The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-19 00:00:00

um BU-INT, 1.0111)0N, FRUMY EV ENING, OCTOBER 19, 1866.

was taken up in coming to a good settlement, if,
with the blessing of the Almighty, we arrived at the
desired end. It was better to go too slow than too
fast, for steps of this kind could never be retraced.
That, he believed, was a point on which they were
all agreed. and he thought they would also agree on
this, that the great prosperity of this country, and
the great blessings we enjoyed, had arisen in the
main from the careful handling of such questions,
and from our always endeavouring to hold fast to
what we believed to be the old lines of the Consti-
tution. (Cheers.)
Col. NORTH and Col. FANE also acknowledged
the toast ; and the healths of the members for Ban-
bury and Woodstock, the Vice-Chancellor, and
other gentlemen, were given and responded to, that
of the mayor being proposed by Mr. Cardwell.

sion of the soil by a few great proprietors ; that he
would oppose every Government who would not
break up this system, enfranchise the land, and
sweep away the entails which protected this selfish
oligarchy. And when, in accordance with the esta-
blished custom, the Whigs covered the flaming de-
magogue withthe ermine of a judge, it was a strange
sight to see this eminent person selected as the in-
strument of justice in sentencing men accused of
uttering language not very unlike his own. For
years upon years the Irish Catholics gave themselves
up almost body and soul to the Whigs for patronage.
What good has it done them? I heard it said the
other day that Lord Derby, to use the common
phrase, was going to do justice to the Catholics by
giving them places, and a good deal was made of
the fact that he has a Catholic Attorney-General,
Mr. Morris, in place of the Whig Protestant At-
torney-General, Mr. Lawson. I shall not insult
your honesty and your understanding by occupying
much time in exposing this wretched idea of " jus-
tice to the Catholics." Justice, forsooth, because
one man, or 20, or 100 men get such appointments.
No, that it is not the kind of justice we haves right
to expect from the Government. As between deno-
minations, perfect fairness and impartiality is all we
should demand. (Cheers.) Let judges and law
officers and every other class of officials be chosen
for their merit and fitness, and let us hear no more
of the old system of sectarian appointments. (Loud
cheers.) What we want is something for the coun-
try ; above all—for I am sure you feel as I do that
is the vital question—something that will check this
rush of emigration that is draining the life blood
from Ireland. (Continued cheering.) The late Go-
vernment deliberately refused to consider this all-
important question. The present Government have
wisely expressed their judgment upon it, and have
not shrunk from entertaining a remedy. There-
fore I say it is, so far, easy to choose between them.
(Cheers.) Having thus contrasted the Whigs and
their opponents, may I venture to perform that
most disagreeable of all tasks--to speak a few
words of myself. (Loud cheers.) It is the duty
—the painful duty—of a candidate to do this. For
six years I sat in the House of Commons, not ne-
glectful (I hope I am pardoned for saying it) of the
interests of my country—(cheers)—nor forgetful
either of what was due to the Church to which I be-
long. (Loud cheers.) And though it has been my
fortune as a Catholic to sometimes take a leading
part in questions involving the interests of my faith,
though I never shrunk from any public duty where
the smallest claims of my co-religionists were un-
justly endangered, and though I have obtained the
credit of being one of the foremost in defence when
my Church has been attacked, I have never, I am
rejoiced to think, given the slightest offence, by a
single word or act of mine, to those who differ with
me in religion. (Loud cheering.) I have always be-
lieved that one of the great misfortunes of our coun-
try has been sectarian dissension. (Hear.) As an
Irishman, I have remembered that Edmund Burke,
Grattan, Flood, Curran, and a host of others, down
to Thomas Davis--(loud cheers)—who have been
ourstatesmen, patriots, and orators, were sound Pro-
testants, and that they not only never offended their
Catholic fellow-countrymen, but actually laboured
hard in their behalf. (Loud cheers.) This policy
of conciliation, and of justice to ourselves, from
which I never deviated, may perhaps account for a
fact not often unhappily noticed at Irish elections—
namely, that in my recent contest in the King's
County I had voting for me a majority of the Catho-
lic priests—that, of course, was to be expected—but
also; I am equally proud to say, a majority of the
Protestant clergy. (Cheers.) You will expect me to
state what I have done in Parliament, though per-
haps you know something about it already. (Cheers.)
You remember the bishops'famous pastoral in 1859,
and the various points it urged upon Irish mem-
bers to endeavour to carry. Of all these points
only two—the amendments in the Irish poor law,
about the treatment of little children in workhouses,
and the conditions of the Irish Catholic poor in
workhouses and prisons in England—have been
accomplished, and those two points have been
accomplished by me. (Loud cheering.) As
I see in this densely crowded hall to-night, and
I am very glad to do so, a I„rge number of
young men, I may also refer to my labours, partly
successful, in throwing open the appointments
in the ci;il service to free public competition.
(Cheers.) On this subject I defeated Lord Palmer-
i
ston, who was a staunch supporter of the old system
of patronage, a corrupt system, by which the Go-
vernment bribe members of Parliament with petty
places, to be distributed in another kind of bribery
by the members amongst their constituents. That
system I attacked. (Cheers.) I carried against the
Government a motion for an inquiry into it, and
the result has been, on the one hand, to give addi-
tional young
men in rising in life, and
onthe at the scandalous system of
facilitiesother 7 to to
strike
parliamentary patronage. (Cheers.) If you send me
to the House of Commons again—(loud cries of
44 We will," "-You're safe")--I shall, next to the
essential interests of Ireland herself, devote myself
to completing my labours on this subject ; and, by
flinging open, I trust, the whole of these appoint-
ments to open competition, thus give a chance of
obtaining a good position to young men destitute of
rank or fortune or great friends, but possessing in-
dustry, ability, and an honourable ambition.
foreign( C h e r
er s .
policy of the
[Having referred at some length to the
late Government, the hon. gen-
tleman resumed.] And now, in looking back at my
opposition to the Whig party in Parliament, I will
ask you what is the monument Lord Russell and the
Whigs have left ? They are gone, as a Government
—what is their monument? The pyramids of the
Nile are supposed to be the tombs of Egyptian sove-
reigns, and a Frenchman has ingeniously calculated
that it would take 2,000 ordinary graves to make
one pyramid of Egypt. Lord Russell and the Whigs
have far exceeded this, for their monument consists
of two millions of Irish graves—a thousand pyra-
mids of Egypt. (Loud cheering.) As another can-
didate has been mentioned, it is due to him and to
you that I should state that I preceded him in the
field by no less than four months, for it was in June
last that I received, in Cork, the invitation from .a
very powerful section of electors of this county. I
have not a word to say against him. But after what
has happened, and the almost unanimous welcome
I have received, I need hardly say that I am firmly
resolved, under all circumstances, to persevere in
this contest, and go to the poll. (The hon. gentle-
man then sat down amidst cheers.)
The following resolution was Wen unanimously
nassed :

" Resolved, that having now heard Mr. Pope Henne?sy's
statement of his political views, and bearing in mind his
public career and his labours in Parliament on behalf of
Ireland, we cordially adopt him as our candidate for this
county, and pledge ourselves to support him by every
means in our power at Ulf) ensuing election."
A telegram from New Ross says that at a
large meeting of electors there Mr. Pope Hennessy
was unanimously adopted as their candidate.

DESTRUCTIVE AND FATAL FIRE AT MATLOCK.—
Yesterday morning, at daybreak, Messrs. Hackett's tape
mills, near Matiock, were discovered to be on fire. An
alarm was raised, and with as much expedition as possible
several private engines were .brought to the spot, but the
utmost exertions of the villagers were insufficient to stop
the progress of the flames, which in less than two hours
totally destroyed the mill and its contents, leaving nothing
standing but four bare and tottering walls. A poor fellow
named Hallam, who was employed as bellringer, perished
in the flames, Immediately after the discovery of the fire
he was seen at one of the windows of the topmost story of
the building crying for help. lle was then enveloped in
smoke, and as the staircase by which ho had ascended was
on fire, and no ladder sufficiently tall to reach him could
be procured, he fell a victim, and must have been burnt to
ashes. The building, which was the property of Mr.
Unwin Heathcote, of Shepalbury, Hertfordshire, was in-
sured in the Norwich Union, and Messrs. Hackett's ma-
chinery and stock, which latter was increased on Tuesday,
by the addition of n largo quantity of cotton, were also in
sured. The damage done is roughly estimated at £lO,OOO,
and about 200 persons will be thrown out of employment
by the fire, the cause of which is believed to have been a
flue from the blacksmith's shop attached to the mill.
The American Government is considering and
will probably adopt a new system of small coinage. The
one, two, and three cent pieces will have respectively one,
two, and three raised and perforated stars. Thus, by hold-
ing the coin to the light, or feeling it, its value will be
known. The half dimes and dimes are to bo larger and of
better metal, and will be distinguished by one and two per-
forated stars.

Naval and Military Intellit;ence.

----....-_._

The following petty officers and men belonging
to the screw frigate Leander, 39, 400 horse power,
Capt. W. M. Dowell, C. 8., were awarded medals
and gratuities by the Admiralty for long service and
meritorious conduct, on that vessel being paid off
into the Chatham Steam Reserve on Wednesday—
viz., F. Tapsell, boatswin's mate, long service pen-
sion, medal, and gratuity ; E. Alford, ship's cook,
long service pension, medal, and gratuity; J. Gut-
tridge, leading stoker, long service pension, medal,
and gratuity; T. Fordo, carpenter's crew, long service
pension ; and J. Hawkins, acting-sergt., Royal Ma-
rine Artillery, long service medal. In consieZeration of
the good conduct of the officers and men of the Royal
Marines serving on board the Leander during the time
she was in commission an order has been received
at Chatham from the Admiralty granting an extra
month's leave of absence.

The screw sloop corvette Reindeer, 7, 200-horse
power (nominal), in the fourth dock at Chatham,
has undergone the necessary alterations to her main
hatchways to allow of additional space being ob-
tained for the large midship guns she is intended to
carry. She will be out of hand and ready for un-
docking in the course of next week. The injury to
her false keel from her getting on the ground is also
being made good. On being floated out of dock
the Sepoy gun-boat will be placed in the same
dock for repairs.
In accordance with orders to that effect from the
Admiralty the sailing frigate Africaine, 44, at
Chatham, is to be handed over to the Elder Bre-
thren of Trinity-house to be converted into a coal-
hulk.

An Admiralty order received at Chatham directs
that principal naval officers appointed to naval civil
establishments for limited periods are in future to be
allowed to draw furniture, exclusive of articles of
glass, plate, &c., from the dockyard stores to the
extent of £330.

Visit of the Volunteers to Belgium.

(From the Times Special Correspondent.)
BRUSSELS, Thursday Morning.

Yesterday was a comparatively quiet day here as
regards public proceedings, though the non-official
hospitalities were continued without any diminution.
The Lord Mayor of London is treated with marked
respect by their Majesties and the citizens. At the
theatre on Tuesday night the King desired his
lordship to take a chair on his left in front of the
Royal box. This the Lord Mayor, with good taste,
for which the whole audience, who saw what was
going on, gave him credit, respectfully declined to
do, but occupied a seat immediately behind the King.
The King has placed one of the Royal carriages at
the disposal of his lordship, and by this and many
other attentions evinces his wish to pay respect to
the city of London and the character of the present
chief magistrate. Yesterday morning the King in-
vited Col. Loyd Lindsay and his staff to ride on
horseback with him in the Bois de la Cambre, the
Bois de Boulogne of Brussels. This wood has but
recently been laid out as a public pleasure-ground.
It is very extensive, and was formerly the appanage
of an old abbey. As now arranged it contains spa-
cious carriage rides, capital shady alleys for eques-
trian exercise, and excellent footpaths. If we had
it near London, Rotten-row and the Ring would
soon be deserted. Leopold 11. is a good rider, and
he and his companions did their 14 miles yesterday
afternoon before returning to Brussels, from which
the Bois is distant about a mile and a half.

At 2 o'clock the King and Queen set out from
their city Palace for the Musee, in order to hold the
levee, at which all the officers of foreign rifle corps
were to be presented. The repairs going on in the
Palace itself prevented their Majesties from holding '
the levee there ; but the place chosen for the recep-
tion was not an inappropriate one. It was the old
palace of the Austrian governors of this country,
and Albert and Isabella lived there in the time of
Philip 11. of Spain. The very apartment, too, in
which the officers were present was the ancienne Salle
du Trone. The Royal cortege was headed by a squa-
dron of the Guides, and another squadron of the
same regiment brought up the rear. In a closed car-
riage and pair were some of the Royal attendants,
then came two outriders in the scarlet liveries, and
next a closed carriage and pair, in which were the
King and Queen. There was a grand flourish of
trumpets as their Majesties set out from the Palace,
and another announced their entry into the Musee.
The distance between the two buildings is scarcely
a quarter of a mile, and the horses went at a walk-
ing pace, the crowds in the streets cheering the
King, the Queen, and the Royal Family. At the
foot of the great staircase was a guard of the Chas-
seurs, and a number of Court footmen in the Royal
livery. The officers about to be presented to their
Majesties were shown into the apartment called the
Salle a Colonnes on their arrival at the Musee. The
levee commenced at a quarter past 2 o'clock. The
King and Queen stood in front of the throne, at-
tended by a numerous retinue of Aides-de-Camp
and Ladies of Honour. On the right of the throne
stood the Lord Mayor_ of London, wearing the uni-
form of a Deputy-Lieutenant and his insignia as
chief magistrate ; M. de Comminges-Guitaud, Mi-
nister of France, and the Secretaries of the Lega-
tions of France, England, and Holland. On the left
were the Bourgmestre of Brussels, the Echevins,
l'Etat-Major, and superior officers of the Garde
Civique ; the Commission of the Tir National, and
the Commission for the Reception of Foreign Rifle-
men. The King wore his uniform of General-in-
Chief of the Garde Civique and the Grandon Cordon
of the Order of Leopold. The Queen was dressed
in black satin, and wore a diadem of brilliants, the
Cordon of the Order of Isabelle of Portugal, and the
insignia of her Austrian order. All the officers of
the foreign rifle corps, including, of course, those of
our Volunteers, were presented to their Majesties.

The levee terminated about 3 o'clock, and the King
and Queen returned to Laeken almost immediately
afterwards.

A concert was given in the Zoological-gardens
by the band of the Ist Surrey in aid of the sufferers
by cholera in this city. Though the King's levee
kept so many people away from the gardens, 1,500
francs were contributed in aid of the charity.

There was some good shooting at the long range
yesterday, but no return of the scores was issued.
Mr. Pixley, the winner of the Queen's prize at Wim-
bledon, made bull's-eyes in presence of the King on
his Majesty's visit to this range; and it was two
bull's-eyes and a centre which Lord Bury scored
before his Majesty. The weapon used by his Lord-
ship is the old Whitworth with which he competed
in 1861. So pleased was the King with his visit to
the long range that he has signified his intention to
inspect the shooting there, again to-morrow morn-
ing. To-day the Volunteers go to Antwerp for a
civic reception of the foreign riflemen. From the
extensive programme of the feting which they are
to receive there I fear the return to this city will be
a very late affair. To-morrow there is to be a second
visit to Antwerp for an inspection of the fortifica-
tions. On Saturday the King will entertain the
French and Dutch and Swiss riflemen, and as many
of the Volunteers as can remain till then. All are
invited, and it is his Majesty's wish that all should
accept the invitation ; but many will be obliged to
return home before then, much to their own regret.
It is the intention of the Bourgmestre to issue about
500 tickets for the Opera to-morrow night, when there
will be another gala performance. The band of the
Ist Surrey continues to be an object of great attrac-
tion to the townspeople. Its performance is capital,
and it is in no manner chary of its " music most
eloquent." When there is not a State dinner here
everybody is dining with everybody else. There are
Volunteers' messes in the principal hotels, and some
of these messes dispense their hospitalities with un-
ceasing liberality. Last evening Colonel Loyd Lind-
say, Lord Bury, Sir Paul hunter, and the Staff of
the Volunteers dined with M. de l'Eau d'Andre-
mont, Major Commandant le Bataillon des Chaseurs-
eclaireurs de la Garde Civique, who assembled
around him a number of gentlemen connected with
the administration of the city and the fetes and Tir.
The Lord Mayor visited the Bourgmestre yesterday,
and in the evening his lordship had a dinner party
in his apartments at the Hotel de Bellevue. The
prospectus has been printed of an organisation to
raise a fund for entertaining the Belgian riflemen in
London next year,

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

----+--

TIMES.—Mr. Bright, in his inflammatory speeches
at Glasgow, addresses himself to a special theme—
the benefit which the country would gain by sub-
stituting a House of Commons elected by a greatly
larger number of voters—he himself speaks of
another million—who should belong solely or chiefly
to the class of working men, or, at least, to a poorer
class than already have the franchise. When such
a Revolution takes place, and, furthermore, the
constituencies are more equally arranged, so that
the House becomes a more direct representation of
the great mass of the people, Mr. Bright believes
that inestimable blessings will follow—that the
nation will be changed, the structure of English
society remodelled for the better, the obstacles to
civilisation, morality, and religion removed, and a
brighter and hobler day dawn on the country. The
measure of the advantages which are to be gained
by such a Reform Bill is, of course, the measure of
the inefficiency of the present House of Commons.
If blessings so incalculable as to be only dimly
viewed in the future, and to be best figured by the
comparison of Eden to a barren waste, are to spring
from an electoral system which approaches nearly
to universal suffrage and the equality of electoral
districts, it must be that the present House of Com-
mons does really exercise a malign influence on the
country, hinder the spread of intelligence, impede
the production or distribution of wealth, condemn
the mass of the people to poverty and ignorance,
waste its funds on the maintenance of needless
armaments or useless placemen, and, in short, fail
in all the duties which a Legislative Assembly in-
vested with almost sovereign power should perform.
This is the position which Mr. Bright thinks it
necessary to establish, and which he is bound to
prove before he can stir a step on his road to Paradise.
When we come to the definite grievances com-
plained of, we find how much at a loss the Radical
party is for a case against the existing Legislature.
After racking their brains to find something to say
they can only dwell upon two or three well-worn
topics, and charge upon Parliament evils which re-
flecting men know to arise from other causes. First,
there is the expenditure on national armaments. It
is the dominant clam which keeps up the army and
navy, of course to provide for younger sons. Now,
if there be anything clearly established it is that this
gigantic evil is not one peculiar to England, nor one
for which England is primarily responsible. The
greatest armaments iu Europe. are maintained by
nations whose Legislatures are essentially demo-
cratic—France and Italy. We have always said,
and we repeat it, that the chief offenders, the real
support of this pernicious system in Western Europe,
are our gifted but ambitious and restless neighbours,
the French. As long as the traditions of conquest
cherished by that people remain, so long will it be
impossible for this country to dispense with a strong
army and navy. Does Mr. Bright call to mind that
this year the French Emperor has been almost
forced by public clamour into a war with people
who were strictly settling their own internal ques-
tions, and had given France not the slightest ground
of offence ? is not Europe at the present moment
full of menaces and alarms? With what fairness,
then, can Mr. Bright sneer at the man who is re-
sponsible for the British navy as " the great recon-
structor" and contrast his zeal for armaments with
his love of liberty ? Then there is the question of
education. But one testimony is borne by all
acquainted with the subject, and that education
is hindered, not by want of schools and teachers,
but by the children being taken away from school
to work. We can only see one remedy, one sys-
, tern by which ignorance could be exterminated.
The State might make education compulsory, and
forbid any child to be set to work before a cer-
tain age. But can it be said that the country has
demanded any such legislation,. or would have
supported the House of Commons in it? Would not
the most strenuous opposition have come from mem-
bers of Mr. Bright's own class, and probably from.
the working men themselves? We hear, then, of
the great grievance that the land is being concen-
trated into too few hands, and this also a new House
of Commons is to remedy. The real reason of this,
however, undoubtedly is the high price which land
brings in the market, and consequently the small
interest which it yields. Enormous fortunes are
made in commerce, and the rich men offer prices
which make it worth the yeoman's. while to sell.
The land of England in many counties is becoming
a sort of pleasure ground for those viho are accumu-
lating wealth in the great towns, and if it were
divided to-morrow among all the adult males who
dwell upon it, the process of agglomeration would
begin again in a week. It is not the duty of the
Legislature to resist what is evidently an inevitable
tendency of our social state. All that it can do is
to set land as much as possible free by rendering its
transfer easy, and that it has taken care for this
Lord Westbury's Act bears witness. When we look
at these accusations one by one we thus see how
groundless they are. A good Reform Bill will cer-
tainly be a wise and truly conservative measure,
but Mr. Bright ought not to lead his followers to
suppose either that the present Legislature is selfish
and unjust or that a Golden Age is to commence on
its ruins.

PosT.—To those who take an interest in the mari-
time affairs of the nation beyond what is summed up
in a ready belief of the superiority of the "
British
sailor " to all created beings, and the efficacy of
" hearts of oak" in overcoming all possible diffi-
culties, the approach of winter has a peculiar and
melancholy interest. To such it means the advent
of storm and tempest, and of the long succession of
disasters and shipwrecks which annually darkens
our wreck-chart and desolates the homes of our
seamen, and it cannot fail to lead also to the con-
sideration of the causes to which those disasters and
shipwrecks appear to be due, and to a desire to
seek for some means of removing, at any rate,
those which are evidently removable. That there
should still exist so many sources of difficulty and
danger to the navigator which distinctly come under
this latter class is a curious commentary upon the
interest which Englishmen are popularly sup-
posed to take in all matters relating to the sea ;
and still more curious, as showing the small amount
of attention which even those more particularly in-
terested in such things give to the amelioration of
conditions which affect their very existence. This is
probably in a great degree owing to the prevalent
and supremely ridiculous belief that, in matters of
seamanship, we have long ago arrived at, if we have
not passed, the ultimate point of perfection ; and
the only result usually arrived at from a review of
from our former excellence, rather than
our present position is a hope that we may not be
a convictionfalling
away
that we ought to be reaching far be-
yond it. Old systems and old ideas are clung to
and new improvements rejected
which induce a suspicion that the
sti
nacy
" hearts of oak" which are the glory of the sailor
NIVv i tt hh
a an
o tenacity,
b
must be generally accompanied by heads of the same
material, or else that a too great reliance upon the
influence of the sweet little cherub wh, is supposed
to make them his special care has produced an indis-
position to any human improvement which might
interfere with his authority. At any rate it is passing
strange that, when the sea has so many dangers of
its own to daunt the sailor, it should yet have been
found necessary to invent some very ingeniously-
contrived artificial dangers to add to the category ;
and we cannot forbear from calling attention to one
which is but little known, but which will be recog-
nised by every sailor as having no small influence
in swelling the list of disasters by which our coasts
are every year distinguished. 'We allude to the pilot
system, than which one more fraught with abuse,
and less fitted to attain the objects for which it is
supposed to exist, could scarcely have been devised.
In the first place, pilotage is a strict monopoly. The
Trinity Board in England, the Northern Light Com-
missioners 'in Scotland, and the Ballast Board in
Ireland, have from time immemorial assumed the
power to fix the exact number of pilots which each
place requires, and to decree that that number shall
not be exceeded. It is not pretended that many more
than the prescribed number of Pilots—and equally
good pilots—would not be forthcoming if they were
permitted ; quite the contrary. The reasons by which
the system is defended are precisely the same as
those which are put forward in support of all other
monopolies, viz., that if the trade were thrown open
such numbers would flock to it that they would not
be able to obtain sufficient work to maintain them-

selves and their families, andthat the result would
be that whereas at first there would be far too many
pilots for the service, in the end there would be far
too few. If the same principle were applied to
butchers and bakers, or even to the captains of vessels
themselves, these reasons might at least be worth
examination, but in times when we have arrived at
such a confidence in the constant relation of supply
to demand as to have not only based all our own
legislation in every particular upon it, but to have
become apostles to the rest of the world, such an
argument cannot live for a moment. But pilotage
is not simply a monopoly, it is a monopoly which is
aggravated by being accompanied by compulsory
adoption. It is bad enough to tell the consumer
that he must buy the goods he wants at one shop
alone, but to tell him that he must buy goods there
whether he wants them or not is to double the in-
justice, and in the present instance, from the pecu-
liarities of the case, to more than double it as re-
gards the small consumer. To the larger and
more valuable, and consequently more responsible
craft, compulsory pilotage is an actual boon, since
the fact of its being compulsory relieves them
from all responsibility for any damage they may
incur while in the pilot's charge ; and it acts,
therefore, as a kind Of cheap insurance against
liability in dangerous places. The effect of the
whole system is, that as the pilots know they have

a monopoly of the service, and as they know their
services must be paid for whether rendered or not,
they naturally enough—for they are but human--
seek the work which is least disagreeable to them.
Unfortunately this is also precisely the work which
is of least value to the navigator. In fair weather,
when the difficulties of entering a port are at 'the
minimum, the pilots are on the look-out in plenty for
approaching vessels, and vie with each other in the
distance they beat up to windward to catch them
but in foul weather, when to the storm-beaten mari-
ner coining from the sea their services are most valu
able, this emulation is no longer found to exist; and
as the pilots know that the arriving vessels cannot be
served by other and more enterprising men than
themselves, the tendency is to keep well under shel-
ter, and let the vessels get well-in before they board
them. Every sailor has experienced this, and although
it is true that in most • ofithe important ports th
pilots are kept well up to their duty as well as can
done by strict supervision, the enormous disadvan-
tage of having to exercise such supervision, instead.
of leaving the thing to remedy itself by the action et
the natural emulation which would result from com-
petition, is manifest; while, if the supervision is
at all relaxed, the service becomes demoralised to
a degree which is the cause of the greatest danger
to vessels making for port: The remedy for all
this is obvious. The trade of pilotage is like anY
other, and the supply is equally capable of adapt"
ing itself to the demand as in all others. It is 01
course necessary that every pilot should have passed
an examination, and should possess a certificate of
competency, but what we would insist upon is,
that compulsory pilotage should be abolished, and
that the trade should be absolutely open to anY
man:capable of gaining his credentials. Those yes'
sels which have no need of pilots would not then
be forced to take them, and those which need
them most would be able to obtain them..