[Sidenote: Scarcity of shipping at the commencement of the Crimean War.] [Sidenote: Repeal of the manning clause.] The spring of 1852 ushered in the dawn of brighter days for the disconsolate and “ruined” British shipowner: he could then, at least, obtain, with prudent management, a moderate remuneration on his capital, but there was no actual scarcity of tonnage until 1854. Freights, as we have seen, had no doubt materially risen in the interval, because we had hesitated to increase the number of our ships, while foreigners, with the exception of the Americans, had refrained from rushing into the trade we had opened for them to the alarming extent anticipated. Consequently, there was, hardly, tonnage enough to meet the requirements of commerce created by the abolition of our Navigation Laws, still less to satisfy the sudden demands which arose when, in March 1854, England and France declared war against Russia. Suitable vessels could not then be found in sufficient numbers to send forth, with the requisite despatch, the allied armies and their supplies to the scene of action; nor, I must add, could British seamen be obtained to man with expedition our ships of war. Government, therefore, threw open our Coasting trade, and repealed the once famous manning clause, which, however, neither increased, on the average, the number of foreigners we had hitherto been allowed to employ in our ships, nor deteriorated the number and quality of British seamen, though aiding, at the time, the more expeditious equipment of our fleets. [Sidenote: Government refuses to issue letters of marque.] But a much more important step affecting the interests of maritime commerce and the progress of mankind was taken in 1854. On the declaration of that unfortunate war, her Majesty in Council, in order to preserve the commerce of neutrals from unnecessary obstruction, waived the belligerent rights appertaining to the Crown by the law of nations, by declining to issue letters of marque or by confiscating neutral property on board of Russian ships, or neutral ships with Russian property on board, provided such goods were not contraband of war. She, however, reserved the right of blockade; a reservation by which I may remind my readers, her Majesty’s subjects were, commercially, by far the greatest sufferers.[170] [Sidenote: Great increase of ship-building and high freights.]