An Account of the Number of Vessels, with the Amount of their Tonnage, and the Number of Men and Boys employed in navigating the fame, (including their repeated Voyages,) which entered inwards, and cleared outwards, in the feveral Ports of Ireland, from, or to, all Parts of the World, between the 5th of January 1804, and the 5th of January 1805, diftinguishing Irish, British, and Foreign Veffels, and the Countries from whence the faid Veffels arrived, or to which they were bound. Ships. Tons. Men. Ships. Tons. Men. Ships. Tons. Men. Ships. Tons. Men. NAVIGATION ACTS. The origin of thofe wife and patriotic ftatutes, known by the name of Navigation Acts, has been already mentioned in vol. ii. p. 226, and it is intended in this place to fulfil the promife made in that part of the work, of giving a more particular account of thefe regulations. It has already been obferved that the clamour of foreign nations against the navigation act of England, as the invention of Cromwell, is utterly without foundation. "The navigation fyftem of Great Britain," fays Lord Sheffield, its able and patriotic defender, "has not been the work of an hour, or of a day; but has its decided fanction from experience and from time, and has been brought to maturity by the growth of centuries. We are told of the vigour of Cromwell, and the animofity of St. John *, and resentment against the Dutch. But the navigation laws of England had a much earlier commencement; and the principle on which they were founded is to be traced in the early maritime systems of Europe, and was adopted not only in our charters for founding colonics in America, but long before thofe charters were in exiflence. The celebrated navigation code of Venice and Genoa, at the time thofe wealthy republics enjoyed comparatively the commerce of the world, collected in the confolato del mare, was very early introduced, and feems almoft the original of the English fyftem. It was evidently a very great extenfion of, and improvement on the maritime fyftem of ancient Rhodes, whofe naval laws were fo far diftinguiflied as to have been adopted by the Romans. Even fo far back as the 5th of Richard M. it was ordained," that no merchandize fhall be shipped out of "the realm, but in Britifh fhips, on pain of forfeiture ;" and, though, fubfequent to that period, for about one hundred years, in confequence of the civil wars between the houfes of York and Lancaster, there was little attention paid to maritime regulations by the policy of the times, the principles of the navigation fyftem occupied the care and attention of fucceeding legislatures, until they were completely arranged and established in one falutary code. In 1646, the firft act was pafled for more effectually fecuring the trade of the British colonics in the Weft Indies to Britifh fhipping. In 1651, the act, commonly called Cromwell's Act, was paffed; and another act was pafled in 1660, for the encouragement of British navigation, but incomparably better digefted, and of more extenfive import. This act, by which the most decifive protection was afforded to the carrying trade and shipping interefts of the empire, has been justly term St. John having brought proposals to the government of Holland, which were haughtily refused, and having been, befides, as he thought, personally in ut d by the States, loudly and effectually folicited the Engl th council of state to pass the noble act of 1651. Ludlow's Mem, vol. i. p. 345. |