THE FRENCH NAVIGATION LAWS.

West Coast Times, Issue 284, 21 August 1866, Page 2

THE FRENCH NAVIGATION LAWS.

(FROM MITCHELL'S MARITIME KEGISTER, APRIL 28.) The French Government have obtained another triumph, and have made another signal advance in the direction of commercial freedom. The passing of the Merchant Shipping Bill through the Corps Legislatif after an unusually protracted debate, in the course of which the measure was assailed with remarkable pertinacity and ability, is unquestionably the most important event which has occurred in France since the conclusion of the, Treaty of 1860. It is now nearly eight years since the shipowners of the United Kingdom, acting upon the advice \vhich we felt it our duty to offer them, and smarting under the sense of wrong, determined to bring their case before Parliament and the country, and to seek for that justice which had -been so long denied them. They asked simply that the compact made with them when the Navigation Laws were repealed should be kept, that those burdens which prevented them competing on fair terms with the foreigner in the ports of this country under a system of free trade should be removed, and that British shipping in the ports of foreign states should have the privileges, and experience the treatment, accorded to foreign Vessels in the ports of the United Kingdom. They asked, in short, thftt, as England had adopted the principal of free carrying trade, the British carrier should have the full benefit of the change, and not be placed at a disadvantage with the foreigner in the race on which both had entered. Of course the objects of the shipowners and their motives were misrepresented, but their case was too clearly made out, and too strong, to bfe overborne or deferred. They got what they asked for in the first instance — a fair and impartial investigation of their case. If they have not yet obtained all they sought, and hod a right to demand, they have succeeded in removing many impediments in the way of the prosecution of their trade, and of the devclopement of maritime commerce. They now see that the rest is but a question of time. And here we desire to make an acknowledgement to one who has unhappily passed out of the ranks of our public men, and who, so far at least, does not seem to have left a successor. To Mr W. S. Lindsay is due the credit of having brought the case of the shipping interest before Parliament, and of having obtained an enquiry, the beneficial results of which will long be felt by that branch of our national industry. He was also indefatigable in his efforts to press upon the French Government the adoption of that policy, the latest expression of which we find in the recent decision of the Corps Legislatif. The Merchant Shipping Committee of 1860, to whom was entrusted the task of investigating and reporting upon the case of the shipowners, found that neither at home nor abroad had the British shipowner the benefits which a system of free trade was supposed to confer — that, notwithstanding foreign flags had for ten years been admitted unreservedly to the ports of this country, British shipping was subjected to heavy differential duties in the indirect and colonial trades of five states, and absolutely excluded from the coasting trade of fifteen states, including France and America. In the report of this committee the question of reciprocity occupied a foremost and conspicuous place. "As regards France (observed the committee), under the treaty of 1826 British and French ships are placed on a footing of equality in the direct trade between the two countries ; but even in that trade our ships are subjected to higher dues than the shipping of other foreign countries in their direct intercourse with France, which must arise from the fact that those countries have secured in their treaties of reciprocity more favorable conditions than we have done. In the indirect foreign tiade, and especially in the colouial trade, British ships continue to labor under disabilities so serious that they are practically excluded from those trades ; ' and they are wholly excluded from the coasting trade of France and of Algeria." These words were written a few months after the conclusion of the Commercial Treaty. We felt satisSed at the time that the state of things they so faithfully describe was destined, under the natural operation of that arrangement, gradually but surely to pass away ; and we did not hesitate to point to a revision of the French Navigation Laws as a change which the Commercial Treaty had rendered imperative. So satisfied was Mr Lindsay that this must be so, that he moved a resolution for a maritime treaty with France, for th,o abolition of the system of discriminating duties on British shipping. But the question was not ripe for treatment in France ; and after lengthened negotiations, conducted for the most part by Mr Lindsay personally, it was found that, while the French Government fully recognised the necessity for the proposed changes, they preferred to accomplish those changes in their own way, and it their own time. But the arguments addressed to the French Government and people in\he colums of this journal, and through our negotiator, were not thrown away. In due time we heard that the whole question of the French Navigation Laws had been referred to a body every way competent to deal with it. The evidence taken before the Superior Council of Commerce, and M. Eouher's report, with which the inquiry wound up, so strengthened the hands of the French Government that it was clear the desired revision would eventually be carried. The opposition encountered by the Emperor and his advisers in their endeavors to cirry out their convictions on this subject cm only be appreciated by 'those who know with what tenacity the traditions of the past are clung to in France. But the I French Government were content to bide their time, and were not to be deterred from pursuing a policy oh the successful prosecution of which issues so momentous to the future of France depend. This steadfastness of purpose has had its reward. The Shipping Bill, notwithstanding all the threatened and actual opposition it has encountered, has virtually become law, and France has followed up the reduction of her tariff by the adoption of the policy of free ports. Of course we should have preferred to see the system of sur-taxes upon goods from the bonded

warehouses of Europe abolished, and the French coasting trade opened — as we had a right to expect it would have been— to foreign shipping, or at all events to the shipping of this country. But these concessions must come ere long. The remission of the tonnage and differential duties has struck the foundations from under the maritime system of Louis XIV., and the remnants of that system cannot long survive the demolition of that which tup | ported and held them together. The crushing majority which, after a debate extending over nine days, has condemned the leading principles of the French Navigation Laws, and affirmed the principle of open ports, allays all anxiety as to the future. With an open market in France for ships and shipbuilding materials, with the tonnage and differential duties levied on foreign ships and their cargos in process of extinction, with the French colonial trade, including the trade of Algeria, thrown open to foreign flags, we can afford to wait for the removal of the sur-charges on bonded goods, and the opening of the French coasting trade. And when nothing remains of M. Thiers but his contributions to history, and the memory of his great abilities and still greater political errors, v the Legislature of France will feel that, in refusing to listen to his arguments, and to those of the small minority who sought to obstruct the further progress of this bill, they have contributed to secure the material interests of France, and have earned the gratitude of their countrymen.

On Board the s.s. Wm. Miskin,

August 18, 1866. Ladies and Gtentlemen, — On behalf of myself and assistants I beg to return you our sincere thanks for the kind manner in which you have appreciated our duties on board, and had it not been that I sustained a serious accident while leaving Dunedin, I might have been able to have afforded you more attention than I was able to do otherwise. Once more thanking you for your kindness, on behalf of myself and assistants, wishing you and yours every prosperity and happiness this world can afford, I remain, Your obedient servant, Edward Bates.

s.s. Wm. Miskin, August 18, 1866. Ladies and Gentlemen, — On behalf of myself and officers of the Miskin, the command of which I now hold, during the sad illness of our respected head, Captain Francis Hepburn, ullow me to return you our sincere thanks for the ver} r kind expressions contained in your letter, aad to assure you that in carrying out what lias merited this mark of your approbation, we have each of us done nothing more than our duty. Again thanking you, wishing you allprospei'ity and happiness, I remain Yours most obediently, Wai. Black, For self and officers Wm Miskin.