The Cannock Chase Examiner. — 1876-11-24 (Cannock, Staffordshire, England)

OUR SUPPLY OF SEAMEN. (From the Times.) Any week of disasters at sea reminds us, not merely of the inevitable perils of the bee, but also of the national importance it is to us that they should not be intensified by any falling-tiff in our supply of good material for sailors. No doubt the life is in several ways less attractive now than it used to be. Partly because men are growing almost daily more keenly sensitive to physical annoyances, partly because other professions are competing more briskly, the sailor's life is losing some of its old c norm, and there are signs In abundance that its new recruits are not always drawn from the most desirable classes. The Prospero, which we recently reported as now despaired of, and the City of Manchester, which we know for certain to have been wrecked, were both, it appears, manned chiefly by foreigners, and in a great part by blacks. It would, no doubt, be hasty to conclude that the evil fate of either vessel is to be traced to any fault of her crew. We cannot forget, however, that the worst stories of ill deeds at sea, of insubordination and sometimes of mutinies and wholesale murders, are to be set down to the presence of foreigners on board our vessels. How comets it, we would ask, that the services of these men have been so frequently called in Is the reason to be found in the short supply of good English sailors Or has the fault been with the owners who have refused to pay the higher wages for which good English sailors could have been obtained? Ship-ownere with a good name for treating their crews well are never found to be short of hands, and they have a choice, too, of quality. In spite of all that can be said, and truly said, against it, the sailor's life is still chosen for heel( by many who have other careers equally open to them. Its positive dangers theniselves are, to a landsman's apprehension, deterrent, but at least the sailor escapes many of the more chronic dangers that abound on land. A medical report on the comparative unhealthiness of manufactures would go far towards showing that, as a matter of sober calculation, the seemingly perilous life of a sailor is In reality by no means the worst secured. But in whatever degree life at sea may he necessarily unsafe, TllllOtT Imeirsviesi—The throat and windpipe are such an objection to it is, of all others, the least likely yeesidly liabie to intiotonsitra, causing soreness and dry- to be felt by the stout hearted class it concerns. It is nitis. tickling not ittitation, inducing enuir.la aud affecting not by tales of wrecks and storms, such as have filled the voice. Yor tliese :symptom. rise gimes-me m the form our columns during the past few days, that new rept jujulapt thtserigreeabie confections, being in prokiwlty to the g'iends at the moment they ere excited cruise will be frightened off. They will demand, and by the eclat suceng, becomes actively hee,inv. ad. sag In I reasonsely demand, that in every department of sea hese= iSy mist 14 sumps), labelled Jmiss k life, in the Boisal Navy no lees than in the mercantile 4st .14' marine, proper care shall be taken for their safety ; but 11 In...in 4. S.'. °h."' when this has been done they will be ready enough, if Weveriwason. r only fair terms are offered them, to face the dangers that must remain.