the treaties respecting the suppression of the slave-trade. The motion was resisted by Lord Howden in a very argumentative speech, and rejected upon a division by—Non-contents, 23; Contents, 9.
Lord Stanley's protest. The various reasons urged against the Bill for the repeal of the Navigation Laws were briefly summed up by Lord Stanley in a protest which he entered on the Journals of the House against the third reading.[1] In this protest the great advantages we surrendered, without any equivalent, were fully recited; and a dissent expressed, because the Royal Navy was mainly dependent for its efficiency upon the commercial marine, and the classes of the community connected therewith. This Bill, he urged, by discouraging the employment of British shipbuilders, ships, and seamen, tended directly to the reduction of the commercial marine, and, thereby, to the diminution of that naval strength which was the main foundation of the greatness of this country, and the surest defence of its independence.
Royal assent given June 26. But all remonstrances, denunciations, petitions, and protests were disregarded. The Bill passed the House of Lords on the 12th June; and, although a petition from the Shipowners[2] was presented to the Queen by Sir George Grey praying her Majesty to withhold her approval of the Bill, the Royal assent was given on the 26th of that month, and thus the Navigation Laws of Great Britain, which had endured practically unchallenged during two centuries, were almost utterly abrogated.
