the old smuggling spirit, the risk of seizure and confiscations,
and shipping merchants with long faces talking ruin. The theory
of free trade versus protection was as debatable and opinions
were as conflicting then as now. Some were for retaliation,
others for conciliation; and meanwhile American shipmasters went
about their business, with no room for theories in their honest
heads, and secured more and more of the world's trade. Curiously
enough, the cries of calamity in the United States were echoed
across the water, where the "London Times" lugubriously
exclaimed: "The shipping interest, the cradle of our navy, is
half ruined. Our commercial monopoly exists no longer; and
thousands of our manufacturers are starving or seeking redemption
in distant lands. We have closed the Western Indies against
America from feelings of commercial rivalry. Its active seamen
have already engrossed an important branch of our carrying trade
to the Eastern Indies. Her starred flag is now conspicuous on
every sea and will soon defy our thunder."

It was not until 1849 that Great Britain threw overboard her long
catalogue of protective navigation laws which had been piling up
since the time of Cromwell, and declared for free trade afloat.
Meanwhile the United States had drifted in the same direction,
barring foreign flags from its coastwise shipping but offering
full exemption from all discriminating duties and tonnage duties
to every maritime nation which should respond in like manner.
This latter legislation was enacted in 1828 and definitely
abandoned the doctrine of protection in so far as it applied to
American ships and sailors. For a generation thereafter, during
which ocean rivalry was a battle royal of industry, enterprise,
and skill, the United States was paramount and her merchant