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Coals brought to Liverpool by the Leeds and Liverpool canal.

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Coals exported in 1791.-To Foreign parts, 57,000 tons. -Coastways, 40,000.-Total 97,000 tons; leaving 41,000 tons used in Liverpool, besides the quantities brought down the Sankeycanal, and carted from the collieries.

A list of the number of British and Foreign Ships that have entered inwards, and cleared outwards, at the port of Liverpool, from October 10th, 1801, to October 10th, 1802.

British ships entered inwards in 1801,·

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• 1331

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If the increased tonnage of the ships, and the increased number of men employed in them, be considered, the result, as to the total increase and decrease, respectively, of the British and Foreign ships, would be found still more considerable. In 1801, the amount of the tonnage was 22,696; do. for 1802, 25,527.

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* The quantity of cotton imported into London in 1800 was 86,450 bags.

On the 20th of June, 1807, there were in the Liverpool docks 262 sail of American vessels.

The rapid increase of the American commerce, during the present devastating and calamitous war, is calculated to injure that of Great Britain. For the former has every port open to its merchants; and among other effects that must result from this free trade, it is very likely that it will undermine the monopoly of the East Indian traffic. This subject is entitled to serious consideration.

Long have the two ports of Bristol and Liverpool been acknowledged rivals. The latter has, at length, obtained the ascendancy over the emporium of the west. Though the merchants of each are desirous of being competitors, yet the places are so situated, as naturally to divide the trade, upon very remarkable equalities. Each presents a different theatre for commerce to act upon. They possess no legitimate cause of interference; each has room to extend its trade, both abroad and at home, without clashing with the others interest. Bristol lies open to the Irish trade, as well as Liverpool: but while the former trades chiefly to the south and south-west ports, from Dublin to Galloway; the latter must have the trade of the east and northern shores, from Dublin to Londonderry. The one has all the south of England; the other all the north, to correspond with. Bristol has the south-west counties, extending northward to Shrewsbury; Liverpool the north, and midland counties, extending southward to Birmingham. Nature has opened a communication, by the river Severn, between Bristol and the counties of Monmouth, Glocester, Hereford, Worcester, and Salop; yet Liverpool has obtained many advantages by the rivers Mersey, Wever, &c. and the various canals which now open a communication for her, not only into the heart of the country, but to the eastern shores, the Tyne and the Humber. Wales seems equally divided between them: Bristol commanding the harbours down to Milford, and its centre by the rivers Wye and Lug: and Liverpool does the same to the north, by the Dee, Conway, and Straights of Menai,

Thus

Thus possessed naturally of equally eligible situations, both for foreign and domestic trade, Liverpool, though she started late, has not only overtaken, but surpassed her rival in both. By a comparison of the number of ships which sailed from and to those respective ports, on an average of five years, 1759 to 1763 inclusive, the shipping of Liverpool far exceeded that of Bristol; while the customs of Bristol exceeded those of Liverpool. This seeming paradox is solved, by adverting to the nature of the articles and differences of duty imported into the two ports, From that period, and especially since 1770, in every point Liverpool has been surpassing Bristol. This precedency has been attributed to two causes, the ardent pursuit of the African Trade by the one, and the humane dereliction of it in the other; and the superior advantages Liverpool has long enjoyed, by means of her floating docks. How far the first cause has operated, the effect of an act lately passed the Legislative Assembly, will soon discover; and the extent of the latter will be decided by the superior competition attempting in the immense work now executing, for damming a long reach of the river Avon, to keep the ships afloat in the harbour of Bristol. Leaving this for time to discover, may not a more energetically operative cause be found in the genius of the place, and the liberal spirit which pervades it? Liberality of sentiment, with generosity in practice, is peculiarly favourable to commerce. It is the genial sun, under which she flourishes, and without whose benign influence, she dwindles and dies. Unanimity begets mutual confidence, and confidence tends to increase power, and power soon opens various avenues to wealth and affluence.

In the history of this port, the African slave trade constitutes a popular, but very unpleasant, feature; and though the benevolent mind rejoices at a decision of the British House of Commons in 1807, when this inhuman traffic was 66 abolished," yet it must occasionally reflect on the cruelty, injustice, and ignominy of that trade and commerce, which consisted in buying and selling men and women; or what is much worse, in plundering one country of its human inhabitants to consign them to perpetual slavery in

another. It is common to attach particular reproach to this town for engaging so largely in this business, but the discredit more particularly belongs to the legislative councils, for tolerating and encouraging it. To correct long nurtured evils, and to annihilate a profitable branch of trade in an actively commercial country, require much patriotic courage and patriotic perseverance. It is, therefore, with glowing pleasure that we hail the ascendancy of reason and jus ice over obstinate folly and mercenary cupidity; for the noble maxim of Papinian is then nobly exemplified, "To suppress wrong is wise, to do right is politic." "Much illiberal and ungenerous reflection," says the editor of the Picture of Liverpool, "has indiscriminately been cast upon the inhabitants of Liverpool, on account of this trade. It is too commonly supposed that it has the unqualified sanction of all who take up their residence in this town, and it has been hence emphatically called the "the metropolis of slavery;" yet nothing can be more unfounded, not to say illiberal, than such an imputation. The trade is limited to a very few of the merchants of Liverpool, chiefly to three or four houses; and many ships are fitted out in that trade from this port, belonging to owners and merchants who reside in different parts of the kingdom, but who give the preference to Liverpool, solely on account of the superior accommodations it possesses. The friends of the hapless Africans, and many such are to be found even here, have not been passive and unconcerned in the struggle which has been raised for putting a stop to the trade. Their talents have been consecrated to the service. They have remonstrated in public and in private, through the medium of the pulpit and the press. They have called to their aid the powers of argument, the charms of poetry, and the graces of oratory; in doing which they have acquitted themselves of what they conceived to be an imperious duty to their own consciences, their country, and their God."

In the year 1709, Liverpool began to have a share of the slave trade, and has long been the principal English port in that branch of traffic. The following is a statement of the number of vessels,

and

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