When such is the vigor of our traffic in its minutest ramifications, we may be persuaded that the root and the trunk are sound.  When we see the life-blood of the state circulate so freely through the capillary vessels of the System, we scarcely need inquire if the heart performs its functions aright.  But let us approach it; let us lay it bare, and watch the systole and diastole, as it now receives and now pours forth the vital stream through all the members.  The port of London has always supplied the main evidence of the state of our commerce.  I know, that, amidst all the difficulties and embarrassments of the year 1793, from causes unconnected with and prior to the war, the tonnage of ships in the Thames actually rose.  But I shall not go through a detail of official papers on this point.  There is evidence, which has appeared this very session before your House, infinitely more forcible and impressive to my apprehension than all the journals and ledgers of all the Inspectors-General from the days of Davenant.  It is such as cannot carry with it any sort of fallacy.  It comes, not from one set, but from many opposite sets of witnesses, who all agree in nothing else:  witnesses of the gravest and most unexceptionable character, and who confirm what they say, in the surest manner, by their conduct.  Two different bills have been brought in for improving the port of London.  I have it from very good intelligence, that, when the project was first suggested from necessity, there were no less than eight different plans, supported by eight different bodies of subscribers.  The cost of the least was estimated at two hundred thousand pounds, and of the most extensive at twelve hundred thousand.  The two between which the contest now lies substantially agree (as all the others must have done) in the motives and reasons of the preamble; but I shall confine myself to that bill which is proposed on the part of the mayor, aldermen, and common council, because I regard them as the best authority, and their language in itself is fuller and more precise.  I certainly see them complain of the “great delays, accidents, damages, losses, and extraordinary expenses, which are almost continually sustained, to the hindrance and discouragement of commerce, and the great injury of the public revenue.”  But what are the causes to which they attribute their complaints?  The first is, “THAT, FROM THE VERY GREAT AND PROGRESSIVE INCREASE OF THE NUMBER AND SIZE OF SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS TRADING TO THE PORT OF LONDON, the river Thames, in and near the said port, is in general so much crowded with shipping, lighters, and other craft, that the navigation of a considerable part of the river is thereby rendered tedious and dangerous; and there is great want of room in the said port for the safe and convenient mooring of vessels, and constant access to them.”  The second is of the same nature.  It is the want of regulations and arrangements, never before found necessary, for expedition and facility.