sailing ships had been 26-1/2 per cent., steamers had increased no less than 184 per cent. These were transient evils against which no legislation could provide; and it was, therefore, obvious that, instead of attempting to render remunerative a class of vessels, now obsolete owing to the improvements of the age, Shipowners would have done better to direct their attention to the development of the new power, for which they possessed in vast abundance the requisite materials of iron and coal: in this way, there could be no doubt that they would be able to compete successfully with all other nations. In how remarkable a manner these words have been fulfilled I shall be able to show when I come to treat of the progress of steam navigation in the Transatlantic trades. Nor has our success been less remarkable in our competition with the Swedes and Norwegians, with whom it was repeatedly alleged we were unable to compete; for they, in 1859, had already become large buyers of ships in our markets, and, I may add, are still frequently to be found purchasers of British-built vessels.
The Committee resists the plan of re-imposing restrictions on the Colonial Trade. The question having now been narrowed to that of re-imposing the monopoly of the carrying trade to and from our Colonial possessions, the Committee soon arrived at the conclusion that the extent, diversified interests, and increasing power of our possessions abroad, offered insuperable obstacles to the re-imposition of restrictions on that trade, while the daily increase of feelings of independence in our Colonies naturally tended to resist a system which would place the grower of British plantation sugar and coffee in the West Indies at a greater disad-
