Mr. Lefevre, on Monday, brought in a Bill, which is
really a Lode of Mercantile Marine Law, and contains 800 clauses. Of course, nothing is to be done with it this year, but its introduction enabled Mr. Lefevre to make a most interesting statement. The Mercantile Marine of Great Britain has increased until, as we stated some time ago, and were ridiculed for stating, it is equal to the collective marine of all other countries in the world put together. These ships, 7,500,000 tens of them, are manned by 197,000 sailors, of whom only 12 percent. are foreigners. The laws regulating their engagements, their treatment, the mode of paying their wages, the examinations of theirofficers, and numerous kindred questions have been consolidated, and with them the laws about har- bourdues, pilotage, lights, wreckers, measurement, registration, and .so on, till the Bill has become a complete code. By introducing it now the profession will be enabled to study it during the recess, and there will then be some chance that it may be passed next session. As the improvements introduced, however, are many, and some of them may affect trade, the discussion of the Bill in Committee may, unless the House of Commons is unusually self-restrained, prove a terrible business.
Previous page
