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pleased on board ship. At all events a circular was issued, emanating from the executive, and for which Mr. J. H. 'Wilson must be held responsible, calling upon all of the seamen and firemen class to disobey their officers on board ship, to join the Union, and be happy for ever after! The Seaman's Chronicle was instituted, and 16 was not long before the picture story of the ca'canny policy, as published in that paper, "' gave the show away." Mr. J. H. Wilson still remains a persona grata with the Board of Trade, though not with the electors of Middlesbro'! We have stated before that the laws of discipline as they obtain in the merchant service of the present day are peculiar, and difficult to define; we may also state they are much more difficult to put in operation with any hope of getting a fair measure of justice to support a code, absolutely necessary for the common weal and safety. Discipline, properly defined, may not be blind obedience to the will of another person for such things as are beyond reason, but at sea it is accepted as a ready, unquestioning obedience to lawful commands, as it is both contracted for and expressed on the face-page of the "Agreement and Account of Crew:'"
"And the crew agree to conduct themselves in an orderly, faithful, honest and sober manner, and to be at all times diligent in their respective duties, and to be obedient to the lawful commands of the said master or of any person who shall lawfully succeed him, and of their superior officers, in everything relating to the said ship and the stores and cargo thereof, whether on board, in boats, or on shore; in consideration of which services to be duly performed the said master hereby agrees to pay to the said crew as wages the sums against their names respectively expressed, and to supply them with provisions according to the scale on the other side hereof."
We now produce the "Regulations for Maintaining: Discipline," sanctioned by the Board of Trade in pursuance of §. 114:(2) of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894.
These regulations are distinct from, and in addition to, those contained in the Act, and are sanctioned but not. universally required by law. All or any of them may be adopted by agreement between a master and his crew, and thereupon the offences specified in such of them as are so adopted will be legally punishable by the appropriate fines or punishments. These regulations, however, are not to apply to. certificated officers.
These regulations are all numbered, and the numbers of such of them as are adopted must be inserted in the space left for that purpose in the agreement, page 1, and the following copy of these regulations must be made to correspond with the
