SNTRODtreTlON. 



C 



The regiftered tonnage of the veflels belong- 

 ing to the feveral ports of the Britiih empire in 

 the year 1808, appears, by the accounts laid be- 

 fore Parliament, to have been 2,324,819 tons ; 

 and, following the fame rules for judging of the 

 confumption of timber, as thofe adopted by the 

 Commiflioners of 1792, it appears, that the an- 

 nual confumption of timber, under this head, may 

 be reckoned at 249,087 loads ; being an increafe, 

 in eighteen years ^(fince 1790), of no lefs than 

 90,408 loads annually. 



" It becomes obvious and important to make 

 one comment in this place, namely, that this very 

 great increafed demand for timber of the middling 

 fizes, muft tend moft powerfully to encourage the 

 felling of oak trees, before they arrive at a fizc 

 t for the essential uses of the Navy. 



" With regard to the confumption of timber 

 for the Navy, it follows, that as the tonnage of 

 the Navy is now near double the amount of what 

 it was when the Commiflioners of Land Revenue 

 made their Report, or about 800,000 tons, fo the 

 confumption of oak timber muft have increafed in 

 proportion ; and thus it cannot now be fairly con- 

 .iidered at lefs than 1 00,000 loads per annum. 



" From what has been ftated, it is thus evi- 

 dent, that the confumption of timber under the 

 diree heads, namely for the internal purposes of 

 .the country for the commercial shipping and 



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