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 open; but no decided recommendation was offered, as it had been pretty clearly demonstrated in evidence that the compulsory system of pilotage still exercised at London, Liverpool, and Bristol, had worked in a manner satisfactory to those persons who were most directly interested in this matter.

The charges levied by local authorities on ships and goods entering or clearing from their ports, had so frequently been under the consideration of Parliament, that the Committee could do little more than refer to the various reports on this subject, and especially to that of the Royal Commissions of 1854, with the expression of their regret that not one of the recommendations of that commission had been carried into effect.

The Committee, after inquiring into the management of the Trinity Houses of Newcastle and Hull, and the nature of the charges levied by the Russian