INTRODUCTION

TO THE

LAW OF SHIPPING AND NAVIGATION.

NAVIGATION LAWS.

to the law of

Navigation.

It will, perhaps, be readily admitted that, with the single Introduction exception of the soil, ships are the noblest property which Shipping and any country can possess, being machines of national defence as well as instruments of wealth to individuals. It is from these considerations that this species of property has always been taken under the special protection of the law; and adopted, not less as the means of naval power, than of commercial prosperity.

The comparative greatness of the British Empire is not, indeed, imputable to one cause only. A very considerable portion of it belongs to a system of religion which, on the one hand, is reformed from the superstitions of the Romish church; whilst, on the other, it maintains all those essentials of doctrine which are adapted, beyond all others, to the happiness of individuals and nations. Another portion belongs to our laws and constitution, in the liberty and protection of which every man finds equal encouragement in acquiring, as security in possessing. Another portion belongs likewise to our national habits and character; and, perhaps, in no inconsiderable degree, to that hereditary opinion of superiority, with which the

B

Introduction
to the Law of
Shipping and
Navigation.

meanest amongst us regards himself as a subject of the British empire. But the combined effect of all these causes is completed and crowned by our system of commerce; and more especially by those laws which regulate our trade and industry, with a view of rendering them concurrent instruments of our national power.

It is as unnecessary to remind the living advocates of this system, as it would have been presumptuous to have reminded the illustrious founders of it, that the first principle of commerce is a perfect freedom of trade; that in almost all cases it should be left to make and find its own way and that the best boon which legislators can bestow upon it, is to leave it unrestrained. The framers of our Navigation System, and those who have so ably maintained their doctrines in the present day, have as large, and certainly as just a comprehension of the nature of commerce, as those who have risen up in opposition to their principles. But they thought, and if we may judge from the effect, they thought justly, that nations as well as individuals had other and greater interests than mere present wealth; that the first concerns of a great empire were its safety, its glory, and its national character; and that, in comparison with these pursuits, commercial wealth was, a subordinate object; or, at least, that it derived its best value as means to those more important ends.

Under this consideration, they deemed it an enlarged prudence to tax our commerce for the sake of our public defence. They were aware that we might become richer under an unrestrained trade, than through a commerce however wisely regulated: but, as these regulations gave us a greater value in national defence than they subtracted from our immediate wealth, they conceived that they only sacrificed a less interest in pursuit of a greater. Hence our commerce has not been ignorantly yielded up to our navigation. Our Navigation System has not been adopted, as some have falsely asserted, as the means of advancing our commerce, but of maintaining and supplying the growth of our navy. And the effect has been what,

to the Law of

Navigation.

"

according to the experience of all nations, has always Introduction been the result of a large and generous prudence. Our Shipping and navy, which was at first supported at the expense of our trade, and, in fact, rose principally out of its restrictions, has now liberally paid back the aid which it borrowed: and by conquering so large a portion of the most fertile part of the globe into the sphere of our commerce, and by holding together the numerous members and remote dependencies of the British empire, has given us a market which mere commerce of itself could never have acquired. In this manner have our commercial greatness, and our naval power, become intermixed as reciprocal means and ends. Without our navy, in the present state of the world, and amidst the jealousy of so many rival nations, it would be absurd to indulge a momentary expectation that our commerce could either attain the eminence it possesses, or could long support itself in that superiority. And, without the sources of our commercial wealth, it would be manifestly impossible that the country could support the concurrent burthen of a great military and naval establishment. So impolitic must be every attempt to sever those interests, and so unwise every view which regards them as independent and adverse; because each is in a degree supported by a contribution from the other.

Whatever limits a large expatiating principle is necessarily a subtraction from its immediate beneficial operation. But such principle is only adverse where it takes › more than it gives; where it imposes restrictions without any return of a greater, or at least equal good. But this is not the relation of our commerce and Navigation System. What it takes in restriction, it gives back in: protection. What it takes in increased freight, (if, indeed, the effect of our Navigation Law does increase our freight,) it repays by enlarging the sphere of the sup-ply of raw materials, and the market for manufactured goods; by opening India, China and America to our shipping, and by maintaining and superintending the