public may not openly be asked to subscribe, privately a great deal of the capital is obtained from them, without their knowing what an unsound or dangerous investment speculations in such ships may sometimes be. In 1877, there were 653 vessels classed in Lloyd's Book, showing 521,523 tons register; in 1878, 649 vessels, showing 574,819 tons register, and it may be calculated that at the end of this year between 400,000 and 450,000 register tons will have been built and building in England. Within a very recent period, however, a great rush has taken place in the building of steamers, and further money will have to be found outside the present circle of shipowners, who can have no profits to invest, and may have little inclination, if prudent, to start new ventures. We do not say to the outside public that they ought not to invest at all. What we do say is that they should never invest a penny without ascertaining the nature of the ship and the business, and the method adopted in each case as to the registration of ownership and bills of mortgage and sale in the register book at the Custom House. The public must also bear in mind that if the profits in any venture in private ships is represented to be inordinately large, the marvel is that the persons who are willing to place those advantages in the lap of the outside public should be so much more Quixotic than the usual run of business men.

Good management, with men of substance for owners, with ready money to secure every possible discount, is the only true. method to provide against possible losses. Steamers which have their regular trades and are favourites, keep paying their way; so do other steamers which are well known and economically managed. Lately, however, even with good management, little has been paid in profit to provide for a reserve fund necessary for insurances, wear and tear, and depreciation. This may be reason for the circular which many of the owners in the China and Australian trades have just put forward, a combination of Protectionists, although in politics highly Liberal and Free Traders. Through the abundance of steamers, freights are kept low, and owners who take what is offered with a good grace aid in keeping freights down, and

though there is every ground for hope, it requires some time yet to be sure that the shipments to this country will be large next season. Looking at the various trades, it may be said that the shipments for Calcutta have fallen off since the failures in the Eastern Trades, and few or no houses will speculate in freights on this side. At this moment freights for sailing ships have risen, and Californian rates are good, but are not likely to continue. "Many men, many minds," is peculiarly applicable to shipowners. Each acts independently, having his own theories and his own interests to follow out. Powerful companies like the Peninsular and Oriental, and the Messagéries, and those whose steamers regularly leave London and Liverpool, monopolise a large share of the carrying in the East India and China Trades. Calculating the number of voyages of each steamer, the carrying capacity is very large in the aggregate, the size of steamers having increased. Add to this aggregate the additional carrying capacity of what may be called outside steamers, built for any trade and ready to steam anywhere a demand may arise, a tremendous supply is at once at hand, tending to keep freights low, largely in excess of any ordinary demand, for it must be remembered that the telegraph reports the freights each day from all foreign ports, and merchants can arrange charters by the same means on this side for their forward or late shipments just as it suits them. It is seldom that a pressing demand arises or continues for steamers in any one port, so that a low rate is generally maintained.

Sailing ships now are under great disadvantages, owing to the Plimsoll agitation and other causes, and have learnt a very sad lesson for the last two years in Calcutta and Bombay from the opposition of steamers and the unremunerative state of the Colonial Market here. The new combination for the China Trade and Australian Trade, if it could be carried out in other trades, would secure both to steamers and merchants a supply and demand suiting everyone, but it is too blissful a state to hope for, and might even become an unbearable monopoly. The rice trade employs a greater proportion of sailing ships as compared with steamers. English iron ships, and Italian and Norwegian

ships go in heavily for it, and are chartered this year at about 35s. for loading in February and up to April. In fact arrangements are made here before the crops are in the ground.

The grain business from the Black Sea, Danube, and other parts of that coast has heretofore been supplied by moderate-sized sailing ships and steamers carrying from 3,000 quarters up to 6,000 or 7,000 quarters. The freights are so low in Russia that steamers, even with the assistance of a cargo out from this country to a port direct on the way, barely show a profit on the voyage. Many vessels have now joined in the competition carrying 12,000 and 14,000 quarters, although more suitable for America, India, or any other trade by reason of their small registered tonnage, as compared with their carrying capacity. Yet America with her export of grain and cotton at present attracts much tonnage, and sailing vessels of all nations, as well as steamers, are flocking there chiefly in ballast, for the harvest is good and Europe needs the grain. The freights are fair but not at all out of the way, even for summer trips.

The Baltic trade has been a poor one, and the Montreal and Canada season has shown no briskness this year. Steam to Australia has begun a new era and must answer, but at the expense of the sailing ships. Sailing ships to New Zealand at present hold their ground during the season, which is limited, but the trade is a complete monopoly. New Zealand will however benefit by the steam to Australia, by having a line of its own to meet the steamers, and thus take away from the sailing ships much of the passenger trade and light goods. In the opinion of most men sailing ships can only live in certain trades, such as the San Francisco wheat trade, guano, Adelaide grain, and other trades where steamers cannot compete on account of the rates of freight and uncertainties of the trade; for it must be remembered that when losses occur cash has still to be paid for wages, port charges, and insurance, and at best reimbursement only comes at the end of the voyage, when the freight is received, so that owners ought to have a reserved capital to meet this independently of all other liabilities. It may be well asked, after these remarks, what can put shipping into a better position than at present, particularly when little

relying upon the correctness of the register, which is their only source of information, give credit to the vessel and her registered owners. Private bills of sale are doubtful securities to the holder until registered, but they can be registered at any time, therefore if a managing owner gets into trouble, his co-owners may find that his entire number of shares has been sold to and registered by persons quite unable to pay the debts of the ship, when those of the remaining registered owners who can pay are obliged to defray the ship's debts. In a case which lately happened, an owner of two shares had to pay not only his own share of debts, but those of his co-owners. Mortgages again are often given and not registered, although non-registration imperils the security, as in the case of bills of sale; and there is nothing to prevent money being advanced on shares, if the register makes the ship appear as if owned by a person and wholly unencumbered though he may have given private bills of sale unregistered previously. If the holder of a bill of sale gets it registered first, he defeats the mortgagee's security, and vice versa. So many cases have come to light of securities being doubly pledged, that the fraud we have suggested is anything but imaginary. On sound commercial principles, no man of business should hold a bill of sale of, or mortgage on, any vessel without having it instantly recorded in the register book at the Custom House, for it is unjust to others as well as dangerous to himself to neglect this. Moreover the liability of holders of private bills of sale is more extensive than many people suppose, and frequently an unregistered owner can be made liable for supplies to the ship. Trustees and executors would do well to bear this in mind. But assuming that holders of private bills of sale can be held liable under certain circumstances for the ship's debt, yet it is for the creditor to establish the liability, which is most unfair; and the only legislative remedy would be to compel the registration of the name of every holder of a bill of sale or mortgage; then the creditor would only have to look to the register to ascertain who is responsible to him. This is the intention of the law now, and all that is needed is that the intention be fulfilled. Turnbull's Register of Shipping for the East Coast gives particulars of the registered holder of each share, and it is a pity such a book

does not exist for London, Liverpool, Glasgow, and other places. For the payment of one shilling at Basinghall Street, similar information can be obtained from the Register there, but to be of practical use, it wants compiling by some intelligent man into a book for each port, with the addition of the registered mortgages, for with the assistance of such books as these the creditor, at any rate in England, could see at a glance whom he is trusting, and thus protect himself from loss. The member of the outside public who invests in ships often cares for none of these things, and suffers accordingly. One great cause of increase in the number of steamers has been the profit which, in some ports more than others, accrues to managing owners in such capacity; brokers and others often "place" the shares of ships, taking a small number themselves to secure the management and consequent profit. Shipowning, as a distinct business, as formerly existing, has been considerably altered, and some ship-brokers combine both characters. It is thought that managing steamers, and holding shares with other shipowners gives a backbone to a shipbroker's business. So it does, and has done, while business was brisk, and 30 and 40 per cent. was made by owners generally on their shares, and some managing owners then (what with brokerages every few months on the chartering, and on the insurances, with the addition of the managing commission), possibly secured 50 to 60 per cent. on their shares. In a depressed time like that which we have just passed through, ordinary owners get a smaller interest on their shares, although a good interest is often secured to the managing owner from his brokerages and commissions, &c., and the misfortune for other owners sometimes is that the managing owner's other interests are not always the same as those of his coWould a merchant who receives tea from China, produce from India, sugar from the West Indies, or corn from the exporting countries, place his cargoes in the hands of brokers in Mincing and Mark Lanes, if he knew those very brokers had produce of their own to sell, and had their own interests to serve as well as, if not before, those he entrusted to them? Yet an analogous proceeding not infrequently happens in the shipping business. In some ports, those persons who have shares in steamers, and go in purely for shipowning as a business, charge only (say) £100 a year for counting

owners.