ing can exceed the
barbarous rigidity of her colonial system, or the folly of her early
commercial regulations. Unenlightened and bigoted legislation, the
multitude of holidays, miserable roads, monopolies on the part of
government, restrictive laws, that ought long since to have been
abrogated, are generally, and I believe truly, reckoned the principal
causes of the bad state of the productive industry of Spain. Any partial
improvement in her condition, or increase of her prosperity, has been,
in all cases, the result of relaxation, and the abolition of what was
intended for favor and protection.

In short, Sir, the general sense of this age sets, with a strong
current, in favor of freedom of commercial intercourse, and unrestrained
individual action. Men yield up their notions of monopoly and
restriction, as they yield up other prejudices, slowly and reluctantly;
but they cannot withstand the general tide of opinion.

Let me now ask, Sir, what relief this bill proposes to some of those
great and essential interests of the country, the condition of which has
been referred to as proof of national distress; and which condition,
although I do not think it makes out a case of _distress_, yet does
indicate depression.

And first, Sir, as to our foreign trade. Mr. Speaker has stated that
there has been a considerable falling off in the tonnage employed in
that trade. This is true, lamentably true. In my opinion, it is one of
those occurrences which ought to arrest our immediate, our deep, our
most earnest attention. What does this bill propose for its relief? It
proposes nothing but new burdens. It proposes to diminish its
employment, and it proposes, at the same time, to augment its expense,
by subjecting it to heavier taxation. Sir, there is no interest, in
regard to which a stronger case for protection can be made out, than the
navigating interest. Whether we look at its present condition, which is
admitted to be depressed, the number of persons connected with it, and
dependent upon it for their daily bread, or its importance to the
country in a political point of view, it has claims upon our attention
which cannot be surpassed. But what do we propose to do for it? I
repeat, Sir, simply to burden and to tax it. By a statement which I have
already submitted to the committee, it appears that the shipping
interest pays, annually, more than half a million of dollars in duties
on articles used in the construction of ships.