The capacity of the British merchant service to supply what was demanded would, of course, be all the greater the smaller the number of foreigners it contained in its ranks.  This is not only generally admitted at the present day; it is also frequently pointed out when it is asserted that the conditions now are less favourable than they were owing to a recent influx of foreign seamen.  The fact, however, is that there were foreigners on board British merchant ships, and, it would seem, in considerable numbers, long before even the war of American Independence.  By 13 George II, c. 3, foreigners, not exceeding three-fourths of the crew, were permitted in British vessels, ’and in two years to be naturalised.’  By 13 George II, c. 17, exemption from impressment was granted to ’every person, being a foreigner, who shall serve in any merchant ship, or other trading vessel or privateer belonging to a subject of the Crown of Great Britain.’  The Acts quoted were passed about the time of the ‘Jenkins’ Ear War’ and the war of the Austrian Succession; but the fact that foreigners were allowed to form the majority of a British vessel’s crew is worthy of notice.  The effect and, probably, the object of this legislation were not so much to permit foreign seamen to enter our merchant service as to permit the number of those already there to be increased.  It was in 1759 that Lord, then Commander, Duncan reported that the crew of the hired merchant ship Royal Exchange consisted ’to a large extent of boys and foreigners, many of whom could not speak English.’  In 1770 by 11 George III, c. 3, merchant ships were allowed to have three-fourths of their crews foreigners till the 1st February 1772.  Acts permitting the same proportion of foreign seamen and extending the time were passed in 1776, 1778, 1779, 1780, 1781, and 1782.  A similar Act was passed in 1792.  It was in contemplation to reduce the foreign proportion, after the war, to one-fourth.  In 1794 it was enacted (34 George III, c. 68), ’for the encouragement of British seamen,’ that after the expiration of six months from the conclusion of the war, vessels in the foreign, as distinguished from the coasting, trade were to have their commanders and three-fourths of their crews British subjects.  From the wording of the Act it seems to have been taken for granted that the proportion of three-fourths bonafide_ British-born seamen was not likely to be generally exceeded.  It will have been observed that in all the legislation mentioned, from the time of George II downwards, it was assumed as a matter of course that there were foreign seamen on board our merchant vessels.  The United States citizens in the British Navy, about whom there was so much discussion on the eve of the war of 1812, came principally from our own merchant service, and not direct from the American.  It is remarkable that, until a recent date, the presence of foreigners in British vessels, even in time of peace, was not