The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-02-19 00:00:00

would be hard to lay down any system of

finance which would not leave the Exchequer
extremis, as it evidently is at this moment.
No re-adjustment of the Income and Property
Tax would add one shilling to our means—
the money in which we arc called upon to pay
taxes. We should still have the Bank of
England adding their one, two, or three per
cent. to the taxation of the country, and con-
fessedly working. to depreciate the value of all
commodities, while adding so much to the
cost of production ! This is the labyrinth—the
unfathomable swamp—in which our financiers
find themselves as each fiscal year begins ; and,
until we get rid of all Legislative Banking
interference with the current of prices in trade,
and the freedom of commerce, we must not be
surprised to see malt favoured, drunkenness
encouraged, crime increased, and temperance,
with all else that is commendable in civilised
society, sacrificed to the financial exigencies
of effete Statesmen and the tactics of worn-out
factions.

THE liability of shipowners is exciting con-
siderable anxiety, as it well may, in maritime
circles. The case of the Lochmaben Castle is
now, as we have been informed, ready for trial ;
and this being the first action brought by a
shipper against the owner, for losses sustained
by shipwreck, under the Merchant Shipping
Act, the issue is looked for with great interest
The Board of Trade and Government authorities
in British North America have spared no pains
to enable the plaintiff to prosecute his cause, and
there appears to be a fixed determination on the
part of the Marine Board to put the new law in
force as early as possible. The Underwriters
feel as a class interested, in this case, as it will esta-
blish as a precedent the liability of owners, in
all instances where it can be proved that a ship
has been lost by the " ignorance or neglect" of
the captain, or inefficiency of a crew, or any other
circumstance which owners have the power of
guarding against. The Deputation who waited
on Lord PALMERSTON, on Saturday, have there-
fore a strong phalanx of interests to combat—
First of all, the Shippers, en inasse, who seek to
obtain the largest amount of security for their pro-
perty on the seas; secondly, the Underwriters,
who would shift as much of the burden of risk off
their own shoulders on to those of the owner;
and thirdly, the Government who have under-
taken to throw as many safeguards as possible
around human lit' on the ocean.

Of the gentlemen who composed the deputa-
tion to the PREMIER, it would be impossible to
to speak too highly, either individually or collec-
tively. They stand too high in the mercantile
world for any suspicion to be attached to their
acts or objects ; still, those gentemen must be
aware that they are only the representatives of a
large cutnmunity of men, who are, right or
wrong, shipowners, and that Government cannot
restrain the positive fraudulent owners of ships,
without doing some apparent injustice to the
high-minded and honourable men engaged in the
legitimate pursuits of our mercantile marine. It
is a very hard case, no doubt, to make really
honest and upright members of any particular
class, pay for the misdeeds of reckless and
abandoned competitors—men who think nothing
of risking hundreds of lives, in what ought to be
a felonious attempt to realise a high rate of
insurance on an old and crazy tub of a vessel
which ought not to be suffered- to leave any
civilised port. But where it is known that ships
are built in our American Colonies for -1. per
ton, and can be insured as high as 151. per ton,
and that the greatest amount of disasters occur
to these very vessels, we are only surprised that
the Shipowners' Association cannot see that it is
vastly to their interest to make the fraudulent
assurer, and the men Who cause vessels to be lost
at sea, pay to the last farthing the damaged
ships and cargoes may be worth.
Giving the Un lerwriter this security would
lead to a very considerable reduction in the
rates of insurance, and this would more than
compensate the honest owner. The country
is full of ship jobbers, and dealers who only
purchase ships to sail them and lose them. This
cannot be denied, and in our efforts to sweep
these men off the stage, on which they do so much
mischief to life and property, the innocent must
be prepared to suffer some inconvenience. But
apart from this view of the question, we do not
believe that the proposal submitted to Lord
PALM ERsToN would be fair towards the shipowner
himself. Limiting the liability to 101. per ton on
sailing vessels and 151. per ton on steamers would
not cover the damage to which the best and most
skilfully navigated ships are subjected. If the
associated shipowners seek by their bill to limit
the liability as proposed to the tonnage of the
vessel sunk at 101. and 16/., it is preposterously
low. On the other hand, a sailing vessel of 200
tons might sink a steamer of 1,000 tons worth

301. per ton exclusive of cargo—and a steamer of
100 tons might sink a sailing vessel of 2,000
tons worth 201. per ton—and in either case the
limit suggested by the deputation would be out

of all proportion to the damage. Any standard
of value based on tonnage is, therefore, wholly

out of the question. The bona fide shipowner
would b 3 the greatest sufferer by any such

arrangement, and the Underwriters' risk would

be very materially increased by the premium the
proposed plan would hold out to reckless captains.
"Oh ! drive into the lubber ! he is only worth
101. per ton," would soon be heard on the deck
of every desperado's vessel. And the underwriters
not having their present heavy stake in the
careful and steady navigation of merchant vessels
would scarcely trouble themselves about the
character of our merchant seamen, and there is

no estimating the amount of mischief which
would inevitably result from the proposed

change.
That the law, as it now stands, will be en-
forced, is quite certain ; and the trial arising out
of the Lochniaben Castle will decide how far
Underwriters are liable, under the circumstances