Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/555

 ''supreme difficulty remains untouched, viz., What ought the floating capacity to be?'' I cannot imagine it possible to enforce by any Government intervention a rule ''which must depend in every individual case upon the opinion of an expert''."

Such, also, was the purport of the evidence of the great majority, if not of all the witnesses examined before the Commission; but I quote that of Mr. Harper, because he is not merely thoroughly competent to offer an opinion on the subject, but is altogether disinterested. Indeed, from the appointment he holds, it would be to his interest to recommend a compulsory load-line, and he would no doubt have done so, had he not thought that any such legislative measure would be likely to aggravate the evils sought to be remedied. In fact, the whole tenor of the evidence is that a fixed load-line would do more harm than good. And such was the opinion*