The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-16 00:00:00

TEE BRITISII

THE PILO7'AGE

OF

C id ANNEL.

Gloucester, in common with some of the other
porta of the Bristol Channel, has had a meeting in
' reference to the monopoly held by the Bristol
pilots, a communica'ion having been received
tram • the Trieity Boerd by the Sub-Commis-
sioners of -•Pilotee6e in Gloucester on the subject of
a revision of the pilotage rates. Die Gloncester
Chamber of Commerce having been requested to favour
the Sub-CosemiOemers with their views on the sub-
ject, a meeting of the committee of tht body was
held at the Comereial Rooms, Gloucester, nu Thurs-
day ; W. I'. Price, one of the Members for the city,
presiding.
After the subject of the local pilotage had under-
gone: considerable discussion, in which the question of
the Channel pilotage was occasionally introduced,
the following resolution was unanimously adopted:—
" Tlet it is the opinion of the Chamber that the rates
at present authorised between Sharpness Point and
King-road are not excessive, and ought not in fair-
ne,s to the pilots to be neaten illy reduced, so long as
the jurisdiction of the Gloucester pilots is limited to
the eastward of King-road."
With respect to the monopoly of the pilotage of
the channel by the Society of Merchant Venturers of
Bristol, many condemnatory remarks were elicited ;
at the same time it was considered by some gentle-
' men that; its the Society of Me-rchant Venturers de-
rived no immediate profit by the appointment of the
pilot's, on a proper representation of the case, and the
' bringing forward by the pours iwerested a well, con-
sidered plan, e peble of meeting the requirements of
the ease, the Society of Merchant Venturers would be
tilling to give up this monopoly.
Mr. T. M. STURGE explained that when the Act
conferring the monopoly upon the Sociey of Mer-
chant Venturers was obtained, Bristol might be said
to be the only port in the channel that curried on a
foreign trade. Circumstances being now uttered, a
change was required. Mr. Hellicar, who had served
every office in the Society of Merchant Venturers, he
was happy to say, at the Newport meeting, bad ex-
, pressed a similar opinion to Mr. Kimberly, namely,
that a society bad no pecuniary interest in retaining
the monopoly; in feet, it imposed a considerable
areoent of trouble upon them, in having to assess
with the megh‘trates the amount of remunera-
tion claimed by pilots when they bad rescued ves-
sels rom danger; while the society had frequ,,ntly
calls made upon it by distressed pikes for pecu-
niery wsisteuce. Mr. Flellicar hart expressed tits
conviction that, if the merchants of Bristol and other
parties interested were. met in a fair and haul-
soml menner they would be quite inclined to
unite with the other ports in remodelling the pilot-
age System. There were forty-ix pilots appointed
by the Society of 'Merchant Venturers, and in addi-
tion there were 2.5 local pilots appointed for Cardiff,
20 tor Newport, and 16 for Gloucester, who, after the
veiiel bad been brought from Lundy Island by the
Bristol pilot, conducted it into the port to which they
were respectively attached. The expense of this
eystetn was enormoua the different ports paying,
he believed, between 20,0001. and 30,0001. a year
for this service, for each pilot had a boat which'was
manned by a man and a boy in addition to the
pilot. None of the men, he believed, were over-
paid
for their services; for many of the local pilots, '
when trade was dull, ma;e a very poor living indeed.
Is was the system which made the expense come so
heavy. He recommended, instead of the present sys-
tem, that a similar one to that pursued at Liverpool
andwere
NewY orkehould be adopted. At these ports
"schooner smacks" kept for the'
purpose. They each took out ten or twenty pilots,
and ' then cruised about the channel for vessels
approaching the port, each pilot taking his turn to
take charge of a vessel. The sailing yacht America'
had been built for this service at New York. The
system worked admirably, and at a third or fourth of
the expense of the system pursued here. Perhaps it
would be a still greater improvement to employ
steam-tugs instead of schooner smacks for the service.
After some diF.cussien the following resolution was
I adopted unanimously :—" That it is exceedingly im-
portant to the interests of this port that this cham-
ber should co-operate with the other ports in the
British Channel interested in the question of chan-
nel pilotage, with a view to get released from
thn present system of channel pilotage, and to en-
deavour to get the Gloucester pilots licensed to bring
ships all the way from Lundy; and that Mr. Price,
M.P., Mr. Bird, and Mr. Kimberly be appointed a
committee for such purpose, and that they be re-
quested to report from time to time to this chamber."
A vo a of thanks having been accorded to the
chairman, the meeting broke up.

MR. HOSKLI 6'B PLAIV of a CENTRAL Al)

Oa)/ Cie BRlT.rai 131USEUM.
We think it but j,34tiee to Mr. Hoskicg, 13 Ve OliZilllll9
publish el his deil,Tti bo:h by text and by illustration, not
only to refer our readers to page 296 of our volume for
1850,
where both plan and details appear, but to reprint
the main features of the proposal in Mr. Hosking's ownwords, words. as presented to the trustees of the Museum
in 1849:—' My prvject is, then,
of the quadrangular court, inclosed by the present main
buildings of the museum, in the to build in the middle
manner shown in the
accompanying plan, u modidA copy of the Potithc.on at
Romp,—that is to say, of the cupola-covered rotunda
known by that name,—as nearly the lull size as possible,
consistently with the
,size of the area, and with the
height of the present buildings, and so to form a grand
neutral hail for the exhibition of the finer and more im-
portant works of sculpture, and of such other obk cot
proper to the purposes of the Museum as most Ti (Ore
that steady and equable light which is so well obtained
from the eye of a cupola. A quadrilateral hall, to con-
tain
would lead from the present
entrance ample
vestibule ell'llle Museum into the grand cen-
tral hall or rotunda, and by the floor of the rotunda
itself, or by a corridor shout it to the east, West, and
north galleries resp-dctively, through new compartments
ridded to them on the level of the floor of the lowt r or
principal story of the Museum; and the staircases would
lead up to a bridgeway or continued landing on the
door ut the upper story, where another similar corridor
abuut the rotunda would afford similar facilities of
access to the upper, east, west,
and north galleries,
whilst the bridgeway would also make the communica-
tion complete to the south gallery. . • . -This additional
room may, the author helitves, be obtained at a cost not
Mustum."—But
exueveing that of one of the existing sides of the

FRIGUTFUL CAGE CF SUICIDE.-011 Monday morn-
ing last a naanulacturer, whosa place of business was in Glass-
ford-street, committed suicide by cutting his throat with a
razor from ear to ear. The fat ,1 act was done by the deceased
in his own house. and in the presence of two of his children,
who are young persons. lie only
survived about two minutes,
having literally bled to deith. The deceased was a widower,
and is said to have been labouring under a melancholy de-
pression of spirits on account of being somewhat unfortunate
in business. lie was akeut 95 years of age.—North Britis4
Dail; Mai/