§ MR. J. KELLY (Camberwell, N.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the case of "Jones v. George" which was tried before Mr. Burchell and a jury in the London Sheriffs Court on the 17th instant, in which the plaintiff was a boatman and a member of the lifeboat crew at Margate, and the defendant the captain of the steamship Balla which on 17th May last had stranded on the Goodwin Sands; whether, in view of the fact that the plaintiff testified on oath that when he went in the lifeboat to the rescue of the Balla and boarded her alone, the defendant struck him a violent blow and further caused or permitted the mate to cut through one of the ropes of the ship's ladder, so that the plaintiff's life was placed in danger as he was leaving the ship, he will cause such further inquiries as he may think desirable to be made into the facts of the case; and whether, if the evidence given on oath by the plaintiff in the case of "Jones v. George" be corroborated, he will consider the desirability of directing a Board of Trade inquiry to be held into the case with a view of considering the conduct of the captain and of the mate of the Balla
§ * THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Sir M. HICKS BEACH,) Bristol, W.My attention has been called to this case, and I have ordered an investigation before a Local Marine Board into the conduct of the master and mate of the Balla.