§ MR. ARTHUR WILLIAMS (Glamorgan, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to the case of 11 seamen who were brought before three magistrates at Cardiff on Saturday, the 15th instant, for refusing to go to sea in the steamship Cadoxton, which had been obliged to put back, leaking badly, for repairs, and, who set up as a defence, that she was still unseaworthy; and whether he will inquire why the magistrates refused an adjournment until the following Monday, when the 1684 Report which, it was admitted, had been made by Lloyd's Surveyor, could have been obtained, but sent all the men to prison with hard labour for 14 days?
§ MR. MATTHEWSYes, Sir; I have obtained a Report from the Justices. They inform me that they had before them the evidence of the captain that the repairs had been passed by Lloyd's Surveyor, and also the evidence of the Board of Trade Surveyor, who had made an independent inspection, and on whose evidence they greatly relied, that the vessel was perfectly fit to go to sea. The leakage had been in the joint of the injection valve. The ship had already been detained for a day, the next day was Sunday, and a further adjournment would have caused two days additional delay. The Justices adjourned the hearing until late in the afternoon in order to enable Lloyd's Surveyor, who had telegraphed announcing his arrival, to attend; but inasmuch as lie did not appear at the time announced, the magistrates, being quite satisfied with the evidence, did not feel justified in consenting to any further adjournment.
§ In reply to a further question by Mr. A. WILLIAMS,
§ MR. MATTHEWSsaid: The ground of the decision of the magistrates was that the men had disobeyed a lawful order.