Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/206

 But Government had to meet many other arguments on which no experience existed; and, not the least of these was the question of manning the navy, embracing the all-important one of the maintenance of the British fleet.

Among other witnesses who came before the Lords' Committee, Admiral Sir George Byam Martin was a stout advocate for upholding the Navigation Laws. He contended that these laws gave encouragement to the British shipowner by exclusive advantages in the colonial and coasting trade, which he regarded as a compensation for the obligation of building his ships in some parts of the Queen's dominions, and of employing a certain number of apprentices. If manufacturers really felt that these laws in any degree cramped their commercial enterprise, they ought also, he thought, to be content to yield somewhat for the maintenance of a service to which they all owed their protection and safety. The Admiral held that the Navigation Laws gave protection to British seamen, by securing to them employment in a calling for which they qualified themselves by a long and severe apprenticeship. There were only, he said, four main objects presented to the shipowner to give him hope of a satisfactory competition with the cheap carriers of other countries:

1st. That by the abrogation of the Navigation Laws he would be left at liberty to build his ships in cheap foreign countries.

2ndly. That he would be allowed to take foreign seamen, without limitation of number.

3rdly. That he would no longer be compelled to take apprentices; and