The bill proposes to add,—­

$7.40 per ton on iron, which will be $107.30
$14.80 per ton on hemp, equal to 148.00
And on duck, by the late amendment
     of the bill, say 25 per cent, 25.00
                                           _______
                                           $280.30
                                           _______

But to the duties on iron and hemp should be added those paid on copper, whenever that article is used.  By the statement which I furnished the other day, it appeared that the duties received by government on articles used in the construction of a vessel of three hundred and fifty-nine tons, with copper fastenings, amounted to $1,056.  With the augmentations of this bill, they would be equal to $1,400.

Now I cannot but flatter myself, Mr. Chairman, that, before the committee will consent to this new burden upon the shipping interest, it will very deliberately weigh the probable consequences.  I would again urgently solicit its attention to the condition of that interest.  We are told that government has protected it, by discriminating duties, and by an exclusive right to the coasting trade.  But it would retain the coasting trade by its own natural efforts, in like manner, and with more certainty, than it now retains any portion of foreign trade.  The discriminating duties are now abolished, and while they existed, they were nothing more than countervailing measures; not so much designed to give our navigation an advantage over that of other nations, as to put it upon an equality; and we have, accordingly, abolished ours, when they have been willing to abolish theirs.  Look to the rate of freights.  Were they ever lower, or even so low?  I ask gentlemen who know, whether the harbor of Charleston, and the river of Savannah, be not crowded with ships seeking employment, and finding none?  I would ask the gentlemen from New Orleans, if their magnificent Mississippi does not exhibit, for furlongs, a forest of masts?  The condition, Sir, of the shipping interest is not that of those who are insisting on high profits, or struggling for monopoly; but it is the condition of men content with the smallest earnings, and anxious for their bread.  The freight of cotton has formerly been three pence sterling, from Charleston to Liverpool, in time of peace.  It is now I know not what, or how many fractions of a penny; I think, however, it is stated at five eighths.  The producers, then, of this great staple, are able, by means of this navigation, to send it, for a cent a pound, from their own doors to the best market in the world.