No. 144.] 97 



they had failed to learn that such ships would be the first in the 

 fleet to be disabled'by stress of weather, if exposed to the violence 

 of the storm; the laws of common sense were fully adequate to teach 

 this lesson. In every subsequent age of the commercial history of 

 England we find the same incongruities protruding through the ves- 

 sels of the time. By the influence of the East India Company the 

 laws of admeasuTement were adjusted to tlie satisfaction of that 

 great monopoly, which has been the fruitful source of more dis- 

 aster than every other. As contagion spreads by contact, so error 

 widens the orbit of its influence by imitation, and the same hete- 

 rogeneous code of anomalistics are found in the American navy ; 

 its enormity, however, is less apparent in England than in the 

 United States, consequent upon the apparently less rapid march 

 of improvement in the country's marine. The legislation of Eng- 

 land which gave laws for the measurement of vessels adapted it- 

 self to the vants of this great monopoly, regardless alike of the 

 wants of commerce and of security to human life. It was upon 

 this hypothesis tliat the tonnage laws found their significance — 

 that inasmuch as the armed portion of an Indiaman was not 

 adapted to commerce, it should not be measured ; and from this 

 law has arisen more loss to life and treasure than from all other 

 laws connected with maritime pursuits, and although England 

 at a later period improved her laws of admeasurement by legisla- 

 tion, the United States are still holding out the same false beacon 

 to the mariner, by offering a premium to the owners of unsafe ships 

 in the difference between the real and apparent bulk of vessels sanc- 

 tioned bylaw. The wants of the two countries, it might be naturally 

 supposed, would be the basis for such estimate of the size, and 

 peculiarities in the forms of vessels, as might be called for, and 

 while in England the pride and strength of the nation is her 

 navy, in America the nr.tional bulwarks of defence are found in 

 the merchant marine, which (under a wholesome tonnage sys- 

 tem), in a brief period, and at a moderate cost, may be rendered 

 more formidable than the combined navies of the world, because 

 the size and form of the vessels are more nearly adapted to the 

 necessities and exigencies of the country than those of the gov- 

 ^ernment are found to be. This disability arises from two causes ; 



[Assembly, No. 144.] G 



