tered in the Chinese seas at 50 per cent, higher freights than first class English vessels, which could not obtain cargoes at all. Nor is any testimony required to prove a matter so obvious. Cargoes being seizable in English vessels and safe in neutral vessels, no shipper would be so insane as to ship in the former when he could get the latter to carry his merchandize.
Now, what is the meaning of our carrying trade departing from us? Our mercantile marine consists of 37,000 vessels, representing an aggregate of between 6,000,000 and 7,000,000 tons. These vessels would necessarily be laid up in dock, or sold to neutrals if the war lasted long enough; and the carrying trade having left us in war, it by no means follows that it would return to us in peace. It is very difficult to coax trade back from channels to which it has become accustomed. The carrying trade has never returned to the United States since the
