The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-11-09

ness, involving, as they do, not merely consider
able pecuniary expense-for that is q minor con-
sderation-but frequently great hazard to the res
cuers. The Liverpool Times points out, in re,
cent article, the utter inadequacy of the reward
accorded to those who have risked so much 20 save
the lives of others, when compared with what sail
ors are entitled to receive who bring safely into
port an abandoned ship, or who are successful in
securing portion of her cargo. Referring to the
loss of the ConnaWght, that journal comments upon
the different course pursued by the captains of
two vessels, to both of whom the condition of the
steamer was perfectly well known. The COM
mander Of the larger vessel, Notwithstanding sig
nails of distress were flying from the Con-
naught, coolly pursued his voyage The cap
tain of the little schooner responded promptly
to the call for assistance, and, by dint
of noble exerton, preserved the lives of
all that were on board the steamer. Brutal and
unfeeling, as the conduct of the captain of the
larger vessel showed him to be, the Times emphat
ically asserts that ''in a mere worldly sense, he
"was the wiser man" nasmuch as he would, by
coming TO the rescue, have burthened himself
with an expensive act of charity, and would have
reaped nothing in return but an honorary token,
in the shape of "a handsome telescope, with
'tsuitable description. or q very slightly chrome
''meter," accompanied by q complimentary letter
of thanks, under the official seal of the govern
ment whose citizens he had delivered from other
wise inevitable death. awe know Of instances"
SAYS the Times, ''in which the commanders and
''owners of ships have been hundreds of pounds
tout Of pocket by their ocean philanthropy. =
When they applied to the government to be re
imbursed the money that had actually been ex-
pended, ''they discovered that such services must
''be, like virtue, their own reward" The heart
lessuess displayed by the captain of the ship who
left the ConnaugLt to her fate is attributed to his
desire to avoid taxing his humanity with q
heavy pecuniary penalty, and it is also conf
IDENTIFY asserted that in numerous instances
commanders have, for the same reason
disregarded the appeals of vessels in distress. The
Times declares that the laws which place the So "
ing of property before the saving OF life are dis
graceful to the maritime Powers of the world
and calls for the framing of Convention between
England and the United States-as the two
greatest of those Powers-'which shall meet every
cease that could possibly arise on the high seas.
There is some force in the argument of our Liver
pool contemporary; butt would certainly be diff
cult for any government to establish fixed rat
of compensation for an act which is dictated b.
the clearest instincts of humanity In matters Q
this kind there is an understood reciprocity c
services. The seaman who, to-day, is called upo
to rescue the lives of Others, may himself requir
similar assistance on some future occasion.
performing, therefore, this philanthropc act, b
acquires the right to claim like response frol
his brother seamen, if at any time his own lii
shall be placed in equal peril. There needs n
maritime law to hold out a reward in money fc
doing q simple act of duty; and we certainl
hesitate to believe that the instances are many
which the claims of sufferers have been dsregarde
because their rescue would have involved q pecr
mary expenditure of a hundred pounds sterling
), If there have been cases in which the sordid Ms
= lures of men instigated them to turn deaf ear
the cries of their fellowcreatures in distress the
:, are so far outnumbered by others which have bee
. prompted solely by the noblest feelings of human
ty, that the former must be placed in the categoI
of exceptions TO which all general rules are sui
ect. Seamen in every age of the world ha'
been accounted brave and generous, and we kno
:, Of nothing in modern times which would lead
to believe that they have at all fallen fro
C the high reputation in these respects that thu
: have so long and so worthily maintained, al
therefore it is, that we question the propriety
y debasing those qualities byputting money val
upon the saving of lives from the perils which {
g must confront who undertake the risks of q s.
20 voyage.