Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/308

 when satisfied that reciprocity was accorded to us?

The question gave rise to a very long and animated discussion, in which Earl Grey, the Earl of Harrowby, Earl Granville, Lord Colchester, the Marquess of Clanricarde, Lord Brougham, Lord Fitzwilliam, and the Marquess of Lansdowne took part; Lord Wharncliffe severing himself from Lord Stanley, and, in fact, voting against his amendment. The division which terminated this discussion was decisive of the fate of the Bill. On the question of Lord Stanley's amendment there appeared, Contents, 103; Non-contents, 116: Majority against the amendment, 13! As no proxies in this division influenced the result, Lord Stanley at once withdrew all opposition to the repeal of the 8 & 9 Vict. cap. 88, which he only wished amended.

The Committee of the Lords sat again on the 24th May, when Lord Ellenborough moved an amendment that instead of the Bill coming into operation on the 1st January, 1850, it should come into operation on the 1st January, 1851. This amendment was in accordance with the prayer of a petition from the General Shipowners' Society, urging various reasons for delay. It was admitted, his Lordship said, that one of the chief objects of the measure was to diminish the rates of freight; and it was contended that the greater the competition between the shipping of foreign States and the shipping of this country the greater would be the diminution of the rate of freight generally; but, added his Lordship, British Shipowners have not the means of diminishing their expenditure at once, so as to