IN our further observations on the Merchant Shipping Act, we come to the consideration of those parts of it which have more immediately to do with the Preservation of Life from, or AFTER Shipwreck, or other casualty at sea. An object which, being identical with that for which this Institution was originally founded, and in the promotion of which it is now earnestly labouring, must meet with the warmest sympathy, not only of its central and its local Committees who are actively engaged in working out its system, but of every supporter of, and well wisher to, the Institution.

These portions of the Act commence at Part IV., entitled " Safety and Prevention of Accidents." Sections 291 and 292,—Direct, 1st, That no British decked-ship (except ships used solely as steam-tugs and ships engaged in the whale-fishery), and no foreign steamship carrying passengers between places in the United Kingdom, shah1 be allowed to proceed to sea from any port in the United Kingdom, unless provided, according to her tonnage, with boats duly supplied with all requisites for use,* and not being fewer in number, nor less in their cubic contents, than as specified in a Table annexed to the Act.

2nd. That no ship carrying more than ten passengers shall proceed to sea, unless, in addition to her boats as above required, she be also furnished with a life-boat, or one of her boats be rendered buoyant after the manner of a life-boat.

3rd. That no such ship shall proceed to sea unless provided with two life-buoys.

And further, that all such boats and buoys shall be kept so as to be at all times fit and ready for use: Provided that the enactments with respect to boats and life-buoys herein contained shall not apply in any case in which a certificate has been duly obtained, under the 10th Section of the " Passengers' Act, 1852." * Sections 293 and 294,—Define the amount of penalty to which an owner or master is .

liable, for neglecting to supply, or to replace, if lost or injured,, the boats and buoys as specified; and require the officers of customs to withhold any vessel's clearance or transive unless the same be duly provided.

We regard the subject of these clauses to be one of the most important of the whole Act, and at the same time we are bound to state our conscientious opinion that they are still very far from meeting the requirements of the case. When they are, as at a future period they most certainly will be, raised up to the standard which the public safety demands, and which every Englishman, whether a passenger or seaman, has therefore a right to expect, they will form the crowning pinnacle of this portion of the Act.

We have little need to do more than refer to the most recent wrecks of passenger vessels, to make apparent to all the inadequacy of the existing arrangements for providing boat accommodation in the event of accident at sea.

The cases of the Forerunner, the Arctic, and others, and lastly of the John, wrecked on the Manacle Rocks off Falmouth, so !»*« as the 3rd of May last, each bear irresistible testimony to the lamentable, and, we must add, the discreditable fact.

In commenting on this portion of the Act, we will, in the first place, state our opinion that this clause should be made applicable to every vessel above the size of an open boat, which sails under the British flag.

That there should be no exemptions from it.

That the protection of life should be afforded to every person, whether seaman or passenger, who risks it in a British vessel, whether her human cargo be many or few. And further, that the duty of affording this protection should devolve on one department of the Government alone, responsible to the country for its effectual fulfilment; that it is of too important a nature to admit of a divided authority; and that the poor emigrant, with his wife and children, wending their way to the antipodes from their native land, together with the hardy seaman in our coasting trade, should be alike the sacred charge of this one authority, to which that of Emigration Commissioners, and of " Passenger Acts," should be subordinate. 2ndly, As regards both the number and character of the boats required to be earned under this Act (vide Table S), we consider the provision to be altogether insufficient. Indeed, we are assured by respectable boatbuilders, that the boat accommodation, as defined in the table above quoted, is less in amount, for vessels of 600 tons and under, than shipowners have of their own accord been in the habit of placing in them, and that the Board of Trade has been in consequence subjected to ridicule, and to the charge of drawing up this scale without consulting any competent authority on the subject.

An important light in which the question of the " requisite amount of boat accommodation " should be considered, has been too much lost sight of, namely, that any amount, however little, short of that which is sufficient for every person on board a vessel, altogether fails to meet the case, and may occasion the loss of every one on board.

For if each person knows individually that there is boat-room for him, he will be ready quietly to await his turn, and to obey the orders of those in command as to which boat he is to embark in, and when he shall get into her; whereas .if all know that a few must be left behind, there will be a universal rush, each fearing he may be one of the ill-fated few—all discipline will be set at defiance-—boats will be improperly lowered and swamped one after another, and those on board them be thus deplorably consigned to a watery grave.

We think, then, that every vessel, of whatever size, should be compelled to carry a boat or boats sufficient to carry all on board, so far fitted as life-boats, as that they should be able to encounter a heavy sea, and should not founder or altogether swamp if upset or submerged by a wave. There is no difficulty in the way of this; the waste space in every boat, which is turned to no other account, may at a trifling expense be converted into the extra-buoyant power which will effect it. And are not the lives of human beings, created for the enjoyment of existence and the benefit of the community at large, to be balanced against the expenditure of a few pounds, shillings, and pence, which, if knowingly withheld from such a peremptory duty, or even begrudged by their possessor, can prove nothing else than a curse to him ? As regards emigrant ships and all vessels expressly fitted up as passenger-ships, whose trade is in human beings, and whose profits, as it were, are coined out of them, they should be required, under the heaviest penalties, to be provided with the most perfect description of life-boat equivalent to the full number of persons they are entitled to carry. And here, again, there is no difficulty, although it is generally supposed there is, for a life-boat is now in existence which we feel persuaded would not only carry a full cargo of passengers in safety across the ocean, in the heaviest .gale of wind, if need were, but which possesses the indispensable requisite of compressing or folding into a comparatively small compass when not in use, by which means a sufficient number of such boats could be carried in any passenger-ship without difficulty, or even inconvenience. . We allude to the Collapsible Life-boat invented by the Rev. E, L. BEBTHON, a description of which is given in No. 10 of this Journal.

Even looking on this subject in a mere commercial point of view, we arrive at the same conclusion. If a merchant embarks his property, or sends forth his ship to encounter the hazards of a voyage across the ocean, he does not do so without providing the best means at his command to prevent its destruction, unless, as we fear is sometimes the case, being insured against personal loss, he is indifferent to its safety, and heeds not, so that others pay.

And if his cargo consist of human beings, whose lives he cannot insure, though he has received their passage-money, and so secured himself from loss, shall not they be deemed as worthy of protection as bales of goods ? The mind of every one which has not become seared by the lust of gain must shrink from the belief that such unnatural, such inhuman conduct is possible; but, alas! we cannot, like the ostrich, which buries its head in the sand and thinks the evil it dreads has vanished—we cannot, like it, shut our eyes to facts and believe that they do not exist.

We do, however, trust and believe that the time is not distant when all temptation to the practice of such crimes shall cease to be, and when the law shall so define and enforce the exact amount and character of the security to life at sea, that all responsibility on the subject shall be withdrawn from those whose pecuniary interests lie in such a direction as to unfit them for the exercise of it.

Under the head of " life-boats" we will only further add, that we believe it to- be most essential, in order to prevent the clause which provides for them becoming an absolute nullity, that the exact character and mode of fitting of every class of life-boat shall be so clearly defined that there may be no evading it, and that the rubbish at present often denominated ships' life-boats may soon be banished from the decks and sides of our merchant vessels, to which they are now only a disgrace.

Section 293, clause 3,—Requires all the boats prescribed by the Act to be kept, at all times, fit and ready for use. As regards this clause we also believe that it will be found indispensable, as a security against evasion and neglect, to define in detail the place where each boat shall be stowed or hoisted up; the manner in which she shall be so, and the description of tackles or other purchases by which she shall be hoisted up, lowered, and secured; the number of oars and the other gear which shall be supplied to and kept within her ; and (in passenger ships) the number of persons which she is constructed to carry painted in legible characters upon her, &c. Without some such precautionary measures we shall no doubt, again and again, as heretofore, be shocked by accounts of boats swamping or going adrift through the premature letting go or fouling of tackles, through overloading, want of oars or thowel-pins or plugs, &c.; and the customary and melancholy loss of life which on such occasions befals those unfortunate beings who have placed their trust in them.

On the 3rd clause of section 292, which enacts that every ship carrying more than ten passengers shall be provided with two lifebuoys, we would observe—firstly, that it appears to us incomprehensible why the crew of a vessel or any number of passf-ngers, under that of ten, should not be entitled to the protection of a life-buoy as well as any greater number. Only one person at a time could avail himself of the use of a life-buoy, to be effectually supported by it, and one passenger out of ten only would be liable to fall overboard as well as one of a greater number. But the seamen themselves, from being employed aloft, are far more likely, by missing their footing, or their hold, to fall overboard than any passengers are, and sailors' lives are of value as well as passengers' lives.

The best description of cork life-buoy may be had for the small sum of 12». or 14s.; the expense, therefore, if money is to be pitted against life, can be no obstacle to the supply of a life-buoy to every vessel.

We consider, then, that no vessel should be allowed to go to sea without one; and as regards passenger ships, we think, as we have stated in a former number of this Journal, that by the adoption of Thompson's life-seats, or other ordinary useful articles fitted, on an emergency, to perform the office of life-buoys, every passenger and other person aboard might be provided with one of these useful articles in the event of accident happening to his ship, which might, in very many instances, be thus the means of saving life. In the case of merchant vessels in our coasting trade, whose crews are comparatively small in number, and which, especially in the winter months, are constantly exposed to danger, we think that not only a life-buoy should be provided by the owner of the vessel, but that she should be furnished with a good cork lifebelt for the master and each man of the crew. The expense of the whole would seldom exceed 41. or 51., they would last for many years, and they might often be the means of saving the lives of the poor fellows who earn for their owners hundreds and thousands of pounds.

Part VIII,—Relates to wrecks, casualties, and salvage. Sections 432 to 438—Provide for inquiry into the causes of the loss of, or material damage to, or abandonment of, any ship, and of the loss of life in cases of wreck or other casualty; and authorize the inspecting officers of Coastguard and the principal officers of Customs, when such casualty takes place on the coasts of the United Kingdom, to hold an inquiry and examine witnesses on oath relative to the same; and provide for. the more formal investigation, when necessary, by two justices of the peace or a stipendiary magistrate.

The advantage of these provisions, as regards the preservation of life, is too evident to need much comment. How many evils exist solely because they are concealed from view, but which are dissipated so soon as the broad daylight of inquiry has laid them bare ! As the damp and murky vapours of the night flee before the purifying influence of the morning sun, so men, who have no high sense of moral responsibility or of honour to restrain them, are yet often unable to bear the reproaches of their fellow-men. It can surely, therefore, only be necessary to proclaim that men's lives may no longer, without odium, be sacrificed at the shrines of avarice and cupidity, which begrudge the cost of saving them, in order to wipe out for ever such a blot on our national history and character.

Section 439,—Gives the Board of Trade the general superintendence of all matters relating to wreck, and empowers it to appoint any person it may think fit to be a " Receiver of Wreck." Section 441,—Gives the " Receiver of Wreck" the chief command and authority over all persons present at any scene of wreck, and authorizes him to assign to each person such duties as he may think fit.

Sections 442 to 457,—Define the various duties and powers of " Receivers." As regards the first of the Sections above quoted, it will be an indisputable advantage to place all matters relating to wreck and loss of life resulting therefrom under one central authority, with undivided powers and undivided responsibility. Division of labour in detail, systematically ordered by one presiding head, can do wonders; but the fruit of divided authority will generally be blighted and stunted in its growth by disunion, tergiversation, and infirmity of purpose. Suppose that one of the monstrosities of our nursery lore had a real existence, and that the human body possessed all its limbs and other inferior organs as now, but that the government of that truly wonderful structure were committed to two or more heads; what can we suppose would be the result, but that the greater part of the life of the unhappy being would be wasted by division of counsel and division of rule ?—that the perplexed nerves, those now ready messengers of the brain, as they were swayed and moved by the one head or the other, would harass the still more perplexed muscles and limbs with conflicting and contradictory movements, until the body, weary and worn out by labour without result,—ever in doubt whether to be still or to move, or whither to go or what to do,—would fall prematurely to decay without having fulfilled any of the objects or duties, for the performance of which sentient and reasoning creatures are by their Divine Originator brought into existence. So, according to a universal principle, will it ever be in great things or in small, whether in the government of a single household, a corporate body, a department of the state, or a nation.

A$ regards the appointment of Receivers of Wreck, and the investment of the chief authority in them on occasions of wreck; on the same principles which we have above illustrated, such an office is very necessary.

We will only remark on it, that inasmuch as the duties of the Receiver, especially where risk of life is concerned, are most important, his responsibility very great, and his authority of an arbitrary and paramount character, it behoves those in whom the appointment is vested to be most careful in the selection of the individuals whom they call on to fill it. It happens, for instance, that many of the late Receivers of Admiralty Droits, now Receivers of Wreck under the Board of Trade, are tradesmen and others, unacquainted with seamanship and unconversant with naval affairs, and therefore incapable of knowing the proper course to be taken to preserve a wrecked vessel from total loss, or to save her crew from drowning ; or how to perform those services at a minimum risk of life to those who undertake them; yet on the occurrence of a wreck, the " Receiver" is empowered to take the chief command ; and that often on occasions when the salvation or loss of many lives may entirely depend on the manner in which the service is attempted to be performed, although the Inspecting Commander of Coastguard, who is a Commander in the Royal Navy, or the chief officer of Coastguard, who is generally a lieutenant in the Navy, are either or both of them present with the men under their command; and who, as a necessary consequence of their experience in their profession of seamen, must, in the majority of cases, be the fittest persons to take the chief command in directing the practical measures to be taken.

Such a rule must, most certainly, operate as an inducement to officers in the Coastguard service to find that their duties keep them elsewhere, rather than to hurry to the scene of a wreck, where, in a subordinate capacity, they might have to share the responsibility and the odium of sacrificing men's lives by the adoption of impracticable or ill-considered efforts to save them.

This is a point which will no doubt receive due attention from the Board of Trade.

We will, however, state our- opinion that it will be expedient either to make it imperative that the Receiver of Wreck shall be a seaman by profession, and therefore having a knowledge of seamanship, and being conversant with maritime affairs ; or else, that whilst he continues to be the legal representative of the Board of Trade, and takes general charge and cognizance of wrecks and all pertaining to them as is now the case; the senior officer of the Coastguard, if any of that corps are present, shall nevertheless have the exclusive authority over his own men, and shall have the chief direction of all efforts to save life or property, except, in the case of the latter, the owner of it, or his agent, shall be present, and shall not think proper to avail himself of the services of the Coastguard in saving it; and except, as regards the saving of life, that service be performed by a life-boat, when he shall not then interfere, further than by offering his advice or services, with the management or direction of the life-boat, which is usually the property of this Institution or some other Association, having its own organization for its management, and by the coxswain and crew of which it will in general be best understood.

Section 458,—Provides that a "reasonable amount" of salvage shall be paid by the owners of any ship or boat, for " saving the lives of the persons belonging to such ship or boat." And Section 459,—Further provides that salvage for the preservation of life or lives shall be payable by the owners of the ship or boat to which they belonged, in priority to all other claims for salvage; and where the said ship or boat shall have been totally destroyed, or its value, after payment of necessary expenses, is insufficient, authorizes the Board of Trade to award the salvors out of the Mercantile Marine Fund.

We hail the clauses of this last Section as a great boon to seamen and all other persons who adventure their lives on shipboard.

The substance of section 458 was contained in the former Wreck and Salvage Act, but it was not sufficiently defined and was not acted on. The 459th section, however, which enacts that salvage for life shall be paid in priority of salvage for property, now leaves no room for doubt in the matter, and it will, we may feel sure, be generally acted on. The advantages resulting from it will be twofold. la the first place, although it cannot give any man an equivalent for serious risk of his life, which is not to be weighed in the same balance with gold and silver, yet it will give him encouragement and some certain compensation, which previously he did not receive. 2ndly. It establishes a principle in law which has hitherto only existed in equity, and which shipowners have never yet recognized, namely, that it is the duty of every shipowner, who employs a seaman or conveys a passenger, to take every precaution to secure their lives; and it accordingly holds him answerable for doing so.

Part IX,—Defines and regulates the liabilities of shipowners.

Section 504,—Enacts that no shipowner shall be liable to damages beyond the value of his ship, for loss of life or personal injury to any person on board the same, either from the improper navigation of such ship or other cause; or for loss of life or personal injury occasioned by the improper navigation of his ship to any person on board any other ship or boat,—provided such loss of life, &c., occurred without his actual fault or privity.

Section 510,—Enacts that the damages payable in each case of death or injury shall be assessed at SQL That damages found due shall be the first charge on the aggregate amount to which the owner is liable, and shall be paid in priority of all other claims.

And that in cases of death the several amounts granted as damages shall be paid to the husband, wife, parent, or child of the deceased in such manner as the Board of Trade thinks fit.

For the perusal of this section at length we must refer to the 14th Number of this Journal, or to the Merchant Shipping Act itself, as our space only allows us to give here the substance of it.

Although the chief effect of this section, as of some- others we have quoted, will be to prevent future wrecks, by making it the interest of the shipowner to prevent them, yet we have included them in this division of our treatise, since their immediate action only takes place on the occurrence of wreck, &c.

It may at first sight appear unjust that a shipowner should be held liable, to the extent of the value of his ship and other property on board her which is saved, although the loss of life has occurred without his actual fault or privity. Yet, when we consider the utter insufficiency of all past legislation on the subject to protect the lives of the seamen and passengers on board our ships—when we remember that in consequence of the almost universal practice of marine insurance, the shipowner has so frequently no personal pecuniary interest in affording that protection—when we bethink us of the inestimable value of life as compared with money—when we have disclosed to us, by the melancholy details of our wreck registers, the fact that the annual loss of life by shipwreck on our own shores is an increasing, and not a diminishing quantity, can we hesitate to feel satisfied that some such stringent legislation has become indispensable ; and that even if it should occasionally press hardly on an individual shipowner, it is better that it should be so than that numberless valuable lives should perish in every gale to which our ill-built, ill-found, ill-manned, or ill-commanded ships are exposed, and that our country and the class of our shipowners in particular should bear the deserved odium of suffering such a state of things to continue ? There remains now but one portion of the Merchant Shipping Act, connected with saving life from shipwreck, which we propose to notice, and although that portion occurs in a prior part of the Act to others which we have commented on, we have reserved it to the last, as the subject of it is distinct from that of any other part, and stands quite by itself as respects this Institution, with the welfare of which it will for the future be intimately bound up. We allude to the fifth paragraph of Section 418, in the VIIth part of the Act, respecting the " Mercantile Marine Fund," which makes it chargeable with " such expenses for establishing and maintaining on the coasts of the United Kingdom proper life-boats, with the necessary crews and equipments, and for affording assistance towards the preservation of life and property in cases of shipwreck and distress at sea, and for rewarding the preservation of life in such cases as the Board of Trade directs." As regards the principle according to which, and the manner in which, the Board of Trade propose to carry out the intention of this clause of the Act, we will briefly observe— 1st, With respect to the principle, that the Board .proposes to add to, and encourage, the efforts hitherto made by individuals and Societies, and not to stultify or supersede them.

2ndly, As respects the manner. That the Board will pay, or repay, according to a fixed scale, the following expenses, viz., the salaries- of coxswains' superintendents to have charge of the life-boats—the payment of crews for periodical exercise of the lifeboats —the payment of life-boats' crews for rendering assistance to wrecked vessels and saving the lives of their crews—and, lastly, the payment, when necessary, of persons to assist in launching, and of horses to transport life-boats, on occasions of wreck or of exercise. The joint working of this system by a department of the Government and by private associations remains yet to be tested by experience; we can only as yet express our conviction that it is capable of being successfully done, and if so, that it will be productive of the happiest and most honourable results to the nation at large, as well as to all those who are personally interested in it or employed in carrying it out.

In order to obtain further information as to the proposed working out of the scheme, we beg to refer our readers to a circular letter of the Board, addressed to Life-boat Associations, which will be found at page 161 (No. 14) of this Journal; to the last Annual Report of this Institution (No. 16, pp. 25 and 26 of this Journal) ; and to a circular letter recently addressed to the local Branches of this Institution by its General Committee of Management, which will be found on the next page.

We have now brought our comments on the Act to a close; and although we have expressed without reserve our opinion of the shortcoming and inadequacy of some portions of it, we unhesitatingly state that it is the longest step in advance which has ever been made in the same direction—that probably more 'could not have been done at present—and that by the preservation of property, and, above all, of human lives, of which it will be the cause and instrument, it will through future ages be productive of incalculable benefits alike to this nation and to innumerable individuals.

We conceive, then, that the author and introducer of the " Merchant Shipping Act of 1854," EDWARD CARDWELL, Esq., M.P., late President of the Board of Trade, is entitled to the thanks of his country, and, above all, to the gratitude of the seamen of his country. Thanks, and gratitude, and honour, and fame, must, however, possess but secondary value in the estimation of any one to whom God has granted the rare privilege of being a benefactor to his race— of being one of His instruments in advancing the welfare and happiness of mankind—his chief and enduring reward, even in this world, will arise from the quiet contemplation and grateful acknowledgment that will be frequently awakened in his own breast of the good which he has been permitted to do.