§ MR. BRIGHTwas anxious to call attention to a subject on which he put a question to the President of the Board of Trade the other day. He alluded to the cotton cargoes now in the port of Havre, 1202 the property of merchants in this country; and he wished to know whether the right hon. Gentleman would make inquiry with a view to allow that cotton to come here—not in French, but English vessels, which would at once be favourable to British shipowners, and a great advantage to the manufactures of Manchester in the present state of the supply of cotton in Lancashire. He certainly thought what he now asked might be permitted.
§ MR. LABOUCHEREhad stated the other night that if a cargo of cotton was imported into Havre, either under the American or British flag, not having been landed in Havre, the ship might come to England with it. Another question had heen put to him—whether, supposing a cargo of cotton imported into Havre in a French ship, it could be brought into this country cither in a French or any other ship; and, without entering into the propriety or utility of the Navigation Laws, he apprehended nothing was more clear than that it was impossible, under the present state of the law, to import such a cargo from Havre into this country in any ship at all. He did not think the Government would be justified in altogether setting aside the Navigation Laws, and permitting the cargoes to be imported under the circumstances referred to.