But Mr. Chamberlain's most weighty speech at Newcastle was that
of Wednesday, delivered to a somewhat hostile gather- ing of shipowners, at a luncheon given to him by the Marine Insurance Association of the Tyne, Wear, and Tees. Mr. Chamberlain insisted that when in a single year one sailor in every sixty had lost his life at sea, it is absolutely necessary to see whether there are not preventable causes at work swelling that number. 3,500 lives lost in one year in the British com- mercial marine, excluding fishing and colonial vessels, is an ap- palling loss, and renders the careful consideration of the possi- bility of diminishing that loss absolutely essential. Amongst miners, the loss of one life in 315 employed, is the highest loss known in any year, and the loss of one in sixty is therefore more than five times as many. Mr. Chamberlain showed that the proportion of losses at sea due to unseaworthiness was increasing,—that the proportion of losses under the heads " Foundered " or " Missing " is increasing on the other causes of loss. Now, the best shipowners consider that a good ship, well officered, ought never, or hardly ever, to founder at sea. The remedy Mr. Chamberlain proposed was to hold shipowners liable for the lives of their employ4s, just so far as miners and manufacturers are held responsible, i.e., for any injury due to the negligence of the captains they employ. And he further proposed to invalidate marine insurances so far as they exceed the real value of the loss. Mr. Chamberlain's speech was much interrupted, but he made good all his points with the utmost sangfroid, and in the most admirable temper.
