3 * HISTORY OF THE [book hi. 
mined his employers at home immediately to en¬ 
force a scheme they had projected a short time be¬ 
fore, of altering the whole system of the Barba¬ 
dian commerce, by prohibiting by an act of the 
Commonwealth, all foreign shipping from trading 
with the English plantations; and not permitting 
any goods to be imported into England, or any of 
its dependencies, in any other than English bot¬ 
toms j or in ships of that European nation of which 
the merchandize imported was the genuine growth 
and manufacture. And thus arose the famous na¬ 
vigation act of this kingdom; for immediately af¬ 
ter the restoration, its provisions were adopted by 
Charles the Second, with this addition, that the 
master and three fourths of the mariners, should 
also be English subjects. 
Whatever advantages the general commerce and 
navigation of England may have derived from this 
celebrated law, it must be allowed, that its original 
framers were actuated by no better motives (as a 
great writer* hath observed) than those of punishing 
the planters, and clipping the wings of the Dutch. 
The inhabitants of Barbadoes, justly considering 
the law as a chastisement inflicted on them by the 
commonwealth for their loyalty to Charles the Se- 
cise, should be laid, nor levy made on any of the inhabitants of this 
island, without their consent in a peneial assembly ; and that all laws 
that had been made by general assemblies, not repugnant to the laws 
of England, should be good. 
* Blackstone. 
