English law and in the United Kingdom two sorts of inquiry in the case of casualties to British merchant ships :

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(a.) The inquiry instituted by receivers of wreck, which we may call the initial inquiry;

(b.) The inquiry before a Wreck Court, consisting of the Wreck Commissioner, or a stipendiary magistrate, or two justices of the peace, always with the assistance of assessors. This we call the official inquiry.

The initial inquiry is instituted as a matter of course by the Receiver of Wreck, by virtue of his office, and without instruction, and it is held in the following cases. We are now only speaking of casualties to British ships :

(a.) Whenever a ship is stranded or damaged anywhere, and any witness is found in the United Kingdom;

(b.) Whenever a ship is lost or is supposed to have been lost anywhere, and any evidence can be obtained in the United Kingdom as to the circumstances under which she proceeded to sea or was last heard of.

The Receiver's report is sent to the Board of Trade. The Board can, and, judging from the evidence given before the Royal Commission by Mr. Farrer and Mr. Gray, we believe do, order the second or official inquiry whenever they think the circumstances as disclosed in the report of the initial inquiry warrant or require it.

As regards inquiries elsewhere than in the United Kingdom (we are now again referring only to wrecks and casualties to British ships), very nearly the same process of initial inquiry is in force, and the same results as regards official inquiries are attained in the colonies and other parts of our empire abroad, and in foreign countries, by means of colonial officers, and consuls, and naval courts; so that as regards British ships known to have met with loss or casualty anywhere, there is, or at all events can be, by means of the officers and courts established in the United Kingdom and all over the world by the English Legislature, ample inquiry to serve the requirements of all "British interests."

As regards inquiries into wrecks and casualties to foreign ships,

the following are the facts of the case. We must beg our readers, for the sake of clearness, to bear distinctly in mind that whereas in the former paragraphs we have referred to wrecks and casualties to British ships everywhere, we are now about to write only of wrecks and casualties to foreign ships on and near the coasts of the United Kingdom. Inquiries into foreign ships can be legally held (we use the word "legally" to distinguish the right to hold the inquiry from the practice of only holding it in some cases) in the United Kingdom, as follows:

(a.) The initial inquiry can be held here whenever a foreign ship has been stranded or damaged on or near the coasts of the United Kingdom, and any witness is found at any place in the United Kingdom.*

(b.) The official inquiry can be held in the like cases. Practically, and as far as we know, with two or at most three exceptions only (we know the cases of the Schiller and the Deutschland), an official inquiry into a casualty to a foreign ship on or near the coasts of the United Kingdom, has never been held by a British Court of Inquiry.

The above in general terms, and we think also in detail, is as much as need be at present stated, as regards the inquiries in the United Kingdom.

We now turn to Germany. The law of Germany is found in the German Gazette, No. 33, and is dated 27th July, 1877, and the following is a free rendering of the substance of its leading provisions :-Courts, called Sea Courts, have been established at the ports, and at various places on the coasts of Germany, and these Courts are empowered to institute inquiry; not like the initial inquiry by a Receiver in the United Kingdom, but very like the official inquiry of the Wreck Commissioner. Inquiry may, under the Act, be instituted into

(1.) Wrecks and casualties to German merchant ships, wherever the wreck or casualty may happen; and

[This is equally true of casualties to foreign ships within the waters of British possessions abroad.-ED.]

D

(2.) Wrecks and casualties to British ships—

(a.) In cases where the casualty happens on or near the

coasts of Germany; and also

(b.) In any case in which the Chancellor of the Empire so

orders.

Further, as regards the cases in which the Court may or may not use discretion as to whether it will or will not hold inquiry, the law expressly states that the Court shall have no option but shall hold inquiry—

Whenever loss of life happens, and whenever a ship has been

lost or is abandoned, and whenever the Chancellor orders inquiry.

In other cases the Court may, as it pleases itself, hold or not hold an inquiry.

The British shipowner and shipmaster are open to the following course of inquiry if their ship happens to meet with a casualty in German waters, viz. :—

1. To an initial inquiry held by the British Consul: *

2. To an official inquiry held by a naval court, summoned by the British Consul.*

3. To an inquiry held by the German Sea Court.†

4. To an inquiry held on appeal to the Court of Appeal from the Sea Court.

The British shipmaster in Germany may not have the British Consul as a representative in the German Court; but may engage the services of a lawyer to defend him, and to examine witnesses and make statements on his behalf.

Besides all the above, in the case of a British ship meeting with a casualty in German waters, as well as in the case in which she

[The inquiries, 1 and 2, may lead to the cancellation or suspension of the certificate of any certificated officer; and the report of the Court may throw blame on the owners, shippers, builders, &c., or their agents.—ED.]

+ [This Court cannot interfere with the certificates of any British officers, but may find the masters and crew guilty of civil or criminal offences, and may find the owners, &c., morally and civilly responsible, and in the case of collision may condemn the British ship as in fault.-ED.]

meets with a casualty elsewhere and the Chancellor orders inquiry, the British shipowner may be subject to a suit in the German law courts for any infringement of German law or regulation, to criminal liability under the German law if the Court of Appeal from the Sea Court find that life is lost in the British ship or caused by the British ship, through the fault of the master, officers, or crew, or of anybody on board the ship while within German jurisdiction; and last, but not least, a trial in the Wreck Commissioner's Court at home may be in waiting, and will be held in cases in which the German Sea Court and the German Appeal Court have tried the case, for those Courts cannot interfere in any way to cancel or suspend the certificate of any British master or officer, and they must be tried for their certificates somewhere.

The master of a British ship trading to a German port ought hereafter to be well selected and well paid, for the owners will find that any parsimony which may lead them to employ an ill-paid or incompetent master or officer, will land them in expenditure, in the shape of lawyers' and agents' fees and liabilities, and detention monies, and loss of time; in comparison with which a very handsome salary to the master and officers will be an insignificant flea-bite. This note of warning may at first sight appear unnecessary, but it is not, nor is it uncalled for. As our readers are well aware, the German Sea Courts, standing on their law, and asserting in no hesitating or doubtful way their rights of interference with British ships whenever they are once within German jurisdiction, have already proceeded to inquire into casualties to British merchant ships. We cannot but admire the German method, notwithstanding that it will be very hard on British interests. But it is so thorough, and so unflinching, and says to us so plainly and without sentiment or weakness, "if you Britishers or other foreigners choose to send your ships into German waters you will have to do as we Germans do and be treated as we are, so make up your minds for it and come with your eyes open." It is as the spirit of a great people asserting itself in a grand, because plain and clear, way; but would be wretchedly inconvenient to any maritime power whose policy may be at one time not to interfere, and another time to interfere in a half sort of way with its own subjects and with foreigners, and never to

treat both alike; and to claim with one breath the rights of their own law and their own Consular authority wherever their own ships may be, and with the very next breath to ask for the aid of foreign police and foreign prisons to look after merchant

seamen.

Now let us see what is the case as regards inquiry with the German merchant ship meeting with a casualty in this country or arriving here after casualty.

If the casualty is on the coast within British territorial jurisdiction, the initial inquiry is held by the Receiver, and nothing more.

If the wreck or casualty is outside British territorial jurisdiction, even the initial inquiry is not held by the English Receiver.

In either or both of the above cases an inquiry is however now to be held in this country by the German consular officer, who forms a Sea Court competent to deal with the certificates of the masters and officers.

The case of British shipmasters in Germany is that they are to be fully dealt with by German law irrespective of the provisions of the Imperial English Acts. Indeed the only difference in the treatment of a German and an English case in Germany is that the certificates of English officers cannot be touched.

The case of German shipmasters in England is that beyond the mere initial inquiry of the Receiver, which is nothing more in form or substance than the writing of a protest, nothing is done by way of inquiry. The British law does not interfere with the foreign ship, though the casualty happen on our coasts, beyond the initial inquiry.

In the case of inquiry by the German Sea Court and Court of Appeal, no one attends on behalf of British interests. Whereas, in the case of a formal inquiry in England, the German Government are first courteously consulted, and permitted to send an officer to watch the case. The printed paper in the case of the Deutschland inquiry fully shows this; and by the "rules" the Consul, or any one else, can become a party to the proceedings, and have full rights here.