19 JANUARY 1867, Page 2

Some suggestions made by Captain Henry Toynbee upon this subject,

in a paper read on Wednesday before the Society of Arts, seem eminently practical. He wants an addition made to the food which owners are bound to supply, particularly of the articles which prevent scurvy, a disease which has increased threefold in the last few years. He wishes that the apace allowed for each seaman by law should be increased to fifteen superficial feet of deck and ninety cubic feet of air ; and finally suggests the estab- lishment of a "benefit" or deferred annuity fund, to be maintained by the men themselves, but to be assisted by a grant of the "un- claimed seamen's wages," which now lapse to Government to the amount of about 7,000/. a year. The great and increasing dis- content which now prevails among merchant sailors will probably secure the adoption of most of these reforms, which the great owners have partly carried out for themseltes.