ABSTRACT OF THE LAWS AND REGULATIONS OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

1. A special enrolment is required of every steam vessel, and a license to ply must be obtained, under penalty.

2. Inspectors are appointed, whose business is to examine and report on the hulls of steamers once every 12 months, and upon the boilers and machinery once every six months; they are to grant certificates of ascertained sea-worthiness to the owner or master, and cause a copy to be posted up in the most conspicuous part of the vessel.

3. Owners or masters must apply for this inspection within the periods prescribed, under the pain of forfeiting their license; owners and masters are held responsible for all damages to property or passengers, if they have not a competent number of experienced and skilful engineers on board.

4. Safety valves are to be raised (to ease the boilers) at every stoppage made to take in cargo or passengers, under penalty.

5. Vessels of 200 tons are to be provided with at least two boats, and those above that tonnage with at least three boats, capable of carrying 20 persons each. All steamers to be provided with a fire engine and hoses, and to use iron rods or chains instead of wheel or tiller ropes; also one or more signal lights, under penalty.

6. Captains, engineers, pilots, &c., are deemed guilty of manslaughter, in the event of any life or lives being destroyed through their negligence; and upon conviction, to be sentenced to hard labour for not more than ten years; and in all suits against proprietors of steamers for injury to persons or property, arising from the explosion or collapse of boilers, the fact of such escape of steam is to be taken as full prima facie evidence, sufficient to charge the defendant.

Since the passing of these enactments, Mr. Levi Woodbury, Secretary to the Treasury, has been charged by Congress to examine into and report upon the whole subject of the nature, number, and causes of accidente.

We are enabled to give Mr. Woodbury's report (p, 171), which coetains, with much useful statistical matter, the heads of additional legislative measures recommended by him.

HOLLAND.

Surveyors are appointed to test the strength of all boilers according to a prescribed scale, on whose favourable report permission is granted to work.

Two safety valves, at least, are required to each boiler, and the mode and degree of loading them determined.

Leaden plugs of certain dimensions are to be fixed in the boiler plates over the furnaces.

Cast iron boilers are prohibited, except they be made to a given scale of substance, and various regulations are enacted as to the position of the boilers in the vessel, their separation from the cabins, &c.

Surveys to be repeated annually, and special surveys to be made on demand or occasion.

Certificates of sea worthiness are renewed or refused, according to the reports of surveyors.

BELGIUM.

The laws of this country are very similar to those of Holland.

Cast iron boilers prohibited.

FRANCE.

High pressure boilers to be proved by the hydraulic press, to at least three times the degree of pressure at which it is intended to use the steam. The owners to find the press and labour.

Rectangular boilers exempted from proof when used to raise low pressure steam: i. e., steam not exceeding 7lb. pressure per square inch above the atmosphere.

All cylinders and cylinder jackets of steam engines, whether using high or low steam, to be proved to three times the working pressure.

The above rules apply to all engines and boilers, whether employed on land or water. The following are special laws as to steam vessels: 1. No steamer to ply until certified to be seaworthy in hull, boilers, and machinery: to undergo subsequent inspection every three months. 2. No certificate granted but on the express condition of the engine man being a skilful mechanic, and possessed of sufficient knowledge to maintain the machinery in good order, and repair it, if necessary. Νο fireman allowed to act as engine man, but to be subject to the orders of the latter. The engineer to observe precautionary rules, to be hung up for his guidance in the engine room.

3. Every boiler to be provided with a water float and index, two glass water tubes, three guage cocks, and an open ended mercurial steam gauge. It is also recommended to apply a safety pipe with a whistle at the end of it, to give notice when the water is too low.

4. Two safety valves required to each boiler, of not less than a certain area. High pressure valves to be loaded by means of a lever, low pressure with a solid weight upon them. All additional weight, after the survey prohibited. The prescribed pressure stamped on the valve boxes.

5. Two discs of fusible metal to be fixed on all the boilers, in the steam space or chest, having different degrees of fusibility, and different dimensions; the smallest and most fusible to have an area equal to that of one of the safety valves; the largest and least fusible to have an area equal to four times that of the valve. These discs are supplied after proof of the boilers, and according to the pressure at which it is intended to work all change of them prohibited, and duplicates to be carried in every vessel.

6. Instructions given for the management of the fires and for the conduct of the engineer and captain reciprocally, when the vessel has to stop, &c.

7. Captains to be personally responsible for all accidents arising from excessive velocity; and owners for all accidents which may arise from the non-observance of the laws and regulations.

8. A ruled log-book or diary to lie open in the cabin, in which passengers are requested to write their observations concerning the events of their journey, and the performance of the vessel: these books to be examined by the police authorities and commissioners on their periodicals visits. In the cabin is to be placed a table, indicating,

1. The mean duration of a trip,

2. The time allowed for stoppages.

3. The maximum number of passengers permitted by the law.

4. The right given to passengers to inscribe their remarks in the log-book.

9. The minutiae of the proces verbaux by the commissioners, &c., are particularized.

10. Tables of the elastic force and temperature of steam, from 1 to 50 atmospheres of pressure, are given, together with the areas of safety valves and fusible discs proper for each pressure, as determined by a commission of the Royal Institute.

LAW DECISION S.

ANNA MARIA.—Insurance.-Plaintiff, Mr. Gronon, in Denmark, represented by Danish Consul, at Hull. Vessel sent over by him, as owner, in October last, from Zetland, compelled by stress of weather to put into Elsinore. Insurance then effected by owner's agent in Hull; extra premium offered and taken. Pursuing her voyage, vessel got on shore, and threw overboard part of her cargo; remainder said to have received some injury in consequence. Arrived at Hull; cargo found wet, insurance claimed. The Jury found verdict for plaintiff; damages 3011. Is. 8d.

IBERIA-Collision.-About 4, A. M., on the 16th of April, the Iberia, with good lights, going free about nine knots; fishing smack, the John and Polly, lay in her course, without steerage way. Hailed Iberia and shewed a light; collision took place. Damage laid at 5501. Decided, that a good look out had not been kept in Iberia, and court pronou ned against her accordingly, notwithstanding she had good lights.

The

THE PROTECTOR.-Collision.—The Protector, a British ship, with a pilot on board, run foul of Brazilius at anchor, bound to Monfleur. As ships are compelled to take pilots by law, the owners are of course exempt from any damage resulting from the measures of the pilot, but amenable for any occasioned by the neglect of their own crew. protest (for the Protector) grounded on the pilot being on board, but deficient in imputing neglect, default, or incapacity to him was therefore untenable, and decision was accordingly given against the owners of this vessel.

THE SWAN.-Salvage -This vessel was fixed in the ice from Oct., 1836, to May, 1837: lost 21 out of a crew of 47, from scurvy. Princess first relieved the crew of Swan, when she had only three men capable of going aloft, and nine more days' provisions on board. Other vessels assisted Princess in getting Swan out of ice and bringing her home. Salvage refused on ground of custom among whalers to render mutual assistance, also that salvors had been already rewarded by Treasury (our readers will remember the rewards offered by Government for assistance to these vessels left in the ice), and also that a moderate salvage should be demanded, as the Swan would soon have ENLARGED SERIES.---NO 1.---VOL. FOR 1810.

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floated out with the assistance of her crew, as the ice, when Princess arrived, was breaking up. The court awarded 7001. to the salvors, the services rendered not being customary.

WAGES.-Thames Office.-8th October, Captain John Cullen, of the James Watt Steamer, summoned for wages claimed by J. Downey, seaman, for voyage from Hamburgh to Leith and London. Proved and admitted that articles of contract were duly signed and performed, but Captain, who was desirous of paying wages, had been served with a legal process from a creditor of the seaman, at Leith, to withhold them against the seaman's consent. Decided that Captain had done right in thus withholding the wages, and that by a passage in the merchant seaman's act, the wages must be paid to him, notwithstanding any attachment previous to their being earned or assignment by him. The wages and expenses were then paid accordingly.

WAGES.-Captain Simpson, master of the Ida, summoned by Thomas Voysey, a seaman, for amount of wages due for services on a voyage to Jamaica and back. Voysey had been sentenced to 14 days imprisonment, by magistrates at Jamaica; after suffering it he had returned to his ship, and next morning was sent on shore, having said he would not sail in the ship again; and being discharged with his own free will and consent, according to the testimony of the two mates of the Ida. The case was therefore dismissed.

MURDER.-John Wentworth Fairbank, the steward of the Secret, was tried for the wilful murder of Arthur White, the commander of the vessel, on the 14th of April last. After a lengthened trial, the jury were occupied five hours in deliberation, and returned the verdict of manslaughter. He was sentenced to transportation for life.

George Mintz, the mate of the Secret, who was the principal witnes, against Fairbank, was indicted for the wilful murder of James Shaw and after a short trial, acquitted.

NEW BOOKS.

THE MARINE OFFICER, OR SKETCHES OF SERVICE, by Sir Robert Steele, Knt. K.C.B., &c. In two rols. London: Colburn, Great Marlborough Street. "By land and sea is the motto of the gallant corps of Royal Marines' and accordingly, by land and sea, the narrative of our Marine Officer's "Sketches of Service," alternately proceeds. Sir Robert Steele is a very pleasant and agreeable writer; he relates his own historical "Sketches" in a racy off-hand style, no less at home with himself and his subject, than with his reader, and withal scrupulously honest, even to his own failings; he fights the battles of the last war over afresh, throwing in sprinklings of useful information, is rich in adventures of love and daring, and carries off the attention of the reader fairly through his two little octavo volumes. The chances of service having thrown him into such ships as the Princess Royal and the Victory, at the meridian of our naval career, his observations are entitled to attention, and their style renders them far more acceptable than the quotations from the Gazette, with which he favours

his reader. Some important questions are touched on which we have not room here to discuss. Our author has a warm heart, and he launches the whole of his displeasure at the system of pressing, of flogging, and withal at the neglect of the corps of Royal Marines. Our very limited space will not allow us to say much more than that we fully concur with him, (as all must do) on the horrors of the two first, but consider him entirely mistaken in his views when he would deprive the country of such a resource as the former affords in her last extremity. With respect to the second, we should not have expected from his experience such proposals as he has advanced. We are not of the Martinet school, and know that seamen, when they can be made to esteem their officers and respect themselves, can be governed with kindness. But the idea of depriving the captain of a man-of-war of power in his ship, and delegating it to his officers, is a doctrine so fatal to that high discipline which is so essential to eur navy, that it is to be regretted it should find an advocate in Sir Sobert Steele.

In our opinion he is entirely mistaken in his views on this subject; and we tell him the country would soon rue the hour in which this should ever take place; a long farewell might England then bid to the efficiency of those wooden walls which have shed lustre on her name, and rendered her hitherto invulner able! But her naval rulers know better than Sir Robert Steel does.

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, by the author of Cavendish. Colburn: Great Marlborough Street.

Is it utterly impossible to link such a popular superstition as that of the Spectre Ship with aught but scenes of violence, bloodshed, and cruelty? Perhaps it is, and perhaps when fancy roams through those shadowy vales that floats in the mists of Ocean, it is by some mystic law of Ocean's realm prohibited from finding other garb save that of some departed pirate or murderer. Stories of the Flying Dutchman genus abound in our day, written with more or less "power," as it is called, to do evil. It surely is not wise in the sea novelist to engage all the sympathies of his readers in the success of mutineers and robbers on the great "highway of nations," It creates an unhealthy excitement in the mind, induces it first to detest the deeds of pirates, and then to find reasons for rejoicing in their escape from punishment.

The "author" appears to be ambitious of the character of a useful writer, If we may judge from many incidents scattered through his work, he aims at shewing that seamen should be acquainted with certain branches of surgical and other scientific knowledge. But it must diminish the respect which we may feel for such judicious efforts to find him placing men in such situations that they are obviously compelled, in self-defence, to go on, from the commission of one crime to another, until the hand of justice overtakes and annihilates them, undeniably without the concurrence of the reader who has had the patience to follow them through their adventures, Captain Livingstone personifies a monster, now we should hope, at least, out of nature. If any such were fostered into existence, by the improper degree of power entrusted to commanding officers in former years, we will believe for the honour of our own period that we may rejoice over the extinction of the race,

We do not hesitate to award to Mr. Neil's work the praise of eloquent and vivid description, and of exciting that breathless interest in his reader which always attaches to hair-breadth escapes, and a rapid succession of incidents, perilling at every turn the life and honor of his hero, But we object to the waste of all these good qualities in a story, the construction of which has inherent in it the great fault of confounding our moral principles with our human sympathies. All men's hearts are united against the oppressor; and the crimes of which he is the first cause, are viewed of necessity rather with compassion than with horror. The fiction is obviously ill planned that forces this contradic ton of feeling upon out moral nature.

Mr. Neil's mode of introducing the missionary character also deserves rebuke. Why should it be placed contemptible? What object is thus to be gained?