CO885(1-2) — Page 226

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.

885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

4

or

under the notice of the Imperial authorities, and to urge

"the paramount necessity which existed of their being promptly modified to such an extent as would leave the people free to employ the cheapest vessels they could procure, whether British foreign, and the inhabitants of Montreal in par- ticular, to avail themselves of the advantages to be derived from an unfettered intercourse with foreign nations."

Lord Elgin represented that the erection of Montreal into a free port would at once place the United States in a position to share with Great Britain the carrying trade of the St. Lawrence. He suggested, therefore, that negotiations should be entered into with the United States, for the purpose of obtaining from their Government some equiva- lent, in return for a concession of such importance. Lord Grey acknowledged the receipt of the last two despatches, and of that from Lord Cathcart dated 27th August, 1846, and informed Lord Elgin that the Lords of the Treasury, anxious to afford the utmost accommodation to Canadian trade, would order the custom-house officers at Quebec to allow foreign vessels to go in ballast up to Montreal, and thence to bring corn or four consigned to any port in the United Kingdom, during the continuance of the Imperial Act suspending the Corn and Naviga- tion Laws.

Lord Elgin forwarded a petition to the Queen from the Board of Trade of Hamilton, a growing city at the head of Lake Ontario, containing a clear Rud detailed statement of the manner in which their interests, and the general interests of Canada, were injuriously affected by the operation of the Naviga- tion Laws, and praying for their total repeal, so far as they applied to Canadian ports.

Lord Grey, with reference to the memorial from the Montreal Board of Trade, informed Lord Elgin that the Government would not feel justified in deciding upon the peculiarly Canadian question of the navigation of the St. Lawrence by foreign ves- sels, without receiving from the Canadian Legis- lature a formal expression of its opinions on that subject,

On the 27th July, Lord Elgin transmitted a joint address from the Legislative Council and Assembly to the Queen, dated 19th and 21st July, praying

Printed Papers, page 18,

26 March, 1847.

Ibid, page 19.

19 April, 1847.

Ibid. page 20.

28 June, 1847.

Ibid. page 17. 31 July, 1847.

Ibid. page 22.

27 July, 1847.

Parliamentary Paper, No. 501. page 3.

6 April, 1847.

5

for the free navigation of the St. Lawrence by all nations, and for the repeal of the Navigation Laws, so far as they applied to Canada.

JAMAICA.

Sir Charles Grey forwarded a memorial to the Queen from the House of Assembly, setting forth the ruinous condition of their affairs in cousequence of the equalization of the sugar duties, and praying for the repeal of the Navigation Laws, so far as they applied to Jamaica. If that were done, it was their opinion that Jamaica would probably become a great commercial depôt. They represented further, that "the benefits to Jamaica from such relaxation of the Navigation Laws, would be infinite; it was the most desirable boon that her inhabitants could solicit

or obtain from Her Majesty's Government; it would aid Jamaica out of her difficulties."

Parliamentary Paper, No. 119, page 19.

Inclosure in No. 8, 3 October, 1846.

Parliamentary Paper, No. 501,

page 4.

20 January, 1847.

Ibid. page 4.

1 March, 1847.

Ibid. page 5. 1 April, 1847.

TRINIDAD.

At a public meeting held in Port-of-Spain on the 18th September, 1846, the following resolution, among others, was adopted:

“5. That ***** this mecting would now gladly hail such an approximion to the general principles of Free Trade, as, by a modification of the existing Navigation Laws, would enable British colonists to avail themselves of the cheapest bottoms for carrying their produce to the home market, as well as bringing their outward supplies; an advan- tage at present denied them, but at the command of their opponents, the slave-holders."

In a despatch dated in January of this Lord

year, Harris inquired whether any relaxation of the Na- vigation Laws might be hoped for. Such a relaxa- tion would promote an extensive and direct com- merce between Trinidad and France, and Spain. It would also much reduce the freight of immigrant coolies.

In reply to a despatch from this office requesting information as to the effect of the Navigation Laws upon the commerce of the island, Lord Harris stated, that the population being in great measure of foreign extraction, they were naturally desirous

C