to foretell what, in a given time, must be the result of such a progress. But this is not all. From the table quoted below, it appears that the vessels belonging to the United Kingdom have actually declined in the ten years since the reciprocity system began; that the decline in shipping belonging to the European trade has been very considerable; and that it is the great increase of vessels for the Colonial trade, where the reciprocity system is not yet applied, which alone has prevented the decay over the whole empire from being still more alarming; and this lamentable result has taken place, at the very time when our exports and imports have increased so immensely, that if they had been carried on as heretofore mainly in British bottoms, our shipping should have increased a half during the same time! From the valuable table quoted below, it appears, that since the year 1820, the exports and imports of the British islands have increased fully a half, while their shipping has actually declined! † The immense difference must have been carried out and in from the empire somehow ; and if we turn to the column exhibiting the growth of foreign tonnage entering the British harbours during the same time, we find that it has more than doubled, having risen from 433,000 tons to 896,000 tons annually. This is a most lamentable result. From this it appears that the increase of our exports and imports, so far from adding to, is actually dimi nishing our strength; that it is carried on in foreign bottoms; and that while the vast increase of our manufactured exports has not added one ton or vessel to the British naval strength, it is augmenting that of our enemies in a most fearful progression; at a rate greater than the British shipping increased even during the most prosperous period of the war.‡ From 1792 to 1800, under the unparalleled stimulus of the war, the British tonnage increased only from 1,540,000, tons to 1,905,000, or a little more than a fourth; but the foreign shipping, in a similar period, under the fostering hand of the reciprocity system, has increased from 433,000 tons to 896,000, or more than doubled. The command of the ocean, and the monopoly of the trade of the world, could only do a quarter as much for our own navy in eight years of war, as the reciprocity system has done for our enemies in eight years of peace. Now, here is a progress which reminds us of the prosperous days of the British Empire. Here are various branches of trade carried on with our own colonies, and, of course, entirely in British vessels, in which the growth of our mercantile navy has been really prodigious. In twelve years the tonnage employed in the trade to New Holland has multiplied TENFOLD: in the same time, that employed in the Canada trade, has risen from 340,000 to 500,000 tons, or nearly a fifth of the whole trade of the Empire. This is the state of our Colonial trade; growing rapidly and steadily in every quarter except the West In Years. AMERICA. dies-a portion of the British empire, in which it has actually fallen off; the insane and oppressive policy so long pursued by our Government towards those splendid Colonies, having more than counterbalanced all the richest gifts of nature, -a virgin soil, a tropical sun, luxuriant vegetation, and scenery of almost fabulous beauty. Contrast this striking and gratifying result with the working of the reciprocity system in the three countries which Mr Huskisson specified, as affording the inductive cause of the change of system, viz. America, Prussia, and the Netherlands: Foreign. Tons. 1821 28,411 140,776 79,590 37,720 71,631 47,121 1822 73,853 156,054 102,847 58,270 70,049 62,648 681 Progress of Social Disorganization. Thus, it appears, that the reciprocity system, introduced, as Mr Huskisson stated, under the threat of retaliatory measures from Prussia, has had the effect of diminishing the British tonnage employed in the trade with that country, from 87,000 tons annually to 83,000, and of increasing the Prussian from 60,000 The in 1820, to 140,000 in 1831. Netherlands exhibited the same result till 1830; the British shipping having only increased during that time from 70,000 tons to 117,000, that is, somewhat more than a half; whereas the foreign had increased from 43,000 to 97,000, or more than doubled. Since the Revolution of 1830, almost the whole trade of the Netherlands has fallen into the hands of the British; a memorable instance of the insanity of manufacturing demagogues in urging on the adoption Vessels Built and Registered. Years. Great Britain & Ireland. [May, of measures which are to consign We shall add only one other set of returns to the numerous details with which we have overloaded this paper. It is the return of the number of ships built in the British dominions since the reciprocity system began, as compared with the exports and imports before that important change in our policy. Colonies. 1820 635 248 1821 597 275 29,724,000 50,796,000 1822 571 209 29,401,000 52,770,000 1823 604 243 34,591,000 51,773,000 1824 837 342 36,141,000 58,218,000 1825 1003 536 42,661,000 55,608,000 1826 1131 588 36,069,000 50,401,000 1827 911 529 43,467,000 61,082,000 1828 857 464 43,396,000 61,957,000 1829 42,311,000 66,072,000 1830 750 367 44,815,000 69,028,000 1831 760 376 48,161,000 1832 758 This Table is highly instructive as to the working of the reciprocity system. It thence appears, that while the imports of the empire have increased, since 1820, a half, and the exports have risen in the same proportion, the ships annually built now are only a sixth greater in the British islands than at the commencement of that period, and, in fact, they are hardly so numerous at this time as they were twenty years ago, when our foreign trade was little more than half its present amount. This result is the more instructive as to 44,586,000 70,820,000 76,071,000 the operation of the reciprocity system, because the ships built in the colonies during the same period have fully kept pace with the growth of our foreign trade, the quantity annually built in those distant possessions having increased from about 250 to 375, or just a half. If the ships built at home had kept pace with our foreign commerce, and not been depressed by some peculiar cause, instead of the quantity annually built being now 750, it would have been 1100. We shall only add, that the num The reciprocity was begun in 1820, by a separate regulation for America. ber of British ships that passed the Sound in 1831, was 4772, and in 1832, only 3330, exhibiting a decrease in the latter year of 1442; while in foreign vessels there was an increase of 1125 in the latter year, as compared with the former-a decisive proof of the working of the reciprocity system in the Baltic trade. Proceeding upon the data already obtained, it is possible to predict, with tolerable certainty, the period when our maritime superiority must be at an end, our colonial empire broken up, and our national independence irretrievably destroyed. Eight years of the reciprocity system have put a total stop to the growth of our own shipping, while it has doubled that of the other European powers, and raised their tonnage entering our harbours from 433,000 to 896,000. At the same rate, in eight years more, the foreign shipping which we nourish with our exports and imports, will be 1,800,000 tons, and in sixteen 3,600,000; or above a million more than the whole shipping of Great Britain! Our whole maritime strength will then have passed over to our enemies; the commerce of England, carried on in foreign bottoms, will have put into their hands the weapons which are to destroy us, and the British empire will be numbered with the things that have been! Then will appear at once, how universal, how profound, is the jealousy of the English maritime power, which has so long been nursed by Continental States. An alliance, cordial as that which took place against France,-a crusade universal as that which overthrew Napoleon, will at once be formed. From the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, the crusading warriors will come forth; the liberty of the seas will be their watchword; the principles of the armed neutrality will resound through the Baltic; the avengers of the 2d April will start up round the Trekroner Battery of Copenhagen; the shades of De Ruyter and Van Tromp will reanimate the Dutch; the recollection of the Nile and Trafalgar stimulate the French; the disgrace of St Vincent's and Cadiz rouse the inert spirit of the Spaniards. Where shall we find another Nelson-a second Blake, to dispel the confederacy? Even if the spirit of these heroes of the deep should descend upon their successors, where shall we find the dauntless seamen, the boundless resources, which a patriotic Government placed at their command? These resources are not only lost to us, but they are gained to our enemies; the shipping of Europe has not diminished, it has only changed hands; as much as the British pendant has disappeared from the ocean, have foreign flags increased; as much as naval strength has passed from us, has it grown in the harbours of our enemies. With our own hands we have laid the axe to the root of our prosperity; with our eyes open we have transferred the sinews of our strength to other States; with our own arms we have torn up the foundations of our national greatness, and prepared slavery for ourselves and our children! If the increase of British shipping had followed, as it always did, during the period when the Navigation Laws were in force, the augmentation of our exports and imports,* the growth of our shipping and tonnage since 1823 should have been about a half: instead of 2,600,000 tons, the British empire should have possessed 3,700,000 tonnage of shipping. Where has the difference gone? Over to our enemies; to Russia, Prussia, the Netherlands, France, and America; the very powers whose hostility Take as an example the parallel growth of British Exports, Imports, and Shipping, from 1788 to 1814. against the maritime superiority of this country is inveterate; who, differing on most other subjects as far as the poles are asunder, cordially concur in that one feeling of envy and animosity. Let the opinions of the continental writers, and journalists, and his torians, be examined. It will be found, that, differing on almost every other subject, they are unanimous in their hatred at Great Britain; that royalists and republicans, Carlists and Doctrinaires, Russians and French, Dutch and Prussians, all concur in invectives against the British maritime power, and panegyrics on all the sovereigns who have endeavoured to unite the European Powers into one formidable maritime league against this country. Even the terrors of Napoleon, and the pressing dangers of his tremendous power and insatiable ambition, were unable to divert them from this one favourite object; and the confederacy of the Baltic Powers in 1800, which was dissolved by the death of Paul and the cannon of Nelson, meets with unqualified approbation from every continental writer without exception; although the only effect of success, on the part of the league, would have been to subject them permanently and irrecoverably to the military power of France. So far does this fancied grievance of the dominion of the sea by Great Britain carry them, that their most enlightened writers of all parties speak of it as the most serious misfortune of modern times, and an evil which has more than counterbalanced in its ultimate effects the downfall of the Napoleon dynasty. It is into the hands of powers, and people animated with these sentiments, that the reciprocity system is rapidly and steadily transferring the naval resources of England. It will probably occur to every impartial person, that the preceding tables exhibit a sufficiently alarming view of the relative effect of the reciprocity system upon British and foreign naval strength. But in truth, the reality is much beyond what these figures would lead us to suppose. For, as the British shipping is much employed in the trade to the adjoining States, and foreign vessels in the intercourse with their own more distant countries, and as every time that a vessel enters or clears out, its tonnage is entered in the customhouse books, it follows, that the British vessels, which make in great part the short foreign voyages, and are so frequently entered, must exhibit an array of tonnage in proportion to their amount, incomparably greater than the foreign, which are engaged in the more remote. For the same reason, the tonnage of the Netherlands and Prussia exhibits a much greater apparent increase than that of Russia or America. If this important circumstance is kept in view, and applied to the returns already laid before the reader, it will probably be deemed no exaggeration to affirm, that, while the British shipping, since the reciprocity system began, has stood still, that of foreign nations carrying on the commerce of Great Britain, has more than doubled. The impolicy of the reciprocity system, therefore, is now demonstrated, by experience, beyond the possibility of a doubt; and it is equally evident, that if persevered in for ten years longer, it will raise up the shipping of foreign nations to a level with our own, and at once destroy our naval superiority and national independence. We do not deny, that when Mr Huskisson broke up the Navigation Laws in 1820 and 1823, he had great difficulties to contend with; and that the obstacles recently arisen, which then appeared to him to render an abandonment of that system necessary, were most embarrassing. We feel the force of what he so constantly urged, that the monopoly, or exclusive advantages given to British shipping by that act, would work smoothly only so long as foreign nations, either from fear, supineness, or indifference, did not attempt measures of retaliation; and that the moment they did so, a most distressing embarrassment would arise, which might considerably prejudice our export trade. All that is perfectly true; but what we rest upon is this-Defence is of more importance than wealth; it is better to have liberty than worldly goods. Considerations of opulence or convenience are as nothing, when put in comparison with national independence. If matters had come to that pass, that one or other required to be sa |