moned to hear any such complaint as aforesaid shall be sent to the commander-in-chief or senior naval officer of the station. Wrecks, Casualties and Salvage. Part VIII. of Merchant Shipping Act, 1854. 19. Whenever any articles belonging to or forming part of any foreign ship which has been wrecked on or near the coasts of the United Kingdom, or belonging to or forming part of the cargo thereof, are found on or near such coasts, or are brought into any port in the United Kingdom, the consul-general of the country to which such ship, or, in the case of cargo, to which the owners of such cargo, may have belonged, or any consular officer of such country authorized in that behalf by any treaty or agreement with such county, shall, in the absence of the owner of such wreck of ship or articles, and of the master or other agent of the owner, be deemed foreign ships, to be the agent of the owner, so far as relates to the custody and disposal consul-general of such articles. In case of to be deemed agent of owner. 20. In cases where services are rendered by officers or men of the coast guard service in watching or protecting shipwrecked property, then, Remuneration unless it can be shown that such services have been declined by the for services by coast guard. owner of such property or his agent at the time they were tendered, or that salvage has been claimed and awarded for such services, the owner of the shipwrecked property shall pay in respect of the said services remuneration according to a scale to be fixed by the Board of Trade, so however that such scale shall not exceed any scale by which payment to officers and men of the coast guard for extra duties in the ordinary service of the Commissioners of Customs is for the time being regulated; and such remuneration shall be recoverable by the same means and shall be paid to the same persons and accounted for and applied in the same manner as fees received by receivers appointed under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854. Legal Procedure. Part X. of Shipping Act, 1854. Jurisdiction in 21. If any person, being a British subject, charged with having committed any crime or offence on board any British ship on the high seas or in any foreign port or harbour, or if any person, not being a British subject, charged with having committed any crime or offence on board any British ship on the high seas, is found (r) within the jurisdiction of any Court of justice in her Majesty's dominions which would have had cognizance of such crime or offence if committed within the limits of its ordinary jurisdiction, such Court shall have jurisdiction to hear and try the on board ship. case as if such crime or offence had been committed within such limits; 12 & 13 Vict. provided, that nothing contained in this section shall be construed to alter or interfere with the act of the thirteenth year of her present Majesty, chapter ninety-six (8). case of offences c. 96. Miscellaneous. Part XI. of Shipping Act, 1854. 22. It shall be the duty of the East India Company to take charge of and send home or otherwise provide for all persons, being Lascars or other natives of the territories under the government of the said company, who are found destitute in the United Kingdom; and if any such person is relieved and maintained by any guardians, overseers, or other persons administering the relief of the poor, such overseers, guardians, or other Relief of despersons may, by letter sent through the post or otherwise, give notice titute Lascars. thereof in writing to the secretary of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, specifying, so far as is practicable, the following parti culars; viz., (1.) The name of the person so relieved or maintained: (2.) The presidency or district or part of the territories of the East India Company of which he professes to be a native: (3.) The name of the ship in which he was brought to the United Kingdom: (r) See Reg. v. Lopez, 27 L. J., M. C. 48. (s) See the M. S. Act, 1867, s. 11. Contracts may be made with natives in India, under certain conditions, binding them to go to the United then to serve in other ships back to India or elsewhere. (4.) The port or place abroad from which such ship sailed, and the port or place in the United Kingdom at which such ship arrived, when he was so brought to the United Kingdom, and the time of such arrival: And the said East India Company shall repay to the said overseers, guardians, or other persons, out of the revenues of the said company, all monies duly expended by them in relieving or maintaining such destitute person, after the time at which such notice aforesaid is sent or otherwise given. 23. It shall be lawful for any master or owner of a ship or his agent to enter into agreements with Lascars or natives of the territories of the East India Company, binding them to proceed to any port or ports in the United Kingdom, either as seamen or as passengers, and there to enter into a further agreement to serve as seamen in any ship which may happen to be there, and to be bound to any port in the territories of the East India Company; provided, that every such original agreement shall be made in Kingdom, and such form, and shall contain such provisions, and shall be executed in such manner, and under such conditions for securing the return of such Lascars or natives to their own country, and for other purposes, as the Governor General of India in Council, or the governors of the respective presidencies in which the original agreement is made, in council may direct; and if any Lascar or other person who has bound himself by any such original agreement is, on arriving in the United Kingdom, required to enter into a further agreement to serve as a seaman in any ship bound to any port in the territories of the East India Company, and if it is certified by some officer appointed for that purpose by the East India Company that such further agreement is a proper agreement in all respects for such Lascar or other person to enter into, and is in accordance with the original agreement, and that the ship to which such further agreement relates is in all respects a proper ship for such Lascar or other person to serve in, and that there is not, in the opinion of such officer, any objection to the full performance of the said original agreement, such Lascar or other person shall be deemed to be engaged under such further agreement, and to serve as a seaman in the ship to which it relates, and shall thereupon be deemed to be for all purposes one of the crew of the ship; and for every Lascar or other person in respect of whom such certificate is applied for, the person applying for the same shall pay to such officer as aforesaid such fee as the East India Company may appoint, not exceeding ten shillings. 24. Nothing herein contained shall be deemed to repeal or affect any provisions contained in the twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, thirtieth, thirty-first or thirty-fourth sections of the act of the fourth year of King George the Fourth, chapter eighty, or in the sixteenth section of the act of the eighteenth year of her present Majesty, chapter one hundred and twenty. 18 & 19 VICT. c. 111. An Act to amend the Law relating to Bills of Lading. [14th August, 1855.] WHEREAS by the custom of merchants a bill of lading of goods being transferable by endorsement the property in the goods may thereby pass to the endorsee, but nevertheless all rights in respect of the contract contained in the bill of lading continue in the original shipper or owner, and it is expedient that such rights should pass with the property: and whereas it frequently happens that the goods in respect of which bills of lading purport to be signed have not been laden on board, and it is proper that such bills of lading in the hands of a bona fide holder for value should not be questioned by the master or other person signing the same on the ground of the goods not having been laden as aforesaid: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: 1. Every consignee of goods named in a bill of lading, and every Rights under endorsee of a bill of lading to whom the property in the goods therein bills of lading mentioned shall pass, upon or by reason of such consignment or endorse- to vest in ment, shall have transferred to and vested in him all rights of suit, and consignee or be subject to the same liabilities in respect of such goods as if the contract contained in the bill of lading had been made with himself (8). 2. Nothing herein contained shall prejudice or affect any right of stoppage in transitu, or any right to claim freight against the original shipper or owner, or any liability of the consignee or endorsee, by reason or in consequence of his being such consignee or endorsee, or of his receipt of the goods by reason or in consequence of such consignment or endorsement. endorsee. Not to affect right of stoppage in tranfor freight. situ or claims conclusive evi 3. Every bill of lading in the hands of a consignee or endorsee for Bill of lading valuable consideration representing goods to have been shipped on board in hands of a vessel shall be conclusive evidence of such shipment as against the consignee, &c. master or other person signing the same (t), notwithstanding that such goods dence of the or some part thereof may not have been so shipped, unless such holder shipment as of the bill of lading shall have had actual notice at the time of receiving against master, the same that the goods had not been in fact laden on board: provided, &c. that the master or other person so signing may exonerate himself in respect Proviso. of such misrepresentation by showing that it was caused without any default on his part, and wholly by the fraud of the shipper, or of the holder, or some person under whom the holder claims (u). 18 & 19 VICT. C. 119 (v). An Act to amend the Law relating to the Carriage of Passengers 1. [Section 1 is repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act, 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 66), as to all her Majesty's dominions.] Prefatory 2. In citing this act in other acts of Parliament, or in any instrument, Short title of document, or proceeding, it shall be sufficient to use the expression "The this act, &c. Passengers Act, 1855;" and in any process for enforcing the remedies or penalties given or imposed by this act, it shall be sufficient, without specifying more particularly the cause of complaint or offence, to refer by (s) Short v. Simpson, L. R., 1 C. P. 248. (t) M'Lean v. Fleming, L. R., 2 H. L. Sc. 128; The Freedom, L. R., 3 P. C. 594; Brown v. Powell & Co., L. R., 10 C. P. 562. (u) See Valieri v. Boyland, L. R., 1 C. P. 382. (v) See the 16 & 17 Vict. c. 84, and the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 104. Definition of terms used in this act. number, according to the copies of the act printed by the Queen's printer to the section or sections under which the proceeding is taken. 3. For the purposes of this act, the following words and expressions, whenever they occur, shall respectively have the following significations, if not inconsistent with the context or subject matter; (that is to say,) words of one number or gender shall import both numbers and all genders respectively; the expression "her Majesty" shall include her heirs and successors; the expression "consular officer" shall signify and include her Majesty's consul general, consul, and vice-consul; the expression "United Kingdom" shall signify Great Britain and Ireland, and the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, Scilly, and Man; the expression "North America" shall signify and include the Bermudas, and all ports, and places on the eastern coast of the continent of North America, or in the islands adjacent or near thereto, or in the Gulf of Mexico north of the tropic of Cancer; the expression "West Indies" shall signify the West India islands, the Bahamas, British Guiana, and Honduras; the expression "governor" shall signify the person who for the time being shall be lawfully administering the government of any British colony in which he may be acting; the expression "statute adult" shall signify any person of the age of twelve years or upwards, or two persons between the ages of one and twelve years; the expression "passage" shall include all passages except cabin passages; the expression passengers" (w) shall include all passengers except cabin passengers; and except labourers under indenture to the Hudson's Bay Company, and their families, conveyed in ships the property of or chartered by the said company, and no persons shall be deemed cabin passengers unless the space allotted to their exclusive use shall be in the proportion of at least thirty-six clear superficial feet to each statute adult, nor unless they shall be messed throughout the voyage at the same table with the master or first officer of the ship, nor unless the fare contracted to be paid by them respectively shall be in the proportion of at least thirty shillings for every week of the length of the voyage as computed under the provisions of this act for sailing vessels proceeding from the United Kingdom to any place south of the equator, and of twenty shillings for such vessels proceeding to any place north of the equator, nor unless they shall have been furnished with a duly signed contract ticket according to the form in schedule (K.) of this act; the expression " upper passenger deck" shall signify and include the deck immediately beneath the upper deck, or the poop or round house and deck house when the number of passengers and cabin passengers carried in such poop, round house, or deck house shall exceed one-third of the total number of passengers which such ship can lawfully carry on the deck next below; the expression "lower passenger deck," the deck next beneath the upper passenger deck, not being an orlop deck; the expression "ship" shall signify any description of sea-going vessel, whether British or foreign; the expression "passenger ship" shall signify every description of such ship carrying upon any voyage to which the provisions of this act shall extend more than thirty passengers, or a greater number of passengers than in the proportion of one statute adult to every fifty tons of the registered tonnage of such ship if propelled by sails, or of one statute adult to every twenty-five tons if propelled by steam (x); the expression "master shall signify the person who shall be borne on the ship's articles as master, or who, other than a pilot, shall for the time being be in charge or command of any such ship or "passenger ship"; and the expression "emigrant runner" shall signify every person other than a licensed passage broker or his bona fide salaried clerk, who within any port or place of shipping, or within five miles of the outer boundaries thereof, for hire or reward, or the expectation thereof, shall directly or indirectly conduct, solicit, influence, or recommend any intending emigrant to or on behalf of any passage broker, owner, charterer, or master of a ship, lodging house or tavern or shop keeper, money changer, or other dealer or chapman, for any purpose connected with the preparations or arrangements for a passage, or shall give or pretend to give to such intending emigrant any information or assistance in any way relating to emigration. voyages this act extends. 4. This act shall extend to every "passenger ship" proceeding on any To what voyage from the United Kingdom to any place out of Europe, and not vessels and being within the Mediterranean Sea, and on every colonial voyage as hereinafter described, and, in the particulars mentioned or referred to in sections one hundred, one hundred and one, and one hundred and two, to every ship bringing passengers into the United Kingdom from any place out of Europe and not being within the Mediterranean Sea; but shall not extend to any of her Majesty's ships of war, nor to any ships in the service of the commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom. [The remainder of this section is repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act, 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 66), as to all her Majesty's dominions (y).] [Section 5 is repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act, 1875, as to all her Majesty's dominions.] act into execution. 6. And whereas by a warrant under her Majesty's sign manual, bearing Commissioners date on the twenty-seventh day of November, one thousand eight hundred and of emigration forty-seven, her Majesty was pleased to appoint certain persons therein named, to carry this under the style of "The Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners," to be, during her Majesty's pleasure, commissioners in the United Kingdom for the sale of the waste lands of the crown of her Majesty's colonies, and for superintending the emigration of the poorer classes of her Majesty's subjects to such colonies; and whereas it is expedient that such commissioners should be empowered to carry this act into execution: Be it therefore enacted, that the said commissioners, and their successors for the time being, shall and they are hereby empowered to carry this act into execution; and that for all legal and other purposes it shall be sufficient to describe such commissioners by the style of "The Emigration Commissioners" (z). be sued in the name of their secretary, &c. 7. The said emigration commissioners for the time being may sue and be Emigration sued in the name of their secretary, or of any one of such commissioners for commissioners the time being, and legal or equitable proceedings taken by or against the said may sue and commissioners in the name of any one of them or of their secretary shall not abate nor be discontinued by the death or removal of such secretary or commissioner, but the secretary for the time being, or any one of such commissioners, shall always be deemed to be the plaintiff or defendant (as the case may be) in any such proceedings: Provided always, that the said commissioners and Commissiontheir secretary, and the emigration officers hereinafter mentioned respec- ers, &c. exempt tively, shall in no case be personally liable, nor shall the private estate from liability. and effects of any of them be liable, for the payment of any monies, or costs or otherwise in respect of any contract made or hereafter to be made by them or any of them, or in respect of any legal or equitable proceedings taken against them or any of them, or for any act, deed, or matter (3) See the Passengers Act, 1863, s. 4. () This section is repealed by the M. S. Act, 1872, s. 5, by which section all powers and duties vested in or imposed on the Emigration Commis- |