GREAT BRITAIN. 



367 



Shipping bill. This measure the latter had 

 abandoned in favor of the Government bill. 

 On the other hand, Sir Charles Adderley, Pres- 

 ident of the Board of Trade, announced that 

 he would introduce a bill further empowering 

 the Board of Trade to prevent unseaworthy 

 ships from sailing. This was regarded as a 

 Government concession to and triumph for Mr. 

 Plimsoll. On July 27th Mr. Disraeli, in reply 

 to Mr. Dillwyn, refused to give precedence to 

 Mr. Plimsoll's Shipping bill, which, he said, 

 despite the excellence of its motives, would 

 only aggravate the evils it intended to remedy. 

 Besides, it would require too much time in 

 consideration. The bill of Sir Charles Adder- 

 ley, President of the Board of Trade, would 

 give the Government more rapid and direct 

 action in stopping ships from sailing. After a 

 long debate the House, by a vote of 73 against 

 19, agreed to give the Government bills pre- 

 cedence. On July 28th Sir Charles Adder- 

 ley introduced his bill further to empower 

 the Board of Trade to prevent unseaworthy 

 vessels from sailing. In presenting the meas- 

 ure he stated that Mr. Plimsoll's bill was not 

 acceptable to the Government because it was 

 based on a wrong principle. Here he was in- 

 terrupted by cries of " No I " Continuing his 

 remarks, he said the bill was also objectionable 

 because, besides punishing offenders, it actually 

 takes upon itself the conduct of the marine 

 service. The act of 1872 already empowers 

 the Government to stop unseaworthy ships. 

 Since that went into effect 958 vessels had 

 been stopped, of which 515 were found to be 

 unseaworthy. The present bill was intended 

 to strengthen the Executive, facilitate more 

 rapid and direct action, and provide a suffi- 

 cient number of officers to effectually detain 

 unseaworthy ships. It also allows a fourth 

 part of the crew to demand a survey. Final- 

 ly, it was merely an earnest of fuller action to 

 be had next session. After a lengthy debate, 

 in which Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Roebuck, and sev- 

 eral other members took part, the bill passed 

 to its second reading. On July 29th Mr. 

 Plimsoll read an apology for his conduct. He 

 said he retracted the unparliamentary ex- 

 pressions with reluctance, but not his state- 

 ment of facts. He then submitted his case to 

 the judgment of the House. Mr. Disraeli 

 asked that the order moving for a reprimand 

 of Mr. Plimsoll be discharged, which was 

 agreed to amid vociferous cheering. On July 

 30th Mr. Disraeli, replying to a question from 

 Mr. Bates, said the Government would afford 

 every facility for the appointment of a commit- 

 tee to investigate Mr. Plimsoll's charges affect- 

 ing Mr. Bates, if the latter so desired. The 

 debate on Sir Charles Adderley's Shipping bill 

 began. Mr. Plimsoll favored the measure, but 

 advocated certain amendments. In the even- 

 ing the bill passed its second reading without 

 a division. On August 2d the House of Com- 

 mons went into committee on the Unseaworthy 

 Ships bill, and on August 6th the bill was read 



a third time and passed. The House of Lords 

 passed the bill on August llth. Being intend- 

 ed only as a temporary measure, until the sub- 

 ject can be dealt with more generally, the act 

 is to expire on October 1, 1876. 



The first clause of the act gives power to appoint 

 paid officers with authority to detain unseaworthy 

 ships, and the orders made by them will have the 

 same authority as orders made under the act of 1873 

 by the Board of Trade. The second clause facilitates 

 the action of seamen who may have reason to think 

 the vessel to which they belong in an unseaworthy 

 state. One-fourth of their number may complain to 

 this effect either directly to the Board of Trade, or 

 to some officer appointed under the first clause, in 

 which case steps will be at once taken to ascertain 

 whether the ship ought to be detained, without any 

 security for consequent costs and expenses being re- 

 quired from the complainants. Clause 5 relates to 

 the carriage of grain in bulk. After October 1, 1875. 

 no cargo, of which more than one-third consists of 

 any kind of grain, corn, rice, paddy, pulse, seeds, 

 nuts, or nut-kernels, is to be carried on board a 

 British ship unless contained in bags, sacks, or bar- 

 rels, or secured from shifting by boards, bulkheads, 

 or otherwise. By clause 4 every person who sends 

 an unseaworthy ship to sea, the managing owner of 

 any ship so sent to sea, every person who attempts 

 the same, or is party to such an attempt, and every 

 master of such a ship who knowingly takes the same 

 to sea, are made alike liable to the penalties of a 

 misdemeanor. The owner of every ship is to regis- 

 ter the name of her managing owner, or of the per- 

 son to whom the management of the vessel is in- 

 trusted on behalf of the owner, under a penalty of 

 500. Clause 5 relates to deck-lines. After the 1st 

 of November a line is to be painted amidships on 

 every British ship, indicating the position of each 

 deck. Coasting and fishing vessels, and pleasure- 

 yachts, are exempted from the clause. By clause 

 6 every ship, before she is entered outward, is to be 

 marked with a disk a foot in diameter, a line drawn 

 through the centre of which shall indicate the maxi- 

 mum load-line in salt-water to which the owner in- 

 tends to load the vessel for that voyage. The owner 

 is to deliver to the customs officer a statement, in 

 writing, of the difference in feet between the centre 

 of this disk and the upper edge of each of the lines 

 indicating the position of the decks, and this state- 

 ment is to be repeated iri each seaman's contract, 

 and in the log-book. No alteration in these marks 

 is to be made until her next return to a port of dis- 

 charge in the United Kingdom. The penalty for 

 neglecting this provision, or for defacing the lines, 

 is 100. A clause makes the shipowner personally 

 liable to the master, seamen, and apprentices of the 

 vessel for neglect of proper measures to insure the 

 seaworthiness of the vessel at the commencement 

 of and during the voyage. 



A bill amending and extending the Supreme 

 Court of Judicature act of 1873 was passed 

 on August 9th. The act, in its amended form, 

 is regarded as one of the most important re- 

 forms in the recent history of England. The 

 Court of Chancery, the Courts of Queen's 

 Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, and 

 the Courts of Admiralty, Probate, and Divorce, 

 were united and consolidated together as one 

 Supreme Court of Judicature. The Supreme 

 Court has no judicial functions. It never sits 

 as a court. It consists of two permanent divi- 

 sions, viz., "Her Majesty's High Court of 

 Justice," and " Her Majesty's Court of Appeal." 

 Notwithstanding the provisions in the princi- 

 pal statute abolishing the appellate jurisdiction 



