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 not claimed within a certain time. The immediate direction of the establishment was vested in the Comptroller of the Marine, under the supervision of the Royal Navy Board.

After the return of the Austrian government in 1814, the civil and military establishment and their administration were separated. Invalid sailors of the navy were placed on the same footing as soldiers, and the institution was then kept up and applied solely to the benefit of the commercial marine, under the title of "The Charitable Institution for Invalids of the Venetian Commercial Navy." The administration of this establishment was vested in the office of Captain of the Port, under the control of the Government.

Merchant seamen sailing in vessels entered on the registers of the Venetian provinces contribute to its support at the rate of three per cent. on their pay, whether captains, officers, or men; this sum to be paid at the office of the Captain of the Port by the captain or owner of the vessel, according to the muster-roll of the crew. Instead of the casual sources of revenue granted by the decree of 1811, above quoted, this institution is now endowed, in lieu of the moiety of the unclaimed pay of deserters from the merchant service, with an equivalent sum together with the amount of all fines levied on seafaring persons for infringement of the naval laws and regulations. The capital thus accruing is invested in the public funds, and the interest applied to the relief of the deserving, according to the following scale:—Captain, one Austrian livre (about 8d. sterling) daily; an officer, eighty centimes daily; and a sailor, about seventy centimes daily; their widows receiving re