with special regard to the case of children who have lost one or both their parents." In a very short time the patronage of Her Majesty was obtained, and donations were made to the institution to the amount of £15,000. The annual subscriptions soon reached £300. Temporary premises were opened in Bath Street, and, by the end of 1845, no fewer than 3,332 sailors had registered themselves-a convincing proof that such an institution was necessary. The building itself, if it at all resembles the plan we have seen, will be one of the most elegant in the country It is in the Elizabethan style, and admirably adapted, both within and without, to the objects for which it will be erected. THE MERCHANT NAVIES OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND. At the moment when the principal Chambers of Commerce of the kingdom are forming an association which proposes to itself "the extension of navigation by the development of the maritime relations of the ports," it is not uninteresting to sum up, in a few words, the situation of our merchant navy in comparison with that of Great Britain. We shall borrow the statistics which establish on one side the superiority of the English navy, and on the other the inferiority of the French, from the official comments published by the Governments of the two countries, and recently republished in a pamphlet entitled Progress of the Commercial Navigation of England. It follows, from these documents, that in the year 1820, the effective of the English merchant navy amounted to 25,374 vessels, measuring 2,648,593 tons, and in 1844 to 31,320 vessels, measuring 3,637,231 tons. Has there been an analagous progress in France? Very far from it! Instead of an increase, as in England, there is a deplorable decrease, at least the following figures prove as much. Thus, in 1827, the effective of our merchant navy was 14,322 vessels, measuring 692,125 tons, and in 1844, 13,679 vessels, measuring 634,637 tons. We ought to add, that out of this number of 13,679 vessels, 8,900 measured less than 30 tons (!), 2,852 measure from 99 to 300 tons, and 219 from 300 to 600 tons. There are, definitively, only 652 vessels capable of navigation on a large scale, and amongst all these ships there is not one measuring 700 tons, whilst England every day despatches vessels of 1,290 tons burden and upwards. This superiority of the English navy is no less evidently disclosed in the coasting navigation. Thus, in 1841, the French coasting trade conveyed, exclusive of the coasting fishery, 2,424, 246 tons of merchandise, a traffic which employed 79,483 loaded vessels; or, to speak more exactly, which occasioned an equal number of passages from one port of the kingdom to another. If to this number we add that of pas sages on the east, which amounted to 31,768 vessels, representing a tonnage of nearly 705,000, there is found, as the entire movement in the coasting trade in 1841, a general total of 111,251 vessels and 3,128,802, tons, worked by a naval personnel, which, always taking account of the passages repeated by the same vessels, represents the service of crews amounting in number to 434,896 men. At the same period, that is to say, in 1841, the coasting trade of Great Britain was nearly five times more considerable than ours; it amounted, for one of the two movements alone-coming and going-to 11,318,000 tons, and the passages, which had been 275,000, had employed more than 800,000 men as crews; and at least an equal number are employed either in loading, or in the preservation of the merchandise This state of things has not changed since 1841, at all events, not to our advantage. The French coasting trade has remained nearly stationary, while that of Great Britain has increased. It is true that the majority of the trans ports effected by our coasters present, from one year to another, very few variations. We allude to woods, materials, salt, wines, and brandies, grain and meal, coal, iron and manure, which forms in weight three-fourths of the cargoes of our coasting vessels. As to the steam navy, the ensemble of the movement of our navigation (entrances and departures together) amounts on the average to 6,545 boats (or voyages), with cargoes, giving a total of 750,000 tons, whilst in England the effective of the steamers employed in the transport of merchandise is 13 or 14 times higher than in France The coasting fishery shows, on its side, the same inferiority with regard to England. The official tables give, on an average, 6,431 boats, navigated by 27,286 men, but, on deducting the unable ones, only 22,000 men can be reckoned, whilst on the English coasts the population engaged in the small fisheries amounts to more than 150,000 individuals. It is true that the English coasts are more extensive than our own; but in an equal space, they do not the less offer double the number of fishermen. It is true that our great fisheries offer more resources, but that branch of navigation is very far from being ameliorated; and, for the last seven years, it presents a reduction of about one-fourth. These various statistical facts afford a material proof of the inferiority of our merchant navy. The inferiority of our "military" (war) navy is an indisputable fact. Thus, therefore, in every respect, our navigation is incapable of entering into competition with the English. It appertains to the Chambers of Commerce to seck out the most proper means of raising the state of our navy. We do not doubt the success of their efforts, convinced as we are, not only of the goodness of their cause, but of that want of reform which makes itself felt on all sides, and which will, we hope, lend a fresh impulse to the Conservative policy.—La Presse. EXAMINATION OF MASTERS AND MATES OF THE MERCHANT SERVICE. Continued from p. 362. We were not enabled to include in our last number the accompanying list of 13 masters and 6 mates who have obtained certificates of qualification, under the regulations of the Board of Trade, for encouraging the voluntary system, from not having received it in time for publication. It gives, however, the names of those individuals who have been examined up to nearly the end of the month of June, and we understand that no further list has since been issued. The Committee for managing the affairs of Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping, acting with a laudable desire to promote this object as much as possible, have inserted in the appendix to the Register Book, issued on the 1st July, this year, a complete list of all the masters and mates who had been previously examined and obtained certificates of qualification, thus bringing into one view all those parties whose names we have, from time to time, placed before our readers. The aggregate number of masters, (exclusive of those now named), who have been qualified, appear to be 75, and of mates only 22. What number may have presented themselves for examination, we have not the means of knowing. We have not either heard whether any of these qualified officers have, as yet, received the benefit of any appointment as the reward for their boldly submitting to the ordeal of this new state of things. We still view the subject as one of paramount importance, and we trust that, by keeping it alive, and thus drawing the attention to it of all classes engaged in the advancement of our mercantile marine, we shall have the satisfaction of seeing our humble efforts, sooner or later, crowned by the success of the plan. ISTHMUS OF PANAMA.-The French government is busily at work on the canal, and the report of the engineer has been received, which is interesting and valuable. Most decidedly it declares for the practicability of the scheme. It recommends that one end of the canal shall be at Vaca de Monte, some few miles to the west of Panama, by the valley of the Rio Chagres. The depth to be about seven yards, the width at the bottom about twenty yards, and at the top forty-five. The total length of the canal would be about seventy-six and a half kilometres, the expense 125,000,000 francs, or thereabouts. An immense tunnel would be necessary. The advantage of cutting through this neck of land would be incalculable; and as its cost would be less than many a railway, it is to be hoped that either England or France, or the United States, or the three together, will before long, confer that advantage to the world. The best plan would be to receive proposals for nations engaged in commerce to participate in that great work, which might be undertaken jointly, and a pro rata of the cost divided equally among all the powers desirous of using it. All the republics of North and South America, Russia, Belgium, Holland, and other countries would use the canal; and the twenty-four millions of dollars required for its completion could be so divided by a board of commissioners as to make the share of each very light.-Honduras Observer. PASSAGES OF CLIPPERS FROM CHINA TO BOMBAY IN 1845. |