Such were the leading conditions of the “Act of Navigation” so far as regards “British ships;” but the “Statute of Frauds” further enacted (sect. 6, par. 2) that no foreign-built ship (that is to say, no ship built anywhere except in England, &c., or in his Majesty’s dominions in Asia, Africa, or America), except ships purchased before a given day and prize ships, should enjoy the privilege of a “British ship,” though owned and manned by “British subjects”; and such ships were deemed as aliens’ ships, and were liable therefore to all duties applicable to this class of vessels. By a subsequent Act (15 Car. II., cap. 7, sect. 6) no goods from Europe were to be imported into the British possessions except in British-built shipping; and, by the Plantation Act (7 & 8 Will. III., cap. 22, sect. 2) all importations into, and exportations from, these possessions must be in British-owned, and British-built, and British-navigated vessels. Prize ships, if British owned, were, and always have been, entitled to the privileges of British vessels; the system of registering vessels having been first prescribed by the last-named Act. Having thus stated the principles regulating “British ships,” I must now proceed to notice in some detail the more important changes in the Navigation Laws. [Sidenote: State of Navigation Laws in 1847. Rules in force in the Plantation Trade.] These Laws, in 1847, resting as they did on the Act of Parliament then in force, so far as regards _The Plantation Trade_ provided (_Rule 1_) that “No goods shall be _exported_ from the United Kingdom to any British possession in Asia, Africa, or America, nor to the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, or Sark, except in British ships” (8 & 9 Vict., cap. 88, sect. 7). But vessels belonging to the United States may carry goods from this country to the principal British settlements in the East Indies (59 Geo. III., cap. 54, sect. 6). The Sovereign had the power to conclude treaties, allowing the same privilege to the ships of other foreign countries, and some such treaties were actually concluded: _e.g._ with Austria and in fact Russia (see 8 & 9 Vict., cap. 90, sect. 9). _Rule 2._ “No goods shall be carried from any British possession in Asia, Africa, or America, to any other of such possessions, nor from one part of such possessions to another part of the same, except in British ships” (8 & 9 Vict., cap. 88, sect. 10). _Rule 3._ “No goods shall be _imported_ into any British possession in Asia, Africa, or America, in any foreign ships, unless they be ships of the country producing these goods, and from which they are usually imported”[48] (8 & 9 Vict., cap. 88, sect. 11). But an Order in Council might declare that goods, &c., the growth of any foreign country, might be imported into Hong Kong from the same or any other foreign country, in vessels belonging to the same or any other foreign country, and however navigated (see 8 & 9 Vict., cap. 88, sect. 12).