Vlll INTRODUCTION. 



the Board of Trade holds the financial control of all three. 

 The Boards are not all similarly constituted, the members 

 of the Trinity House being mostly men of nautical knowledge, 

 while those composing the Irish Board are mostly connected 

 with the Corporation of Dublin. The Commissioners of 

 Northern Lighthouses are the Lord Advocate and the 

 Solicitor-General for Scotland, the Lord Provosts of Edin- 

 burgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Dundee ; the Provosts of 

 Greenock, Inverness, Campbeltown, and Leith ; the eldest 

 Bailies of Edinburgh and Glasgow ; and the Sheriff's of the 

 maritime counties of Scotland. The origin of the Board dates 

 from 1786, and it was incorporated by an Act of Parliament 

 passed in 1798. The primary and general object of the three 

 Boards is the erection and maintenance of lighthouses and 

 other sea marks, such as beacons and buoys, for the security 

 of navigation and the saving of life and property. The funds 

 for these objects are got by levying tolls on shipping. 



In 1815 the Northern Lighthouse Commissioners acquired 

 the right to erect lighthouses on the Isle of Man, which 

 since then has been under their jurisdiction. 



In olden times, many lighthouses in England and Ireland 

 were the property of private individuals, who had the power 

 of charging dues for their erection and maintenance ; but the 

 Isle of May light was the only one of that kind in Scotland, 

 and it became the property of the Commissioners of Northern 

 Lighthouses by purchase in 1814. The tolls or dues have long 

 been collected for the different Boards by the Collectors of 

 Customs at the various ports, and are now paid into what 

 is called the "General Lighthouse Fund," which is held by 

 the Board of Trade, and on which the Lighthouse Boards 

 draw according to their requirements. Sixty years ago this 

 tax, as it may be called, on shipping varied as regarded 

 different lighthouses from a farthing to one-penny-halfpenny 



