22 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



that the expence of demurrage, or stay in a foreign port, is 

 thereby greatly lessened. He has to gain by delaying a ship 

 wholly British ; he has to gain by expediting a ship partly his 

 own. In the one case, the hulk yawns for a cargo, during 

 months, beside the mole ; in the other case, it is discharged 

 and re-charged, like a Scotch still. Immense is the labour 

 lost to the country, and to the world, in consequence of the 

 impediment to foreign partnerships, imposed by this restric- 

 tion of the navigation-act. But it has still another mischievous 

 operation. In time of war, vessels jointly owner'd are easily 

 transferred to the neutral party ; and thus commerce would 

 be very exempt from the troubles of war; but vessels, all 

 whose owners are English, cannot suddenly, or in large num- 

 bers be transferred, so as to reap the advantages of neutrality. 

 Ht;nce the necessity of permitting merchants to turn their veiS- 

 sels into privateers. This barbarous practice increases during 

 war the quantity of positive destruction and of unproductive 

 labour ; and it supersedes the navy in a sort of piratical vigi- 

 lance, which ought rather to be the occupation and the reward 

 of valour than of industry. 



" These three points are the principal provisions of the navi- 

 gation-act. It requires vessels to be built at home, manned 

 from home, owned at home. Lord Sheffield will not find it 

 easy to prove any one of these regulations beneficial. They 

 existed, without creating a marine, from Richard the Second 



