Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/323

 *tion of Protection was out of the question; while any remission of burdens, or abrogation of restrictions, in the power of the Legislature to grant, would not, they felt, enable them to compete successfully with their foreign rivals. To these burdens I shall hereafter refer.

As regarded non-reciprocity on the part of foreign nations, they had little expectation that any relief could be obtained. Every State that had anything worth acceptance in the way of reciprocation had, they were convinced, determined on adhering to a Protective policy; and, though the retaliatory clause in the Navigation Act might afford some power of compulsion, the Shipowners saw from the discussions in Parliament that it was vain to hope that such powers would ever actually be put in force. Nevertheless, under such gloomy political prospects, every effort was made by the central body of the Shipowners' Association in London to impress their views upon the representatives of the maritime towns in Parliament. The outports were urged to secure the return of members who would support a policy opposed to that of the indiscriminate abolition of all Protective laws. The feeling thus provoked exercised its influence during many succeeding years. They who had the moral courage to advocate more enlightened principles were made the victims of the exasperated Shipowners, and a good many members lost their seats at the general election of 1852 because they could not, conscientiously, support any measure restoring Protection to the Shipowners, even in the modified form they now desired, the general enforcement of the reciprocity on other nations.