§ A Petition of the ship owners of the port of Sunderland, was presented and read; setting forth,
§ "That the petitioners cannot but view, with serious apprehension, the system of granting licences to bring wood into this country in foreign bottoms continued, a system manifestly tending to the injury of British shipping, and directly affecting the trade to our colonies in North America, the only trade at present open to the petitioners, the political situation of this kingdom precluding any intercourse with the Baltic, or any foreign port in the north of Europe; and that, whilst the petitioners are determined to bear every burthen, and to make every sacrifice, rather than compromise the security or honour of their country, they cannot but feel it their duty humbly to state to the House, that, in almost every port of this kingdom, they see the flags of the northern slates displayed in proud commercial prosperity, when the British flag in their ports is no where to be seen; the inevitable consequence of which must be, amongst others, a rapid improvement in a foreign race of seamen, who before were almost unacquainted with nautical affairs, a circumstance, when looked at in a political point of view, of most alarming importance; and that the petitioners, though alive to the measures recently enacted by the legislature, of imposing a double duty on all timber brought into this country (except from any British colony, plantation, or settlement in Africa or America) still beg leave humbly to express, that foreign vessels, owing to their being so cheaply navigated, and their voyages so short, can with this double duty attached to their cargoes, import wood into this country, and sell it for a less sum than it is possible for the British ship owner to do from 1058 America; and to verify this assertion, the petitioners beg leave to slate that since last August, the time when this double duty took place, foreign vessels laden with timber, notwithstanding the subsequent regulation compelling them, before they import a cargo to export one of a specific value, have and are still continuing to crowd into this kingdom: and that it is with great sensations of regret the petitioners feel compelled to state to the House, that the coal trade has been in a depressed state these twelve months, and has now become altogether ruinous, owing principally to an influx of vessels seeking employment therein, that heretofore were otherwise engaged: and that, although the petitioners feel sensible of the peculiarly fettered situation of the trade of this kingdom, they humbly beg leave to represent to the House, that a continuance in the system of granting licences to foreign vessels to import wood into this country must speedily tend to the complete ruin of the shipping; and praying, that the House will be pleased to appoint a committee to take into consideration the infraction of the British navigation laws, the result of whose deliberations, they trust, will prove the necessity of ceasing to grant licences to foreign vessels to import wood into this country, or otherwise to grant the petitioners such relief as to the House shall seem meet."
§ Ordered to lie upon the table.