the carriage of passengers; so that, as far as can be ascertained, foreign vessels lie under no disability in the transport of passengers coastwise from port to port of the United States of America.
Was the depression due to the withdrawal of Protection? It remains now to inquire how far such depression can be, in truth, attributed to the withdrawal of protection from British shipping, and to the consequent unrestricted competition with the shipping of other countries; for it is, only, by an examination into general results, that any satisfactory conclusions upon this question can be arrived at.
Now it is inseparable from the nature of all great changes of system that particular interests must, occasionally, suffer from causes which contribute to the general good; it is, therefore, possible in this instance, that particular trades may have been injuriously affected, while the general interests of British shipping have been promoted.
The statistical accounts of British tonnage employed at any given time afford a very imperfect test of the actual condition of the shipping interest, the more so as shipping is often employed with very inadequate remuneration; but this remark does not apply to periods of time extending over several years; hence, the shipping returns of the nine years since the repeal of the Navigation Laws may be fairly held to supply sufficient evidence of the influence that measure has exercised on the permanent interests of British shipping.
Board of Trade report and returns. Consequently a table was prepared by the Board of Trade to show the total aggregate tonnage of British and foreign vessels, respectively, entered and cleared, with cargoes and in ballast, at ports of the
