This great diminution of the apparent power of Free-traders resulted partly from a general depression of the shipping interests, but, principally, from the great exertions the Shipowners were making to agitate the country in their favour. The announcement of the diminished majority was hailed by the opponents of the measure with loud and prolonged cheering. Every vote was scanned with the most hostile criticism, and Mr. Cardwell, the newly-elected member for Liverpool, was especially censured for voting against the interests of that great maritime port. The Shipowners now took fresh courage, and issued fresh denunciations against the measure, and against the whole of the Free-trade journals—ministerial, Peel, and Cobdenite—which had joined in full cry for the repeal of the Navigation Laws. The agitation against repeal was renewed with fresh vigour on the part of the Shipowners' Society. It was now fondly hoped that, by agitation, the majority in the House of Commons would diminish in future stages of the Bill, in which case there could be no doubt that the House of Lords would throw it out, and perhaps compel the resignation of Ministers.[1]
Committee on the Bill. On the 23rd March, the motion for going into Committee on the Bill gave Mr. Labouchere an opportunity of withdrawing the "Coasting clauses" he had previously paraded as an important feature of it. The tone and manner of the right honourable gentleman betrayed the humiliation he was doomed
- ↑ In the 'Shipping Gazette,' March 17, 1849, there is a list of the 51 members of seaport towns in the United Kingdom who voted in favour of the Bill. Mr. Hudson, Sunderland; Mr. Barnard, Greenwich; Lord J. Stuart, Ayr; and Lord J. Chichester, Belfast, were absent.
