We have grave doubts even whether the Royal Commissioners on unseaworthy ships have taken a sufficiently extended view of the fundamental requirements of any department dealing with our merchant ships and merchant seamen. Mr. Thomas Brassey, M.P., one of the Royal Commissioners, has certainly not even been fully informed, as to the Marine Department itself, for, in a supplementary report of his own, which he has given to the world, he distinctly states that certain work, which can only be done, and, as a fact, has for years been done, by an engineer, is done by a sailor. But, whatever may have been the cause which led the Royal Commmissioners on unseaworthy ships to pass over in silence the question of establishing a department, to be presided over by a Minister of Marine and Commerce, they could not withhold an expression of opinion as to the weakness of the present state of things. There can be no doubt that the marked ability of the permanent head of the whole Board of Trade must have led the Royal Commissioners to think that the whole office is more fit for a mixture of marine and other work than it really is; that the power of the head to grasp all subjects and all work at all moments, has led them, to some extent, to overlook the inadequacy of the body to be equally accommodating or equally assimilative. The bureau at Whitehall Gardens really represents one of those images on an old tombstone-that is, apparently all head and wings-owing either to absence of a real body, or to the body, from some cause or confusion of circumstances and subjects, having become absorbed, effaced, or imperceptible. The Royal Commissioners on unseaworthy ships found it impossible to fail to appreciate the powers of the Chief Permanent Secretary, nor did they fail also to appreciate in a minor degree the work done by other permanent officers under the chief's directions. We, of course, refer to that small knot of hardworking, uncomplaining, and heartily-abused men, who in their minor positions form the real Marine Department and its staff. Some of these men are certainly not devoid of sense and ability, some possess experience, others have a special fitness and aptitude for the special work they do, and none, we should say, for zeal and love of their own work will yield one jot to their chief. Some of these men have names that are known, not only in this country, but in all maritime countries, but they have only one set of subjects (marine) always before them, while with their chief that one set is a part, and only a small part, of the sum of the subjects taxing his mental powers. Re-construction is better than revising and strengthening.

There are, we believe, four Assistant Secretaries at Whitehall Gardens, who have, it seems, some sort of minor charge and minor responsibilities in the various departments, into which the Bureau of

Trade is divided, but these gentlemen are not worth consideration in the present argument. Their places are of small importance in the consideration of any extended scheme such as that which must force itself on the public, and which must end altogether in the disruption of the present office; each part of which will either go to make a nucleus for a future Bureau, or fall in with some existing bureau, where it will form part of a consistent whole.

So impressed were the Royal Commissioners on unseaworthy ships that the hands of the Permanent Secretary of the Board of Trade needed much strengthening, that they emphasised their opinion in a distinct paragraph in their report in the following words :-"We attach great importance to the recommendation that the Marine Department of the Board of Trade should be revised and strengthened." It will, no doubt, be one of the first questions asked in Parliament, whether and how this revision and strengthening have been affected?

The Royal Commissioners on unseaworthy ships further recommended that, "A legal adviser, exclusively belonging to the Department, is also essential for the conduct of the business." But what do the Royal Commissioners mean by Department? Do they mean a fifth of the whole so-called "Board" (that is, the Marine Department), or do they, by the word Department, mean the whole Bureau ? The Chief Permanent Secretary of the Board of Trade would be puzzled to tell how much of himself is secretary to each department, or how much each assistant secretary at the head of any one of the five departments is assistant secretary to the whole Board. Marine Department, or to the Railway Department, or to any department; and yet there is a fifth of a whole secretary and one whole assistant secretary for each department, and the fifth of the whole is a secretary to each. There are no assistant secretaries to the Board of Trade, but there are assistant secretaries to each fifth of the Board; and yet there is only one secretary. This reminds one of an affair to be worked out by Algebra.

There is no whole secretary to the

We take it that the Royal Commissioners mean that the learned chief at the head of all the departments requires a legal staff, for so much of his duties as belong to one of them-viz., the Marine. But, then, we come to this important question, what is the use of all this revising and strengthening and adding to a part of a bureau that is, as a whole, in itself wanting in coherence and fitness for the special work to be done? Is not all this patching but short-sighted policy at the best? Instead of attempts to revise a subordinate department, would it not be more in accordance with the requirements of the case, the spirit of the age, and the aspirations of the people, if a ministry or bureau

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of commercial marine were established. Attempts to revise and patch an insignificant and subordinate department in the hope that it may rise to its true position in this country or among nations, will, as we trust by this time is admitted by thoughtful men, end in failure and useless lavish expenditure. As regards the present "Bureau," or "Ministry," or "Office," in Whitehall Gardens, the outside world think that the term, "Board of Trade," really has a meaning, and that the expression, "My Lords," in official letters, means actual living persons. The expression, however, as our readers well know, is a pure fiction, a mere form of olden times, to be assumed perforce by all new political holders of office, and a euphemism that furnishes young clerks on entering Her Majesty's service, with their first lesson in the mystery of official circumlocution. There is no "Board" and there is no "Trade" at Whitehall Gardens. The masses seem to think, and with reason, that a Board of Trade is a sort of guild, corporation, or brotherhood regulating trade rules and trade subjects, dealing with the supply and demand of manufactured goods, and regulating trading concerns and labour generally. "Trade," in the usual acceptance of the term, is, however, wholly ignored. Persons having to do with the shipping of the Empire, form one opinion of the Board of Trade, and that is, that it does not help them; persons having to do with railways form their opinion also, which is not flattering to the fictitious "My Lords;" persons having to do with gas, form other conclusions; and, if we may judge from the last article in the Review,* persons connected with life assurance societies again form others; and as to lawyers, they are moved at times to ridicule, at times to other feelings, on watching the exceedingly crude method of Board of Trade business. Seamen and the public are in a haze, and, as usual, often confuse their best friend with their worst enemy; but whatever may be the peculiar and personal estimate that various bodies form of the particular Department of the Board of Trade they have to do with, they come often in a roundabout way to the conclusion, so patiently and wisely arrived at by the Royal Commissioners on unseaworthy ships, that the Department ought to be

*The Review, a contemporary taking a great interest in assurance societies and in other subjects requiring Actuarial knowledge, calls attention in its issue of the 26th Dec., 1874, to the curious fact that the accounts of life assurance societies are dealt with by the Railway Department of the Board of Trade, and speaks of it as follows: "The Department with which we are most immediately concerned is the Railway Department of the Board of Trade. This Department, for some inscrutable reason, was selected as being the proper one to look after the life assurance companies of Great Britain. Upon the exact process of reasoning which connected the railways with life assurance we cannot give an opinion, but we have as yet seen no proofs of the wisdom of the selection."

revised and strengthened. One inconvenience of the present state of things is, that so long as the old office in Whitehall Gardens calls herself a "Board," everyone is interested in planing, or cutting, or glueing, or patching, or strengthening her. Some well-intentioned persons recommend that a 66 Parliament of shipowners," whatever that means, should be enrolled, to keep her from warping; others, again, recommend a body of experts to keep her straight; others, that she should be Frenchpolished, and adopt Continental methods, and, as Du Maurier would say, a "pooty" surface, to keep her agreeable, and hide her knots; others, again, recommend that at each port there should be appointed a body of persons pecuniarily interested in making money in ships, who, by virtue of a new connection with the "Board," should settle all things, as regards seamen, to their own satisfaction; others, again, suggest that the Board should make rules in such a fashion that everybody could comply with them at no cost, and without any trouble to the inspectors. Truly, a pretty state of things for merchant ships and merchant seamen of Great Britain in 1875.

Very much with the simple mind of the man who suggested that a wall should be pulled down and rebuilt, as the best means of rendering it safe, we would ask whether it is not the best and most straightforward way in this matter of the "Board" of Whitehall Gardens to look the difficulty straight in the face, to admit that for a Marine Department the constitution of the office is inappropriate and radically wrong, and to admit that so long as so many different subjects are jumbled together in one Board, and under one permanent chief, it is only the purely accidental circumstance of a man of unparalleled power being for a few years at the head of it, that has kept, and can possibly keep, it open and working at all? Further, is it not a national blunder, of the worst class, that the very existence of one of the most important offices of this maritime country should depend for its existence on the life, health, and views of a single man? The Royal Commissioners evidently think it is, for their Report shows it.

We have the very greatest admiration for, and will yield to no one in our appreciation of the permanent head of the Board of Trade, the framer and successful administrator of our Mercantile Marine and Survey Laws. We say, that to his ability alone the existence of the office is due, but we do not fear to say that no one man can personally know at the same time everything about the intricacies of law and policy, and the requirements of an iron ship's hull, pumps, and compasses, or a boiler, or a marine steam-engine, or a safety-valve, life assurance accounts and railway management, and that it is the height of unreason for the country to expect that with only a sailor, as a technical officer at the Board to advise him, any one man can personally come to any useful

conclusion whatever on complicated questions submitted by a clever and technical out-door staff. Such questions as those arising out of the cases of the Chusan, Atrato, and Mary, will illustrate this proposition.

In debates in Parliament, and in writings, something has often been said as to the administrative capacity and power of work of an assistant secretary; but those gentlemen who have shown any kindness or consideration for an officer of that position have, we think, in their appreciation of individual exertion, lost sight of the far-weightier matter. A secretary, or an assistant secretary, may, by his own force of will and his intimate knowledge of actual work and real detail, become a useful, and sometimes, unfortunately, a public man; but in the machinery of the State an assistant secretary is in reality a sort of clerk, a step above some of his fellows in one office, and several steps below his fellows in other and more favoured offices. Moreover, as, after taking the very greatest pains, he may be of necessity, and after years of patient study over-ruled at any moment, his responsibilities must theoretically be of the flimsiest.

The present state of things at the Board of Trade is forcing itself on the attention of the thoughtful amongst men with increased weight day by day, and it may be that some independent and patriotic man in Parliament may feel it wise to call the attention of the Legislature to it. Any one who does so will earn the lasting gratitude of those who go down to the sea in ships. The interest of the shipowner and the safety of the seaman alike demand that Britannia's advisers should be sufficiently large-hearted and Conservative to require and provide that her maritime affairs be dealt with by a Bureau or office of proper standing. So long as the Government itself think but little of the office, the outside public will think as little. The interests of Britain's shipowners and seamen, the business of the nation, require something different; they require that Mercantile Marine affairs should not be mixed up in a confused manner, and dealt with in a helter skelter way with gas, railroads, life assurance accounts, the registration of designs for beer bottle labels, the wardenship of the standards, and a variety of matters which, were we to set them out here at length, would appear more like a list of titles of old books at a hurried sale, than a narrative of sober facts, or a list of real subjects.

In concluding our remarks, we wish to place on record our belief, that the work done in the Board of Trade is as well done as is possible, and that the shipowners and seamen of the country would be ungrateful were they not to acknowledge the zeal, ability, and disinterestedness of the permanent staff both indoor and out; or were they to fail to appreciate the high statesmanship and large-heartedness of those right honourable