Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/597

 shipping on this subject, and to their report? From the correspondence I have read I think the Government of the United States might be induced to adopt the principles laid down in that report. If so, it might then (as the laws of each country are similar) be mutually arranged by a convention, or otherwise, to place our ships and those of the United States respectively, on an equal footing with regard to claims raised in the courts of either country in respect of any loss of life or personal injury arising from collisions at sea, so as to limit such claims to the same extent in each case, and also that the mode of procedure shall be as provided by the laws of the country where the claim is made.

4th. The application of our Foreign Deserter's Act to the ships of the United States.—As your Lordship is aware, the United States Government has positively declined to become a party to this Act, because it contains the words "not being slaves," which were inserted, I believe, after the Bill was introduced. Now it appears to me that there is no necessity for these words. The Act is meant to deal solely with voluntary agents, who, having of their own free will entered into an agreement, break it at foreign ports. I think the case would be met if instead of the words "not being slaves" there were substituted the following words—"seamen who have voluntarily engaged themselves in, or apprentices duly indentured to, the sea service." I question if there are any cases on record where slaves have been shipped as seamen to English ports.

5th. Offences committed on the high seas.—Your Lordship cannot fail to be aware of the unsatisfactory state of the law in regard to these offences. Why, on the representation of the ministers or consuls, should the courts of England and of the United States not have jurisdiction over offences committed on board of vessels of the respective countries? I ask this question because I can at present see no objection to the principle I have ventured to lay down, though the mode of putting it into practice would require some consideration, and could best be dealt with by the legal authorities of the two countries. The same may be said with regard to the settlement of disputes between masters and crews in the ports of either country.

6th. The extension of our shipping offices to the vessels of the United States.—If the Government of the United States would not agree to establish similar offices and a machinery somewhat in accordance with our own (I see no reason why such offices which