ship be bound for the Continent or a long voyage, whether around Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. We, therefore, the principal boarding-house keepers, &c., of this port, with the assistance of the Superintendent of the Sailors' Home,* do pledge ourselves not to supply such persons with seamen for whatever capacity they may be required until they reduce their scale of charges from one pound one shilling to ten shillings and sixpence." Here follow the signatures.

This placard throws a very interesting light on the doings of those who deal in British mercantile seamen. It seems that at Cardiff the boarding masters, &c., are the wholesale dealers, proprietors at first hand, of the body and bones of Jack, which they sell to persons, or as they put it, "supply persons with," whenever the price to be got suits the state of the market. They seem to regard their stock in the same light as do holders of human beings in Dahomey, disposing of them wholesale to the shipping masters (the retail dealers) at so much a head, or so much per batch, as assorted, a reduction on taking a quantity. The retail dealer or shipping master, having bought his seamen wholesale, sells them to the shipowner's agent at twenty-one shillings per head retail. We shall soon expect to see in Cardiff such an announcement as the following:-" Seamen, wholesale-kept in soak and carted to shipping masters with dummy kits; price, natives, one hundred shillings the dozen." And in the retail market the following:-" Seamen, retail-prime A.B.'s supplied on shortest notice, delivered free on board, including kit; twenty-one shillings each for natives. Ordinariescoloured sorts and landsmen, 35 per cent. reduction. Terms— advance notes for two months to be handed to dealer. N.B.-All warranted helpless for twenty-four hours." If our readers do not actually see a plain statement of such terms it will be because they do not look in the right place, not because no such terms exist : for disgusting and grim as the terms quoted may appear

[* We believe the Sailors' Home is a charitable institution, and we trust that the clergymen and others taking an active interest will support this virtuous resolve of only obtaining from Jack ten and sixpence, especially as there is no law by which payment of a farthing can be enforced.-ED.]

to the uninitiated, they are, in plain English, and stated without circumlocution, exact versions of the unwritten terms of many contracts. It is a curious circumstance that the British seaman of 1879 should be the victim of a horrible combination of dealers; but so long as the advance-note system exists (the purchaser) the shipowner, or his agent, and (the retail dealer) the "shipping master" will continue to buy and sell Mercantile Jack: and for the reason that, while the buyer and seller transact their unholy and unlawful business, Jack himself (the party sold) pays for it. It is the only instance, of which we are aware, of a first party selling a chattel to a second party, and the chattel paying the purchase-money and commission to boot. The purchaser wants to get his ship to sea; and the salesman, as a free and independent elector, lives on the advance note. England is a wonderful country, and our institutions are admirable, but the writer of this article latterly found himself utterly unable to impress on the mind of an intelligent foreigner the beauties attendant on the purchase and sale of seamen under the advance note and crimping systems. Jack is protected by the law, and is distinctly informed that if anyone receives anything for obtaining employment for him on any ship, the person receiving it is liable to a heavy penalty or imprisonment; and yet in spite of this, and in spite of the fact that Jack could and would get a ship just as easily without employing an agent at all, he prefers to do it, and to waste his money. How true is the memorable saying of the " unhappy nobleman now languishing in Dartmoor," that "them as as muny and no braines is made for them as as branes and no munney." So long as boardingmasters, grogmen, shipping-masters, brothel-keepers and the like have votes and Jack has none, so long will they obtain his hardearned wages, and he be overborne, saturated with drink and contagious disease, and bought and sold, wholesale and retail, in large and small numbers, as he is to-day. The crimps beat the combined forces of Sir Charles Adderley and the eldest son of Lord Shaftesbury over the last Merchant Shipping Bill. Will Lord Sandon fare better at their hands if he ever tries to accomplish the good work of aiding the seaman in this " unequal match ?" Time will show.

"PRINCESS ALICE" AND "BYWELL CASTLE."

DECISION IN THE ADMIRALTY DIVISION OF THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE.

HE decision in this Court is as follows:-" These contradictions in the evidence given by the master and the pilot of the Bywell Castle have been duly weighed, and the testimony given by the forty-five witnesses examined has been carefully reviewed by the Elder Brethren and myself, and we agree in the following conclusions :-First as to the Princess Alice. It was competent to the Princess Alice, after rounding Tripcock Point, to have run up on either side of Galleon's Reach, due regard being had to the ordinary rules and practice of navigating the river. When the tide is adverse, as it was in this instance, it was usual for vessels after rounding a projecting point to go across the river for the purpose of what is called cheating the tide, the tide being slack on the opposite shore as far as the next point on that side. We believe this course to have been pursued by the Princess Alice on the evening of the 3rd of September last, and that she did pass over from Tripcock point, or thereabouts, towards the north shore. If she had intended to proceed up on the south shore of Galleon's Reach, it was her duty to have straightened up the reach immediately after rounding Tripcock Point, so as to make her intention manifest by showing her green light to vessels bound down the river. According to the evidence of Long, the surviving mate, this is what the Princess Alice did; but we think this evidence is overborne by both the testimony of other witnesses-such as that of the witnesses from the Anna Elizabeth and the Plymouth, vessels moored off the north shore, and from the Enterprise, which was running down-and also from the fact that the collision took place at a very short distance to the south of mid-channel. Therefore the Princess Alice must have been over to the north of mid-stream when she suddenly starboarded.. It appears to us that when the Princess Alice was on a parallel course with the

AND

Bywell Castle, red light to red light, if their respective courses had been continued they would have passed at a safe distance from each other; but when a very short distance, variously stated at from 100 to 300 or 400 yards, only intervened between the two vessels, the master of the Princess Alice ordered the helm to be put hard a-starboard, by which he brought his vessel athwart the bows of the Bywell Castle, and this fearful collision ensued. The captain of the Princess Alice having been unfortunately among the number of those who were drowned, it is impossible to ascertain the motive which induced him to give the order; but I may say that the Elder Brethren strongly incline to the belief that he was misled by seeing the green light of the tug Enterprise. There is, however, no evidence on this point. It appears to us, moreover, that the Princess Alice was navigated in a reckless and careless manner, without a due observance of the regulations respecting a look-out and speed. In our opinion the Princess Alice is to blame for this collision. It remains to be considered whether the Bywell Castle has in any way contributed to it. She appears to have been navigated with due care and skill till within a very short distance of the collision. But the evidence certainly establishes that, having seen the green light of the Princess Alice, she hard a-ported into it. There is no doubt that this was a wrong manœuvre. The only defence offered for it is that it happened so very short a time before the collision. There have been several cases decided in this Court in which it has been held that a wrong manœuvre taken at the last moment had really no effect upon the collision on account of the proximity of the two vessels. I have consulted anxiously with the Elder Brethren whether the wrong action of the Bywell Castle can be placed in this category. They are of opinion that if the wrong order of hard a-port had not been given and obeyed, though the Princess Alice might probably have received some injury, she would not have sunk, and the lives of her crew and passengers would probably have been saved. I am bound, therefore, to pronounce both vessels to blame for this collision." Execution was stayed.

This judgment is important in corroborating beyond question the accuracy of the statement of the facts of the case as elicited at

AND

the inquiry before Mr. Balguy at Poplar. The facts proved in the two Courts are, that the Princess Alice was following the practice usual with her of crossing the river from Tripcock Point to Bull Point; that otherwise she ought to have straightened up to show her green light to ships passing down the river; that the Princess Alice's red light was at first opposed to the Bywell Castle's green light, the Bywell Castle ported, and the ships then became red to red, which was a position of safety; that the Bywell Castle was not wrong in porting to a red light; that the starboard helm of the Princess Alice did suddenly take effect when she was to the north of midstream; that the master of the Princess Alice did bring his vessel athwart the bows of the Bywell Castle; that the Princess Alice was navigated in a careless and reckless manner; that the Princess Alice was to blame for the collision; that the Bywell Castle did hard a-port after porting, and when (the Court say) the green light of the Princess Alice had become visible by the sudden starboarding of her-the Princess Alice's-helm. The Court hold that the Bywell Castle was wrong in that hard a-porting at the last moment, and therefore she also is held to blame. The decision that the Bywell Castle was also to blame raises a very distinct issue between the two Courts. The Court of Admiralty judgment admits that the collision might have happened, but with results probably less serious, if the Bywell Castle had not hard a-ported.

Was the Bywell Castle wrong, under the circumstances of this case, in doing what she did at the last moment in "the agonies of a collision?" We can ask this question, but may not answer it. There may be other points on which an appeal is deemed desirable by both sides, but to us, as lookers-on, the point we have indicated is of importance to the whole mercantile community. After the appeal is heard, and not until then can we express any opinion of our own. Meantime there is no longer any doubt as to the facts.