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 the West Indies were nearly doubled; from America, both in timber and grain, freights advanced in like proportion, as well as in the Baltic; and, even, in the coal trade between Newcastle and London, the usual standard rate of 6s. per ton was more than doubled. The grain trade, beyond all others, was characterised by extraordinary activity, the result of events it was impossible to foresee; while the practical closing of some of the most important granaries during the subsequent war between Russia and Turkey, greatly enhanced the price of corn, and gave rise to large importations of bread-stuffs from the United States and other more distant parts of the world, necessitating, at the same time, a large amount of tonnage for their transport. The surprising prosperity, which had so suddenly succeeded a period of depression and adversity, silenced for a time, though it did not extinguish, the complaints of the already "old school" Shipowners against the repeal of the Navigation Laws.

But, as British ships were now subjected to the competition of the vessels of all nations, Government considered it their duty to afford every facility as far as regards education and the means of obtaining it to the men by whom they were manned, holding that they were bound to secure for them every advantage in this respect possessed by those of foreign nations. We have seen, by the reports from the various Consuls abroad and from other sources, that, in the training of our seamen for the work they have to do, we were far behind our foreign competitors. Consequently, among the earliest measures of 1850, an Act was passed which