SECRETARY OF THE ALLIANCE MARINE ASSURANCE COMPANY, LIMITED, AND OF STEVENS AND SONS, LIMITED, 119 & 120, CHANCERY LANE. Irt 4165.5 HARVARD COLLE AUG 29 1893 Wolcott fund. LONDON: PRINTED BY C. F. ROWORTH, GREAT NEW STREET, FETTER LANE, E.C. ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD ROTHSCHILD, PRESIDENT OF THE ALLIANCE MARINE ASSURANCE COMPANY, LIMITED, THIS WORK IS BY HIS LORDSHIP'S PERMISSION RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. FOR three-quarters of a century British property at sea has remained practically free from the risk of hostile capture. This immunity has produced in our sea-girt land an oblivion of those mercantile contingencies which require to be specially provided against during a period of maritime warfare. Even had the conditions of ocean traffic remained as the Peace of 1815 found them, the above result might well have been anticipated. But, as it is, the substitution of the steel or iron steamship for the wind-driven sailing vessel, and the altered conditions of ocean traffic and communication generally, have imported into mercantile contracts features essentially new and important, and with these constantly developing conditions it has been necessary to keep pace. This necessity has not unnaturally caused to be put still further into the shade contingencies which a long-continued immunity from hostile acts at sea has caused to be regarded as remote. That this is so becomes especially apparent whenever a rumour of impending war calls forth a common desire for better information as to the |