The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-04 00:00:00

member that an act was passed by which the whole light
funds of the country were collected into an aggregate sum,
and were placed under the administration of the board
which I have the honour to preside. That act came into
operation on the Ist of October last. After examining the
state of the receipts and the estimates for the coming year,
it appeared to us that we were justly called upon to exer-
cise the power vested in us of reducing these light dues
by order in council, and on the Ist of January, accord-
ingly, by order in council, we reduced one-fourth part
of the dues formerly levied. Whilst, in former years,
the receipts accruing from those dues amounted
to upwards of 400,0001. that receipt will in future
be reduced, as a consequence of the change we have made,
to the sum of 101,5501. (Hear, hear.) That was the first
operation of the measure of last session, but I hope it will
not be the last ; because, having made this change, we re-
viewed our whole financial position. We found that we
had a balance of credit at our bankers of 70,0001., we have
an estimated surplus for the ensuing year, after all the
expenses attendant on the works now being carried on
have been defrayed, of 53,003/. ; and a stop has been put
to burdening the fund with pensions for life, a practice
a hich threatened to make serious inroads on it. (Hear,
hear.) This will secure for it a saving of 23,0001. more,
and there are other classes of expenses incurred in connec-
tion with this fund, which, in cordial co-operation with
different bodies, I am endeavouring from time to time to
reduce, and therefore I hope that at some early period
further reductions may be made. (Hear, hear.) With
respect to the other measure, that for the regulation of
pilotage, I will only say in general terms that the contem-
plated union between the Trinity-house and the Cinque
Portes pilots has been effected, that the regulations made
by the Trinity-house have been carried into operation, and
that a reduction—less than was intended, on account of
the intervening rise in the price of provisions which has
occurred, but still a reduction in the charge for pilotage,
that will be for the benefit of the shipowner, has been
made. A diminution of the charges for pilotage on a vessel
to the extent of one-fourth has been effected, which could
not have been made under the previously existing law.
(Hear, hear.) eThe house will remember that there were
also difficulties with respect to the pilotage of the Bristol
Channel, a matter the arrangement of Which presentetiiet
only from its legal complication, but also from the physical
difficulties of the locality, greater embarrassments than any
other similar question in any part of the -United Kingdom.
I ventured to state to the house that I thought it highly
probable that if Parliament invested a department of the
Government with mediv.torial power, that power would
be efficaciously exerted without resorting to coercive
means—(hear, hear)—and I am happy to mention that
the two members for Bristol, accompanied by a body of
gentlemen deputed from the west, did me the honour of
expressing their intention of acquiescing in any sugges-
tions the Government might make after an inquiry con-
ducted by the naval members of the board. I hope,
therefore, I may say that the difficulties connected with
the pilotage of the Bristol Channel are either entirely
solved, or aro in a fair way of being solved. (Hear, hear.)
The honourable member for Sunderland took great inte-
rest in the question of ballast, and will be happy to learn
that the grievances complained of on this particular head
are in a fair way of being redressed. The house is aware
of the importance of adopting adequate yet not oppressive
or irksome means of effecting a registry of seamen, in order
to establish a record of the identity and character of each
of the persons who collectively make up the seafaring
population of this country. The registry ticket, the means
selected for the purpose, was very unpopular with the
men, from the penalties imposed for infraction or neglect
of the law ; and upon the best inquiry that I could make
from competent authorities, I thought it was quite as
likely to increase desertion, by the use of counterfeit
tickets, as to check it. Acting, therefore, on the
power with which we were vested by the law, we have
abolished the register tickets, and, of course, with it all
the penalties to which it gave rise, having under the
Mercantile Marine Act established those modes of re-
gistration which we believe will be quite effectual in
regard both to the identity of the men and their cha-
racter. (Hear, hear.) In the last session of Parlia-
ment we conferred a power which the British shipowner
ever since the repeal of the navigation laws, had considered
himself entitled to possess, of manning the vessels of our
merchant navy without distinction of nation among the in-
dividuals composing the crew. lam sure that some honour-
able and gallant friends of mine in this house, who antici-
pated a great deal of evil from that reform, will be happy
to learn that, up to the present time, no alarming symp-
toms have been manifested. My hon. friend the member
for Liverpool challenged me on the subject with respect to
that melancholy accident which has recently taken place.
It would be wrong in me to anticipate the result of the in-
quiry now pending. I can speak, therefore, only from what
appears in the verdict of the jury and the testimony given
by the master. I know testimony was given that it was
the fact of there being many foreigners in the crew which
occasioned the loss of the vessel, but the master's testimony
was entirely to the opposite effect, and when I look to the
verdict of the jury, I find no hint of the disaster having
been caused by that circumstance. 'We know that 190,000
seamen sailed in the merchant shipping of this kingdom
during the year just expired, being the largest number I
believe that ever manned our trading fleet. (Hear.) In the
three months that elapsed since the act passed, between
the Ist October and the Ist January, there were between
2,500 and 2,600 foreigners only in that number. (Hear.)
Hon. members know that the former have allowed one-
fourth part of the whole crew to be foreigners ; if, therefore,
the whole number of foreigners for these three months has
been but 2,500, I think the fact may administer some conso-
lation to those who were so very apprehensive of the conse-
quences of this reform. (Hear.) Two other subjects have oc-
cupied the attention of the Government, and I think it will
be interesting to the house to learn the progress that has
been made on these heads. The house probably remem-
bers that in the autumn of last year we received a commu-
nication from the American Government, inviting us to
join with them in observations to be carried on at once for
the purpose of constituting a new science in aid of the
mariner, by recording observations on the prevailing winds
and currents, of the ocean. It is naturally a very interest-
ing branch of inquiry to us, for it implies not only an im-
provement in the laws of navigation, but it implies a cul-
tivation of the intelligence of the masters, of British mer-
chant ships, and a reciprocal interchange of good offices
with that nation which is at once our rival in the art of
the navigator, and our partner in all the associations de-
rived from kindred in the ties of blood, and from a host of
elevating recollections and noble feelings. (Cheers.) In
answer, therefore, to the invitation addressed to us, Capt.
Beechey, the able assistant of the Board of Trade, attended
a conference, held at Brussels, and Government intend to
submit a moderate estimate to the house this year, to
enable them to furnish a certain number of the most
worthy and intelligent masters of British ships with such
instruments as may enable them to make nautical obser-
vations that will be of benefit for the purpose of ascertain-
ing the force and direction of the prevailing winds and
currents, and making such other observations, geognostic
and meteorological, as may enter into the plan laid down
by the American Government. (Hear, hear.) There was
another subject in which great interest was felt and ex-
pressed by many members of this house—that of nautical
education, and I recollect that the right hon. member for
Oxfordshire (Mr. Henley) asked me whether we intended
under the bill we passed to maintain the schools instituted
under his auspices for the education of seamen. My answer
was that we did intend to maintain those schools ; and I
am sure he will be glad to hear that there is another moans
now in operation, which, we hope, will act still more bene-
ficially in the same direction. My right hon. friend took
great pains, when he was in office, with a new department
that is rising under the Board of Trade, that of industrial.
education. I have been able to place its heads in commu-
nication with the mercantile marine department, and we
propose to take pupil teachers from the excellent naval
school at Greenwich, and to send them down, on the same
principle adopted by the department of industrial educa-
tion, to be masters of children destined hereafter to go to
sea, as well as of persons now engaged in the sea service.
I ought to apologise for having detained the house so long,
but it was necessary to communicate the various steps we
have taken to carry out the provisions of the law passed
by Parliament for the important objects to which I have
adverted. One other subject remains, on which I had the
honour of addressing some observations to the house last
year. It will not have been forgotten that the subject of
passing tolls occupied the consideration of this house on
more than one occasion during the past session of Parlia-
ment. I ventured to say to the house that it appeared to
me that this was a wider question than it had ever been
understood to be ; and that occasion was now presented to
inquire into all the duties levied on ships and on goods
carried in ships, which were not applied to the benefit of
the imperial revenue, for this is a branch of our imposts
the annual income of which is measured by hundreds of
thousands, and, I am sorry to say, the burden of debt by
millions. A commission was appointed accordingly, which
has instituted extensive inquiries as regards this part of
the kingdom, and which has also collected a great deal
of information regarding Scotland and Ireland ; and I have
reason to believe that in a short time I shall be enabled
to lay on the table their report concerning those bur-
dens. (Hear, hoar, and cheers.) Having given this nar-
rative, as brief as can make it, of what has passed on
these heads since we last met in this house, I will now in-
vite your attention to another department of the subject,r
which I think will be felt to be one of great interest. Her
majesty, in the Speech from the throne, has invitede you
to strike off from the free navigation of these seas the
last
remaining fetters of old restrictions and prohibitions.
only do justice to my right hon. friend the member for
Taunton (Mr. Labouchere), when I say I know it was by
considerations derived from revenue only that he was in-
duced to omit this just and proper concession, when, in
the year 1849, he introduced the bill for the repeal of
navigation laws. It has been the duty of the present Go-
vernment to examine the grounds upon which those appre-
hensions rested, and, like many other apprehensions which
have stood in the way of manifest improvements, I think
it will be found that they may, with perfect safety, be
entirely disregarded. Officers of the Board of Treasury
have been examined, and I have felt it my duty to inves-
tigate with as much care as possible the grounds on which
the objections expressed rested. I have ascertained the
opinion of the most experienced officers of the Customs
and Excise, who are most likely to be apprehensive of any
danger to the revenue, and there is a preponderant balance
of testimony—indeed, if possible, as strong as the prepon-
derant balance of argument-Lin favour of this manifest
and reasonable conclusion, that if a fraud is to be perpe-
trated on our watchful revenue officers, that fraud will
be far more easily perpetrated by persons speaking our
language and acquainted with our habits, who have friends
and communications amongst the lower classes where the
goods are to be introduced, than it would be by a
foreigner coining hero without any of those natural ad-
vantages. (Hear, hear.) But again, if these apprehensions
are unsound, perhaps I shall be asked if there is any
strong necessity for the change now proposed as affecting
our coasting trade. Can any man who lives on any part of
the coast be so little concerned in what is going on around
him as not to know the necessity which now exists for ships
and shipping in every part of the kingdom ? In the coal
trade the wages have risen from 41. 6s. to 6/. and 71. ; the
freights are more than doubled. Such is the demand for
sailors, notwithstanding the introduction of foreigners into
our merchant service, permitted by the act of last year, that
every British subject accustomed to make his livelihood by
the sea, as is shown by the register of seamen, has full
employment, that pensioners who are entitled to pensions
are abandoning their tickets, in order to avail themselves
of the great wages that are paid to them, and that those
who have gone abroad to carry their services to America
have come back, in order that they may enjoy the better