Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/69

 penalties arising from offences of seamen, and, in some measure, by Government aid. The claimants on this society are those seamen who, while employed, contribute regularly to its funds. Its affairs are managed by directors consisting chiefly of ship-*masters. Seamen who, on foreign voyages, leave their vessels without permission of the master, lose any rights they may have acquired; while such of them as are entitled to claim, or their relicts, must prove to the satisfaction of the directors that they stand in need of aid. Shipwrecked seamen also receive aid from this society.

Institutions like these, combined with the course of examination required from all men holding responsible positions on board ship, tend materially to improve the condition of foreign seamen, and to give them advantages too long withheld from the British. These advantages, combined with the unwise protection afforded by the Navigation Laws to the shipowners and seamen of Great Britain, gave foreign nations, for a time, a decided superiority over them. Indeed, it was found that during the first half of the present century neither the ships nor their crews kept pace with those of other maritime nations, till at length it became necessary to adopt measures, not merely for the improvement of the condition of our ships, but likewise for raising our seafaring population, by means of a sound education, to such a position as would enable them to compete successfully under all circumstances with the ships and seamen of other states.

With that important object in view, the English Foreign Office issued a circular on the 1st July,