still likely to be, although mastered in the navy; not so in the merchant ship, despite the Government measures, by which it is untouched. Nothing was said of deck loads, however, which happily have been put down by Government.

The National Association, however, have hit a blot in the management of our mercantile marine that was unperceived by the above meeting, and that is the admission of foreigners as part of their crews. The measure is fraught with evil under any point of view. And even admitting it in some to be tolerable, and carried through, what are we doing but making seamen of foreign sailors who are not seamen when they embark; and hence, in the event of war, those seamen are ready to man the ships of their own country and to perform a seaman's duty, which duty they have learned at our expense. But there

are ways in which the evils operate very seriously to the detriment of our ships.

The foreign sailor may be ignorant of our language, and requires much of his duty to be done for him, on this account as well as his ignorance of a seaman's duty; for he neither understands our terms nor the lead of the ropes. But all these he learns at our cost. Now, had his place been filled by one of our own countrymen, the sailor when he became a seaman (for there is a wide difference between the two) would be an acquisition to his country. The case of the London is reported to have furnished an instance of the ignorance of the foreign sailor.

The subject is well pointed out in this memorial, and urged especially by Admiral Sir Edward Belcher on the attention of the Government, as one of the prolific causes of wreck; and we may also add the nursing of an evil which hereafter may prove destructive of our own supremacy, in fact, we are thus carefully forming the means of our own future defeat. Let a British ship, we say, be manned by British

seamen.

The memorial runs thus:

"The Council of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science having had under their consideration the facts and arguments set forth in the annexed address of the president of the department of economy and trade, which relate to the present condition of our mercantile marine, would submit—

"That the terrible amount of loss of life and the vast sacrifice of property from shipwreck, and their continued increase, notwithstanding the measures taken for their prevention under the authority of the Board of Trade, and the improved constructions for the preservation of life and for saving vessels from utter loss, constitute a case for careful and solemn inquiry as to the causes of failure of the existing means, and as to what other means appear to be available for efficient prevention.

"But the safety of the subject and of navigation, and the speciał interests of the large body of mariners, appear to involve another and distinct topic of inquiry,-namely, the proper elementary education and training of seamen for safe, good, and intelligent service and conduct.

"It was set forth as an axiom by the late Captain Basil Hall, and it is confirmed in general by other professional testimony, that in nautical affairs nothing is so wasteful as ignorance; while captains and masters of the greatest experience in the mercantile marine declare they can work a vessel more safely with fewer men, if these are educated, than with a larger crew, if, like the bulk of common seamen, they are uneducated, ignorant, and untrained. It is adopted as a principle of legislation, in relation to children and young persons employed in manufactures and trades, that they shall not be employed under conditions which preclude them, as subjects, from the benefits of a proper elementary education; and the working of the legislative provisions on that principle are found to be in the economical interests of the branches of manufacture in which they have been adopted.

"The conditions of dangerous ignorance and want of forethought in which large proportions of adult seamen are found are due to the circumstances under which in early childhood or in youth they are taken on shipboard, in the mercantile marine, without any elementary education, and without any of the means of subsequent reparation of the default, such as are provided for the royal navy. It appears to be admitted that children ought not to be taken on shipboard before the tenth or eleventh year.

"The council therefore pray that a solemn inquiry by competent and impartial officers of the royal navy may be directed, under a special commission, into the matters alleged in respect of the loss of life and property, with a view to the preparation of such measures of legislation as the evidence may appear to require. And also that it be referred to the Children's Employment Commission, who have under examination the extension of legislative provisions for securing the education of children employed in manufactures and trades, to inquire and report on the application of provisions on the like principle for securing the proper elementary training and education of young children engaged in the mercantile marine."

Mr. Chadwick, C.B., said that he had advocated it as a rule that all important branches of legislation on new subjects should undergo, from time to time, authoritative revision as to the defects of legislation in parliament, and as to the defects in the administration. This course was peculiarly applicable to the great subject-matter of the great loss of life and property in the mercantile marine; for, according to the statistics of the department itself, as well as that from other sources, the amount has gone on increasing. The average for the last five years, according to the Board of Trade accounts, had been 558 vessels totally lost, 930 wrecked or subjected to partial loss, being an annual average of 1,488 casualties, involving an annual average loss of 875 lives on the coast alone, and that notwithstanding the exertions of lifeboats and various voluntary means of saving life, by which in 1862 more than 4000 lives, and in 1863 more than 5000 lives, were saved from destruction from the occurrence of shipwrecks, the number of casualties were reported to have increased last year to upwards of 1,744.

During the last year a greater proportion of lives, he believed, had been saved by the extraordinary exertions of the voluntary lifeboat association. But these losses were on our coast alone. There were no reliable statistical returns of the losses of British vessels abroad that had gone out and never been heard of. That the great mass of these losses were preventible was proved by particular inquiries into the causes, which were generally ignorance, neglect of charts, lead, and other gross defaults, and very rarely from any causes, such as of old, in maritime language, were laid down as acts of God; and, further, that under conditions of efficient organisation and responsibility they were preventible.

Thus as, for example, in the North British Royal Mail Company, which included the great Cunard line, during twenty-five years, and in the midst of the terrible navigation, amidst the fogs, icebergs, and fishing-boats of Newfoundland, there had not been a single passenger lost from any default of the company or its officers. The great Peninsular and Oriental Company had carried upwards of 28,000 passengers without losing one, and they had only lost recently sixteen in a cyclone. The losses of sailors were proportionately small. Under proper regulations and responsibility, especially under the condition of payments, not for passengers embarked, but for passengers landed alive, the security of transport was remarkable. Regulations there must be, the public in America as well as in England were loud in demanding them.

The shipping interests had two principles for their choice,―one, a very stringent and particular regulation as to construction; the other, additional responsibilities and payments for lives lost, as also principles for self-insurance for cargoes, leaving them to find what means they thought fit, and free from authoritative directions therein. This was the course of legislation he advocated. The legislative principle was to concentrate responsibility on those who had the best means of prevention,-viz., the owners.

Men connected with insurance had conceded that full insurance was inexpedient. It was notorious that ships were sent out, and crews were sent out, and captains appointed to command who would not be appointed but that the vessels were insured. The relief given by full insurance from the consequences of ignorance diminished the demand for competent training in education in men as well as in officers. How largely the element of ignorance entered into the element of danger was provable by the statistics of the department. But whereas three out of every four of the masters have now undergone examination, and have obtained certificates of competency, five out of six of masters of vessels that were lost were men who were unexamined and uncertificated.

Men of nautical experience agreed that they would work a ship with fewer hands and more safely with men who were trained and educated than with men who were untrained and ignorant,—that is, the common mass. Now it was proved by the outcome of such schools as the

Stepney District School, where preliminary training was given that three could be made as efficient as five for all industrial purposes,that is to say, by physical as well as mental training. It was needful to give the same protection to those employed in the mercantile marine against exclusion from education that was now given to children employed in the larger manufactories.

The council of the association prayed that this topic for inquiry might be referred to the Children's Employment Commissioners, who are now making provision for the extension of educational securities from trade to trade. The shipowners and masters complained that the inquiries of the Board of Trade were too close and the sentences objectionable. On behalf of the public, the association would complain they were too unfrequent, too loose, and far too lenient, as compared with the sentences which would be given for the light defaults of officers of the royal navy; in which it was right to state that the losses on the vessels afloat and employed in dangerous seas were not above oneseventh the average of losses amongst the mercantile marine. The loss in cargoes in mercantile marine was estimated by Admiral Washington at upwards of £2,000,000 per annum, and it had certainly not liminished since that period. The real shipping interest was in the prevention of such waste, as well as the waste of life, and inquiry eading to more efficient measures of prevention would be to their dvantage, as inquiry and registration to the extent to which it had been adopted had proved to be to the manufacturing interest of the country.

Rear-Admiral Sir E. Belcher said that one of the greatest evils in the mercantile marine is the practice of entering seamen as able who would not be accepted in the most inferior capacity in the royal navy; the second, the admission of foreigners, on the understanding that they will desert or be left behind at the port bound to. Respecting thoroughly educated seamen, though weak at first, they are soon roused to wonderful activity. From his own experience he preferred lads trained for five or six years in the interim. Lads of superior education, after payment of premiums of from £30 to £60, were forced out to make room for others, or left in disgust with mates, captains, or inferior accommodation. Many educated lads could be got if their duties were not made so low, or their treatment so bad. As to the loss of vessels, the mercantile were not to be compared with the navy. Culpability in the navy always met with punishment. He had witnessed the carelessness of captains in the mercantile service, and seen their immobility when a vessel was once legally grounded. So long as insurance covers the vessel and cargo no extraordinary exertion can be hoped for by captain or crew. He thought that passage money should not be paid till the vessel arrived at its destination, and that the law of the road should be enforced on the owners.

Some observations having been made by the President and the undersecretary, Mr. Farrer,

Mr. Chadwick said that the loss of life was a fault, and that owners

should be responsible. It would be to their interest, as it would save them and others from the expence of litigation.

The President having made some observations as to the doubtful nature of some of the statistics adduced, said it was not in his power to grant the royal commission as recommended, but that he would give the subject his best attention.

STEAM ACROSS THE PACIFIC.

In our volume for 1860 we have preserved some interesting information on the subject of steam in the Pacific Ocean. It will enable a voyager to plan his expeditions from Panama to any part of it excepting to Australia,—a defect which we are glad to find is at length about to be remedied by our own capitalists. There certainly is no part of the world so essentially adapted for steam navigation as the Sydney voyage from Panama, touching at points on the way, and therefore it is one from which the utmost regularity will be obtained. In the intertropical latitudes a fair-way wind will moreover be found all the way to Australia; and the return voyage to Panama will be no less favoured in the counter trades to the South of the Southern tropic with Westerly winds. In fact, looking at the Pacific character which the whole voyage from England seems likely to bear, it seems in our estimation likely to become the favourite route for Australian passengers.

We learn from the Daily News that "the twin screw steamer Ruahine, which has just arrived home from the West Indies, where she has been employed in carrying the mails between St. Thomas and Colon, left London in February for Wellington, in New Zealand. She will reach that port in April, and will immediately commence running between Wellington and Panama with the New Zealand mails. The Ruahine will be followed by the Caicorra and other steamers named after places in New Zealand. The voyage between New Zealand and Panama will occupy thirty days at full steaming, without a single stoppage. The distance is 7000 miles. The owners of the Ruahine have a ten-mile mail contract, and a nine mile one. They have declined an offer of £1000 a voyage from the French government for touching at Tahiti. The New Zealand mail, after reaching Panama, will be brought from Colon to England in the royal mail steamer which is due the 29th of the month. Great interest is felt in the success of the Ruahine for several reasons: she will be the pioneer ship of the long-talked-of mail steampacket communication across the Pacific; she will run the longest ocean mail voyage without stopping which will ever have been made; and she will thoroughly test the value of the twin screw principle."

This twin screw principle has from the first appeared to us as NO. 5.-VOL. XXXV.

21