The Press.
London, England, 1853-08-06 00:00:00

MERCHANT SHIPPING RILL

The bill was read a third time in the House of
Commons on Monday.
On the question "that the bill do pass,"
Mr. HUTT moved the omission of three clauses
relative to seamen volunteering into the navy, and
moved the insertion of a clause enacting that no
officer in her Majesty's service should knowingly per-
mit or encourage any seaman to leave the vessel in
which he waa engaged, and that any seaman leaving

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his ship and entering the Queen's service shall be
liable to all the penalties of desertion.
A long discussion ensued on this proposition, in
the course of which Sir JAMES GRAHAM! pleaded pre-
scription for retaining the existing order of things.
For a hundred years the law had recognised the
right of the seaman to terminate his contract with a
merchant captain by entering a Queen's ship. The
Royal Navy, moreover, performed important services
to the mercantile marine, and was justly entitled to
mane reciprocity of good offices. Yet, unless the
former were allowed to recruit from the latter, it
would be necessary for many of the Queen's vessels
to abandon the stations at which they were placed.
lie remarked, however, that very careful cheeks were
provided, and he also showed from statistics that the
numbers who had availed themselves of this right
had by no means been such as to muse alarm.
Mr WlLsos related a case iu which a merchant
vessel was stripped of her best hands by a navy ship,
and, being thus left unmanageable, was towed into
port by that same ship, and 5,0001. salvage demanded
for the service.

Admiral lit itKELEY believed that the men who
volunteered into navy vessels did 50 only to escape
brutal tyranny from the captains. Complaints of
ill-treatment were so numerous, and desertions on
that account so frequent, that 14,000/. annually
voted by Parliament was spent in bringing home
seamen who had let% their ships under hard usage.
Mr. Herr proposed to moditSr his clause, but on a
division it was negatived, there being—For, 40;
Against, 129.
Captain ticoecu. moved the introduction of a
clause providing that the crews of vessels shall he
after the rate of one apprentice to the first hundred
tons, and one seaman to every twenty-five tons; 0110
apprentice above seventeen years of age to be reckoned
as one seaman on every hundred tons, and nine sea-
men to be counted for eight seamen and two boys
on every two hundred tons beyond the first hundred
tons.

The clause was negatived by 154 to 7.
Mr. HORSFALL moved a clause giving justices of
the pear() jurisdiction in the cases of offences com-
mitted on shipboard by merehant seamen or appren-
tices within two miles of their jurisdiction.
This clause was negatived without a division.
Mr. holism moved a clause intended to prevent
the coasting trade being thrown open to foreign ships,
which was rejected on division by 104 to 35.
Tho bill then passed.
NAVAL COAST VOLUNTEERS RILL.

This bill, which passed through committee on
Monday, contains provisions for raising a body of
10,000 men for the defence of the British coasts, by
means of a bounty, the amount to be M., as in the
ease of the militia. Five years to be the limit, except
in time of danger, when it may he extended to six.
When called out, the payment will be the same as
that of able seamen, with twopenee a day additional
during the last year. The men are not to be liable
to be taken more than fifty leagues from the English
coast, except in time of danger, when a hundred
leagues is to be the limit.

JAMAICA.
The motion for going into committee of aupply
on Thursday afforded Lord J. Rossi:Ll. an opportu
pity to give his promi►►ed explanations regarding
the future government of the island of Jamaica :

" Ile referred to the reverses which all the West India
colonies had experienced fronts the extinction of slavery
and other legielation, but remarked that !British Guiana
and Trinidad had bruited to and benefited by the advice
of the home Government. But the pro-sent cow of Ja-
maica VIM different. The representative system there had
been perverted to purposes inoompatibk) with the welfare
of the colony. The Assembly raised money, voted sup-
plies, and managed disbursement's—a system which had
led to alternate lavish expenditure and unjust economy.
By the Government plan it was not intended to suspend
the representative constitut • , but to induce the Assembly
and the Council to agree upon terms which should be a
basis for future working. It was proposed, first, that there
should be a permanent act for paying the salaries of judi-
cial and other officers which ought to be permanently
provided for; secondly, that in the Assembly there should
be no grant mails except on the propomition of Nome person
representing the ('town ; mod, thirdly, that certain mem•
hers of the Assembly should be responsible for proposals
regarding the public money. If these terms were agreed
to, it would be the endeavour of Government to place the
finances .lauptiest on a better footing. There was a pub-
lic debt of 11110,11011/., bearing interest at six per cent. It
was designed to give an Ituperial guarantee for this debt,
and to create a kinking fillet, se that reduction's in taxation
and in the interest might be effected ; and it was also
meant to propose that the salaries of various official persons
should be reduced, compensation being given to the pre-
sent holdens on their resigning. In this the Assembly
would have to grant about tolkniel/. Sir Charles Grey had
acted as governor for the full usual time, and with signal
success, and would be succeeded by Sir Henry Barkly,
whose would be reduced to 5,MJ01. Lord J. Russell
concluded latTly expressing his belief that, if the present dis-
sensions in Jamaica could be healed, that colony would
succeed as well ea the other Wail India colonies had done
in rooovelai egteaske."

318

Sir J. PAKINOT►IN expressed a general approval of
the Government plan, blaming the Ministers, at the
same time, for allowing the disastrous results of
the policy inaugurated in 11343 to remain so long un-
remedied. The late Government had intended to
issue a commission to inquire into the circumstances
of the colony, which he still thought would have been
the better course, but was willing to try the present
scheme, under the administration of so able a go•
'rernor as Sir Henry Darkly.

Other members also intimated their approbation
of the Ministerial plan; and the discussion then
diverged into the subject of ocean penny postage.