§ MR. STEVENSONasked the President of the Board of Trade, If he will direct his attention to the 74th section of "The Harbours, Docks, and Piers Act, 1847," as recently interpreted by the Court of Queen's Bench, whereby a shipowner is declared liable for unavoidable accident caused by his ship to a pier, even when it is admitted that no blame attaches to the shipowner or master; and, if he will consider the propriety of amending the Law so that all shipowners in cases of inevitable accident may enjoy the same exemption from liability in such cases as is conferred by the section on shipowners employing a compulsory pilot, and the propriety in every case of a ship's collision with a pier of limiting the liability of the shipowner, as is done in the case of collision with another vessel.
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUE, in reply, said, that where the collision was absolutely unavoidable, it was a most difficult question to say which of the two innocent parties was to suffer. It might indeed be said that the ship might easily be in fault, while the pier could not be in fault. He would promise to direct his attention to the subject; but he did not think it possible to deal with particular cases of this sort without raising other points in which harbour authorities were interested as against the shipowner.