commerce; the other, with the same view towards our shipping interest. As the navigation laws at present stood, there were certain of them, by which Holland, the Netherlands, and Germany, as to a variety of articles, were absolutely excluded from our commerce; with respect to some of those articles, indeed, they were cut off from all intercourse with this country in any shape whatever. These restrictions he should propose to do away. He could consider them only as the vestiges of that ancient distrust and enmity which, he trusted, in these days existed no more. This country could no longer entertain the same ill will towards them. Holland, for instance, had ceased to be the object of national jealousy-to be the emporium of the world, or the general carrier between all nations. The intended removal of certain other restrictions, which were imposed upon our commerce with Russia and a part of Turkey, would have the effect, he trusted, of leaving the trade of this country, with the whole of Europe, infinitely more free and open than it at present was. By the bill in question, he should propose to make one or two additions only to what were called the enumerated articles of the statute of Charles II.; and to articles so enumerated, would then be confined all the restrictions which would, for the future, be laid on the mutual commerce of Great Britain and those countries. There was another restriction which he also should propose to remove. It regarded our commerce, both with European powers and those of other continents. The enumerated articles which he had before alluded to, could, under the existing laws, be imported into this country only in ships of the countries which such articles were the produce of, or in British bottoms. This part of the law he was desirous of repealing, considering it to be of the most vexatious operation. If a merchant,

resident in any one of such countries, was desirous of exporting any article, the particular produce of it, and had a vessel in the port, but belonging to an. other state, he could not send it hither by that vessel, but must take up a British one, or wait till he could charter one of his own nation. This was at once vexatious and injurious to the foreign merchant, and inefficient for the purposes of our own law. The only effect of this arrangement was, to make the assortment of the cargo more tedious and inconvenient. The whole of this enactment, therefore, he proposed to do away. Another defect of the present system arose out of the division of Europe into kingdoms. It was well known that there was a great difference in that division, between the age of Charles II. and the present time; and the consequence was, that the law made distinctions which were perfectly unfounded. What was France in that day was not France now. Thus, goods might come from Calais, a port of France, without any interruption; which very goods, as coming from Dunkirk, now equally a port of France, were absolutely prohibited by the existing law. Could anything be more absurd? To avoid the recurrence of similar anomalies, he proposed to destroy these distinctions of countries altogether, and to substitute for them the distinctions of articles of produce. As the law now stood, the produce of Asia, Africa, and America, could only be brought to this kingdom from the ports of those continents directly. But he should suggest the alteration of this ordinance. If Asiatic produce, for instance, were shipped from a port in America, he should propose that it be permitted to be exported from America hither. After all the inquiries he had been able to make, he was perfectly convinced that the foreign ship could not trade cheaper than the British ship; but, on the contrary, that, if

the British ship had only fair play, it could trade much more cheaply than the foreigner. He would propose farther to secure the preservation of our shipping by the imposition of a duty on all property imported from Africa, Asia, or America, in European vessels not being British; and this duty would be put on, not for the purpose of raising any large revenue from it; but with the view of preventing such im. portations from becoming an habitual trade. His grand object was, to make Great Britain the general depot of the commercial produce of the world; and with this view, he wished to extend, as far as possible, the benefit of the bonded and warehousing systems. His ultimate aim would be to do away with every kind of prohibition that now existed in our commercial system. Experience had proved that the principle of prohibition had no effective operation. It raised the price of the article; and yet the article under that disadvantage, and with an additional cost to cover the risk, always obtained a sale; instances were not wanting, where a commodity was sought after while the prohibition existed, but of which, when the prohibition was removed, the consumption ceased. It was to be lamented that the foreign trade of this country had long laboured under very severe burdens, which were in a high degree injurious to it.

The only speaker who made any serious objection to the system here laid down, was Mr Marryatt, who stood up as firmly as ever, the advocate of the old English mercantile system. "Wherever," said he, " our navigation laws and colonial policy are the subject of discussion, they are constantly attacked by certain gentlemen, who take every opportunity to preach up the new, but delusive and dangerous doctrine, of free trade, and the abolition of all restrictions upon foreign competition. This course has

been pursued on the present occasion. Those who condemn our navigation system, and apply to it the epithets of prohibitory, exclusive, and illiberal, do injustice to its true character. The leading feature of that system is, that all commodities shall be imported into Great Britain, either in a British ship, or in a ship belonging to the country of which those commodities are the growth, produce, or manufacture,—a regulation founded on the most perfect justice and reciprocity, because it places the foreign ships of every country on precisely the same footing as British ships, in the trade with those countries, and therefore is a principle of which no power can reasonably complain. It is certainly not favourable to the growth of our own foreign commerce, or of that opulence which arises out of it; but while it makes commercial profit a subordinate object, it lays the foundation of naval power, by securing to British-built ships, manned with British seamen, the carrying trade of all the commodities Great Britain imports from those countries which have no shipping of their own; which was the case when the navigation laws were first passed, with Asia, Africa, and America. The exceptions which have since been made in favour of America and the Brazils, are not relaxations of the navigation system, but merely adaptations of it to existing circumstances, placing those countries, as soon as they had shipping of their own, on the same footing as the European powers, which possessed shipping when the navigation laws were originally passed. The great object of our ancestors in framing those laws was, to establish a belligerent navy. Although not commercial profit, but naval power, was the original object of those who framed our navigation laws, yet both have been most successfully accomplished by them, in the result. From the extent to which Great Britain has raised her manufac

tures and her colonial acquisitions, her imports and exports far exceed those of any power on the globe; and, under her navigation system, all her commerce with her colonies and dependencies, and those states in different parts of the world, which have no shipping of their own, is carried on exclusively in British ships manned by British seamen. The principle of this system is at once simple and comprehensive, and may be said to apply the greatest possible extent of human wisdom to the widest possible range of human action. Surely, then, we should be careful not to touch with rash hands, a system, the excellence of which has been proved by the experience of a century and a half, and under which we have attained to a degree of commercial prosperity and naval power, unprecedented in the annals of history. It is highly important to bear in mind, that at some future period we must be again engaged in war. We shall then have no nursery for seamen, and our maritime power must be transferred to those nations who will have become possessed of our carrying trade. Thus the result of the proposed measure will be, the ruin of our naval greatness; which will decline gradually in time of peace, but suddenly in time of war. In the former state, we shall die by inches; in the latter, we shall be put out of our pain at once. We are placed in an artificial state of society, and this must be taken into account in all our calculations."

Mr Marryatt particularly entreated the House, and seemingly with considerable reason, to consider how our colonial interests would be affected, by the adoption of this new system. "At present, our colonies trade with Great Britain alone; they are bound to take everything from her, and send everything to her, in British ships; she giving them, in return for this double. monopoly, a preference of the home consumption of their produce in her market. The committee, in their report, talk of preserving the supply of our colonial possessions with British manufactures under this new system; but surely this must have been written without due consideration. But if on the principle of buying everything where it can be bought cheapest, and taking off all restrictions merely protective against foreign competition, you deprive them of the protection they now enjoy in the home consumption of your market, it will be impossible for them to exist; restriction and protection must go together; either both must be continued, or both aban. doned. The colonies must have the same privilege of free trade, in the purchase of their supplies, which you claim in the purchase of your produce; and under the same free trade, must be allowed to find other markets for that produce which you repudiate."

Notwithstanding these observations, no attempt was made to divide the House against the resolutions.

We shall conclude our account of the present session with some detached proceedings, which could not with propriety be included under any of the above general heads.

The licentiousness of the press had of late been loudly and repeatedly complained of, and had, indeed, during the course of the proceedings against the Queen, risen to an almost unprecedented height. The observation of it gave rise to a measure, as to the expediency of which some doubts may be entertained. A number of distinguished individuals, attached to administration, but not connected with it, formed themselves into an association for the purpose of prosecuting publications deemed libellous against state or church. The danger was, that such an association, or rather the officers to whom its concerns were intrusted, having prosecution for their especial charge, would be disposed to press to the utmost extent a measure which, on the contrary, it were desirable to contract within the narrowest eligible limits.

The assuming into the hands of individuals a function which naturally belongs to the executive government, though it could not, under the circumstances, be deemed an unconstitutional encroachment, seems yet to detract from the weight and dignity of the crown, and to imply an insinuation, as if it did not possess energy sufficient for the support of its own rights. If the society, indeed, could take off from government the odium which such proceedings, even when necessary, can with difficulty escape, they might be considered as acting generously; but we rather suspect, that, while the odium of a prosecution under this form is greater, it will all in the end light on the government, in whose cause, and under whose understood approval, the measure is undertaken.

This subject was brought repeatedly before the House, partly upon motions by Mr Brougham, and Mr S. Whitbread, partly by petitions from individuals who had become the objects of prosecution.

Mr Brougham, on the 23d May, said he did not mean to contend that, by law, this right was vested solely in the Solicitor and Attorney-General, for he held that, by law, any man could proceed against another for a public offence. After the many associations which had existed for the prosecution of felonies, it would be hard to raise a question with respect to their strict legality. But the proceedings of these associations had always been confined to the prosecution of felonies, or of those odious crimes which came more immediately under the cognizance of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, which, at the time of its establishment, was strongly objected to, on the ground of its impropriety, but with respect to which, he wished to be understood to give no decided opinion. The Society for the Suppression of Vice, however, by confining itself to the object of its institution, and connecting itself with no party, had done less mischief than had been apprehended at the time of its establishment, and had even effected some good. But there was a society now in existence, of a perfectly different nature, which meant to proceed to the prosecution of political offences, to be selected at the discretion of political feeling. The prosecutions were to be conducted by means of a common fund, and no person of respectability could be fixed upon as immediately responsible for the acts of the society. He did not mean to say there were no respectable individuals connected with the association. He knew, indeed, that there were many most respectable persons connected with it, to whom, on the present occasion, he wished to address himself only in the language of expostulation. He believed that many persons had entered into this association, without see

ing how likely it was to be perverted to improper objects-without being aware that they were lending the credit of their names to proceedings, of which, if they did not hereafter repent, he, knowing their sound constitutional principles, should be surprised. Hitherto the office of prosecuting for offences, to which this society professed to oppose itself, had been vested in the Attorney-General, who was open to the influence of public opinion, which restrained him in the exercise of a very high, and, if not coupled with responsibility, a very dangerous political power. Indeed, by many persons, it had been deemed too high a power to be intrusted to any individual, however responsible for the exercise of his trust. But here was a set of individuals, under the name of a Constitutional Association, proposing to exercise the functions of the law-officers of the Crown, without any responsibility whatever. Mr Brougham afterwards complained that the association was not satisfied with convictions-with the surrender upon oath of the dangerous stocks of the venders of seditious publications, and with expressions of contrition to Mr J. B. Sharp; but the parties were required to enter into an engagement never again to drive the same trade! Now, here he must protest against a society of this sort attempting to erect a jurisdiction of its own, as it were, to indict sundry persons whom it might choose to proceed against; and then threatening the party with all those further measures which could be resorted to by an association backed by ample funds, and supported by all those powerful names which it put forth. The person proceeded against, was menaced with ruin if he held out; for defence would amount to ruin with such an association; and the party could have nothing else to look to, unless he came forward and express