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It is commonly the custom to insert in a policy the words "other perils," but these comprise adventitious perils, not inherent ones, such as wear and tear, rats, worms, &c., &c., &c. The intention of the law being to guard against an unforeseen stroke of misfortune, not to provide against the gradual deperdition of shipping property, Date, subscription, and stamp are also essential in a policy, and, as regards the last, no memorandum or postscriptum must place the policy in a higher category without a new stamp. In fact, any evasion of the stamp acts is especially to be avoided. A policy being an engagement or contract, warranty is its essential condition. Certain warranties are implied, and have already been touched upon, when we described charter-parties and bills of lading-such as seaworthiness, nondeviation from the course prescribed. There is also an implied warranty to employ all reasonable means, in order to avoid the risks covered by the policy; to have the papers in order to avoid illegal adventures, and to have no obliquity in the national character of the vessel. But other warranties are stated explicitly, and must be fulfilled; for instance, the time of sailing must be observed, not colourably, but bonâ fide, that is to say, the ship must be cleared and unmoored, with her sails set, but she is not expected to make progress against a head-wind or other stress of weather; for such delays belong to the voyage and not to the demeure in port, and in time of war the vessel must not fail to depart with the convoy.

When, by the disasters of the sea, a loss has taken place, the questions of compensation arise. We have hitherto been treating of the contract or engagement to indemnify for contingent losses; we now come to the losses themselves, which are either partial or total. In the latter case, if there be no fraud or concealment, the insured recovers at once; but in the more frequent case of a partial loss, the difficulty is to assess the damage and equitably adjust the interests of assurer and insured. Abandonment is a hybrid condition, belonging properly to neither total nor partial loss; the object being to prevent the insured from reaping an undue advantage from a partial loss, its effect being to divest the insured of the property, and throw it into the hands of the insurer, whose trustee the insured becomes. In this case the freight accrues to the insurer, and provided that the insured use reasonable skill and diligence in his trusteeship, the settlement is generally among the most satisfactory. But early notice of abandonment must be given, in order that the interests of the insurer may not suffer. If the policy be a valued one, and not over-valued, the proceedings are simplified. If a policy be unvalued, the principle of insurance being indemnity, it is assumed that the insurer must not make a profit out of the insurance, but be paid according to the rate at the shipping port. If there be no abandonment, the first proceeding after a loss is an adjustment or a regulation of the proportion of luss according to circumstances, and then comes the inquiry by the underwriter if there has been any concealment which vitiates the policy; insurance being a speculation founded on a complete knowledge of possible contingencies.

But we feel that we have said enough on the important sub

ject of insurance. It is a pecuniary contract, which stands in close and immediate relation to the perils of the ocean. With other pecu

niary contracts such as bottomry, bonds, and respondentia, we will not meddle at present the former being a mortgage of a ship on an adventure for advances at a high rate of interest, the risk of a ship being so much greater than of immovable property, and the latter being a similar hypothecation of goods. On bill transactions alone volumes might be written, we therefore pass at once to the legislation on the rights and duties of that large class of men who are the nursery of our navy, the seamen.

Contracts with seamen must be made according to the form issued by the Board of Trade, or according to the custom of some British possession, and this contract must comprise seven particulars; the design of our legislation generally, being to insure the proper discipline and working of every ship; but, at the same time, to prevent any unfair advantage being taken of a generous, thoughtless, and improvident class of men; in fact, it has been the invariable practice of our Courts of Admiralty to see that an indulgent interpretation is put upon all contracts with seamen. The contract must express the nature, and, as far as practicable, the duration of the intended voyage or engagement; the number and description of the crew, specifying how many are engaged as sailors; the time at which each seaman is to be on board, or to begin work; the capacity in which each seaman is to serve; the amount of wages which each seaman is to receive; a scale of the provisions which are to be furnished to each seaman ; any regulations as to conduct on board, and as to fines, short allowance of provisions, or other lawful punishments for misconduct, which have been sanctioned by the Board of Trade as regulations proper to be adopted, and which the parties agree to adopt.

But, in order to secure discipline, the penalties are summary; for instance, for desertion the seaman is liable to imprisonment for twelve weeks, with or without hard labour, with the forfeiture of his clothes left on board. Absence without leave involves ten weeks' imprisonment, and similar punishment is incurred for wilful disobedience to any lawful command, or for assaulting any master or mate, or for combining to impede the navigation of the ship. Should the seaman by smuggling cause damage to the master or owner, it is to be reimbursed. On the other hand, supposing a seaman to be disabled by accident or illness, he is entitled to his full wages, nor can he be left behind by the master at any British possession abroad or foreign port, without a certificate of the cause, obtained from a British consular officer, or, in his absence, of two respectable merchants; the certificate must state the cause of his being left behind, otherwise the shipmaster is held to be guilty of a misdemeanour.

By the common law, freight is held to be the mother of wages, therefore under certain circumstances wages cannot be recovered by the seamen. But by the new shipping act of the 17th and 18th of Victoria it is held that he can claim and recover wages although freights should not have been earned, except his claim should have been barred by a proof that during a wreck he has not exerted himself to

the utmost to save the ship, cargo, and stores. So careful has been the Legislature of the interests of the seaman, that, even when he has been imprudent enough to sign a stipulation consenting to abandon his right to wages in case of the loss of the ship, it is wholly inoperative. The wages, however, are forfeited under various circumstances, such as refusal to fight against pirates, for the seaman is held to be a militant defensive as well as a navigator. Desertion of course forfeits wages, but this is not applicable to a man compelled to quit a ship by inhuman treatment. Ample provisions are made by the new shipping act enabling the seaman to recover his wages promptly before the nearest magistrate, as may be frequently seen in the reports of our police-courts.

In distant stations, an admirable institution are the so-called naval courts, which may be summoned for hearing complaints, and investigating wrecks on the high seas or abroad, in which any naval officer in command, or, in his absence, a consular officer, may make investigation when complaints are made by masters or seamen, or in case of wreck. These naval courts are to consist of not more than five or less than three members, one of whom being a naval officer not below the rank of lieutenant, one a consular officer, and one a master of a British merchant ship, and the others either naval officers or British merchants or shipmasters. This court has large powers, and, acting on the rules of common sense, may supersede a master, on complaint being made, and, with the consent of the consignee, can appoint another in his place. This court may also treat summarily the discharge of seamen, their imprisonment, or forfeiture of wages. This court has also extended powers in the case of wrecks, the object being to do the best for the parties interested, according to circumstances. The provisions that regulate these excellent courts are comprised in the recent merchant shipping act, from sections 260 to 266 both inclusive, and are well worthy the serious perusal of every junior naval officer; in fact, the whole of these voluminous enactments of the 17th and 18th of Victoria we hold to be a magnificent monument of the practical science and humanity of our modern jurisconsults. Were all the other portions of our anomalous legislation equally logical, the code Napoleon would yield the palm to the code Victoria. In the midst of our juridical chaos there are many luminous spots, but none brighter than the merchant shipping act of 1854.

REVIEWS AT SPITHEAD AND ALDERSHOT.-A Parliamentary return has just been printed, shewing the expenses attending the accommodation afforded to Members of the two houses of Parliament on the occasion of the Reviews at Spithead and at Aldershot last year. The total cost of accommodation and refreshments on board the steamers Transit and Perseverance amounted to £910 15s. 8d., the number present being 958. The expense in providing conveyance by special trains and omnibuses, at the Farnborough station, and luncheon on the occasion of the review at Aldershot, on the 16th July last, a nounted to £257 12s.

U. S. MAG., No. 343, JUNE, 1857.

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MILITARY SURVEYING.

His Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief has, in his recent order, very clearly stated the qualifications that will hereafter be required of candidates for the staff, and they are fortunately of so simple a character, as to be of easy attainment by any person of ordinary capacity, and the most humble education. Necessarily the greatest importance is attached to Military Surveying, without which a staff officer can do nothing; for it forms the pivot of all military operations, as well as of those routine arrangements which are of every-day occurrence. A fourth edition of Colonel Basil Jackson's well-known treatise on this subject, to which we have been prevented hitherto from paying the attention due to its repute and merit, claims our notice as the standard work for students in the science, and the authorities will do well to enjoin its use for the purpose. But, little encouragement as there is in England for military literature, Colonel Jackson's book needs no official order to stamp its character, or insure its circulation. Were it, indeed, now issuing from the press for the first time, instead of the fourth, we should still feel sanguine of its success, because it addresses itself to the subject in the proper spirit, and conveys every lesson in the most impressive manner. This is the greatest triumph, as it is the greatest difficulty of an instructor: it marks the difference between written and oral instruction. Colonel Jackson's merit consists in rendering the latter, usually indispensable, to a great extent unnecessary; for everything is so forcibly put, and so clearly explained, that, with this book in our hands, we can go over a country, and practically instruct ourselves. Sketching in the field, plan-drawing, levelling, and military reconnaissance, are all familiarly illustrated; and Colonel Jackson's personal experience on active service, and in presence of the enemy, as an officer of the Royal Staff Corps, has so schooled him as to the exact information required, both by a student and a practical officer, that, at the very point at which a difficulty presents itself, the particular explanation we desire instantaneously occurs, and we proceed from point to point without interruption and without difficulty.

Military surveying does not demand the same accuracy of delineation which would be looked for in a plan drawn by civil surveyors, not bound by any strict limits of time or outlay. As it is to be executed with rapidity-and often at great personal risk—in the vicinity of an enemy, or the midst of a hostile population-nothing more is required than such a drawing as will present, on the whole, a correct portraiture of the face of the country, and its various specific features. The essential items to observe are the capabilities of the ground for military positions: the situation and nature of heights, passes, and forests, and to note the points in morasses and rivers most suitable for the passage of an army. These details cannot be given too fully, or

"A Treatise on Military Surveying, including Sketching in the Field, PlanDrawing, Levelling, Military Reconnaissance, &c., &c., &c." By Lieut.-Colonel Basil Jackson, late of the Royal Staff Corps, Professor of Military Surveying at the Hon. East India Company's Military College, Addiscombe. Fourth edition. London: W. H. Allen & Co.

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with too much precision, as they are of the utmost importance in directing the movements of the general, who, unable to make a personal examination of every new district, is wholly dependent on the information communicated by his staff, and a slight error on such points may exercise a fatal effect. In fact, as military surveying is the basis of strategy, and no operation of any kind, whether for offence or defence, can be conducted without a knowledge of the ground, every military officer should be acquainted with, at least, the elements of the science, so as to be able to furnish a plan of the character described, whenever called upon to do so. As a practical soldier, the illustrious Prince at the head of the army must be fully alive to the benefits which would result from a General being thus able, as it were, to improvise a staff officer in the field, on any occasion of emergency, or of an officer in command of a detachment, unexpectedly isolated, being qualified to avail himself of strategic advantages of ground; and we trust that no long time will elapse before the regulation now applied only to staff officers will be extended to every candidate for a commission in the army.

A plan brings before the mind a bird's-eye view of the tract represented; and, consequently, conveys a more faithful impression of its character than an actual inspection; but, while it is so clear in its general effect, showing at a glance the roads, streams, buildings, and woods, the height, structure, and direction of hills and ridges, and all the diversities and inequalities of surfaces, it unavoidably omits many details which cannot well be delineated. These must be supplied in a report, by which a plan must always be accompanied; and no information. which tends to elucidate the drawing, or to describe more clearly the character and capabilities of the ground, should be omitted.

Colonel Jackson furnishes a lucid description of the surveying instruments commonly used by officers, together with explicit instructions for using and adjusting them; but, leaving this portion of the treatise, we shall turn to his observations on the subject of sketching without instruments, which will be more easily comprehended by officers not scientifically instructed :

"If no general map exists of a country in which military operations are carried on, it becomes necessary to construct one; and when great accuracy is not sought-which, indeed, may generally be dispensed with-this may be done with much rapidity, by combining the labours of a few staff officers of experience in military surveying. The preceding pages point out the methods of obtaining maps and plans with the aid of surveying instruments; my purpose, at present, is to show how a loose kind of map may be formed without them, which, though confessedly incorrect, will yet be accurate enough for military objects.

"I shall begin by entering a protest against all the methods that have come under my notice for prosecuting angular surveying by means of any succedaneum for proper instruments. Some years ago, an officer of the French Engineers published a pamphlet to explain a mode of measuring angles approximately, by holding a common blacklead pencil at arm's length: I have tried this and other crotchets for obtaining the value of angles, and although it may be possible to come at an approximation by such devices, I must maintain that we can make

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