MORE COMPLAINTS OF THE SHIPOWNERS. cumbering themselves of the old
ones.
quality and estimation of British tonnage—the embarrassment, tip cay, and ruin this country arc not to be deprived of the means of a comfortable
the purpose of reiterating their complaints against the reciprocity • The British shipping employed in the trade of the United Kingdom, entered 2, elj,147 tons. out- system, and mingling lamentations on the miserable condition of wards to 1 ,930, Iva:: their trade. And if their asseverations are to be received without
—the embarrassment, decay, and ruin of the British shipowner" —are incontrovertible.
For this state of things the shipowners have but one remedy on REFRACTORY CIIURCHWARDENS. which they profess to place much reliance—a recourse to the prin- ciples, if not the express enactments, of the old Navigation-laws.
blishment is not, we fear, in a very forward state of preparation. But the causes which induced the partial adoption of a recipro- Our readers will remember, that in a late Number of the Spectator city system, are to the full as cogent now as in 1826, when the we mentioned Lord ALTHORP S circular to the Churchwardens in British Government was assailed with representations from the England and Wales, requesting speedy information relative to the shipowners against the heavy charges levied in foreign ports on amount, ownership, &e. of Church property in their respective our vessels. These charges the Prussians were at that time
parishes : his Lordship was comparatively indifferent reparing to augment; and the only means that could be devised fferent as to the ac- to prevent the execution of a design so disastrous to our ship ing
to have it soon. If this information is essential to the completion as well as our manufactures, was to agree to a measure f,.)r abolishing all discriminating duties on the ships and goods of of his plan of Ecclesiastical Reform, we hope that the Church- the respective countries in the ports of both. It is the aim of our wardens in general have been rather more communicative than
their brethren of a certain parish in the hundred of Wirral in shipowners, the end of all their endeavours, to recur to a state of Cheshire, the name of which, for some reason, is not given in the things which a few years ago they found insupportable; and
Times; from whose columns the following extract is made. which, even had it been advantageous to their peculiar business, " The Churchwardens of this parish having been given to understand that it was prejudicial to the interests of the nation at large. is not the intention of Government to meddle with lay impropriations, in their But though it is true that our Navigation-laws have been re- meditated scheme of Church Reform, because your Lordship and many of your 'axed in regard to foreign trade, yet the protection enjoyed by that colleagues in office are large holders of lay impropriatious, beg to inform you that portion of our shipping interest which is concerned in the coast- rectory is a lay impropriation, and consequently exempt from making ing and colonial trade is still untouched. By the act passed in any returns to the proposed queries. Indeed, were it otherwise, we should feel the 6th of GEORGE the Fourth, it is declared, that no goods shall disposed to decline returning an answer to interrogatories respecting private pro.
be exported to any British colony or foreign possession except in
we refrain from expressing our surprise at the declaration openly avowed by your British ships, nor from one colony or possession to another ex- Lordship in your circular, that ' it will out be necessary that the return should cept in the same. The Colonial trade employs nearly a million of be precisely accurate.'" tons of shipping,—not far from one half of the whole owned in On this point, it is undeniable that Lord ALTHORP has rather England,*—to say nothing of the coasting trade, whichin this; as needlessly laid himself open to attack. The recusants of the un- in almost all countries, is carried on exclusively by natives. Thus known parish in Wirral hundred thus proceed with their courteous the shipowners have the monopoly of more than one half of the reply. carrying trade of the empire. It will hardly be contended, there- . Surely, my Lord, it is the part of wise legislators to obtain the most ac- fore, that this portion of it is unprofitable; as it is foreign, yet curate and authentic information, before they attempt to make enactments domestic competition, which is the subject of complaint.
That a vast proportion indeed of British shippirg is profitably employed, seems to be put beyond question, by the fact that new
reoce and support—act in ignorance—and mar every thing they pretend to mend. vessels are continually On the stocks. If our old shipowners could Nor are we satisfied that you and your colleagues have any more right to meddle have disposed of their entire stock in trade, a fe v years ago, to with, so as to deteriorate, the property belonging to any clergyman, or any foreign purchasers, and invested the proceeds in the building of
investment of their capital in new vessels, and gradually disen-
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