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one too many among them. thing like that number, were criminals, we should have great reason to tremble for the condition of such a community, and might expect at any moment that it would go to wreck. We may safely say, in the present case, that as a colony-not, of course, a penal settlement is likely to exhibit a lower average of crime than the mother country, the actual proportion of criminals to the rest of the population in the latter might be safely taken as a standard, to which it might be allowed to rise, but within which it would be expedient to keep, in introducing individuals who have been criminals, into any of its dependencies.

On the other hand, if half, or any

The average of crime is likely to be lower in a colony, partly because in a newly settled country the population is thin, and the contagious influence of bad example is not so easily propagated as in crowded cities; but principally because the necessaries of life are cheap and wages high. Poverty, as we all know, is one of the chief causes of crime. For the same reasons which prevent so high an average of crime in such communities, the discharged criminal (as has been so often said) is more likely to be restored and reformed, and to form an innoxious element in its population. If, therefore, there were never sent to any colony such a number of 'exiles' (reckoning them all as if they were still criminals, though it may well be hoped that under a wise penal discipline many of them would be reformed,) as to bring the criminal population of such a colony even up to the proportion of an equal population in the mother country, there could be no fear of its going beyond it.

Though it is not very easy to obtain accurate information respecting the statistics of crime in our colonies, yet the conclusions to which we are a priori conducted, are corroborated by such returns as have been obtained. We admit, indeed, that those returns exhibit in some cases a somewhat too favourable picture of colonial virtue; but they are, without doubt, approximately true, and even making large allowances, are well worthy of attention in the present argument. In Canada, the circumstances of which, both from the extent and quality of the emigration there, are peculiar, and at Bermuda, where we have imported criminals, the average of offences to the population is nearly the same as in England; but in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, the average, from the most authentic documents which are accessible to us, is greatly, and in some cases almost incredibly, lower. In Newfoundland, in 1845, there appear to have been only four convictions in a population of 96,506; in New Brunswick (1840) only sixty-two in a population of 156,162; and in Prince Edward Island (1841) thirty-eight in a population of 47,034.

If some such a plan could be adopted-if, instead of pouring a flood of guilt and impurity into one devoted country, we were to suffer it (after being filtered, however,) imperceptibly to ooze through many channels, it seems to us that the most difficult parts of this intricate problem would be effectually solved. The ratio of the criminal to the other classes of the population would not be perceptibly increased; that slight increase would be more than counterbalanced by the positive advantages of a certain portion of labour, profitable to the colony, though superfluous to us; we should avoid all the fearful results attendant on an accumulation of criminals on the same spot, and, by dividing, conquer;' we should furnish this unhappy class of people with the best chances of obtaining employment, and, by secluding them from their old haunts and companions, of completing their reformation.

But whether any of our suggestions be deemed practicable or not, we sincerely trust that the people of England will resolve, that whatever comes of it, the enormity of penal settlements shall no longer be endured. Religion, humanity, justice, and we believe, expediency, plead for their extinction. The people of this country must remember, that the very dearest interests of their immediate descendants and connexions are involved in the course they may pursue. There are comparatively few families at this day in Great Britain who have not some relation-brother, sister, son, daughter, nephewin those colonies. Let them abhor the thought of dooming their relations and their children to be citizens in communities founded, as if in studied contempt and subversion of the great social laws which God has so clearly rendered essential to the prosperity, nay, existence, of society: communities of which the horribly ludicrous characteristics are-let it never be forgottenthat those who are not criminals often do not very much outnumber those who are or have been such; and that the equality of the sexes, which God preserves, as by perpetual miracle, in every part of the world with which His laws have to do, is there set aside by the freaks of man's perverse legislation.

Since the preceding article was printed, we have received the 'Second Report from the Select Committee of the House of 'Lords, on the Execution of the Criminal Law,' ordered to be printed 14th June 1847. On perusing it, we find nothing in it to affect the conclusions to which we have given expression.

No. CLXXIV. will be published in October

THE

EDINBURGH REVIEW,

OCTOBER, 1847.

No. CLXXIV.

ART. I.-1. First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Reports from the Select Committee on Navigation Laws; together with the Minutes of Evidence taken before them. Session 1847. 2. A Glance at the proposed Abolition of the Navigation Laws, and the Principles of Free Trade. By a DISCIPLE of Dr FRIEDRICH LIST. 1847.

3. A Letter to George Frederick Young, Esq., from D. C. Aylwin, Esq.; in reply to certain questions regarding the operation of the Navigation Laws on the Trade of Calcutta. 1847.

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T is not our intention at this time to narrate the history of our Navigation Laws, or to investigate the effects which, in former times, have been attributed to them. It might be conceded to those who still uphold the restrictive system, of which they form a part, that our Navigation Laws were conceived in wisdom, and have hitherto been productive of benefit to the country-positions, however, which it would be by no means difficult to overturn;-and at the same time, we might proceed with the most perfect consistency to show, that in the present circumstances of the commercial world, nothing but good would follow from their total repeal-nothing but evil from a pertinacious adherence to them.

It may, however, be desirable for the information of those of our readers who have not hitherto been led to investigate the subject, that we should very briefly state the nature of our law of

VOL. LXXXVI. NO. CLXXIV.

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Navigation, as originally passed by the republican Parliament in 1651, and its operation at the present time; thus showing the extent of the modifications which from time to time it has undergone, and the nature of the restraints by means of which it did and still does affect the shipping of other countries, as well as that under the British flag.

By the act of 1651, no goods the growth, production, or manufacture of Africa, Asia, or America, could be imported into the United Kingdom or its dependencies, except from the places of their production, and in ships of which British subjects should 'be the proprietors and right owners, and whereof the master and three-fourths at least of the mariners should be English subjects.' No goods the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe, could be brought to Great Britain except in British ships, or in such ships as belonged to the country where the goods were produced, or from which they could only be, or usually had been, imported. By the act 12th Charles II., c. 18, among minor modifications, the restriction, in so far as it applied to goods of all descriptions, was geographically limited to those of Russia and Turkey; while in other places it affected only certain articles since well known under the name of the enumerated articles ;' so that other goods the produce of Europe, might be brought in under any flags. But these enumerated articles comprehended every thing then deemed important in our commerce, and the modification was thus of little or no value or effect.

After the recognition of the independence of the United States of America, the clause which prevented the importation of the produce of Africa, Asia, or America, in any other than British ships, was necessarily so far relaxed as to allow of the produce of the United States being brought in ships belonging to American citizens.

By the law as it now stands, and has stood since Mr Huskisson's amendment of it in 1825, the produce of Africa, Asia, or America, may be imported from places out of Europe into the United Kingdom, if to be used therein, in foreign as well as British ships; provided such foreign ships be ships of the country of which the goods are the produce, and from which they are imported. And as regards the produce of Europe, the enumerated articles may now be brought in British ships, or in ships of the country of which the goods are the produce, or in ships of the 'country from which the goods are imported.' Goods not enumerated in the act, which are the produce of Europe, may be brought thence in the ships of any country.

All intercourse between the United Kingdom and its possessions in all quarters of the globe, including the Channel Islands,

is confined to British ships; and the like restriction applies to our inter-colonial trade. No goods may be carried from any British possession in Asia, Africa, or America, to any other of such possessions, nor from one part of such possessions to another part of the same, except in British ships.

No goods can be imported into any British possession in Asia, Africa, or America, in any foreign ships, unless they be ships of the country of which the goods are the produce, and from which the goods are imported.

No ship is admitted to be a ship of any particular country unless she be of the build of such country, or have been made prize of war to such country, or forfeited under any law made for the prevention of the slave trade, or be British built; nor unless navigated by a master who is a subject of such foreign country, and by a crew of whom three-fourths at least are subjects of such country, nor unless wholly owned by subjects of such country.

No goods, or passengers, shall be carried coast wise from one part of the United Kingdom to another, or from the United Kingdom to the Isle of Man, or from the Isle of Man to the United Kingdom, except in British ships. This restriction, so far as passengers are concerned, was first imposed in 1845.

The first and greatest obstacle that presents itself to the abandonment of a system which has enlisted in its favour not only the fears and jealousy, but also the patriotic feelings of the country, is the sanction afforded to it by the Master of Economic Science :

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The Act of Navigation,' says Adam Smith (Wealth_of Nations, Book iv. Chap. ii.) is not favourable to foreign com'merce, or to the growth of that opulence which can arise from 'it. The interest of a nation, in its commercial relations to 'foreign nations, is like that of a merchant with regard to the 'different people with whom he deals-to buy as cheap, and to 'sell as dear, as possible. But it will be most likely to buy 'cheap, when, by the most perfect freedom of trade, it encourages all nations to bring to it the goods which it has occasion 'to purchase; and for the same reason, it will be most likely to 'sell dear, when its markets are thus filled with the greatest number of buyers. The Act of Navigation, it is true, lays no 'burthen upon foreign ships that come to export the produce of British industry. Even the ancient aliens' duty which used 'to be paid upon all goods exported as well as imported, has, by several subsequent acts, been taken off from the greater part of the articles of exportation; but if foreigners, either by prohibitions or high duties, are hindered from coming to sell,

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