PREFACE. THE First Edition of this work was published in 1853. It formed the labour of two young barristers, who were intimately connected both by private and professional friendship, at a time when business either in Court or Chambers had scarcely begun to find them occupation. The Chapters were composed for the most part alternately by one of the Authors, and were settled by both in conference. Those who remember the late Mr. Frederic P. Maude and his earlier writings know what was likely to be the character of his work. His clear style, accurate expression and fine appreciation of nice distinctions, all evidenced a mind which, having amply enjoyed classics, ancient and modern, brought accomplishments of no mean order to the study and elucidation of English law. His pen never failed to produce in a form, as pleasing as the subject would admit of, a result thorough and reliable. The book was very favourably received by the Profession, and by others interested in the law relating to Merchant Shipping; and in 1861 a Second Edition was called for, which was followed by a Third in 1864. It was In 1870, the Authors had made great progress in the preparation of a new Edition. Its completion was, however, stayed by the death of Mr. Maude, and other causes. not till five or six years later that the work was taken up anew by the surviving Author and Mr. Gainsford Bruce, who had been an intimate friend of Mr. Maude. If the Editors had foreseen the delay that arose in the preparation of the present Edition, which has been more than two years in the press, they would have hesitated to undertake the task; and they still look with dissatisfaction at some portions of the book which have been wholly or in part re-written since the First Edition appeared, and which involving as they do the consideration of so many decisions of our Courts, together with an increasing mass of Statutes and Orders in Council, have presented difficulties of arrangement which rendered it impossible for the Editors to make their work either so concise or orderly as they could have desired. It was considered, however, better to sacrifice style rather than substance, and to present in detail the results of Statutes and decisions, rather than to state general propositions, which are of but little use to the practical lawyer. The Editors desire to acknowledge the great assistance which they have received from Mr. Charles Fuhr Jemmett, B.C.L., of the Inner Temple and Lincoln's Inn, who, besides rendering constant help in revising the MS. and proofs, has prepared the Pilotage Tables and the Indexes; and also from Sir P. Benson Maxwell, who, as an old friend of the original Authors, bestowed upon the work, while in MS., many valuable criticisms. To Mr. Douglas Forster, formerly of the Northern Circuit, now of Cape Town, South Africa, the Editors are indebted for valuable help at the commencement of their labours in preparing the MS. for the press. The Editors have further to express their thanks for assistance rendered them during the progress of the book as well by the Admiralty Office, the Foreign Office, the Board of Trade, the Commissioners of Customs, the Privy Council Office and other public departments, as by the Secretary of the Trinity House of Deptford Strond, the Secretaries of the Trinity Houses of |