THE great necessity of constantly using the lead or sounding has been recognised from the earliest period in the history of navigation.

In the present day, when so many thousand vessels are engaged in carrying on the commerce of the world, it is hardly possible to over-estimate the importance of using the lead by sailors; for if duly attended to, the operation cannot fail to warn them of dangers, which would otherwise frequently prove fatal to their lives and destructive to their ships. In No. 13 of the Life-boat Journal we devoted an Article exclusively to this important subject; and it is with much gratification that we find that the neglect of the use of the lead on the part of mariners has recently aroused the attention of shipowners and underwriters.

A short time since the Liverpool Association of Underwriters called the attention of the Board of Trade to the neglect of shipmasters to use the lead, which has elicited the following satisfactory reply from the Board:— " Office of Committee of Privy Council for Trade, Marine Department, " SIR, NOT. 20, 1855.

" I AM directed by the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th inst., relative to the neglect of shipmasters to use the lead, and stating that the Liverpool Underwriters' Association are of opinion that an important advantage would be gained were this Board to issue a notice to masters of vessels that such neglect would be considered as misconduct. In reply, I am to request you to inform the Underwriters' Association that my Lords have directed their serious attention to the many cases of shipwreck which have recently been investigated under the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act 1854, in most of which, as they conceive, the casualty might have been avoided had the simple and obvious precaution of taking soundings been observed.

My Lords are impressed with a belief that from a desire to avoid trouble and delay, or for other reasons, the proper use of the lead, even in thick or foggy weather, or when upon a dangerous coast, has become so habitually neglected in many branches of the merchant service, that masters appear no longer to look upon it as a necessary part of their duty. My Lords gladly take this opportunity of expressing their decided opinion that such conduct cannot be justified by any custom or practice, however prevalent; and the fact that this neglect has become common affords, in their Lordships' opinion, the strongest reason for taking every possible means to check it; and they believe that there would be great public benefit, and little individual hardship, in visiting with the severest penalties persons who are found guilty of a fault so fatal in its consequences.

My Lords have no doubt, from the terms of your letter, that the Underwriters' Association will concur with them in the views they take, and they are glad to have the opportunity of expressing those views, and of intimating, in as public a manner as possible, their intention to use all the means with which the law has intrusted them to enforce the proper use of the lead on board merchant ships.—I am, &c., T. H. FAREEE." " To the Secretary of the Underwriters' Association, Liverpool.".