The Commissioners on Unseaworthy Ships have at length made a
bulky report, the general drift of which is that the Govern- ment have already 'quite power enough to stop unseaworthy ships, and that the further remedies needed are to be sought not in strengthening the central power, but in making shipowners feel more keenly their personal responsibility to all who suffer by their negligence in sending ships- to sea in an unseaworthy state. They think "that the shipowner's liability for damage to property or person should be unlimited, in cases where the death of the seaman or the damage to person and property has been occasioned by the ship having been sent to sea in an unseaworthy condition, unless he proves that he or those to whom he commits the management of his business used all reason- able means to make and keep the vessel seaworthy. He should
also, in those cases, be made liable, under Lord Campbell's Act, to the faMily of the deceased seaman." Moreover, any provision in a bill of lading or other agreement having for its object to avoid or limit the lability of theshipowner in these matters should be made wholly invalid. The Commissioners also recommend that theseosises- should no longevhelearebbef ore a Judge and jury, but before a-Judge with two"-Assessors.
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