Morning journal and courier., 1883-09-04
bill had an easy passage through the House, but the Senate is expected by the railroads ts defeat, or at least essentially modify 1t.

The genuine Independents in Massachu- setts are moving preparatory to the fall cam paign, in.which it is hoped to bury Butler so deep that he will never emerge again. 4 conference is proposed. The commit tee in their invitation say they do not think General But Ter suitable person for governor, and that his opponents must take high ground upon real issues and select for their candidate some man whose independence, strength of charac- ter and honesty Of purpose will invite the sup- port of all men, whatsoever their party afhf iations, who are anxious to see proper and decent administration of public affairs. It is said that an address will be issued, but that no candidate will be named by the Independ- ents.
 Britannia still continues to rule the wave, but the British consul at Fiume denounces in one of his published reports ''the perni- cious system ofsgreenents under which the crews of vessels have to provide their own provisional Under this system crews are enabled to procure cash from masters at all foreign ports at which the vessels touch on the plea of being obliged to buy provisions. The money thus advanced is invariably spent in drink. The many offenses committed by British saiIors-such as insubordination, de- sertion, petty theft and assaults which stop often little short of paanslaughter-are be- coming more common daily. These offenses are traced usually to immoderate drinking. The consul at Plume declares, therefore, that the quality of seamen in the British merchant navy is constantly deteriorating.
 Sir Edward J. Reed was appointed special commissioner to inquire into the cause of the capsizing on the Clyde of the steamer Daphne and his report is interesting. Within the last fifteen or twenty years the system of building vessels in England has undergone 8 decided change. An opinion was formed, and very widely acted upon, that if vessels were built with long, narrow hulls, their car rying capacity and their speed, considering the proportionate amount of coal used, or wind power applied, would be great ly increased. Following out this sup position. the ratio of one to ten was first adopted as perhaps the most suitable one. That is to say, the length of the vessel was
 
 ten times her width, and, in not few in stances, this proportion has been so enlarged that vessels have had length twelve times greater than their width. Such vessels will not stand upright unless there is considera- ble amount of cargo or ballast on board. The claim made by the builders of these craft has been that by lolling over at a large angle of inclination greater amount of stability is obtained. and that when once loaded to their required depth, recovery to an upright position is certain to be obtained. But Sir Edward Reed makes it apparent that the conclusions upon which this reasoning is based are untrustworthy; that in order to have safe vessel it is necessary that she should have considerable amount of what is termed initial stability. That is, the pow CT to stand upright even when not weighed down by cargo, and he points out that not only the disaster to the Daphne was due to this defective method of building, but that probably quite g number of the losses at sea, by capsizing and disappearanee, that have occurred to English vessels in the last two decades may be traced to the same cause.