House of Commons
Friday, May 7, 1813.
Petitions Respecting the Cotton Trade
A Petition of the merchants of London, interested in the cotton trade, and in the sale and export of British manufactured goods, was presented and read; setting forth,
"That the petitioners have learnt with great surprize, that under the sanction of an Act passed in the 43d year of his Majesty's reign, evidently with a view to the importation of animal wool from Spain, it is now pretended that vegetable wool, the produce of the United States of America, may be imported from thence in neutral vessels, notwithstanding the war and the prohibition in the United States of our manufactures, and although such importation will tend so much to the benefit of the commercial and political resources of the enemy, and is in direct opposition to the interest of every class of his Majesty's subjects, particularly the manufacturers, the British ship-owners, the planters and cotton growers in our West and East India settlements, the merchants engaged in trade with these settlements, and those connected with the Brazil, Turkey, and other foreign trades to and from this country; and that the stock of cotton wool now on hand is, both in quantity and quality, more than equal to the consumption of our manufacturers for one year, and the further importations expected from our own colonies and friendly countries, if not checked by this unnatural and impolitic import from the United States, would secure a constant and abundant supply; and that, unless such importation from the United States be prevented by direct prohibition, the enterprize of the importing merchants from the East and West Indies and the Brazils will be completely paralyzed, the produce of our own colonies will be depressed, and that of our allies be thrown into other channels, to the evident injury of our manufacturers, whose goods would otherwise be sent in large quantities, and at fair prices, to Brazil, Portugal, and the East and West Indies, in payment or barter for the raw material; and that the injury to our shipping interest, by allowing the importation of an enemy's produce in neutral vessels, instead of encouraging that of the produce of our own colonies, and of our best allies, in British shipping, is so serious, and at the same time so obvious, that it need only be noticed to the House to excite perfect conviction of its impolicy and injustice, and the more especially as the carrying trade from the United States to Great Britain and Ireland has never been open to foreigners, and their being now engaged therein would afford a most injurious precedent; and that our thus fostering the agriculture and commerce of our enemies at our own expence will tend to relieve them, and particularly the southern states, where all their cotton is produced, from the pressure of that war which they have unjustly provoked; whereas the interdict of this commerce would, by privation and distress, make War unpopular among the people of the United States, and produce an anxious desire for peace; and that, if such intercourse with the United States is allowed, it will destroy our present and continued independence of that country for this important article of commerce by preventing its supply from other places, it will drain this country of specie to an enormous extent, it will add abundant pecuniary resources to the hostility of our enemy, whilst it will alienate the commerce of our friends, and cruelly depress the exertions and disappoint the hopes of our own colonial subjects; and that, after all, if our own best interests are thus sacrificed to obtain cotton from the United States, and this country is thereby unnecessarily rendered dependent for this essential commodity upon the caprice of the enemy, experience of American politics must satisfy the House that she will choose the first favourable opportunity to withhold her supplies at a time when, by the discouragement of other importations, the manufacturers may be exposed to the severest injuries and distress; and praying that the Act of the 43d of his Majesty's reign, cap. 153, as far as the same may be considered to authorize the importation of cotton wool from the United States, may be repealed, and that the importation, either directly or circuitously, of cotton wool the produce of the United States of America, may be absolutely prohibited during the war, and so long as America shall generally refuse admission of our manufactures"
A Petition of the planters and merchants now in London, interested in the cultivation of cotton in the British West India colonies, was also presented and read; setting forth,
"That, during several years past, the price of cotton at the British market has been so inadequate to the expence of its culture in the British colonies as to afford the growers of that article, in scarcely any instance, more than two per cent. and in many instances no return whatever upon their capital, while some, by actual losses, have been compelled to abandon their plantations, or to convert them under grievous disadvantages to other uses; and that, independently of the accumulated expences of a long war, and the obstacles it has occasioned to the export of the cotton manufactures of the mother country, the British cotton planter has had to contend in the home market with the American cultivator of this article, subject to none of the expences of war, nor to any countervailing burthen sufficient to protect the interests of the British colonies, and to secure to them that preference which has ever been acknowledged to be their right, as having been settled by the capital, and confined by law to the trade and shipping of the mother country; and that, upon a declaration of war against this country by the United States of America, a small and temporary advance took place in the price of cotton, and hopes were entertained that that article might again pay the expence of cultivation in our colonies, but that these hopes have been depressed by the continuance of the Act of the 43d of his present Majesty (which permits the introduction of wool into this country by neu- trals,) by a perseverance in the system of licences, and by the incomplete nature of that blockade which has been imposed upon a part of the United States, under which circumstances it is with reason apprehended that a great part of the cotton produced in North America will still find its way to the markets of the United Kingdom in a manner highly favourable to the commercial and financial resources of the enemy, and perhaps, by transfer of seamen and shipping, to the maintenance of his naval strength; and that the West India colonies of Great Britain, the sure supports of her commercial and naval prosperity, are capable, under proper encouragement, of greatly extending their cultivation of cotton, both to her further emolument and strength, and with increased advantage and additional internal security to themselves; and that the present juncture appears favourable for affording an encouragement necessary for an object so important, and for diminishing that dependence upon foreign supply, which must prove eventually detrimental to our manufactures, by discouraging the steady and permanent supply from our own resources; and that the tax which has been proposed to the House to impose upon the American cotton during the war will not afford to the British colonies the protection and encouragement requisite, so long as the means are left open by licences or otherwise for the importation of that article into the United Kingdom; and praying, that the House will take such measures, as to its wisdom shall seem fit, for prohibiting, during the continuance of the war with the United States of America, all importation, direct or indirect, of cotton produced in those states."
Ordered to lie on the table.
Admiralty Registrar's Bill
brought up the Report of the Committee on the Bill for regulating the office of Registrar of the High Court of Admiralty. The amendments were read a first time. On the motion that they be read a second time,
allowed that although the balances remaining in the hands of the Registrar were not so great as imagined by the hon. and learned framer of the Bill, yet that they were sufficient to call upon parliament to provide that they should be placed in the Bank of England rather than left in the hands of any individual, however honourable, and however his security might be such as to be exceeded by none but that which was greater than any other. He thought it therefore desirable that the Bill should pass, but he also thought it desirable that it should be recommitted (some of itsprovisions being objectionable), in the hope that a right hon. and learned friend of his would assist in moulding it into a less exceptionable shape. With respect to the noble individual by whom the office in question was then held—an office already so regulated by parliament, that after the existing tenure had ceased, its emoluments were no longer to be indefinite, but limited by law—he contended, that on every principle of justice that noble individual was entitled to retain the advantage which he had hitherto enjoyed (and which was equivalent to a freehold property) of receiving the interest of the money of suitors left in the hands of the court He could see no reason whatever for stepping in between that officer and the benefits vested in the office for a period defined by the law. In the committee he should propose a clause to that effect; and for this purpose, and for the advantage of the corrections to which he had alluded, he would move, as an amendment, that the Bill be re-committed.
briefly supported the claims of the present Registrar, and maintained the propriety of re-committing the Bill.
expressed his willingness to avail himself of any suggestions that might render the Bill less imperfect, but strongly objected to leaving to the Registrar the benefit of the interest of the suitors' money. He would not, however, oppose the re-committal.
A conversation arose, in which Mr. Rose, Mr. Stephen, Mr. Martin, Mr. Whit-bread, &c. participated, relative to the interpretation to be put on some of the official returns relative to the amount of the property of suitors remaining in the hands of the court; and the Bill was ordered to be re-committed on this day se'nnight, pursuant to the motion of the noble lord:
Naval Arsenals at Deptford and Woolwich
said, he rose, pursuant to notice, to move for the production of the Fifteenth Report of the Commissioners of Naval Revision, for the purpose of introducing the subject of the projected abandonment of the naval arsenals of Deptford and Woolwich, and the erection of a new naval arsenal at North-fleet. For many years he had turned his mind to that subject, and was intimately acquainted with all the difficulties which mariners encountered in the navigation of the Thames; these difficulties, though they appeared insurmountable to many, he was confident from his own observations, confirmed and corroborated by the surveys of skilful engineers, might be easily overcome without the abandonment of two such extensive and excellent arsenals as those at Woolwich and Deptford. He had not been able to procure a copy of the Fifteenth Report of the Naval Commissioners, but he had consulted documents which he was given to understand had appertained to the late lord Melville, in which he found all the reasons for the abandonment of the arsenals arrayed in the same manner as they were rumoured to be in the Report of the Naval Commissioners. The reasons were stated to be three in number. First, the shoals of mud extending towards Deptford and several miles below Woolwich, though they did not prevent the passage of vessels during high water, nevertheless, incommoded them much during low water, and compelled them to dispatch their stores in lighters to the manifest detriment of the speedy equipment of the fleets. Secondly, the natural windings of the river, turning at one time towards the north and then making a bold sweep in a direction nearly south, prevented vessels from proceeding rapidly from the quick and difficult turns which it was found necessary to make, and the consequent exposure to a contrary wind as they winded with the coops of the river. This circumstance retarded the operations of equipment, and before the memorable battle of Trafalgar the transports for the fleet were retarded in that manner a whole month; Thirdly, the mud accumulated so fast into shoals, that a new dock was found to be absolutely necessary for the acceleration of naval equipments. Such being the reasons for the erection of the new arsenal, he was prepared to propose the introduction of the plan of an excellent engineer which would effectually remedy all that the Naval Commissioners had complained of. The engineer proposed to cut a canal from Long Reach to Deptford, by private subscription, occasioning an annual expence of 50,000l. the payment of which was to be guaranteed by the public. For the purpose of examining the merits of the plan by comparison with the opinions of the Commissioners, he begged leave to move "that an Address should be presented to the Prince Regent, praying that he would be graciously pleased to order the Fifteenth Report of the Commissioners of Naval Revision to be laid before the House"
said, that it would not be necessary for him to trouble the House at length on this question. The hon. mover proceeded on two assumptions: first, that a large naval arsenal was to be built, and second, that the existing dock yards at Woolwich and Deptford were to be abandoned. The first assumption was premature, and the second still more so. A sufficient answer to the hon. gentleman's motion was, that the government would not undertake any work at Northfleet, without submitting the subject to the consideration of parliament. On this ground he should give his vote against the motion.
said, that he understood the present motion to be a side wind to introduce a Canal Bill. This canal, if established, would have the effect of taxing all shipping which approached the port of London, whether they passed through the canal or no This work, of which the capital was 305,000l. had been subscribed to only by ten persons, at 1,000l. each. A profit was to be guaranteed by government to sleeping partners, and for this was the shipping of the kingdom, already too much burthened, to be oppressed.
opposed the motion. The proposal for a canal had been thrown out very loosely when the Admiralty had appeared to support it, but had upon examination been found inexpedient. The projector of this canal had at first proposed to do away with the poor Thames altogether, and bring a canal to Vauxhall. The hon. gentleman who spoke last had misunderstood the hon. mover, as to the taxing ships in the river; a surer plan had been adopted by proposing to secure the interest by taxing the whole kingdom.
said, that the only ground for this motion was, that the undertakers of a great and useful work should be guaranteed that the capital they expended would not be rendered unproductive. Anchorage for 680 ships would be required in time of peace, and it certainly would not be lost time for a committee to enquire, how far this could be afforded by the canal in question.
The motion was negatived without a division.
then moved, "That a Select Committee be appointed to enquire whether the carrying into execution a plan, proposed by a Bill, intituled, the Royal Clarence Canal Bill, read a first time in this House, for making a canal navigable for ships of war of any size, with their guns, stores and tackle, from Woolwich to Erith, be practicable, and at what ex-pence the same is proposed to be made, and further to enquire whether the completion of the said canal may not tend effectually to obviate the delays vessels often experience from the winding of the reaches in the channel of the river Thames between Woolwich and Erith, and the dangers arising from the different shoals in those reaches, and further to enquire whether its completion would not render the access to the present dock yards of Woolwich and Deptford, so much shorter, more easy and certain, as, together with the advantage of affording a convenient basin, in which all ships launched from or to be refitted in these yards may, contiguous to the arsenal at Woolwich, either get on board or land their guns, stores and tackle, and thereby obviate the necessity of abandoning and destroying the present yards at Deptford and Woolwich as proposed and recommended by the 15th Report of the Commissioners of Naval Revision, and further to report the opinion, if, on the completion of the said canal, the advantages accruing as above to the public will not be so great as to render it expedient for the public to guarantee the interest of a sum not exceeding 300,000l. proposed to be laid out and advanced by a joint stock company, on the works being completely executed"
opposed the motion, as calculated only to lend countenance to an illusory speculation.
After some further conversation between Mr. Rose, Mr. Moore, and Mr. Alderman Atkins, the question was put, and negatived without a division.