The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-15 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS-

YESTERDAY.)

The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack
at five o'clock,.
The Bishop of EXETER presented petitions from the
Dean and Chapter of Winchester, from Devon, and other
places, against the admission of Jews into Parliament.
Other petitions were presented by Lord Colville, the
Earl of Shaftesbury, and the Marquis of Breadalbane, to
the same effect.
The Marquis of BREADALBANE presented a peti-
tion from the DresbN tery of Caithness against the im-
position of religious tests on Scotch professors.
VIE MERCANTILE LAW OF ENGLAND AND

SCLAND.
In answer to a questioOnTfrom Lord BROUGHAM,
The Earl of ABERDEEN said it was the intention of
her, Majesty's Government to institute a commission to
inquire into the Law of Partnership ; and that the sub-
ject of the assimilation of the mercantile laws of Eng-
land and Scotland would form a fit subject for inquiry
for that commission.

PRIVATE BILLS.
On the motion oFLord REDESDALE it was re-
solved, that the house do receive' petitions for private
bills on the first sitting day after Easter, provided that
such petitions shall be lodged at the Private Bill-office
on or before Monday the 21st of March.
MERCANTILE MARINE.
Lord COLCHESTER moved for " A return of the
number of persons Who passed their examination for
masters and mates of "inerchant ships between the Ist of
January, 1852, and the Ist of January, 1553; also,
any correspondence between the Board of Trade and the
Committee of Council on Education, relative to the estab-
lishment of schools for merchant seamen and appren-
tices." He wished to take that opportunity of putting
souse questions as to the consolidation and amendment
of the laws relating to the mercantile marine. ••After the
statement which had been made by the President of the
Board of Trade in another place, as he learned by the
indirect means in which their lordships were able to ascer-
tain what passed elsewhere, it was not his intention at
the
ciuess had come all to enter on the question of the light duties, but sim-
ply to allude to the different laws regnlating the
rights
and duties of the officers and seamen in the. British mer-
chant
desrearviction o service." These
Th e
late Boardtio n
of Trade in the under th
the last smother, and amongst the grieVances of which
course
the shipowners complained most leudlY4as the uncer-
tainty of the laws existing for this purpose. There were
no less than eight or ten different acts of Parliament
relating to the persons employed in the merchant service,
independently of the general laws bearing on the sub-
ject • and the importance of simplifying and ascertaining
the law was prominently dwelt upon in a pamphlet lately
published by the well-known eminent shipowner, Mr.
Lindsay. He wished to know whether it was intended
to include in the act now to be passed such amendments
of the existing regulations as had been found necessary
in practice, and also to carry out to their full extent the
principles of the acts pr,7sed in 1850, which hitherto had
not been fully acted upon, in consequence of opposition
by persons engaged in the shipping trade. Those amend-
ments related to a great variety of subjects, of which the
first he might mention was that of registry. By the pre-
sent law every person wishing to enter the sea service,
whether in the royal navy or the merchant service, must
be provided with a register ;' he was required to go to
the proper office and obtain a register ticket, describing'
his person, place of 'birth. and other points fixed by the
schedule of the act. If this ticket were once lost, he
could not again be employed until he obtained a new
ticket. This he might do by going to the registrar, and
showing that the ticket had not been lost by any fault of
his, when be would obtain a new one without payment ;
but if he could not satisfy the 'registrar on this point he
was liable to a penalty. This was looked upon by the
seaman as a considerable hardship, and, had induced
many of them to quit the service of their country in order
to obtain employment from foreigners. He believed the
registry ticket was regarded by many persons, whose
opinion on that subject was valuable, as a mere incum-
brance, because it did not produce the effect of detecting
a deserter and bringing him to punishment. The pre-
sent regulations, as
•their lordships knew, were fixed by
the act of 1834, paSsed when the -right hon. baronet
now at the head of the Admiralty was First Lord in
Earl Grey's administration, with the view of enabling
the Government to know the number of seamen through-
out the country who were available for the public
service, and to call them ' out when an exigency
arose. Another point to which he wished to direct
the attertion of the noble earl related• to the ex-
isting provision for the health and comfort of. sea-
men ,on shipboard, which was generally admitted to •
be very inadequate, and on this point he believed the
enactments o. the act of 1850 had not been carried out. 1
There were other provisions relating to discipline which
also required revision. It had been the intention of his
right hon. friend' the late President of the Beard of
Trade (Mr. Henley) to pass an act explaining the powers
of masters of ships to punish for breaches of idiscipline,
and to place the lain in an intelligible form, and also to
extend the powers of the marine boards appointed under
the act of 1850, for removing masters who were rend-
ered incompetent to command ships from insanity and
habits of drunkenness. Another clause in the act of
1850 related to men volunteering from merchant ships
for the navy, a matter which, if-he was not mistaken,
had attracted the attention of her Majesty's Govern-
ment. and on this subject he thought it would be very
des;- able that regulations should be passed respecting
the payment of wages, which would prevent temptations
to the seamen to leave their ships. Another point re-
spected the examination of masters and mates resp- •
ing ability to take the command of ships. He 'believed
the number of those who had passed the regular exami-
nation last year, was about 6,000, the total number of
masters being 18,000. At first no means of educating
persons to be called to these duties existed, but by the
act of 1850 the Board of Trade was empowered to apply
surplus funds at its command, arising from certain spe-
cified sources, to any purpose for the benefit *Of seamen,
and in the course of 1852 it was determined to institute
a number of schools proportioned to the fun& that might
be in hand. Liverpool and London had both sailors'
homes, and it was desired to establish schools in connec-
tion with them. The Committee of Council on Educa-
tion communicated with the Board of Trade, requesting
instruction as to the best mode of carrying out this ob-
ject, and communications were held on the subject with
London and Liverpool. He wished to have copies of
these communications produced, in order to show what
were the intentions of the late Government, and he
wished to know whether it was the intention of the pre-
sent Government.to carry out thesystem of schools which
had been thus commenced. There was another point to
which he wished to direct attention ; be meant the re-
strictions requiring a British crew to consist 'of at least
three-fourths Mali seamen. It a _ls difficult to overrate
the importance of these matters, for no one denied that
it ,was necessary for this county to have a sufficient
number of seamen to man the navy ; and if these were
not procurable from British merchant ships, where should
we be able to find them when the exigency arose ? It
was a provision of the existing act that no foreigners,
after having served a certain number of years, might be
considered British seamen. He could not help,thinking
that, if it was intended to' throw "open the manning of
British ships to foreigners this might hereafter be a sub-
ject of the deepest regret, and lie would express his ear-
nest hope that hen Majesty's Go'ernment might be in-
duced to reconsider this point. With regard to the
comfort and welfare of the seamen, that was an object
on which he need not enlarge, ay t 4.9 urgent importance
was admitted by all the foremost `shipowners of the pre-
sent day. It was well known that the ships of Mr.
Green, whose attention to the moral and physical wel-
fare of those in his employment was above all praise,
never wanted men ; and this was a proof that seamen
knew how to appreciate integrity and kindness on the
part of their employers. He should be glad were the
noble lord opposite to favour the house with some infor-
mation as to the points on which he had touched.
Lord STANLEY. of ALDERLEY trusted that he
would be able to give a satisfactory answer to the nob'e
lord on many of the points he had referred. With regard to
the grievance of the mercantile marine arising -from
the many and multifarious act's relating to their interests,
the subject of the consolidation of those acts was under
the consideration of the Government, but while co many
bills were at present before the house of Parliament af-
fecting the mercantile marine, it would not be expedient
to introduce any general measure of consolidation at this
period of the session, as whatever was done now might
have all to be done over again afterwards. With respect
to the system of registry tickets for seamen, he admittedthat vexatious evils might have arisen iii the Carrying of
that system into execution ; but it was well known that
the registry was established as much for Admiralty pur-
poses as for the mercantile marine. The subject, how-
ever, was before the attention of the First Lord of the
Admiralty, by whom the whole matter would be consi-
dered. With regard to the subject of the naval courts
abroad, it was very desirable that those tribunals should
possess some greater powers ; but this point involved
the calling upon the naval courts in foreign ports to assi-
milate their law to ours, and, whatever was done to in-
crease the power of those courts .must be done with due
care and deliberation. He believed the plan that had
already been proposed in the other house of Parliament
would not differ materially from the 'scheme of the noble
lord opposite for the consolidation of these. acts. The
present Government proposed that the sailors on board
of merchant ships should not be deprived ofthe right of
volunteering to enter her Majesty's ships in foreign
ports, but it was not intended that the captain of the
merchant ship should be required in all cases, as had
hitherto been the, practice, to pay all his wages to the
seamen so volunteering, and transfer all his property to
her Majesty's ship. The men's wages would not in
future have to be paid till the ship returned home, and
compensation would be allowed, upon certain conditions,
to the captain of the merchant vessel who had sustained
injury by being deprived of the services of part of
his crew. These, he thought, were all the points
which the noble lord said he meant to touch upon
in relation to the consolidation of the acts relating to
the mercantile marine. The noble lord would see that
they were not very numerous hi themselves, and if they
were all,
he (Lord Stanley) would grant that it might
be possible to introduce a bill for the consolidation of
acts. But when the noble lord considered that,
thesebesides
the points to which he had alluded, there were
also the questions of pilotage, light-houses, salvage, de-
sertion, and many others, which were now the subject
of legislation,
he would see that it would be advisable
--•
to postpone for the present the introduction of a mea-
sureof Consolidation. The noble lord had called atten-
tion to the system of examination for masters and mates
of the mercantile marine. That system was working
exceedingly well, and he trusted that the effect of it

would be to place the masters and mates of the British
merchant service in a high position as compared with
any foreign merchant service in the higher branches of
education. The noble lord said that we ought to estab-
lish a system of instruction whereby masters and mates
would be qualified for undergoing the examination, and
that during the last year he had established two schools
for that purpose, the expenses of which were to be de-
frayed out of the surplus funds in the hands of the
Board of Trade, arising from the fees payable by masters
and mates passing the examination and from other
sources. He (Lord Stanley) believed that the Board of
Trade was empowered by act of Parliament to appro-
priate this surplus in such a manner ; but it was only,
right to say that certain local marine boards had ob-
jected to such an application of these funds. An appli-
cation had been made to the Committee of Privy Coun-
cil on Education for pecuniary assistance to these schools ;
and he trusted that that department would be able to
give the case a favourable consideration, for he felt a
very great interest in the schools, and should bo sorry
to see them falling into decay from want of support, be-
e !use he was sure they were effecting a great improve-
ent in the character of the mercantile marine. It was
tile wish of the Government that no further fees or dues
should be required from the mercantile marine in respect
of lights, pilotage, ballasting, the examination of masters
and mates, or the engaging or discharging of seamen,
than such as were absolutely necessary for maintaining
the establishments in efficiency ; and they wished, also,
that they should be responsible to Parliament for the
expenditure of the funds so raised. They desired, fur-
ther, that the local boards and local authorities should
have the management and direction of such matters as
could best be conducted by them ; but they thought,
likewise, that there should be a control and superintend-
ence on the part of a responsible department of the exe-
cutive. The noble lord, in conclusion, said that there
would be no objection to the production of the returns
which the noble lord opposite asked for.
The Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND asked whether
the promise made by the late Government, that a nauti-
cal school would be established at Shields, would be rati-
fied or not by the present Government ?
Lord STANLEY of Alderley was understood to an-
swer that an application for a contribution in aid of the
school at Shields had been made by the President of the
Board of Trade to the Committee of Privy Council on
Education, but no reply bad yet been received.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH said that he hoped
there was no intention on the part of the present Go-
vernment to do what their predecessors in office had pro-
posed to do—that was, to deprive the royal navy of its
existing rights as to anchorage.
Lord STANLEY of Alderley was not aware of any
such intention on the part of the present Government.
As far as he knew, the rights of her Majesty's ships as
to anchorage had never been considered by the mercan
tile marine to be a serious grievance.
The motion for returns was then agreed to.
CONSOLIDATION OF THE STATUTES.

Lord LYNDHURST then rose to put a question to
the Lord Chancellor upon the subject of the proposed
consolidation of the statutes. He said it would be re-
collected that his noble and learned friend on the wool-
sack had made a statement soon after the resumption of
the sitting of
_Parliament with respect to the course
which the Government intended to pursue relative to the
amendment of the law ; and he (Lord Lyndhurst) had
collected from the usual sources of intelligence that one
of the measures proposed upon that occasion referred to
.the revision of the statutes, and that his noble and
learned friend intended to strike out from the collection
of statutes a great variety of acts, and to classify the re-
mainder and purify them to a certain extent from the
ambiguity and defects by which they were characterised.
He certainly did not envy the learned gentleman who
had been selected to perform this laborious and not very
inviting task, but it was only fair to state that in his
(Lord Lyndhurst's) own opinion, and in that of other
noble and learned lords, no individual could have been
chosen to discharge this duty whose appointment could
have given more satisfaction to the public than the learned
gentleman to whom he alluded--looking to his long ex-
perience, his general attainments, and his extensive know-
ledge of the law. But so far as he (Lord Lyndhurst)
could collect, he understood that the work assigned to
him was to refer entirely to the correction of past errors
and defects, and would not extend to any measure to
prevent the recurrence of irregularities and inconsisten-
cies in future acts. If that was the course which was
intended to be pursued, he ventured to say that it would
not be quite satisfactory either to the profession or to
•L'ie public. No person in the habit of attending our
courts of justice (and no one was more conversant with
their proceedings than his noble and learned friend on
the woolsack) could have failed to hear complaints from
time to time made by the judges of the defective and
careless manner in which their legislation was con-
ducted. It continually happened that hours were
wasted in our courts of justice, and in some cases days,
in endeavours to reconcile obscurities, to clear up incon-
sistencies, and to produce, as it were, light out of dark-
ness, and this very often with a very unsatisfactory re-
sult. But no only so. Learned counsel were employed,
at great expense to the suitor, to conduct subtle and in-
tricate arguments directed to the same object. It was
remarkable that these evils were allowed to continue to
accumulate without any attempt being made to remedy
them. Their lordships would, perhaps, recollect that
this subject was brought prominently forward by the
late Lord Langdale, who pointed out with great par-
ticularity the evil and inconvenience of the system that
had been pursued, and stated, without the least ex-
aggeration, that it constantly happened that acts were
so framed as almost to defy interpretation. His noble
and learned friend (Lord Brougham, we understood), in
a very able and comprehensive speech respecting the
amendment of the law, in 1848. brought evidence to the
same effect before the attention of their lordships, carry-
ing conviction, he believed, to the minds o everybody
who heard him ; but unfortunately those efforts also
tended to no practical result. A day or two ago he
(Lord Lyndhurst) had seen a volume of reports of the
Court of Chancery, and he was struck with a statement
'of one of the learned judges in that court, of high cha-
racter and great learning, who said that it was almost
impossible to form a satisfactory or competent opinion
upon the construction of the particular act before him,
so full was it of ambiguity and obscurity. Was it pos-
sible, then, that they could proceed with the further
measures which his noble and learned friend on the
woolsack intended to propose without pretending to
unite with them some remedy for the evils which he had
complained of ? If he were asked what was the par-
ticular cause to which these errors were to be ascribed,
he should, in the first place, point to the manner in
which amendments were introduced into bills during
their progress through Parliament by some noble lord or
member of the other house, who had, perhaps, not taken
the pains to read the act to which they applied. Per-
haps the amendment was inconsistent with the'general
scope of the bill—it might not even be in accordance
with the particular clause upon which it was engrafted.
Could they be surprised, under such circumstances, if
errors and inconsistencies of various kinds would arise
in their legislation. If they would allow him he would
refer to one or two instances in illustration of what he
had stated, and show how these evils were continuing,
and continuing in an aggravated form. He would first
take an act referring to the county courts,- which pro-
vided that where a party sued for a sum under 20/. if
the plaintiff and the defendant r: sided twenty miles
or more apart, the judge of the court in which the case
was tried might award costs. Now, what had been the
result of that act ? An action was brought a very short
time ago in the Court of Exchequer, which might have been
brought in a county court (there being in this case a con-
current jurisdiction). The plaintiff received 131. odd,
and applied for costs. A question arose as to what was
the meaning of the act in the clause that he had men-
tioned, and whether it was imperative or at the discre-
tion of the judge to allow costs. The point was argued
at great length in the Court of Exchequer, one of the
judges of which—perhaps one of the most experienced
judges on the bench—stated that there were doubts as to
the act ; but, after a long hearing, the Court decided
that the word " may " must receive its ordinary inter-
pretation, and that it was at the discretion of the judge
to give costs or not, as he thought proper. The same
question came before the same court again two or three
weeks afterwards—another argument took place, and the
samb judgment was pronounced. After a short interval
the same question was again raised in the court of
Common Pleas, and deliberately argued, the decisions of
the Court of Exchequer being cited and commented upon
at great length. After a discussion which lasted an
entire day, the Court took time to consider its judg-
ment, and some short time afterwards the Chief Justice
delivered an elaborate judgment, deciding that the word
"may" was not to be taken in a discretionary but in an
imperative sense, and the court awarded costs. Now,
their lordships must observe how easy it would be to
obviate such a difficulty of construction by introducing
the word "shall," or some equivalent word or words of
an imperative import, and thus have prevented all the
waste of time and unnecessary expense which occurred
on the three different occasions to which he had referred.
These irregularities and errors were sometimes even of a
ludicrous character. Some years back there was a clause
in a statute respecting the insertion of false entries in a
registry of baptisms. A pecuniary penalty was attached
by the bill to this offence, and, according to the usual
custom. A subsequent clause in the bill provided that
one-half the penalty should go to the informer and the
other half to the poor of the parish. In the progress of
the measure through Parliament, it was considered that
a pecuniary penalty was improper, and 14 years' tran-
sportation was substituted. But the other clause to
which he had referred was not struck out, and on
the construction of the bill it turned out that the
poor of the parish were to have one half of the
penalty, which was seven years' transportation, and the
informer the other seven. (Laughter.) He mentioned
this as a striking instance of the carelessness with which
bills were passsed through Parliament without proper
supervision. He would give another case - that of a
particular bill relating also to county courts, which was
originated in that house, and passed two or three years
ago. The bill consisted of about 25 clauses on its first
introduction, and passed through that house without
any material alterations. It went down to the other
house of Parliament, were 16 of its clauses were struck
out, and 18 other clauses were inserted. It was five
months in its progress through Parliament ; it came out
of that house at the close of the session, and passed, he
supposed, without much inquiry ; and the result was
that there was not a single clause in that bill free from
error. One object of the bill was to give county court
judges the power of executing process out of their own
jurisdiction in certain cases. That was the evident ob-
ject of the party proposing the amendment, but, so far
from effecting that object, it acted directly the reverse,
and left the law precisely as it found it, although
lengthy clause had been introduced to alter it. Ina
di another
tions clause, almost immediately afterwards, some
ec were given v6th reference to the accounts