A VERY remarkable change in public opinion on the subject of the British mercantile marine has been wrought within the last few years; and none of the current topics of the day engross so large a share of the grave interest of reformers, statesmen, and philanthropists, as the state of our ships, the conditions under which the maritime commerce of the future must be' conducted, and the moral and physical condition of our sea- men. Time was when those most deeply interested cried in vain to the nation and the Government, and the seamen became daily more demoralised and more scarce.

Ships sailed in shoals, notoriously unseaworthy, without exciting any comment, and the lives of crews and passengers were risked or sacrificed at the whim, or through the neglect of individuals whom it appeared the duty of no one to call in question—or who, at all events, were very rarely either punished or questioned.

All this has been changed; everything is scrutinised, from the planks or iron used to build the ship, to the exact weight of cargo to be carried, and the composition of the crew who are to navigate her. The mere creation of this tribunal of public opinion—this directing the minds of men to the subject—has had an enormous ' effect for good, and is already operating, in a hundred seen and unseen ways, to restore our merchant service to its natural and, | to us insular people, all-important condition, of being the surest and safest, as well as the most considerable carrier in the world.

It is an error, though not an uncommon one, to suppose that great changes in public sentiment, or considerable alterations in national affairs, are affected by the labours, whether ill or well directed, of a few fanatic individuals. The truth is rather, that the times become ripe for change, or the condition of affairs becomes so degenerate or corrupt, that at last, after much slothful delay, and probably suffering also, the unwelcome truth is forced on the minds of men, that for very existence's sake, and at all costs, the house must be set in order. Then comes " the hour and the man," and the long-tottering rock is seen rolling from its once firm seat on the mountain-side; and the individual, however puny, who set it in motion, becomes the hero or the object of hatred to the gazing thousands. People seldom pause to consider that the stone must have been undergoing centuries of undermining, to admit of the possibility of any human force being able to overturn it; and that the puny strength of the one individual who appears prominently for a few moments, perhaps aghast at his own work, scarcely hastened the catastrophe a moment, or only did so to an inappreciable degree.

This is so far an objectionable line for national thought to take, that it serves to very momentous question, for, indeed, j most beneficial results have already been I attained. In every shipbuilding yard in 1 the kingdom there is an increased attention to the details of building; in every little fishing station, or coasters' port of : call in these islands, there is a sudden demand for the shipwright and the car- penter, and the noise of the artificer and the caulker in small building yards hereto- fore unknown or disregarded by the official eye is perpetually resounding. Whilst the repairing, strengthening, or breaking up of many a storm-beaten craft, destined, but for recent events, to have gone staggering on her course without repair or inspection for many a year to come, to the daily in- creasing peril of captain and crew, is of daily occurrence; many a ship that would have sailed during the last winter dan- gerously overladen has gone forth taut and trim: proving that the very thought that inspection was possible has been a safeguard on every hand.

It has been said that the result will be to drive the trade into other countries.

Is it conceivable that, in the long run, a nation which shall have established a reputation for its ships being better found, better cared for, and more carefully stowed than those of any other country, will lose its position as " principal carrier" in favour of nations which notoriously ex- ercise no supervision of their ships, and which therefore cannot guarantee so safe a transit for the articles of commerce ? We admit that the particular mode of dealing with every well-known evil must be carefully considered and remodelled from time to time by the light of experience, but we contend that the broad fact that reform was needed is already apparent by the results.

Speaking generally, it may be said that the persons representing the party who are most strongly in favour of radical changes uphold the doctrine that all avoid- able loss of life and property is caused by a deficiency in construction or appointment in the ship, while those who are in favour of non-interference, in which category distract attention from the momentous results following on the fall of the huge rook, to the peculiarities of the little man who is supposed to have precipitated it.

In the work of reorganising, and, in one particular, re-creating the mercantile marine, this tendency is very apparent; and we hear on many sides disparaging cries at this or that party, this or that j individual, and not unsuccessful attempts, '| by holding up to contempt the character of prominent persons connected with changes which are being brought about, to divert attention from the important facts that reform was urgently needed, and that little credit is due to those answerable for the maintenance of a system under which our mercantile marine has been brought to its present condition.

By all means let us criticise closely and canvass freely every change that is proposed, and every law that is enacted, for seldom has there been a national re- form more needing the earnest thought and aid of every British subject; but it is preposterous to urge that the question of the seaworthiness of our ships was unripe for the attention of the legislature; that the danger of the presence of foreign sea- men in our ships is unreal, or can well be exaggerated in importance; that the laws for the protection of the seaman and the passenger were not in a strange state of neglect and confusion; or that the mercantile marine was not rapidly becoming more unfit to uphold its long ascendency over that of all other nations.

Still more absurd is it to urge that the per- sons now before the public, as connected with the movement, are the causes of the proposed changes, and of needlessly dis- turbing the public peace: there is no law yet enacted, and no change seriously enter- tained with regard to men, ships, or com- merce, which has not, in the judgment of all thinking men, been a crying necessity many a long year.

We have not to look far for a confirma- tion of the hope that immense good will be done to the mercantile marine by the stirring up of the national feeling on this we suppose we may include the permanent Government Department, and most of the shipowners, contend that such avoidable losses are dependent entirely on absence of discipline among the crews, on the want of education of the masters, and the decreasing numbers and increasing demoralisation of the British-born seaman. It is incontestable, from the evidence taken before the Royal Commission, that no language can do justice to the corrupt and inefficient state of the men of the mercantile marine, and that, as a body, our men are now considerably below the moral and physical standard of those of any other nation: it has yet to be proved—we may say, cannot be proved—that our ships are on the whole worse found than the ships of other nations, and therefore we think that what is styled the " let-alone party " have the balance of argument on their side as to which is the most pregnant cause of evil, bad ships or bad men.

For this reason we cannot but regret that, in Parliament and out of it, greater prominence has not been given to the question of the better manning and better dis- ciplining of merchant ships. The recommendation of the Royal Commissioners as to the establishment of training schools or ships, or the compelling every vessel to carry a certain number of apprentices, has elicited a very faint response either from Government or shipowners, and this notwithstanding such horrors and scandals as those on board the Lennie and the Caswett have become not uncommon occurrences, and the police reports at the "maritime towns are exhibiting an increasing number of brutal assaults committed on board British ships by men who claim every nationality under heaven but that of the flag under which they serve.

Again, we have the reiterated assurances of owners, masters, and witnesses before Royal Commissioners and the like, that day by day the supply of British seamen becomes more scanty and more inferior in quality, yet the sole steps taken to remedy the folly of having allowed the race of British-born seamen almost to die out are the feeble encouragement of a few training vessels, which cannot even turn out of hand a sufficient number to cover the annual mortality. It will take a generation, to re-create a sufficient supply of good mer- chant seamen to man efficiently the ships about the construction and lading of which we have all been fighting so stoutly. It might be worth while to commence in earnest forthwith! The question of discipline appears to have attracted some attention, though not to the extent that it deserves. It is in- contestable that a large percentage of wrecks arise from the absence of proper discipline, and it is the most serious, be- cause the most difficult, matter to deal with. It is pretty clear, however, that, notwithstanding the "despotic power" possessed by the master in the eye of the law, according to the opinion of the" highest authority," yet his actual power of repression and punishment for ordinary offences, and the every-day life on board ship, is almost nil, and is ill calculated to keep in check men who habitually go aloft to reef topsails, well provided with daggers and even revolvers, and hunt their officers into the rigging, and then take " pot shots " at them.

The master of the Caswett is blamed for "want of resolution " in dealing with the gang of murderers who manned his ship; and a few months later the master of the Locksley Hall is put in prison for taking the very necessary and sole pre- caution in his power of putting a would- be mutineer in. irons'. What an exhibition of the utter turmoil and confusion into which neglect and ignorance have landed our merchant service! It is comforting to reflect that the very preposterous affair of the imprisonment of Captain BAENKS has had, at least, the effect of calling attention to the lack of power on the part of masters, and the absolute necessity of delegating to the master of a ship new and very different powers, notwithstanding that " He may inflict any punishment which is reasonable—that is, any punish- ment •which is required for the enforcement of obedience to his commands in all lawful matters relating to the navigation of the ship and the preservation of good order." Doubtless, when the Prime Minister quoted these words from the memorandum of the "highest legal au- thority," he was laying down a correct epitome of the law as it exists on the statute books. "He may inflict any punishment:" the question is, can he ? As a matter of fact, the universal answer of those acquainted with the actual work- ing of the merchant service will be a very strong negative.

If it be true that we labour in vain to make our ships seaworthy without manning them with good seamen, it is equally true that both ships and seamen will be thrown away without a just and practical code, and the enforcement of the strictest observance of its laws. Man being what he is, life on the high seas, among large bodies of uneducated men, must be horrible under any other conditions.