1. Committee moved for by Mr. Ricardo, February 9, 1847. (Hansard, lxxxix. p. 1007.) Carried by 155 to 94. Committee appointed February 16. 2. Lord John Russell proposes to suspend Navigation Laws with reference to the importation of corn, June 14. (Ibid., xciii. p. 472.) 3. Discussion on Navigation Bill, July 2. (Ibid., p. 1138.) 4. Motion of the Earl of Hardwicke for a Committee, February 25, 1848. (Ibid., xcvi. p. 1313.) 5. Committee of whole House on Navigation Bill, May 15, 1848. (Ibid., xcviii. p. 988.) 6. Motion of Mr. Herries in reply to Mr. Labouchere, May 29, 1848. (Ibid., xcix. p. 9.) 7. After five nights’ debate Mr. Labouchere’s motion is carried by 299 to 177, June 9, 1848. (Ibid., p. 664.) 8. Mr. Labouchere moves resolution for Navigation Bill, February 14, 1849 (Ibid., cii. p. 682), which is agreed to (Ibid., p. 741). The Bill is read a first time, February 16. (Ibid., p. 759.) 9. Second reading, March 9, 1849 (Ibid., cii. p. 464), which is carried, March 12, by 266 to 210. (Ibid., p. 625.) 10. Third reading, April 23 (Ibid., civ. p. 622), and Bill carried by 275 to 214 (Ibid., p. 702). 11. Bill introduced into the House of Lords, May 7. (Ibid., p. 1316.) Carried May 9, by 173 to 163. (Ibid., cv. p. 83.) [39] Hansard, February 9, 1847, p. 1007. [40] The preceding eighteen months had seen the height of the railway mania. [41] The Spaniard, he said, would take in a cargo of sugar at Cuba which he would deliver at a _French_ port, and take in wine for us; but _we_ had so arranged that when he arrived at our ports he would be met by a custom-house officer, who would tell him that he could not be permitted to land his cargo. “Why?” the Spaniard would inquire. “I understood you wanted wine.” “So we do,” the officer would reply. Then the Spaniard would say, “I will exchange my wine for your earthenware.” “That will not do,” replies the officer. “It must be brought by Frenchmen on a French ship.” “But the French do not want your earthenware”[42]. “We cannot help that; we must not let you violate our Navigation Laws”[43]. [42] They did very much; for Mr. Garratt, the partner of Alderman Copeland, said at the time to a friend of mine, that he would ruin every earthenware potter in France if they would allow British earthenware to be admitted free of duty. [43] The Spaniard was no doubt under a misapprehension. The _French wines_ could _not_ have been brought into our ports in a _Spanish_ ship; wine being an enumerated article which was excluded, “except in _British ships_, or ships of the country of which the goods are the produce.” (8 & 9 Vict., cap. 88, s. 2.)