But, though they may have degenerated since then, the seamen engaged in the deep-sea fisheries are still a remarkably hardy, robust race, and, hence, have succeeded in that branch of maritime enterprise far more than our own adventurers of late years. FOOTNOTES: [1] _See_ Alexander Baring’s pamphlet, 1808. [2] In 1860, the United States owned a larger amount of tonnage, including lake and river steamers, than the United Kingdom, and nearly as much as Great Britain and all her colonies and possessions combined. [3] State papers, America, ‘Commerce and Navigation,’ vol. ii. p. 413. [4] The names appended to the petition are nearly all Anglo-Saxon, such as Rogers, Jones, Howard, &c. [5] In 1818, the whole of the exports from New Orleans was only in value a little more than three million sterling; in 1850 it had reached thirty millions; the shipments of raw cotton alone in that year being 1,600,000 bales. During the year ending June 30, 1874, the exports of that article to _foreign countries_ were 2,883,785 bales from the port of New Orleans alone. [6] In the year ending 30th September, 1822, the tonnage of American vessels entered inwards at New York was 217,538 tons, cleared 185,666, against 22,478, and 17,784 tons foreign vessels, respectively. But for the year ending June 30, 1874, the proportion of entrances at the Port of New York was: American vessels, 1,124,055 tons; foreign vessels, 3,925,563. The clearances were in somewhat the same proportion. The chief causes of these extraordinary changes will appear in the course of this work. In 1850, 2,632,788 tons of American shipping, and 1,728,214 tons of foreign shipping cleared from the ports of the United States. In 1860, the relative proportions were, native vessels, 6,165,924 tons: foreign, 2,624,005; but in 1871, while the clearances of American vessels had fallen to 3,982,852 tons, the clearances of foreign vessels from the ports of the United States had risen to 9,207,396 tons! I take these startling figures, which I wish my readers to bear in mind, from the United States’ official reports, for history is of little value unless it teaches useful lessons.