Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/175

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of Mr. William Richmond, who was deputed by the shipowners of the borough of Tynemouth to appear before the Committee. This gentleman had been a shipowner for nearly fifty years, and, at his advanced age, was reluctant to appear: but zeal for a cause to which he had devoted great energy during a long life, together with the importance of the subject, induced him to come forward to rescue, so far as he could, the shipowners from "impending destruction." It is unnecessary, however, here to follow him through his elaborate history of the Navigation Laws, but, as an exponent of the views of many shipowners in the north of England, the points he urged most strongly ought not to be overlooked. Strange, however, to say, his first contention was that, for the preceding twenty-five years, the shipping trade had been a losing one, those employed in the Baltic during the whole of that time having made no money whatever. When, naturally, he was asked to explain how it had come to pass that a losing trade should be so long maintained, Mr. Richmond entered into details, which, though not satisfying the Committee as to the whole force of his assertion, threw considerable light on the actual state of the merchant shipping at that period. *