[Sidenote: Difficulty about “manufactured” articles.] It appeared, however, unquestionable, taking the two Navigation Laws together, the American Law and that of England, so far as the trade between the United States and Great Britain was concerned, that we had decidedly the worst of it. Again: the fifth clause of the Navigation Act was the cause of much question at the Customs, and occasioned great inconvenience; this clause ran thus: that all “manufactured” goods shall be deemed to be the produce of the country of which they are the “manufacture.” Thus, coffee imported at Hamburg from its place of growth in Asia or America was roasted and ground there; but, when merchants attempted to bring it into England as a manufactured article, the claim was refused by the law officers of the Crown. Again, mahogany, cut into veneers, was at first not allowed to be a manufactured article; but this decision was afterwards reversed, and veneers were deemed manufactures. In like manner, ostrich feathers, brought from Africa and manufactured in France, offered a very doubtful case, and was, in fact, left undecided, though the impression was, on the whole, adverse to their admission. Refined sugar was deemed a manufacture; and, thus, while _raw_ sugar, the growth of Brazil or Cuba, could not come in from Holland, it could, when refined, be imported. A recent Act required that refined sugar should not only be the produce, but the growth of the country from which it was imported, thereby causing a new difficulty, and showing that the law discouraged the refining of sugar in Holland, and discouraged it at the place of growth. [Sidenote: Anomalies of coasting and internal trade.] Again: it was shown that, from the earliest period, foreign ships which could not carry goods from London to Plymouth, could, nevertheless, carry passengers, as such a trade was not considered by the Customs authorities to be trading _coastwise_. Nay, it further appeared that foreign vessels could have engaged in the internal trade of the country, there being no legal impediment to prevent a Dutch vessel from plying, either with goods or passengers, between London and Gravesend. The like principle might have prevailed on any of the rivers of the kingdom; but a foreign vessel would not have been allowed to carry goods from one _port_ to another. The interdiction against foreign vessels carrying “passengers” was only inserted for the first time in the 8 & 9 Vict., cap. 88 (1845), and, previously to this period, there was no law to prevent a foreign steamer carrying passengers between two English ports; while, even in 1847, a vessel built in Norway could have plied in the Thames. Foreigners, however, either were ignorant of the law, or did not avail themselves of it, considering it a barren advantage.