been carried? No. On the second reading it had been lost by a majority of 36 to 1; the whole assembly, with one voice, voting against it, except only the individual by whom it had been introduced. This was colonial liberality. But the assembly had not thrown out all bills presented to them? No: they had passed two; one, enabling a proprietor to manumit slaves in despite of an entail upon his estate; and another, making the person of the slave privileged from an arrest on a market-day as well as on Sunday. But, privileged from arrest? arrest from whose debts? For his own debts-the debts of the slave? No; but for the debts of his master. And this was legislating for the negroes!-enacting that they should not be arrested for debts they had nothing to do with contracting, on a market-day, when it was the interest of their masters, as well as of themselves, that they should be able to carry on the little trade by which they maintained themselves uninterrupted. He had gone through all the evidence; he had looked at the subject with the assistance of persons more conversant with its details than himself: and he repeated to the house, that he saw nothing which amounted to real amendment in the spirit of West India legislation. The colonists had been warned, but they refused to listen. They had promised reform, and their promises had been violated. The voice of the mother country had called upon them; troubles at their own doors had besought them to hearken to it; but still they remain unmoved. Then, if they--the colonists would not see the storm which

lowered upon them; if the home government counselled and called upon them in vain: if they would not redeem the pledges which they had given for improvement, he (Mr. Brougham) would show that he held his upon that subject more guarded and more binding. Early in the next session-unless something occurred in the mean time to show that the colonists themselves were proceeding in earnest -he should move for leave to bring in a bill to the following effect:-1st, to address itself to making slave evidence admissible in courts of law-leaving the question of credit to make its way as it might: 2d, to abolish the practice of punishing women in the field: 3d, to get rid of the whip, as a stimulus to labour: 4th, to adstrict the slave, under all circumstances, to the soil: 5th, to prevent any person having a plantation, or a mortgage upon West-India property, from holding any office of trust, civil or military, in that colony; and last of all, to take such a course, as might be safely taken, looking alike to the rights of property and to the interests of the master and the slave-to take such course, as, consistent with due attention to those objects, might prepare, gradually but firmly, for final emancipation. Now he agreed that it would be incomparably best that measures to this effect should be taken by the colonists themselves; but if they were not adopted before next session, he (Mr. Brougham) should most certainly interfere. He was quite sure that in so doing he should only do that which would be to the advantage of the colonists themselves: and if he himself did not bring in the

bill of which he spoke, they might rely that, at the time to which he referred, it would be brought in by some one else. Of this fact he was certain-such a measure would come forward with the voice of the whole country to back it. It would attempt nothing more than was just; nothing more than was necessary; and nothing but what would be equally beneficial to the master and the slave. In introducing it he should do nothing more than was in strict conformity with the privileges of parliament, the statute law, and the rights of the mother country; and he felt convinced that he should have the cordial co-operation of all his friends on that (the opposition) side of the house.

The address was agreed to without a division.

Mr. Huskisson moved the third reading of the ships' registry bill.

The bill having been read a third time, the right hon. gentleman said he had two clauses to propose by way of riders. It was well known, that by the navigation laws, as they now stood, British ships were not allowed to repair in foreign ports, unless the master or owners declared that such repairs were absolutely necessary for the safe performance of the voyage; and then the repairs were limited to barely what were necessary for the voyage. It was also a part of the navigation law, that no British ship should proceed on a voyage, out or home, unless three-fourths of her crew consisted of British seamen. These were regulations which he did not wish to destroy, as their tendency was for the general benefit of the country; but circumstances might arise, and

some were now in actual operation, which would render the strict enforcement of the law in those two respects of great injury to the commerce of the country. At this very moment the merchant service, particularly in the port of London, were put to great inconvenience, indeed were likely to be severely injured, (unless some timely remedy was devised) by the combinations among the shipwrights. These combinations did not arise from any alleged deficiency of wages, (for with what was now paid the men were satisfied) but from an objection taken by them to particular regulations in the several yards. The consequence was, that for some months past no ships were repaired in the river. It had occurred to him in. the committee on the combination laws, that some immediate and decisive step should be taken to cure so great an evil. He was the last man to propose any measure which might be an infringement on our navigation laws; but those laws would be injurious, if allowed to prevent the remedy of so great an evil as that to which he alluded. The combinations, as he had stated, were not for a rise of wages, but the men were prevented from going to work by the authority exercised over them by certain clubs and unions, committees of which were daily sitting. Now, it was the duty of the legislature to show to those parties who thought that they must succeed, as they had the power of refusing to work, that they were not without the means of applying a remedy to this evil, by allowing ships which were prevented by the combinations from being repaired in the river, to proceed to some

foreign

foreign port. This was a measure which the shipwrights did not contemplate. They imagined, that as the law now stood, they must succeed, and, indeed, he had heard of its being declared amongst them, that the present struggle should be a trial between. capital and physical strength. He would, therefore, propose a clause-that for a limited time (for he hoped that in a short period these men would be induced to see their error, and the ruinous consequences it entailed upon themselves) he would say for two years the king in council should have the power, when a sufficient representation was made of the inability to procure repairs in a British port, owing to any combinations among shipwrights, to allow British ships to be taken for repairs to a foreign port. This, he had no doubt, would teach those deluded men that they were injuring only themselves by their conduct, and that no conduct of theirs could deprive the merchant service of the protection which was due to it from the country. Another species of combination equally injurious to our commerce, was that which sometimes prevailed among merchant-seamen, particularly in the northern ports, in Shields, Newcastle, and other places, by which vessels were prevented from going to sea from want of a sufficient number of British seamen. To remedy this, he would move another clause, giving a power to the king in council, upon a proper representation of the necessity of the case, to allow British ships to clear out from our ports with a larger portion of their crews consisting of foreigners than was at pre

sent allowed by the navigation laws.

On the clause being brought up, Mr. Ellice said, he entirely concurred in the proposition of the right hon. gentleman, and he only regretted that he did not carry the principle farther; for he could not see on what fair ground British merchants should be prevented from taking their ships to that foreign port where they might get them repaired at the cheapest rate. The present state of things in the port of London was a good deal the fault of ship-owners, who might, if they pleased, have a considerable number of shipwrights from Norway. As to the combinations among the merchant-seamen, he thought, in the course of time, it would prove a benefit to the country; for, at present, many ships were principally worked by apprentices, which, in the course of a few years, would give a vast addition to the number of able seamen.

Mr. Robertson opposed the clause, and contended that this mode of acting was unbecoming the firmness and dignity of the legislature. They themselves had caused the evil to which they were now about to apply so inadequate a remedy. They drove the working classes to discontent and desperation by the system (which had been proposed on the opposition side, and sanctioned by ministers) of allowing all the artisans of the continent to come into competition with them. It was impossible that a course of policy having a tendency so injurious could have any other effect than that of producing great discontent amongst the people. The course now proposed would have the effect of

driving

driving our shipwrights to America, from whence we should not be able to recal them in time of need. In the same manner, the measure now proposed would affect the seamen. It was now intended to allow competition with our seamen, by permitting the employment of a greater number of foreign sailors to form part of the crews of British ships than was authorized by the navigation laws. Was not this gross injustice to our seamen, when at the same time the policy we were pursuing in other respects prevented our merchants from giving them that fair remuneration for their labours which they had a right to expect? By some recent measures, the ships of all nations were permitted, in a great degree, to come into competition with our own; and these, which would have the effect of preventing the merchant from paying the sailor the wages to which he was accustomed, were now to be followed up by an enactment which would drive him out of the service altogether. How was it possible to expect the gratitude of these men after such treatment? He would willingly enforce the combination laws, and put down all attempts to procure higher wages by such illegal means; but he could not shut his eyes to the fact, that the working classes, the mechanics and artisans, were badly treated by the legislature. There seemed a disposition in the house to grind and oppress those people. (Cries of" No, no.") He repeated the assertion, and took the actions of the house as demonstrations of its sentiments. The recent measures by which the trades of the continent were allowed to enter

into a competition with our own, had, he maintained, no other tendency. The effect of these impolitic regulations had already been felt in the diminution of the carrying trade. The tonnage of the British vessels which sailed from our ports had been considerably reduced. It was less this year by some hundred thousand tons than what it had been some few years back.

Mr. Hume said that the hon. member who spoke last had quite mistaken the principle of the proposed clauses. He could not have understood them, if he supposed their object was to oppress the people, or any portion of them. He would be as unwilling as any man to consent to any measure which would have the effect of oppressing the people. In the committee on the combination laws and elsewhere, he gave it as his opinion, that the workmen should have the power of getting from the masters the highest price for their labour, but he would not sanction their associations to force men from their employment who were willing to work at a lower rate. It was but fair that all parties should be protected alike. The object of the proposed clauses was to put down those pernicious combinations which tended so directly to injure the commerce of the country. So far he fully concurred in them, and was only sorry that they did not go farther, and allow merchants to resort to foreign ports to build ships as well as to repair them. This would effectually teach those "clubs" and "unions" that their associations would in the result be highly injurious to themselves.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer