convoy; and it must be also observed, that vessels being employed in one trade only, such as the West India, Canada, Mediterranean, &c., their voyages during the year were limited, and they were for a certain portion of the year unemployed.

During the war, the fear of impressment was certainly a strong inducement to our seamen to enter into the American vessels, and naturalize themselves as American subjects; but they were also stimulated, even at that period, by the higher wages, as they still are now that the dread of impressment no longer operates upon them.

It appears, then, that from various causes, our merchant vessels have lost their sailing prcperties, whilst the Americans are the fastest sailers in the world; and it is for that reason, and no other, that, although sailing at a much greater expense, the Americans can afford to outbid us, and take all our best seamen.

An American vessel is in no particular trade, but ready and willing to take freight any

where when offered. She sails so fast, that she can make three voyages whilst one of our vessels can make but two: consequently she has the preference, as being the better manned, and giving the quickest return to the merchant; and as she receives three freights whilst the English vessel receives only two, it is clear that the extra freight will more than compensate for the extra expense the vessel sails at in consequence of paying extra wages to the seamen. Add to this, that the captains, generally speaking, being better paid, are better informed and more active men; that, from having all the picked seamen, they get through their work with fewer hands; that the activity on board is followed up and supported by an equal activity, on the part of the agents and factors on shoreand you have the true cause why America can afford to pay and secure for herself all our best

seamen.

One thing is evident, that it is a, mere question of pounds, shillings, and pence, between us

and America, and that the same men who are now in the American service would, if our wages were higher than those offered by America, immediately return to us and leave her destitute.

That it would be worth the while of this

country, in case of

a war with the United States, to offer £4 a-head to able seamen is most certain. It would swell the naval estimates, but it would shorten the duration of the war, and in the end would probably be the saving of many millions. But the question is, cannot and ought not something to be done, now in time of peace, to relieve our mercantile shipping interest, and hold out a bounty for a return to those true principles of naval architecture, the deviation from which has proved to be attended with such serious consequences.

Fast-sailing vessels will always be able to pay higher wages than others, as what they lose in increase of daily expense, they will gain by the short time in which the voyage is accomplished;

but it is by encouragement alone that we can expect that the change will take place. Surely some of the onerous duties imposed by the Trinity House might be removed, not from the present class of vessels, but from those built hereafter with first-rate sailing properties. These, however, are points which call for a much fuller investigation than I can here afford them; but they are of vital importance to our maritime superiority, and as such should be immediately considered by the Government of Great Britain.

41

SLAVERY

It had always appeared to me as singular that the Americans, at the time of their Declaration of Independence, took no measures for the gra dual, if not immediate, extinction of slavery; that at the very time they were offering up thanks for having successfully struggled for their own emancipation from what they considered foreign bondage, their gratitude for their liberation did not induce them to break the chains of those whom they themselves held in captivity. It is useless for them to exclaim, as they now do, that it was England who left them slavery as a curse, and reproach us as having originally introduced the system amongst them. Admitting, as is the fact, that slavery did commence when the colonies were subject to the