Observations on the fifth article of the treaty of union, humbly offered to the consideration of the Parliament, relating to foreign ships

Observations on the Fifth Article of the Treaty of UNION, humbly offered to the Consideration of the Parliament, relating to Foreign Ships.

THE Matter of Difficulty upon this Head, I take to be as follows. — By the Article, all Ships, any of whose Owners were Foreigners at the Signing of the Treaty, shall be Deem'd still Foreign Bottoms within the Terms of the Act of Navigation.

The Reason of this is plain, Most of the Shipping employ'd on the South-East of Scotland, are Foreign Bottoms, and severals of them own'd by Foreigners, principally Dutch. Now, as England is very careful to Encourage her own Shipping; and as Britain will after the Union still be so the Encrease, Employment and Building of Ships being one of the Principal Foundations of her Wealth. — It would be hard to admit any Ships, which are Foreign built, to be free Ships in Scotland, when none that are so in England can be admitted.

England freely admits all Ships built in Scotland to be free in all the Ports and Trade of Britain; — Nay, to go further, England allows by the Union, even Dutch Ships, if bought by Scots Men, and belonging to Scots Owners, to be free, which is more than any English-man can be allow'd. — Nay, If a Foreign built Ship lay now at Leith Road, and her Owners were all English-men, she would not be Deem'd a free Ship by the Union, but the English Owners would loose the benefit of employing her; and the Reason of this is, to Encourage our own Shipping, on which so much depends, and this Benefit will be plainly Scotland's at last.

But the Objection here, is, We have a great many Ships in our Trade that are Foreign built, and that are chiefly own'd by Scots-men, but perhaps may have one or more Owners abroad; and it would be hard that these Scots-men should lose the Benefit of their Ships which they employ in the Trade of their Native Country, only because they have some Dutch-men concerned with them, — when at the same time 'tis plain, that if these Dutch-men were not concerned, the Trade of Scotland would with great difficulty be carried on.

The Expedient proposed for this, as I meet with it, is, That a reasonable time should be given for the Subjects of Scotland to buy out their Dutch Owners or sell their own Interest.

Or that it should have been said, All Ships &c. whose Owners were Scots-men, at the End, or Ratification of the Treaty, &c. since till the Treaty is Concluded, every Scots-man has a Right to employ any Ship whatever.

To Answer this, I crave leave to say, That this tho plausible in its self, has yet Inconveniencies of a nature Intolerable, because by this, any Man in England, as well as in Scotland, may in the name of Scotsmen, Buy what number of Ships in Holland they please, and at the end of the Union, they become free Ships, to the general Ruine of the Shipping in the whole Island.

And this was Remarkably true, to England's prodigious Loss, when in the last Dutch War, the Ships taken from Holland as Prize, were made free, the People bought Dutch Ships, caused sham Privateers to take them, and for several years, some hundereds of them were Imployed in their Coal Trade, to the Ruine of the Town of Ipswick, where all the large Coal Ships used to be Built, — which Loss that Town never recovered.

To give a time therefore, to have all Ships Own'd by Scotsmen come in to be free, is to open a Door to a Mischief, which it cannot be desired, England should suffer in Trade; and the value now supposed to be Toucht here, is but very small.

All that I can see in this, is, That a Medium be found out, which if it must be, tho I do not grant that necessity neither, is this, That at the time of the Treaty, the MAJOR PART of such Vessel did belong to the Subjects of Scotland, I confess this seems to have some colour of Reason in it, that the Majority should Denominate the whole, and I would hope England would not Dispute it, since they do not deny any Foreigners, Holding or Owning any Share of an English Vessel, but the Legitimacy of the Vessel consists in her Bottom.

Now if the Majority of Owners as to the Value, I mean, were not Scots, no Ship can be accounted Legitimate. If a Scots Merchant Owns ⅜ of a Ship, and a Dutchman ⅝ she cannot be accounted in Reason, any thing but a Dutch Ship, especially when her Bottom is Dutch too, for the Denomination must go with the Major; and it's not the Dutch Merchant is a part Owner of the Scotsman's Ship, but the Scotsman is a part Owner of the Dutchman's Ship.

This small Medium, I think, will reduce this Article to a Square, and an Explanatorie Clause to that purpose, will in two Lines determine that Point.

All which is Humbly Remitted to the Consideration of the Right Honourable the Estates of Parliament.

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Observations on the fifth article of the treaty of union, humbly offered to the consideration of the Parliament, relating to foreign ships

Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.

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ID [ota]

http://ota.ox.ac.uk/id/4301

ID [isbn10]

110601300X

ID [isbn13]

9781106013002

ID [TCP]

K049447.000

ID [BIBNO]

CW3305704356

ID [ECSS]

0129701600

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— Observations on the fifth article of the treaty of union, humbly offered to the consideration of the Parliament, relating to foreign ships, Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.. 4p. ; 4⁰. [Edinburgh,. 1706]. [Anonymous. By Daniel Defoe.] [Drop-head title.] [Reproduction of original from the British Library.] [Moore, 125] [English Short Title Catalog, ESTCT55499.] [Electronic data. Farmington Hills, Mich. : Thomson Gale, 2003. Page image (PNG). Digitized image of the microfilm version produced in Woodbridge, CT by Research Publications, 1982-2002 (later known as Primary Source Microfilm, an imprint of the Gale Group).]

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