-----+-------+--------+-------+---------- Years| United States | |British | | Total |Empire -----+-------+--------| |(including |Oversea|Enrolled| | Colonies) -----+-------+--------+-------+---------- 1838|2,791 |190,632 |193,423| 82,716 1840|4,155 |198,184 |202,339| 95,807 1842|4,701 |224,960 |229,681| 118,930 1844|6,909 |265,270 |272,179| 125,675 1846|6,287 |341,606 |347,893| 144,784 1848|16,068 |411,823 |427,891| 168,087 1850|44,942 |481,005 |525,947| 187,631 1852|79,704 |563,536 |643,240| 227,306 1854|95,036 |581,571 |676,607| 326,484 1855|115,045| ... | ... | ... 1856|89,715 |583,362 |673,077| 417,717 1858|78,027 |651,363 |729,390| 488,415 1860|97,269 |770,641 |500,144| 500,144 -----+-------+--------+-------+---------- It will be seen from this table how great the extension of the use of the steamboat had been in the United States in these earlier years, as compared with that elsewhere. In 1852 our enrolled tonnage had grown to more than half a million tons, or well on to three times the whole of that of the British Empire, and our oversea tonnage was about one-third of that of Great Britain and her dependencies. One reason for this very rapid increase in the enrolled tonnage was, of course, the fact that railroads had not yet begun to seam the West, as they were shortly to do: the steamboat was the great and absolutely necessary means of transport, and was to hold its prominence in this regard for some years yet to come. When this change came, there came with it a change in circumstances which went far beyond all other causes in removing our shipping from the great place it had occupied in the first half of this century. But great as was the effect worked by this change, there were certain minor causes which have to be taken into account. We had grown in maritime power through the events of the Napoleonic wars—which, though they worked ruin to many an unlucky owner, enriched many more—as we were for some years almost the only neutral bottoms afloat; we had rapidly increased this power during the succeeding forty years, during which time our ships were notably the finest models and the most ably commanded on the seas; the best blood of New England went into the service, and one has but to read the reports of the English parliamentary commissions upon the shipping subject to realize the proud position which our ships and, above all, our ships’ captains held in the carrying trade. We had entered the steam competition with an energy and ability that promised much, but we gave little or no heed to changes in construction until long after they had been accepted by the rest of the world; and it is to this conservatism, paradoxical as the expression may seem applied to our countrymen, that part of our misfortune was due.