Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/264

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produce; and he felt convinced that a corresponding or analogous difficulty would arise from adopting that principle in the case of shipping. Very intricate and complicated regulations would be required. Thus, supposing we found a country disposed to give all, we ourselves would be obliged to give all. But then it must be borne in mind that there were twenty countries with whom we had already treaties, and to whom we were bound to extend the advantages obtainable by the most favoured nations: and, therefore, if, now, we gave privileges to any one country, we must extend the same to all the other countries which stood in the same position.

Suppose, he said, that Hamburg were to give this country all that it required, and that, in return, its ships were placed on the same footing as British ships; what guarantee should we have that a third country, which had given us nothing, would not derive the same advantages as the shipowners of Hamburg, or that the sugar of Java, and the coffee of South America, would not be brought to this country in their ships? There would be no end of evasion. The United States would reciprocate; Prussia would do the same; Russia and the ports of the Hanseatic League would follow their example: what, therefore, had this country to fear? It was admitted that we should not expect the same reciprocity from France, Spain, or Belgium; but, in these cases, should we be really worse off than we are now? At this moment France and Spain had great privileges in this country. France had the right, not according to treaty, but from the general policy of our Navigation Laws, to send her produce direct to this country in her own