Year: 1873

The result OF the capture OF this stronghold OF
rebellion would be to greatly strengthen ths
government of CASTELAR,, and it is worth calcu.
lating what the effect thereof would be on the
relations Of Spain with America. The normal
tendency would be to make Spain very much
less inclined to yield anything to US in repara-
ton for an atrocity which the majority Of
Spaniards hold to have been justified by tho
circumstances. With CASTELAR, the case may
be very different, but with no open foes on
the Peninsula, except the Carlists, and with .
large naval force in Havana, even CASTELAR,
might find the very slight conditions OF the
protocol too much for his digestion.


Marine Architecture and tho Inter-


national Tribunal Proposed by Adj


miral Jaurez.


Admiral Jaurez a valiant old seaman Of the
French Navy, who has won distinction alike
on sea and land, has offered q bill in the
National Assembly providing for the neces-
sary steps to organize an international tribunal
to investigate collisions on the high seas. We
believe this to be the only practicable method
to bring criminal negligence home to its guilty
authors. We wake up morning after morning,
and, rising with satisfactory outlook on tho
world, we open morning paper and read that
our nearest relations and dearest friends have
been drowned on board of q stranded vessel
in which they took passage at one hundred
and twenty dollars ticket, or that they have
been sacrificed by needless collision in mid
ocean. A loud lamentation follows; the PRESS
with one accord calls for vengeance, and a
universal chapter of vehement denunciation IN
written on what is styled "worse than Ii
crime" A few days pass by and tho
horror is replaced with some fresh disas-
ter, which succeeds in the public inter
est-morbid or otherwise. In the good, old
fashioned countries, where people never learn
anything and never forget anything Vile du
Havre collision does not sink suddenly out OF
public notice; but an ample, though tedious.
investigation is had, and the small measure OF
indemnity that can be paid for human lives IL
usually guaranteed in the end. But in Amer
lea and France the interest subsidies with our
forgetfulness of the narrowing details, and
there is no satisfaction afforded the widowed
wife, the bereaved husband or the orphaned
child 1t seems to us that it is high time that
the maritime nations should construct just
such tribunal as that called for by the propo-
sition of Admiral Jaurez. We hope that some
member of the Forty-third Congress will meet
the proposition of the Admiral in the proper
spirit Of appreciation and introduce joint
resolution providing for the cooperation of


gVyl.- l. 80 oh ANIxy
the limitations of its jurisdiction, its powers
of inflicting punishment for infractions of it's
maritime rules, should all be founded on the,
broad basis of humanity.


It should be distinctly declared that when a.
passenger pays his money for passage from
one port to another he is entitled to make,
that passage alive.


1t should be distinctly enacted that in case
a passenger is not delivered at the port for
which he takes passage, but dies Violent
death in transita from no causes brought
about by himself, then his heirs should be-
paid money indemnity on tariff scale
according to his worldly wealth and i'm
portance.


1t should be distinctly declared that any
officer or petty officer, remotely or otherwise
guilty of negligence arising either from ignor-
ance, laziness or intoxication, should there
after and forever be disqualified from holding
grade above that of ordinary seaman in the
maritime service.


1t should be distinctly provided that thes
captain of the vessel, if an accident happen to-
the hull, should forfeit all his property to the
heirs of the lost passengers; or in case tho
accident be bursted or collapsed boiler then
the forfeiture should operate on the property
of the engineer.


1t should be distinctly laid down that when
the accident arises from defective architecture.
the company should be liable, not only for an
adequate compensation for the lives sacrificed.
but that their remaining vessels should be
condemned and refused papers.


II these provisions were made part of our
international maritime law, collisions, founder
ing at sea, running upon rocks and stranding
vessels would occur no more. There is no
ounce Of prevention which is SO vigorous as
the application of a penalty which will involve
the forfeiture of large fortunes as q single
penalty. We know that the locallaws of eaoh
nation that would become party to this con-
vention would have to be changed, and
changed perhaps in their fundamental prin-
ciples. This we regard as nothing compared
with the advantages that would accrue to the
public security on the sea. The death levia-'
thans now navigating the North Atlantic are
all constructed with view to annual divi-i
dends They defy all the cherished principles
eminent constructors, being adaptations to
heavy subsidies and large cargoes rather than
to the convenience and safety of their human
freight. We say then, by all means construct