The contributions collected under this act amounted, in 1842, in London and the -ports immediately under the management of the president and governors of the society, to 16,9364. (of which, however, 2,0134. were interest of capital); and a large additional sum was also collected at the out-ports, under the management of the trustees appointed by the above act. It may, therefore, be concluded, that, provided these sums be economically and discreetly managed, they will afford the means of suitably providing for the wants of a large number of disabled merchant seamen, as well as for the wives and children of those who have lost their lives in the service, and will consequently render it less hazardous and more respectable. But in this country, and, we presume, in most others, charitable institutions are usually quite as advantageous to others, as to those for whose behoof they are said to be established; and the institution for the relief of merchant seamen does not certainly appear to form an exception to the ordinary rule. Speaking generally, the seamen are very much dissatisfied with the conduct of this establishment; and really this is not much to be wondered at. The expenses of collection seem to be quite enormous, amounting to from 8 to 10, and sometimes even 15 per cent. and upwards, of the sums received! Probably, however, the reader may be disposed to think that there is no very good reason why this heavy expense, amounting to several thousand pounds a year, should be incurred; and why the collectors and other customs officers should not be made to collect and remit the seamen's contributions in the same

way that they collect and remit any portion of the public revenue. But if it be necessary to make an allowance to the officers in question for such duty, it would surely be better that it should be made by adding to the salaries paid them by government, than that they should be allowed to eke them out by encroaching deeply on a pittance saved from the hard-earned wages of sailors as a resource against old age and infirmity. -(For details as to the revenue and expenditure of the corporation for the relief of seamen &c., see the Parl. Paper No. 241. Sess. 1843.)

C

SEAWORTHY, a term applied to a ship, indicating that she is in every respect fit for her voyage.

It is provided in all charterparties, that the vessel chartered shall be "tight, staunch, and strong, well apparelled, furnished with an adequate number of men and mariners, tackle, provisions, &c." If the ship be insufficient in any of these particulars, the owners, though ignorant of the circumstance, will be liable for whatever damage may, in consequence, be done to the goods of the merchant; and if an insurance have been effected upon her, it will be void.

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But whether the condition of seaworthiness be expressed in the charterparty or not, it is always implied. In every contract," said Lord Ellenborough, "between a person holding himself forth as the owner of a lighter or vessel ready to carry goods for hire, and the person putting goods on board, or employing his vessel or lighter for that purpose, it is a term of the contract on the part of the lighterman or carrier implied by law, that his vessel is tight, and fit for the purpose for which he offers and holds it forth to the public; it is the immediate foundation and substratum of the contract that it is so: the law presumes a promise to that effect on the part of the carrier, without any actual proof; and every reason of sound policy and public convenience requires that it should

be so."

Not only must the ship and furniture be sufficient for the voyage, but she must also be furnished with a sufficient number of persons of competent skill and ability to navigate her. And for sailing down rivers, out of harbours, or through roads, &c., where either by usage or the laws of the country a pilot is required, a pilot must be taken on board. But no owner or master of a ship shall be answerable for any loss or damage by reason of no pilot being on board, unless it shall be proved that the want of a pilot shall have arisen from any refusal to take a pilot on board; or from the negligence of the master in not heaving to, for the purpose of taking on board any pilot who shall be ready and offer to take charge of the ship. --(48 Geo. 3. c. 164.)

A ship is not seaworthy unless she be provided with all the documents or papers necessary for the manifestation of the ship and cargo. Neither is she seaworthy, if, during war, she be not supplied with the sails required to facilitate her escape from an enemy.

It is not sufficient to defeat the liability of the owner, that he did not know that the ship was not seaworthy, for he ought to have known that she was so at the time he chartered her. The sufficiency of the ship is the foundation of the contract between the parties, and a ship not capable of conveying the goods in a proper state is a failure of the condition precedent to the whole contract. The seaworthiness of the ship is not a question of fraud or good intention, but it is a positive stipulation that the ship shall be so; and therefore, although the owner may himself have been deceived by the shipbuilder, repairer, &c., if the vessel be, in fact, un-seaworthy, have an insufficient bottom or unsound timbers, it is a breach of a preliminary condition, and is fatal, as such, to the contract."— (Holt's Law of Shipping, 2nd ed. p. 383.)

It is only necessary, to guarantee the owners from loss, that the ship should be sea

worthy at the time of her departure. She may cease to be so in a few hours, and yet they may not be liable. The question to be decided in such cases always is, whether the ship's disability arose from any defect existing in her before her departure, or from a cause which occasioned it afterwards. But if a ship, within a day or two of her departure, become leaky or founder at sea, or be obliged to put back, without any visible or adequate cause to produce such an effect such as the starting of a plank or other accident to which the best ships are liable, and which no human prudence can prevent the fair presumption is that she was not seaworthy when she sailed; and it will be incumbent on the owners to show that she was seaworthy at that time. They are liable for damage occasioned by every injury arising from any original defect in the ship, or from bad stowage; but they are not liable for any injury arising from the act of God, the king's enemies, or the perils of the sea.

It is further to be observed, that how perfect soever a ship may be, yet if, from the nature of her construction, or any other cause, she be incapable of performing the proposed voyage, with the proposed cargo on board, she is not seaworthy. She must be, in all respects, fit for the trade in which she is meant to be employed. And it is a wholesome rule, that the owners should be held to a pretty strict proof of this.

It has been already observed, that any defect in point of seaworthiness invalidates an insurance upon a ship. There is not only an express but an implied warranty in every policy, that the ship shall be "tight, staunch, and strong, &c.;" and the reason of this is plain. The insurer undertakes to indemnify the insured against the extraordinary and unforeseen perils of the sea; and it would be absurd to suppose that any man would insure against those perils, but in confidence that the ship is in a condition to encounter the ordinary perils to which every ship must be exposed in the usual course of the proposed voyage.

By the old law of France it was directed that every merchant ship, before her departure from the place of her outfit, should be surveyed by certain sea officers appointed for that purpose, and reported to be seaworthy, "en bon état de navigation;" and that previous to her return, before she took her homeward cargo on board, she should be again surveyed. Valin has shown-(Tit. Fret. art. 12.), that very little confidence could be placed in these surveys, which, he tells us, were only made upon the external parts, for the ship was not unsheathed; and, therefore, her internal and hidden defects could not be disclosed. This practice seems now to be abandoned by the French; at least, there is no allusion to it in the Code de Commerce. It is, one should think, much better to leave the question as to the seaworthiness of the ship to be ascertained, as in England, after a loss has happened, by an investigation of the true cause of such loss, than to permit so important a question to be decided upon the report of officers without any motive to inquire carefully into her actual condition. A ship may, to all appearance, be perfectly capable of performing a voyage; and it is only after a loss has happened, that her latent defects can be discovered, and her true state at the time of her departure rendered manifest. Indeed, the survey made by the French was not deemed a conclusive proof that the ship was, at her departure, really seaworthy: it merely raised a presumption that such was the case; but it was still open to the freighter or the insurer to show the contrary.

For further information upon this point, the reader is referred to the able and excellent works of Chief Justice Abbot (Lord Tenterden) on the Law of Shipping, part iii. c. 3.; Holt on Shipping, part iii. c. 3.; and of Mr. Serjeant Marshall on Insurance, book i. c. 5. § 1.

SEEDS, in commerce, the grains of several species of gramina. Those of most importance are clover seed, flax or linseed, hemp seed, mustard seed, rape seed, tares, &c.; for which, see the respective articles.

SEGARS, OR CIGARS. See TOBACCO.

SENNA (Fr. Séné: Ger. Sennablater; It. Senna; Sp. Sen; Lat. Cassia Senna; Arab. Suna). The plant (Cassia Senna) which yields the leaves known in commerce and the materia medica by the name of senna, is an annual, a native of Upper Egypt, and Bernou in Central Africa. The senna, after being collected in Upper Egypt, is packed up in bales, and sent to Boullac, where it is mixed with other leaves, some of which are nearly equally good, while others are very inferior. After being mixed, it is repacked in bales at Alexandria, and sent to Europe. A great deal of senna is imported from Calcutta and Bombay, under the name of East India senna; but it is originally brought to them from Arabia. - (Thomson's Dispensatory.) Senna is very extensively used in medicine. The duty of 6d. per lb., with which it was then charged, produced, in 1840, 5,3854, showing that 211,400 lbs. had been entered for consumption. Of the imports in the same year, amounting to 225,779 lbs., none was brought direct from Egypt, but 152,894 lbs., were brought indirectly from her through the Italian ports, and 63,608 lbs. from the East Indies. The duty was reduced, in 1832, from 1s. 3d. to 6d. per lb.. and in 1842 to 1d. per lb.

SHAGREEN (Ger. Schagrin; It. Chagrin; Rus. Schagrim Schagren), a kind of grained leather, used for various purposes in the arts. It is extensively manufactured at Astrakhan in Russia. - (See Tooke's Russia, vol. iii. p. 403.)

SHAMMY OR CHAMOIS LEATHER (Ger. Sämischleder; Fr. Chamois; It. Camoscio; Rus. Smschanüi, Koshi), a kind of leather dressed in oil, or tanned, and much esteemed for its softness, pliancy, and capability of bearing soap without hurt. The real shammy is prepared of the skin of the chamois goat. But leather prepared from the skins of the common goat, kid, and sheep, is frequently substituted in its stead.

SHARKS' FINS, form a regular article of trade to China; and are collected for this purpose in every country from the eastern shore of Africa to New Guinea. In the Canton Price Currents they are as regularly quoted as tea or opium; and the price of late years has been, according to quality, from 15 to 18 dollars per picul, equal to from 50s. to 60s. per cwt.

SHAWLS (Ger. Schalen; Fr. Chals, Chales; It. Shavali; Sp. Schavalos), articles of fine wool, silk, or wool and silk, manufactured after the fashion of a large handkerchief, used in female dress. The finest shawls are imported from India, where they are highly esteemed, and cost from 50 to 300 guineas. But the British shawls manufactured at Norwich, Paisley, and particularly Edinburgh, have recently been very much improved; and though still inferior in point of quality to the finest specimens brought from the East, they look well, and are much cheaper. The native shawl manufacture is of very considerable value and importance.

Cashmere Shawls. The shawl manufacture is believed to have originated in the valley of Cashmere, the ancient Caspira, in the north-west of India, between the 34th and 35th degrees of N. latitude, and the 73d and 76th degrees of E. longitude. Though not so flourishing as it once was, the manufacture is still prosecuted in this province to a very considerable extent. The shawls are the very best that are made, possessing unequalled fineness, delicacy, and warmth. They are formed of the inner hair of a variety of the common goat (capra hircus), reared on the cold dry table land of Thibet, elevated from 14,000 to 16,000 feet above the level of the sea. The goat thrives sufficiently well in many other countries; but in the sultry plains of Hindostan it has hardly more hair than a greyhound; and though in higher latitudes the hair is more abundant, it is for the most part shaggy and coarse. It is only in the intensely cold and dry climate of Thibet that it yields the peculiarly soft woolly hair that constitutes the material of the Indian shawl. We do not, therefore, suppose that the efforts to naturalise the shawl-goat in France will turn out well. On the contrary, we believe the chances of success would be about equal were an attempt made to breed beavers in a hot country, without water, or camels in a moist country, free from heat and drought.

The inner or fine wool is covered over and protected by a quantity of long shaggy hair, which is, of course, carefully separated from it before it is manufactured.

The genuine shawl wool has been imported into this country; and the finest Edinburgh and Paisley shawls have been produced from it. But it must be admitted that shawls have nowhere been made that can come, as respects quality, into successful competition with those of Cashmere. The manu facture has been established at Delhi and Lahore for some years; but notwithstanding it is carried on by native Cashmerians, and though the material employed be quite the same, the fabrics are said to want the fineness of those made in Cashmere, and to have a degenerated, coarse appearance. It is difficult to account for this superiority. It has been ascribed to some peculiar quality of the water in the valley of Cashmere; but it is most probably owing to a variety of circumstances, which, though each may appear of little importance, collectively give a character to the manufacture.

The following details as to the manufacture of Cashmere shawls have been extracted from an English paper published at Delhi:

"The great mart for the wool of which shawls are made, is at Kilghet, which is said to be a dependency of Ladak, and situated 20 days' journey from the northern boundaries of Cashmere. There are 2 kinds of it: that which can be readily dyed is white: the other sort is of an ashy colour, which being with difficulty changed, or, at least, improved by art, is generally woven of its natural hue. About 2 lbs. of either are obtained from a single goat once a year. After the down has been carefully separated from the hairs, it is repeatedly washed with rice starch. This process is reckoned important; and it is to the quality of the water of their valley that the Cashmerians attribute the peculiar and inimitable fineness of the fabrics produced there. At Kilghet the best raw wool is sold for about 1 rupee a pound. By the preparation and washing referred to, it loses, and the remainder being spun, 3 rupees' weight of the thread is considered worth I rupee.

"Shawls are made of various forms, size, and borders, which are wrought separately, with the view of adapting them to the different markets. Those sent to Turkey used to be of the softest and most delicate texture. Carpets and counterpanes are fabricated of the hair or coarser part of the wool. From a variety of causes, among others the destruction of the Janissaries, who dressed much in shawls, the loss of royalty in Cabul, and the ruined finances of Lucknow, it is certain that the demand for this elegant commodity has greatly declined of late years. Under the Mogul emperors, Cashmere found work for 30,000 shawl looms. In the time of the Afghan kings, the number decreased to 18,000. There are now not more than 6,000 employed. I should attribute little of this diminution to the sale of English imitations among the Asiatic nations. When these counterfeits first appeared, the pretty patterns and brilliancy of the colours took the fancy of seme, but their great inferiority in the softness and warmth which marks the genuine shawl, soon caused the new article to be neglected.

"The average value of shawls exported from Cashmere amounts annually to 1,800,000 rupees. Runjeet Singh took 3 in kind as part of the gross revenue of the province, which was about 25 lacs a year. He is said to have sold of what he thus received, and to have kept the remainder for his own court. Of those disposed of by him and left for sale in the valley, 7 lacs' worth went to Bombay and Western India; 3 to Hindostan, chiefly Oude; a lac cach to Calcutta, Cabul, Herat, and Balk, whence some were carried to neighbouring countries."

"A curious calculation of the successive exactions, from Cashmere to Bombay inclusive, which magnify the price of shawls, is herewith subjoined.

Actual cost for materials and labour in making a pair of reel shawls:

"A pair of such shawls might sell for 500 rupees at Amritsir, and in Bombay for 900. The amount of the imports, and the sums levied by each government, will appear more in reef if stated as they affect a camel-load in its progress. It consists of 14) cutcha maunds, and contains, at an average, 2,000 shawls of different kinds, valued, on reaching Bombay, at 28,500 Furrukabad rupees.

"The government of Labore exacts Fd. rs. 1,564 6; Patialah, 61 0; Bikeneer, 43 0; Joudpore, 121 4; Bhownuggur, 200; total levied by native princes, 1,809 0; Bombay, 10 per cent. ad valorem) 2,850_0."

SHEEP (Ger. Schafe; Fr. Brebis, Bêtes à laine, Moutons; It. Pecore; Sp. Pecora, Ovejas; Rus. Owzü; Lat. Oves). Of the domestic animals belonging to Great Britain, sheep, with the exception of horses, and, perhaps, cattle, are by far the most important. They can be reared in situations and upon soils where other animals would not live. They afford a large supply of food, and one of the principal materials of clothing. Wool has long been a staple commodity of this country, and its manufacture employs an immense number of people. "The dressed skin," says Mr. Pennant, "forms different parts of our apparel; and is used for covers of books. The entrails, properly prepared and twisted, serve for strings for various musical instruments. The bones, calcined (like other bones in general), form materials for tests for the refiner. The milk is thicker than that of cows, and consequently yields a greater quantity of butter and cheese; and in some places is so rich, that it will not produce the cheese without a mixture of water to make it part from the whey. The dung is a remarkably rich manure; insomuch that the folding of sheep is become too useful a branch of husbandry for the farmer to neglect. To conclude; whether we consider the advantages that resuit from this animal to individuals in particular, or to these kingdoms in general, we may, with Columella, consider this, in one sense, as the first of the domestic quadrupeds." -(Pennant's British Zoology.) The importation of sheep from a foreign country was prohibited until 1842, but they may now be imported on paying a duty on sheep of Ss., and on lambs of 28. a head.-(See CATTLE and WOOL.)

The following Table exhibits a compendious view of the more prominent characteristics of the principal breeds of sheep in Great Britain.

For details as to the number of sheep, the quantity and quality of wool, &c., see WOOL

SHERRY. See WINE.

SHIPS. Nautical men apply the term ship to distinguish a vessel having 3 masts, each consisting of a lower mast, a topmast, and top-gallant mast, with their appropriate rigging. In familiar language, it is usually employed to distinguish any large vessel, however rigged: but it is also frequently used as a general designation for all vessels navigated with sails; and it is in this sense that we now employ it.

Merchant Ships. - It is hardly possible to divide merchant ships into classes, at least with any degree of precision. Their size, shape, the mode of their rigging, &c. depend not merely on the particular trade for which they are destined, but on the varying tastes and fancies of their owners. The ships employed in the China and India trade are the largest and finest merchantmen belonging to this country; those in the West India trade rank next; then follow the whale ships, those engaged in the trade to the Baltic and Canada, the Mediterranean, the coasting trade, &c.

The reader will find, in the articles NAVIGATION LAWS, and REGISTRY, an account of the peculiar privileges enjoyed by British ships, the conditions and formalities

* Post majores quadrupedes ovilli pecoris secunda ratio est ; quæ prima sit si ad magnitudinem utilitatis referas. Nam id præcipue contra frigoris violentiam protegit, corporibusque nostris liberaliora præbet velamina; et etiam elegantiam mensas jucundis et numerosis dapibus exornat.—(De Re Rusticâ, b. vii. cap. 2.)

necessary to be observed in order to acquire and preserve those privileges, the mode of transferring property in ships, &c. And in the articles CHARTERPARTY, FREIGHT, MASTER, OWNERS, SEAMEN, SEAWORTHY, &c. the law with respect to ships and ship owners, in their capacity of carriers or public servants, and the reciprocal duties and obligations of the masters and crews, is pretty fully expounded. In this place, therefore, we shall content ourselves with laying before the reader some official statements exhibiting the progress and present magnitude of the mercantile navy of Great Britain. Increase of Shipping in England. It would be to no purpose, even if our limits permitted to enter into any details with respect to the shipping of England, previously to the Revolution. Those who wish to examine the subject, will find most of the scattered notices of contemporary writers collected by Anderson, in his "Chronological History of Commerce." The mercantile navy of England first became considerable in the reign of Elizabeth; and gradually increased under her successors, James I. and Charles I. At the Restoration, the British shipping cleared outwards amounted to 95,266 tons; but such was the increase of navigation during the reigns of Charles II. and James II., that, at the Revolution, the British ships cleared outwards amounted to 190,533 tons. The war terminated by the treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, checked this progress. But commerce and navigation have steadily advanced, with the exception of 2 short periods during the war of 1739, and the American war, from the beginning of last century down to the present day.

The first really authentic account of the magnitude of the commercial navy of England was obtained in 1701-2, from returns to circular letters of the commissioners of customs, issued in January of that year. From these it appears that there belonged, at the period in question, to all the ports of England and Wales, 3,281 vessels, measuring (or rather estimated to measure) 261,222 tons, and carrying 27,196 men and 5,660 guns, Of these there belonged to

None of the other ports had 100 vessels; and there is some mistake in the returns as to the tonnage assigned to Newcastle and Ipswich. Of the Hull vessels, 80 were at the time laid up, which accounts for the small number of men in that port. (Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, anno 1701.)

The Table No. V. (see p. 1167.) of the British and foreign shipping cleared outwards from 1663 to 1811, both inclusive, is taken from the last edition of Chalmers's Comparative Estimate. It gives a very complete view of the progress of the navigation of the country; and from the attention paid by the author to such subjects, and the facilities which his situation in the Board of Trade gave for acquiring authentic information, its accuracy may be depended on.

I. COLONIAL SHIPPING. A Return of the Number and Tonnage of Sailing and Steam Vessels registered on the 31st of December, 1850, at each of the Ports of the Colonies of the U. Kingdom ; distinguishing between those under and those above Fifty Tons Register, and between Sailing and Steam Vessels.