That an idea may be formed of the actual state of the navigation and commerce of the North American Colonies when they declared their independence we furnish in the accompanying note an outline of the leading figures bearing on this subject from a report, issued shortly after the Declaration of Independence, by the Inspector General of the Customs, London, and presented to Parliament.[217] [Sidenote: Early registry of ships not always to be depended on.] Prior to the Registry Act of the 24th of George III. vessels were measured in a very loose manner, and in order to evade the payment of lighthouse dues, and various port charges collected on tonnage, they were usually registered far below their real burthen; indeed the difference between the measurements under the old Act of William and that of George III., being on the aggregate no less than one third, accounts in some measure for the apparently very small tonnage of the vessels given in the returns to which we have just referred. But the return, as a whole, furnishes pretty accurately the position of the merchant navy and of the oversea commerce of the United States when they separated from the mother-country. That important event in the history of the world produced a complete revolution in the relative positions of the great maritime nations; a merchant navy having arisen on the other side of the Atlantic which in three quarters of a century afterwards rivalled, and at one time surpassed in number, and especially in symmetry and speed, the finest merchantmen of any of the countries of the Old World. In noting the progress of British merchant shipping during the earlier portion of the reign of George III., the dates at which the war with the colonies broke out, and when peace was finally concluded, must be remembered, as open hostilities did not actually commence until 1774, though for some years previously a state of non-intercourse had existed. The revolted colonies might possibly then have been retained as reluctant subjects for some years longer, had not the French, in 1778, espoused their cause with the object of striking a blow at the increasing maritime power of England. In the following year Spain also threw her weight into the scale against her, and finally the Dutch, in 1781, contributed to swell the number of her maritime foes. With three such nations in arms against her British shipping, clearing outwards and inwards from her ports, had fallen, in 1782, to 615,150 tons, while there were in that year 225,456 tons of foreign clearances; but, in 1785, such has ever been the elasticity of her commerce, the entries inwards and outwards reached 1,182,346 tons, of which only 107,484 tons were foreign vessels.[218] [Sidenote: Independence of the United States acknowledged, May 24, 1784.]