§ A Petition of several agents to owners of ships and vessels built in the territories of his Majesty situated in the East Indies, was presented and read; setting forth, that the petitioners have ever maintained the right to have these ships registered, and that right has never been denied when the documents required by law could be produced; and that, by an Act passed in the 26th year of his present Majesty, it was enacted, that ships should be registered by certain officers therein named, which, by reason of India being under the immediate management, and controul of the East India Company, did not there exist, and the registers have consequently been made in the port of London, to the great loss and inconvenience of the owners, and which will be experienced in a still greater degree now that the trade is open to all British subjects; and that the petitioners are informed several ship-builders on the river Thames, desirous of establishing a monopoly, have made representations to the House, with a view to exclude ships built in the British territories in the East Indies from their just and undoubted right of registry; and praying, that the House will take the premises into consideration, and establish such provision for registering these ships in India, and declaring their lawful privileges, as the House may think just; and that the petitioners may be heard, by their counsel, at the bar of the House, in support of these rights.
§ Ordered, That the said Petition do lie upon the table.