The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-16 00:00:00

esatmer that inquiry should be ten lucte4l The Hon
Member said that the prt,sent amount of destruction to
life and property by the wreck ur m T,,hant vessels was
absolutely appalling. He had ref.con to believe that
there were no fewer than 1,000 of our merchant vc,3scls
wrecked every year, involving en immense loss of life,
and a most 'serious destruction of property. In three:
years the aggregate loss of coasting tal
was 49 ships, the crews of which were all drowns-tl, anti
81, the crews of which were partially saved, and this
was exclusive of those reported in Lloyd's retures.
Taking the average of the three years, 1833, 1834, and
1835, the annual loss by shipwreck of seamen was 750,
and the annual amount of property saerifiecd was
3,000,0001, a sum which he believed was below the reel
value of the ships and cargoes wrecked. It was net his
wish, if the Committee were appointed, that any
lengthened evidence should be taken, but it, was rather
with the view of bringing to bear the remedies for the
existing evil, that had been suggested before former
Committees, and in order to render any measure that
might be brought in as efficient as it was possible. He
hoped the Government and the Board of Trade would be
prepared to take the subject into consideration, aed to
bring in a Bill founded on the report of the Committee,
and it was on those grounds he beggt d leave to move for
its appointment.
Captain FITZROY seconded the motion of the Hon.
Member with great pleasure. The measures for placing
the mercantile navy in a proper state of efficiency had
been neglected and postponed in the most unaccountable
manner by those whose duty it was to have brought
them forward, and many Hon. Members unconnected
with the Government would have introduced Bills for
the purpose, but for the opposition they met with from
the merchants and shipowners. If the Corarnitt, e asked
•
for was granted, he would undertake to say that such a
vast mass of evidence would be adduced with respect to
the incompetency of the masters of coasting vessels to
navigate their ships as would prove perfectly convinc-
ing. Those to whom the coasters were entrusted never
underwent the slightest examination as to their capacity
to navigate a vessel round theßritish coast, and to their
incompetence was to be ascribed the number of' wrecks
that annually took place. There would also be another
point upon which the Committee would obtain informa-
tion, namely, as to the state of the coast at Beechyhead :
a great loss of lives and of vessels annually took place,
and this because there was neither harbour nor any
place of refuge into which vessels might run when over-
taken by storms off that dangerous line of coast.
Mr. LABOUCHERE said that it was not his inten-
tion to offer any opposition to the appointment of the
proposed Committee; it was to be hoped, however, that
the Committee would avoid going over the same ground
that had been travelled by previous inquirers, and that
the members of it would confine themselves to an in-
quiry as to how the recommendations already extant
could best be carried into execution; in this way the
Committee would perform a most valuable service. Thee
whole subject referred to by the Hon. Member was one
well deserving the attention of the House. There did
already exist a power of inquiry into the causes of
steam shipwrecks, on the part of the Government; hut
this power did net extend to sailing vessels or coasters.
Captain Durham had already furnished more than one
valuable report on the former subject, and no doubt
if the powers of Government were enlarged equally
valuable information as to the causes of the frequent
wrecks of sailing coasters and other vessels would be
procured. He regretted very much to be obliged to
express his concurrence in what his Honourable Friend
had stated with respect to the low and deteriorated
character of the mercantile navy. Government had re-
ceived from the consuls in numerous foreign parts
statements respecting the bad conduct of the English
mercantile sailors, which clearly proved how very much
inferior the characters of the masters and mates were,
in the estimation of foreigners, to those of the seamen
of other nations. And there could be no ground for
astonishment at the preference given by merchants and
shippers to foreign ships and seamen. Ilia Noble Friend
yllldord Palmerston) would shortly lay on the table of the
•••ouse some information on the subject of British ship-
e_ tag and seamen, which would be thought of the utmost
• portance, and which would probably induce the
l'lkOtise to give a ready assent to some remedial measures,
by, which the present disgraceful condition of the
British mercantile navy might be put an end to. He
assured the House that the subject in question had °mu-
- pied the serious attention of the Government ; and,
Indeed, it was incumbent on Ministers to look most nar-
row!), into the state of the merchant navy, at the time
'when they proposed to the House to reconsider the exist-
.; int navigation laws.
The motion was then agreed to.
LAW OF LANDLORD AND TENANT
(IRELAND).
Sir W. SOMERVILLE said that, in moving for leave
to bring in a Bill to amend the law of landlord and
tenant in Ireland, he should probably best consult the
convenience of the House if he at once proceeded to
state what was the nature of the measure, as well as to
live some details respecting the machinery by which it
was to be carried out ; and also the means which the
Government intended to propose for rendering it effi
cient. The subject was at once delicate, complicated.
and difficult to deal with ; and those characteristics led
him to think that the best plan to pursue was to lay the
whole of the details of the proposed measure before the
Parliament, so that there might exist an opportunity for
judging it, and comparing it with the difficulties which
it was framed to meet. The Bill, therefore, might be
said to embrace two distinct plans. The first was for
affording compensation to tenants for improvements
effected on their holdings. The second wou'd,
he trusted, be found to embody several not
unimportant changes in the present relations between
landlord and tenant. The Bill proposed to encou-
rage the outlay of capital upon his holding by the
tenant, by securing to him an adequate remuneration for
that outlay in all cases where be had not derived the
full benefit from it. This would be effected with as little
interfereneewith the rights of the landlord aswas possible.
It was not his purpose to linger over the subject at
present, by insisting on the necessity for conceding this
act of justice to the tenantry. The principle had al-
ready been admitted to be just by a majority within
that House, and out of doors also. It was, moreover, no
new principle; on the contrary, it was one of some
antiquity; for in a work now a century old it was laid
down that, inasmuch as it was not the custom in Ireland
for the landlord to provide farm buildings for the
tenantry, if the tenant, after having built such, was die-
possessed of his holding before- he had derived the full
benefit of his outlay, he was entitled to be compensated
to that extent. That principle came likewise with the
recommendation of the Earl of Devon's Commission, and
it had been embodied in a Bill 'introduced on
the subject of landlord and tenant by one of
his (Sir William Somerville's) predecessors, which
Bill had been permitted to be read a first time.
Ile would proceed to state how he proposed to create the
machinery by which the compensation to be made for
outlay of capital should be ascertained. From the pass-
ing of the Act all tenants having holdings above 101., and
possessing an interest, as specified, whether under a
lease or from year to year, might serve a notice (the
form of which would be given in a schedule to the Bill)
on his landlord, specifying the nature of the outlay in-
tended to be made, whether it be buildings, or drainage,
Or subsoiling, or of any other description, and having
acme so the tenant must proceed to name an arbitrator,
calling likewise on the landlord to nominate one on his
("' behalf. If the landlord did not nominate an arbi-
trator within twenty-one days, then the tenant might
apply to the petty sessions, where a landlord's arbitrator
Was to be
appointed and afterwards conjoined to that of
• the tenant. The two arbitrators were then to choose
belee, and if they could not agree in the
e'ne, then the petty sessions was again to
applied to, and the person there named
Was to be umpire. The body thus constituted would
Proceed to examine and decide on the notice served by
the tenant on his landlord. They would have to survey
the land and the projected improvements, and report on
the value and the amount of additional rent which would
true from them, and if their decision should be in
/brour of the improvements, then they were to be em-
powered to make an award wherein they were to state
the name of the superior landlord who would be bound
!hereby.—(Hear, hear.) The award thus made would
be deposited with the clerk of the peace, a copy of it
would be nerved by the tenant on his immediate land-
lord. and the other intermediate landlords concerned in
the land in question, up to the superior of all, were
likewise to be served with copies of this award. An
appeal might be made against this award within 21 days
of its being notified to the landlord; the assistant bar •
sister of the county would decide upon it, and his de-
cision was to be final. - The tenant was then to be em-
Powered to to proceed to execute the works thus specified,
upon their completion the arbitrators were to examine
thfmt and to furnish him with a certificate of their having
been inished, after which they were to decide whether
1111 deduction was to be made from the rent fixed,
an their decision was to be filed by the clerk of the
Peace, When the tenancy was to be terminated, it was
aP:Posed that if the period of 21 years had not elapsed
lee the
he outlay was made, the landlord, whatever mode
mightby take to regain his possession, was to proceed
first serving a notice on the tenant, calling upon him
nominate an arbitrator, and in case of neglect or
in refusal,. procuring the appointment of one, as in the first
s'llee• The arbitrators of both parties would then
proceed to examine the improvements and to make their
011,4 rd, of the amount of compensation to be trade to the
"Mug tenant, which, however, was not three years'
rental of the holding. And the immediate landlord was
11..12_1We the power of recovering the same amount from.
zeudppweirthlinandlord, if his interest in the holding term-
s given and specified time of the improve-
14ells being paid for to the outgoing tenant. All the pro
nas of the Bill which he had detailed were of a pro-
"reetative nature. There was a great difficulty in making
retrospective in some cases, but not so in respect to
uminga under the annual value of 101, although it
would be hardship
them t p to such a class of tenants to subject
the pa? the machinery of the Bill. For that reason
Let enacted that no tenant, whose holding was
th_anautohyreeeten pounds, should be entitled to more
very' years' rental for improvements of five
ar- standing, and the decision of the assistant-
rleter
inhaled ~n a 1 cases was to be final. He had now
ens explanation with respect to the tenants' im-
provements portion of the Bill, and would proceed to
beelttaieen that part of it which regulated the relation
landlord and tenant. There were to be clauses
teinest_erlend by which the occupying tenant was to be pro-
e "ya against a double distress for rent—(Hear)—whion
was subjected to at present, as well from his imme-
dime as
interests Plat for from his •
superior landlord. The Bill enacted
the future a tenant who held land under certain
diseeesa
tinheth6lueb. deprived ot the power of making a
tvishileonulhdebseublet his land ; and the Bill provided
defentsegUenalits in
these cases with an tquitah:e defence
.perior courts of law. They already had such a
was
note 10tp.e courts of the assistant-barrister., but it
tenant w 6..: in a court of equity, and consequently the
tistert. ci.epriTed of' the benefit of the assistant-bar-
. "ectslone It was proposed, therefore, to increase