"The opening of the East India trade to private individuals stands foremost in the list of modern alterations in our commercial code. That this trade was almost exclusively confined to the East India Company since the year 1595, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, is well known.

“The first general warehousing act was passed in 1803. The leading feature of the warehousing act is to defer the payment of duties formerly due to the king at the time of importation, and to allow goods to remain, under certain regulations, in warehouses, or other places, until it may suit the parties to remove them either for exportation or home consumption."

"In the year 1824, an entirely new principle was introduced into the economy of our foreign trade, and which affects in no slight degree the interests of some of our staple manufactures.

"This principle is to abolish, as far as practicable, the prohibitions on import and bounties on export.

"A system of reciprocity in our intercourse with foreign nations has been recently adopted. The ships of those kingdoms that choose to avail themselves of the advantages, may now enter British or Irish ports upon the same terms as ships of the United Kingdom; and, on the other hand, our vessels may enter into the harbors belonging to those foreign nations upon the same terms as if built and navigated by their own countrymen."

Among the most important of these changes are the privileges granted by the reciprocity treaties, to which the writer refers. I confess I was somewhat surprised, when I came to look into the subject, to see their number and the liberal nature of their stipulations. I find that Great Britain has arrangements with twenty-three independent States relating to the trade with the United Kingdom, and nineteen relating to the trade with her possessions abroad. Some of these arrangements rest upon treaties of a very liberal character, and others upon orders of council issued by virtue of a statute authorizing the sovereign to concede certain privileges in consideration of like concessions from the States to which they are granted. I will read to the Senate a few stipulations from two of the treaties, in order that the subject may be better understood.

From a convention of commerce and navigation with Sweden and Norway:

"Duties, &c. British vessels entering or departing from the ports of the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, and Swedish and Norwegian vessels entering or departing from the ports of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, shall not be subject to any other or higher ship-duties or charges than are or shall be levied on national vessels entering or departing from such ports respectively.

"Vessels and Goods. All goods, whether the production of the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, or of any other country, which may be legally imported from any of the ports of the said kingdoms into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in British vessels, shall, in like manner, be permitted to be so imported directly in Swedish or Norwegian vessels; and all goods, whether the production of any of the dominions of his Britannic Majesty, or of any other country, which may be legally exported from the ports of the United Kingdom in British vessels, shall, in like manner, be permitted to be exported from the said ports in Swedish or Norwegian vessels. An exact reciprocity shall be observed," &c.

From a treaty of commerce and navigation with the Netherlands:

"Duties of Customs, Privileges, &c. - No duty of customs or other impost shall be charged upon any goods, the produce of one country, upon importations by sea or by land from such country into the other, higher than the duty or impost charged upon goods of the same kind, the produce of, or imported from, any other country; and her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and his Majesty the King of the Netherlands, do hereby bind and engage themselves not to grant any favor, privilege, or immunity, in matters of commerce and navigation, to the subject of any State which shall not be also, and at the same time, extended to the other subjects of the other high contracting party, gratuitously, if the concession in favor of that other State shall have been gratuitous; and, on giving, as nearly as possible, the same compensation or equivalent in case the concession shall have been conditional.”

By referring to the " Yearly Journal of Trade," for 1845, page 45, it will be seen that Great Britain has reciprocity treaties with fifteen independent States, granting to each other, mutually, the "benefits of the most favored nation." The stipulations above quoted are, therefore, applicable to all the fifteen States.

What has been the result of these international commer

cial arrangements? It is one of which I must confess I was not apprised, though other Senators may be more familiar with the subject, and the statement may give them no surprise. In the year 1841, (I cannot find the returns of a later year,) the foreign shipping engaged in the commerce of Great Britain bore a greater proportion to her own tonnage than the foreign shipping engaged in the commerce of the United States in the year 1845 bore to our own tonnage. These details I shall give more at length at a subsequent stage of my remarks.

Great Britain has thus adopted the maxim, which it is to be hoped may become universal,— that national prosperity is to be sought for, not in unnecessary restrictions, not in commercial conventions framed with a view to obtain exclusive advantages by subtlety and address, but through the better and more enlightened policy of securing mutual privileges by a liberal application of the principle of reciprocity. In the commercial intercourse of foreign nations with her colonial possessions, she still maintains, to some extent, a system of restriction. A vessel from any country may carry to her colonies a cargo, the produce of that country, and carry away from those colonies a cargo to any country not a British possession, but not from one British possession to another.

But it is time to return to the details of the British warehouse system. The Senator stated that it was a restricted system. I disagree with him. I shall prove it to be an exceedingly liberal system, not only in respect to the number of warehousing ports, but in respect to the articles allowed to be warehoused. It was established in 1803, on a very limited scale as to the favored articles, and for the port of London alone. It now embraces sixty-eight ports in England, twenty-three in Scotland, and eighteen in Ireland, — in all, 109. In most of the large ports, goods in general may be warehoused; in the smaller ports, particular goods only. London in the southeast, Bristol in the southwest, and Liv

erpool in the northwest, are privileged for all goods which may be legally imported; and Hull, in the northeast, for the same, with a single class of exceptions. These ports are admirably situated for distributing the products deposited with them to all portions of the kingdom. Stand at Leicester, which lies in the very centre of England, and draw a circle around you which shall pass through one of these ports, and it will touch or graze all the others. There is not a single point in England distant in an air line more than one hundred and fifty miles from some of these ports, excepting the Land's End in Cornwall, which may be two hundred from Bristol. The Senator from Connecticut, if I did not misunderstand him, represented these four ports as the only ones to which a liberal scale of privilege in respect to warehousing had been applied. Sir, my honorable friend is behind the age. He is about up to the era of George IV., or possibly the fourth William. I say it in no offensive sense. He will properly appreciate this disclaimer when I frankly acknowledge that a few days ago I was in the same predicament with him. I have fortunately fallen upon more recent information, and I am happy not only to have advanced myself, but to be able to bring him up with me to the point at which things now stand. Falmouth, in Cornwall, has been made a warehousing port for all goods, with the single exception of silks. Southampton, about midway from the Land's End to the Straits of Dover, is largely privileged. Manchester has recently been made, by act of Parliament, a warehousing town for consumption only. It is an inland place, as we all know, and therefore not fit for warehousing for exportation. I find in the list of warehousing ports twelve privileged for "all goods," with certain specified exceptions. In short, the system, as to ports, has been and is in a constant course of extension.

Let us now see, sir, what goods may be warehoused. On this point I regret to be at variance with the Senator from Connecticut. In looking into the British statutes, I find

the number of absolute prohibitions extremely small. They are as follows, and may be seen by reference to 3 and 4 William IV. c. 52:

1. Goods prohibited on account of the package in which they are contained, or the tonnage of the vessels in which they are laden; as cigars in packages of less than one hundred pounds, or in vessels of less than one hundred and twenty tons burden.

2. Gunpowder, arms, ammunition, or utensils of war. 3. Infected hides, skins, horns, hoofs, or any part of any cattle or beast.

4. Foreign playing-cards, without the name of the maker, &c.

5. Counterfeit coins or tokens.

6. Books first composed, or written, or printed, and published in the United Kingdom, and reprinted in any other country.

7. Copies of prints engraved, etched, drawn, or designed in the United Kingdom.

8. Copies of casts of sculptures, or models, first made in the United Kingdom.

use.

9. Clocks or watches prohibited to be imported for home

All other articles prohibited for home use may be imported and warehoused for exportation, and in foreign vessels, except from British possessions.

The list of prohibitions has been diminished since the statute above referred to was enacted. A few years ago all goods from China were prohibited to be warehoused, unless imported in British ships. The China trade, since 1834, has been thrown open to individuals, excepting in the single article of tea. Now, it would appear that teas may be warehoused for exportation, though imported in foreign vessels and brought from any place.1

1 See Customs, Revenue Laws, and Regulations, by Lowe, Sherlock, & Richards,

p. 118.