as we have seen, entirely coincided with their brethren of the outports as to the cause of the depression: and, while it was resolved to continue pouring in the petitions to Parliament expressive of their views and praying for relief, and, also, to stir up an agitation through the medium of pamphlets and that portion of the press which entertained similar opinions to their own, it was likewise considered desirable to make a combined effort by the means of a public meeting to be held in London, so that their sufferings and their wrongs might become generally known among all classes of the community.
Meeting of Shipowners, December 15th, 1858.
Their proposal.
This meeting was consequently held at the London
Tavern on the 15th December, 1858. The chairman,
however, Mr. Duncan Dunbar, then one of the greatest
individual shipowners in the kingdom, in opening the
proceedings, declared that no idea was entertained of
asking for a reversal of recent legislation, the delegates
from the outports having previously come to
the resolution to limit their demands to the consideration
of the question of reciprocity, praying the
Crown at the same time to put in motion the clauses
of the Navigation Repeal Act, which authorize the
Queen to retaliate on such foreign Powers as should
refuse reciprocity, and to place the ships of these
countries on, as nearly as possible, the same footing
as that in which British ships are placed in the ports
of such country.
Volumes of statistics were brought forward by Mr. George Frederick Young, who appeared as chief spokesman, and, as heretofore, the undaunted champion of his party, to show that, though British shipping had increased since the repeal of the Navigation
