Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/291

 three or four—France, Spain, and Belgium, and perhaps one other.

Mr. Disraeli assumed the privilege of the last word, and, in reply, quoted the last report of the Shipowners' Society, which has been already given, intimating their readiness to discuss the policy of amending the Navigation Laws on all points not involving fundamental principles. He next took a rapid review of the effects of repeal on the Australian and other colonies, arguing that, if Canada had not a Protective duty on corn restored to it, as demanded by the Legislative Assembly, Canada would be lost to the British Crown. "Woe to those statesmen and to the policy which plucked this jewel from the Crown of England! No shuffling change in the Navigation Law could compensate the people of Canada for what they had lost, and which they felt so acutely." Mr. Disraeli then referred to the papers from foreign Powers, arguing that they were valueless, and, especially, that everything respecting the United States was a tabula rasa, all that we had heard last year having been obliterated as an element of consideration. The last division on this famous Bill now took place upon the third reading, when the Ayes were 275; Noes, 214; Majority, 61.