136 CONCERNING OUR MARINE, &C. 



colony ? As about a load (50 solid feet) of timber 

 is required for the construction of a ton of trading 

 shipping, this duty, together vdth the high duty on 

 hemp, increases the cost of our vessels nearly L. 4 

 per register ton, independent of the higher price of 

 building and sailing them, from other monopolies ; 

 and it is only from the very superior skill, honesty 

 and industry of our seamen*, that our shipping, since 

 the peace, under this very great disadvantage, has 

 been at all enabled to compete vdth foreign. At 

 Shields and Newcastle a new merchant- vessel of oak, 

 rigged and ready for sea, uncoppered, can be pm*- 

 chased for L. 10 per register ton. Were the price, 

 by the removal of monopoly, reduced to L. 6 per ton, 

 scarcely a foreign bottom, American excepted, would 

 compete with British, in the carr^dng trade, or w^ould 

 enter a British port. Can it be believed that our 

 very liberal late minister (INIr Huskisson), and om* 

 wery non-liberal member for Newark (Mr Sadler), 

 have both made a Jull expose of the distresses of our 

 shipping interest, and not once have adverted to the 

 cause of this, and of the comparative decHne of our 

 naval preponderance — the very high duty on the 



* The chance of loss by wreck, damage from sea-water;, and 

 pilfering, being much less in British than in foreign bottoms, en- 

 vies the British lo obtain a higher freight than the foreign. 



