§ SIR G. CLERKmoved for leave to bring in two Bills, which were founded on the report of a Select Committee to which the subject of regulations relating to shipping had been referred. The first Bill was to require that all merchant ships should carry a certain number of boats according to their tonnage; and, with regard to steam-vessels, the regulations which the Bill would embody had been submitted to the directors of the General Steam Navigation Company, and they had stated they had no objection whatever to them. Those regulations would require that the holds of steam-vessels should be divided into three compartments, separated by water-tight bulkheads. He also proposed to introduce regulations, to be enforced under a penalty, respecting the manner in which steam-vessels should pass each other, in order to prevent as far as possible the danger of collision; and he meant to give power to the Admiralty to enforce regulations, with a view to steam-vessels using certain lights during the night, and also providing that a report be annually made to the Board of Trade, by a competent engineer, as to the condition and sufficiency of the machinery of those vessels, and a similar report respecting the vessel itself by a competent shipwright, and stating if any accident had happened to either. The other Bill referred to the preservation of wrecked property and to the amendment and consolidation of the laws upon that subject. To remove all doubts as to the rights of various parties to wrecked property, he proposed to vest the trusteeship of such property in the receivers of the droits of the Admiralty, so as to enable parties preferring any claims to it to establish those claims; and that for one year it should be open to the owners of wrecked property to advance their claims to it; if after that period had elapsed no claims were put forward by the owners, then the rights of the lord of the manor where the wreck had been cast ashore should be considered. The right hon. Gentleman concluded by moving for leave to bring in the Bill.
§ Leave given. Bill read a first time.
§ House adjourned at half-past Twelve o'clock.