On the 14th February Mr. Labouchere, still President of the Board of Trade, moved a fresh resolution almost in the identical terms employed in the preceding year. He recapitulated at great length the arguments in favour of repeal which he had employed in the previous session. It will be unnecessary to dwell upon these here; but his new light with regard to the coasting trade deserves a place in tracing the progress of our mercantile marine: on this branch of the subject he seemed to tremble before the superior abilities of Mr. Gladstone; and the remarks of that gentleman intimating a strong desire to surrender the coasting trade, with a view to obtain in return that of the United States, evidently made considerable impression upon his mind, so that he scarcely knew what to grant or refuse. Mr. Gladstone asked, not merely that we should give colonial trade for colonial trade, but our coasting trade for theirs. It was asserted that the American trade, say from New York to California, was a foreign, or colonial, rather than a coasting traffic. But to argue that a voyage from London to Malta was to be held part of a colonial trade, while a voyage from California to New York was to be considered part of a coasting trade, was preposterous, and Mr. Labouchere affected to believe that the United States would not persist in a policy so contrary to the dictates of justice and common sense.[104] [Sidenote: Proposed change in the coasting trade.] The fresh consideration which Mr. Labouchere had given to his measure enabled him now to propose a plan which, while it did not imply a total abolition of all restrictions, would effect a considerable modification of them, and at the same time enable us, as he conceived, to get, _without cavil or hesitation_, such a measure from America as the important interests of this country demanded, without exposing our revenue to danger, or exciting alarm among those engaged in the coasting trade of this country.[105] Such were the sanguine but vain expectations of Mr. Labouchere. He tried to make it appear that there were two branches of the coasting trade, which, although they went by the same name, were yet essentially distinct from each other. There was the trade, conducted principally either by steamboats or small vessels, consisting in the carrying of goods and passengers to and fro, and depending on local connection with the places between which the trade was conducted. With that trade foreigners could not compete; and, consequently, he illogically argued that it was not intended to disturb that trade or throw it open to foreign competition; so that he proposed to keep the coasting trade, which consisted of passing from one port to another of the United Kingdom, on its present footing. Government had, however, he said, resolved to abolish restrictions which prevented the combination of a coasting with a foreign voyage. It was not proposed that either a foreign vessel or an English vessel foreign bound should