relates to a proposed alteration in the distillery laws, as calculated to afford a probable extension of the consumption of barley, in case the suggestions contained in the evidence of Messrs Dunlop and M'Quin upon that head should be carried into effect: but your committee are well aware that the trade of the English distillers, as well as that of the brewers, and the interest of very extensive branches of the revenue, are so directly implicated in this question, that it cannot be considered with reference to the benefit of agriculture a lone.-May 20.

REPORT ON THE FOREIGN TRADE

OF THE COUNTRY.

The Select Committee appointed to consider of the means of maintaining and improving the Foreign Trade of the country, and to report their opinion and observations thereupon to the House, have, pursuant to the order of the House, examined the matters to them referred, and have agreed to the following report.

In the first report presented by this committee, allusion was made to various burdens that appeared to press upon the navigation and commerce of the country, under the denominations of lights, harbour dues, pilotage, &c.; and although the intention of your committee to examine these under their several heads was postponed, by the interposition of matters that seemed to require more immediate attention, your committee felt anxious, at as early a period as possible, to take up the consideration of them, from a conviction that they not only were matters of importance in themselves, but that their importance was greatly augmented by their relation to other measures, by which it was hoped to extend the foreign commerce of the country, to the success of which the diminution of

the charges, both on our own shipping, and those of foreign states visiting our coasts, was an indispensable preliminary. To these subjects, therefore, your committee, upon its appointment in the present session, applied its attention; and selected as the first objects of their investigation, the Light Dues, Trinity Dues, Ballastage, Surplus Pilotage, and the Ramsgate and Dover Harbour Dues, which formed in their aggregate the principal part of the burdens alluded to, and which furnished grounds of complaint in their bearing both on British and foreign shipping, as well on account of the amount to which they were levied, as the manner in which the levy of them was made.

The points to which the attention of your committee has been directed, in their consideration of these dues, were, the authority under which payments were exacted from British and foreign shipping; the amount to which they were exacted; the purposes to which the receipts were subsequently applied; and the means afforded of effecting a reduction of them, without injury to the public objects for which they were imposed.

These dues, your committee have found, are collected in part under the authority of acts of Parliament, in part by ancient custom, but to the greatest amount under particular patents issuing from the Crown.

By the former authority have been established the Dover and Ramsgate Harbour dues, the charges for pilotage, for ballastage, and the dues in the port of London, and the lights under the management of the northern commissioners, constituted expressly for this purpose. By the same authority, also, have been established a part of the lights under the jurisdiction of the Trinity Corporation. The remainder, as well as the establishments of lights generally on various parts of the coast, granted to individuals, are established

and maintained under the authority of patents from the Crown. In the acts respecting lights, as also in the respective patents, are set forth the reasons for erecting each particular light, and the sums to be collected on shipping, for the purposes of defraying the expenses of erecting and maintaining it.

As the greatest proportion of the light dues, in common with other dues of inferior amount levied upon shipping, is collected and administered by the Corporation of the Trinity-House, your committee have been led to inquire into the constitution and objects of this ancient and respectable corporation, the trusts assigned to it, and the manner in which those trusts have been fulfilled.

It appears, that as early as the reign of Henry VII., an association existed, consisting, as it is termed, of shipmen and mariners, for the purpose of piloting ships and vessels belonging to the Crown, as well as all descriptions of merchants ships; but what remuneration was received for this service, and what, if any, proportion of it was assigned to charitable purposes, does not appear.

In the reign of King Henry VIII. the society was first incorporated by royal charter, bearing date the 20th of May 1514, granted to the shipmen and mariners of the realm, giving them authority to erect and establish a guild or fraternity, as well of men as of women, in the parish church of Deptford Strond, in the county of Kent: the charter provided for the due government of the guild, and custody of its possessions, by giving power to the brethren to appoint a master, warden, and assistants: it gave powers to make laws and statutes amongst themselves, for the relief, increase, and augmentation of the shipping of England, to levy pains, subsidies, &c. on offenders, to the master, warden, and assistants, and their successors, to acquire lands and

tenements to a certain amount, to maintain a chaplain, and to do and perform other acts of piety, and to the community generally to enjoy all the franchises and privileges, shipmen and mariners of the realm have used and enjoyed.

This charter received successive confirmations by Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth. In the act of the 8th of Queen Elizabeth, after a preamble, reciting the object of the incorporation of the society, and its duties of general supervision of the buoys, beacons, and ballastage, it is enacted, that the corporation of the Trinity House may, at their own cost, make, erect, and set up any beacons and signs for the sea, on such places of the sea shore, or uplands near the sea coasts, or forelands of the sea, only for sea marks, as to them shall seem meet. The act goes on to make it penal to disturb those marks, and also authorises the master to license mariners to row on the Thames. In the year 1594, Queen Elizabeth granted to the corporation the lastage and ballastage of all vessels upon the river Thames, surrendered for the purpose by the then Lord High Admiral, Lord Howard, together with all the rights held by him in virtue of his office, of making, placing, and erecting buoys, signs, and beacons for the sea, with all fees and advantages thereunto belonging. This was followed by a charter from her successor, James I., which was grounded upon defects in preceding patents and grants, and the want of a sufficient authority to govern themselves, and all other seafaring men and apprentices; and directs, that from the guild shall be elected one master, four wardens, and eight assistants. These 13 persons are directed to elect 18 other persons to be added to the guild, out of the whole company of seamen and mariners, making together 31 persons; the successors of whom are to be called elder brethren, and all the rest of the seamen

master, wardens, and assistants, and eighteen elder brethren by name, prescribes the form of election, and declares that all the rest of the seamen and mariners belonging to the guild and fraternity shall be called younger brethren. Amongst other duties it declares, that the masters, wardens, and assistants of the corporation, shall examine and certify the abilities and fitness of such children of the New Royal Foundation in Christ's Hospital, who are, or shall be admitted, and initiated into the practice of the art of navigation. Then follows the power of appointing pilots and loadsmen in and out of the river, subject to the approval of the Lord High Admiral. The grant of the ancient fees of loadmanage and primage, as defined by the charter of Charles II.; the power of holding courts for the affairs of the Corporation, and after declaring that the profits of the court are to be kept to and for the use of the Corporation, for the better maintenance and preservation thereof, prescribes, by a subsequent section, "That all sums of money received by decrees, orders, agreements, fines, and forfeitures, or otherwise, &c., shall be for the use of the guild, for repairing the Trinity-House and Alms-Houses situate in Deptford Strond, and for find ing of certain poor persons, brethren, and the wives of brethren, of the said guild, which shall have fallen into decay, misery, poverty, and need, or hereafter shall fortune to fall into decay, misery, and need, and also for relief of other poor mariners and seafaring men, and other public purposes."

It concludes with confirming a former exemption to the master, wardens, and assistants of the corporation from the service of the militia and various civil duties, and giving them powers in certain cases therein specified.

Under these charters, the only monies granted to the corporation appear to be those arising from ballastage

and lastage, and by decrees, orders, agreements, fines, forfeitures, or otherwise, the application of which is strictly defined and prescribed by the grant of King Charles II., and the charter of James II., last adverted to, and the ballastage since regulated by act of Parliament, 1st and 2d George IV.

The surplus pilotage, which is a collection of extra pilotage on foreign vessels entering our ports, is granted by the 52d of George III. c. 59.; the produce of which is directed, by the 56th section, to be applied to the relief and support of such pilots as shall have become incapable of discharging their duty from age, accident, or permanent infirmity.

The act of the 2d of George III. gives the power of licensing boats on the river Thames, and directs that certain monies received under its authority shall be applied towards the relief of the poor of the corporation.

By these acts and charters, which give to the corporation the power of levying monies, the application of the surplus of the monies so levied (after providing for the necessary expenditure) to charitable uses, is alone expressly authorised and directed.

It will be observed, that among these the light dues, the principal source of the receipts of the Trinity Corporation, are not mentioned. Of these a comparatively small part is collected under acts of Parliament, the remainder under patents granted by the Crown, upon the petition of persons offering to pay certain sums for the erection of lights; which dues the Crown authorises the corporation to receive, as a compensation for the erection and maintenance of the lights required.

This is the language of all the patents, and in them, with a single exception, no other object whatever appears to be contemplated.

Having enumerated the collections falling upon the shipping of the country,

Corporation, as being

1st, Light Dues;

2d, Lastage and Ballastage;

3d, Trinity Dues, comprehending Buoyage, Beaconage, Loadmanage, and Primage;

4th, Surplus Pilotage, and Fees on the granting an annual renewal of Pilots' warrants;

Your committee will proceed to notice them in their respective order, with such observations as occur either on the collections themselves, or on the management and administration of them: they will begin with the most important one, that of the Light Dues.

Of the various Light Houses erected, and Floating Lights established, for the accommodation of shipping (about 55 in number), not less than 20 of the establishments, exhibiting 30 lights, are under the management of the Corporation of the Trinity-House.

The acts of the 8th and 36th of Elizabeth, which gave to the corporation the right of erecting at their own coast, beacons, marks, and signs for the seas, if extending to the erection of light-houses, have never been considered as conveying any power to levy a toll on shipping for their maintenance. The collections for light-houses, therefore, have been all established, either under the authority of special acts of the Legislature, which are very few in number, or of patents granted by the Crown, founded on petitions of individuals desiring their erection, and proposing certain payments in consideration of it, which they the petitioners consent to the collection of, as well from British ships, as those of foreign states; these differ in amount according to their respective lights, but are in almost every case double upon the foreign ship. Whatever were Whatever were the grounds of policy on which this distinction was originally made, the reasons for now continuing it appear to your

will hardly be contended, that in the erection of light houses on the British coast, there was any other view than the benefit of British navigation, or that the convenience and safety of the foreigner, except when entering our ports for the purposes of trade, was an object in contemplation. If, therefore, in passing along the sea, foreign navigation may incidentally derive an advantage from them, which it is out of our power to withhold, it does not seem to afford a very satisfactory plea for taking the opportunity of subjecting it, whenever brought within our power, to a severe taxation, at once heavy in amount, enforced by detention, and aggravated by the exaction of a prospective and retrospective payment, which has the effect of deterring foreign ships from entering our ports for shelter, except in cases of extreme necessity, and been the cause of their being frequently exposed, not only to damage and peril, but occasionally to the destruction of the vessel, and the sacrifice of the lives of those who were unfortunate enough to be on board. that it is in a great degree attributable to the cause above stated, and the amount of the heavy duties inhospitably levied in our ports, from all foreign vessels, whether approaching for trade, or seeking shelter under stress of weather, or accidental emergency, your committee entertain the strongest belief, derived from a variety of testimony received by them, to which they beg especially to direct the attention of the House; and they do this not only in reference to the obvious consideration of humanity, but in reference also to the actual loss sustained by the country, and the advantages that would accrue to it, partly from the increased amount of duties collected, and still more from the expenditure of foreign ships entering the various ports of this country, if their resort to it was encouraged by a dimi

That this is the fact,