SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &CC. 19 



English vessels. Selden drew the attention of the long parlia- 

 ment to this subject ; and, by his speeches and controversial 

 pamphlets, prepared that systematic attention of the legislature 

 to secure a monopoly of the shipping-trade employed about 

 our own importations and exportations, which is so efficiently 

 pursued in the 12th Charles II. This bill, known by the 

 name of the navigation-act, by its severe and precise definition 

 of English vessels, completely realized what the statute of 

 Richard II. had in view. It is a law which appears singularly 

 w^ise to Lord Sheffield, which he considers as the trident of 

 the British Neptune, and which he holds up as the principal 

 and perpetual cause of our maritime prosperity and superiority.'* 



" We doubt the utility of this vaunted navigation-act. 



** I. If EngVish-built ships had no peculiar privileges, vessels 

 would be built where timber is cheapest: in Canada, in the Su- 

 rinam, and elsewhere. This would occasion some exportation 

 of shipwrights to the woodier regions of the earth, a more 

 rapid colonization of them, and the consequent extension of 

 the British market for produce and manufacture. It would oc- 

 casion some diminution of the value of timber at home, thus 

 cheapening the expence of naval defence and territorial archi- 

 tecture, and favouring the conversion of forest inio pasture. 

 The sorts of timber too could then be suited to the probable 

 voyage; and teak shipping could be constructed for the tropi- 



D 2 



