the most important, it has been materially altered by the Merchant Shipping Act.

relate to that matter.

We append the clauses that

APPRENTICESHIPS TO THE SEA - SERVICE.-All superintendents of Mercantile Marine Offices appointed under this Act shall, if applied to for the purpose, give to any board of guardians, overseers, or other persons desirous of apprenticing boys to the seaservice, and to masters and owners of ships requiring apprentices, such assistance as is in their power for facilitating the making of such apprenticeships, and may receive from persons availing themselves of such assistance, such fees as may be determined in that behalf by the Board of Trade, with the concurrence, so far as relates to pauper apprentices in England, of the Poor-law Board in England, and so far as relates to pauper apprentices in Ireland, of the Poor-law Commissioners in Ireland, 17 & 18 Vict. cap. 104, s. 1, 41.

In the case of every boy bound apprentice to the sea-service by any guardians or overseers of the poor, or other persons having the authority of guardians of the poor, the indentures shall be executed by the boy, and the person to whom he is bound, in the presence of, and shall be attested by, two justices of the peace, who shall ascertain that the boy has consented to be bound, and has attained the age of twelve years, and is of sufficient health and strength, and that the master, to whom the boy is to be bound, is a proper person for the purpose.—Ibid., s. 142.

All indentures of apprenticeship to the sea-service shall be exempt from stamp duty; and all such indentures shall be in duplicate; and every person to whom any boy whatever is bound as an apprentice to the sea-service in the United Kingdom shall within seven days after the execution of the indentures take or transmit the same to the Registrar-General of Seamen or to some Superintendent of a Mercantile Marine Office; and the said Registrar or Shipping-master shall retain and record one copy, and shall indorse on the other that the same shall be recorded, and shall redeliver the same to the master of the apprentice; and whenever any such indenture is assigned or cancelled, and whenever any such apprentice dies or deserts, the master of the apprentice shall, within seven days after such assignment, cancellation, death, or desertion, if the same happens within the United Kingdom, or if the same happens elsewhere, so soon afterwards as circumstances permit, notify the same either to the said Registrar of Seamen, or to some Superintendent, to be recorded; and every person who fails to comply with the provisions of this section shall incur a penalty not exceeding ten pounds.-Ibid., s. 143.

Subject to the provisions herein before contained, all apprenticeships to the sea-service made by any guardians or overseers of the poor, or persons having the authority of guardians of the poor, shall, if made in Great Britain, be made in the same manner and

be subject to the same laws and regulations as other apprenticeships made by the same persons, and if made in Ireland shall be subject to the following rules; (that is to say),

(1.) In every Union the guardians of the poor, or other persons duly appointed to carry into execution the Acts for the relief of the destitute poor, and having the authority of guardians of the poor, may put out and bind as an apprentice to the sea-service any boy who, or whose parent or parents is or are receiving relief in such Union, and who has attained the age of twelve years, and is of sufficient health and strength, and who consents to be so bound:

(2.) If the cost of relieving any such boy is chargeable to an electoral division of a Union, then (except in cases in which paid officers act in place of guardians) he shall not be bound as aforesaid unless the consent in writing of the guardians of such electoral division or of a majority of the guardians (if more than one) be first obtained, such consent to be, when possible, indorsed upon the indentures:

(3.) The expense incurred in the binding and outfit of any such apprentice shall be charged to the Union or electoral division (as the case may be) to which the boy or his parent or parents is or are chargeable at the time of his being apprenticed:

(4.) All indentures made in any Union may be sued upon by the guardians of the Union or persons having the authority of guardians therein for the time being, by their name of office, and actions brought by them upon such indentures shall not abate by reason of death or change in the persons holding the office; but no such action shall be commenced without the consent of the Irish Poor-law Commissioners.

(5.) The amount of the costs incurred in any such action and not recovered from the defendant therein, may be charged upon the Union or electoral division (as the case may be) to which the boy or his parent or parents was or were chargeable at the time of his being apprenticed.—Ibid., s. 144.

The master of every foreign-going ship shall, before carrying any apprentice to sea from any place in the United Kingdom, cause such apprentice to appear before the Superintendent before whom the crew is engaged, and shall produce to him the indenture by which such apprentice is bound, and the assignment or assignments thereof (if any); and the name of such apprentice, with the date of the indenture and of the assignment or assignments thereof (if any), and the name of the port or ports at which the same have been registered, shall be entered on the agreement; and for any default in obeying the provisions of this section the master shall for each offence incur a penalty not exceeding five pounds.-Ibid., s. 145.

The General Register and Record Office of Seamen, originally established under the control of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, is transferred to the Board of Trade.

In the Registry Office are record copies of the certificates of registry and the official numbers of all vessels belonging to the

P

British Empire, with the changes of property or of masters whenever they occur; also records of the voyages made by foreign-going ships, from returns deposited at the termination of each voyage, and transmitted from the several ports of the United Kingdom; also an account of the employment of home-trade ships, derived from returns made by the owners or masters of such at the end of every half-year. In the returns the names, ages, places of birth, &c., of the crews employed are described, and by means thereof a register of seamen is maintained. From this office tickets are issued to those who have continued their subscriptions to the Merchant Seaman's Fund, and a record of all such payments is kept. The business heretofore performed by the London Corporation, and the Ports under their control, and all the other Ports of the United Kingdom, is transferred to the Register Office, and the claims set forth for pension are scrutinised and verified from the lists containing the account of each seaman's service.

The claims for Certificates of Service, and the statement of service set forth in the applications of candidates for examination in order to obtain Certificates of Competency as Masters or Mates, or as Engineers, are also received and scrutinised, and the certificates issued, and renewed when lost, by the Registrar-General of Seamen. Record of character is maintained, and proof of service furnished and attested when required for any purpose.

All the statistical business connected with the registry and movements of shipping, and of tonnage employed in the foreign and coasting trade, is now consolidated in this office, where every matter relating to ships and seamen is concentrated and recorded.

CHAPTER VII.

LAWS RELATING TO MASTERS AND CREWS.

or

Protection of Seamen from Imposition. Engagement of Crews. LICENSED AGENTS.-No person, unless licensed by the Board of Trade, other than the owner, master, or a "mate of the ship,' some person who is bonâ fide the servant and in the constant employ of the owner, shall hire, engage, supply, or provide any seaman or apprentice to be entered on board any merchant ship; and no owner, &c., shall knowingly receive on board any seaman who has been hired contrary to the aforesaid regulations, under 201. penalty for every offence; and any person employing an unlicensed person to engage seamen shall forfeit 201. Any person demanding or receiving from a seaman, directly or indirectly, any remuneration for providing him a ship, shall forfeit 57.-17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, s. 147, 148.

No persons (other than officers in the public service) shall go on board any merchant ship, when arriving at her destination, without

permission of the master or person in charge, under a penalty of 201., with power to the master to take any person offending into custody. Any person touting for lodgers without permission of the master incurs a penalty of 51.; and for extorting money, or taking possession of seamen's effects, a penalty of 5l., besides restoration of the value.-Ibid., s. 237, 238.

Any person secreting himself and going to sea in the ship without consent of authorised party, shall be liable to a penalty of 201., or a month's imprisonment, with or without hard labour.-Ibid., s. 258.

No debt exceeding five shillings, incurred by any seaman after he has engaged to serve, shall be recoverable until the service agreed on has been concluded; nor shall it be lawful for any keeper of a public house or lodging house to detain any seaman's effects for any debt alleged to have been contracted by him, and in case of such detention, a justice may decide summarily, and when the claim is fraudulent, order the effects to be given up, and fine the person detaining them 107.-Ibid., s. 234-236.

AGREEMENTS.-The master of every ship, except ships of less than eighty tons registered tonnage exclusively employed in trading between different ports on the coasts of the United Kingdom, shall enter into an agreement with every seaman whom he carries to sea from any port in the United Kingdom as one of his crew in the manner hereinafter mentioned; and every such agreement shall be in a form sanctioned by the Board of Trade, and shall be dated at the time of the first signature thereof, and shall be signed by the master before any seaman signs the same, and shall contain the following particulars as terms thereof, that is to say :

1. The nature, and, as far as practicable, the duration of the intended voyage or engagement.

2. The number and description of the crew, specifying how many are engaged as sailors.

3. The time at which each seaman is to be on board, or to begin work.

4. The capacity in which each seaman is to serve.

5. The amount of wages which each seaman is to receive.

6. A scale of the provisions which are to be furnished to each

seaman.

7. Any regulations as to conduct on board, and as to fines, short allowance of provisions, or other lawful punishments for misconduct, which have been sanctioned by the Board of Trade as regulations proper to be adopted, and which the parties agree to adopt.

And every such agreement shall be so framed as to admit of stipulations, to be adopted at the will of the master and seaman in each case, as to advance and allotment of wages, and may contain any other stipulations which are not contrary to law; provided that if the master of any ship belonging to any British possession has an agreement with his crew made in due form according to the

law of the possession to which such ship belongs or in which her crew were engaged, and engages single seamen in the United Kingdom, such seamen may sign the agreement so made, and it shall not be necessary for them to sign an agreement in the form sanctioned by the Board of Trade.-Ibid., s. 149.

In the case of foreign-going ships, the agreement is to be made before a Superintendent of a Mercantile Marine Office, or his deputy (who shall attest the same), and it must be signed by each party in his presence, and he shall read over and explain to each seaman the nature of the agreement; and the agreement, when first signed, shall be executed in duplicate-one part shall be retained by the Superintendent (to be forwarded to the Registrar-General of Seamen in London), the other, containing a space for the entry of substitutes subsequent to the final departure, shall be delivered to the master. In special cases, when, owing to desertion or other causes, the original crew do not join, and a Superintendent is not available, the master shall cause the agreement made with substitutes to be read over by some consular officer, or officer of customs, and the seaman shall sign in their presence; but no engagement of this nature shall dispense with the rules for shipping seamen necessary to be observed abroad.

Foreign-going ships, making short and frequent voyages, may have running agreements, but these, whenever dated, shall not extend beyond the 30th of June and 31st of December in each year. All changes of men in the interim and renewals of agreements must be made before a Superintendent.

All erasures, interlineations, or alterations in agreements to be void, unless attested by a superintendent, justice, officer of customs, or other public functionary, in proof of all parties consenting.

The Superintendent is to give the master a certificate to the effect, that the law respecting the agreement has been complied with, without which he cannot obtain his clearance at the Customs; and a copy of the agreement (omitting the signatures) is to be exhibited on board in a position accessible to the crew.

Substitutes engaged for others, whether at home or abroad, to be entered with required particulars in the agreement under the proper columns. Penalty for shipping seamen without agreement.

Agreements for home-trade ships of eighty tons and upwards must be in writing, in the form sanctioned by the Board of Trade. Home-trade ships under eighty tons, employed on the coast of the United Kingdom, need not have written agreements. Agreements for home-trade ships may be made before a Superintendent or not; but in all cases the written agreement is to be read over to the crew. No agreement of a home-trade ship to extend beyond the next following 30th of June or 31st of December.