the revenue if they had asked 

 for a change in the navigation laws. 



" Such was the false position assumed by the shipping interest at the period 

 referred to, but the erroneous grounds upon which they opposed the prayer of 

 the producing merchants of course made no argument either for or against the 

 latter, which had to be dealt with upon its own merits! 



" The memorial of the producing merchants was signed by some of the ship- 

 ping merchants also, who are connected with or interested in the business of the 

 producers and there appeared to be two or three firms, not known to the depart- 

 ment to be connected with the producing interest, who signed., it is presumed, in 

 a liberal view of what they conceived to be for the good of the country and the 

 trade at large : some merchants and others at Ottawa had also joined in it who are 

 not personally engaged in the trade, but whose interests are bound up with those 

 of the producers. 



