As to the West Indies, Mr. Herries gave many details in proof of his assertion that the petition against the Navigation Laws from the Jamaica House of Assembly but imperfectly represented the real sentiments of either that body or of the island at large. Had its promoters been aware that, by the abrogation of these laws, freights from the foreign islands (whence sugar was brought to England, as well as from the British Islands) would be materially lowered, they never would have assented to it. To facilitate importations from Cuba by an alteration of the Navigation Laws would only aggravate the disadvantages from which they were at present suffering. Relying on the authority of Mr. Huskisson, he quoted him for a definition of that Protective principle he was willing to stand by; a principle which would reserve our colonial, coasting, and fishing trade wholly to ourselves, while protecting our foreign trade, so far as was consistent with our relations and engagements with foreign countries. If the House were agreed on the general principle of protecting our marine, Mr. Herries argued that it might, in committee, remove those anomalies which in some quarters were so much the object of censure and ridicule. [Sidenote: Extent of the shipping trade.] He reminded the House that the tonnage of the vessels belonging to this kingdom and her colonies then amounted to 3,900,000 tons; the number of sailors employed in our mercantile marine, to 230,000; and the capital embarked in shipping, to little less than 40,000,000_l._; while the trades immediately connected therewith, or subservient to the shipping interest, employed a capital of from 16,000,000_l._ to 17,000,000_l._ In this way there was between 50,000,000_l._ and 60,000,000_l._ of property which would be immediately affected by the proposed change. In this branch of national industry about 50,000 artisans, whose wages amounted to 5,000,000_l._ a-year, were employed; while the cost of victualling the ships he estimated at 9,000,000_l._, and the freights the mercantile marine earned per annum at nearly 30,000,000_l._[95] [Sidenote: National defences endangered.]