mast crosstrees, the other ships in harbour imitating her example. Minute guns were fired from the Duke of Wellington, in the midst of which the mourners, alighting from the train, were received by Admiral Hope, as chief of the dockyard. The coffin was removed from the funeral car and borne on the shoulders of twelve men up the gangway. In spite of the studied plainness of the ceremony, and the personal discomfort of all present, these proceedings were felt to be solemn and touching. Marines and seamen from various ships were paraded at different points. The "Dead March" was commenced by the dockyard band as the procession moved forward, the marines of both countries rested on arms reversed, and the officers and men on board stood uncovered a mark of respect paid also by the crowds on shore. A discharge of small arms from the bows of the flag-ship was added to the minute guns.

The captain of the ship, and chaplain, at the head of the gangway, received the procession, which consisted of the coffin, Mr. Motley, and Mr. Peabody Russell, Mr. Read, M.P., and Sir Curtis Lampson, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Sowerby, Captain Acomb of the Plymouth, and a train of officers from both vessels. The coffin was placed on a bier in the centre of the canopy, and the mourners and a few officers assembled within the black drapery. Here, when the arrangements were concluded, his Excellency the American Minister, addressing the commander of the Monarch, said :

"Sir, The President of the United States having been informed of the death of the great philanthropist, the lamented Mr. Peabody, at once ordered a ship fron the European squadron of the United States to proceed to this country, in order to convey his remains to America. Simultaneously, her Majesty the Queen, being apprised of the sad event, gave order that one of her Majesty's ships should be appointed to perform the same office. This double honour from the respective heads of two great nations to a simple American citizen was, like his bounty to the poor of both nations, quite unprecedented. The President has yielded most cordially to the wish of the Queen, and the remains of Mr. Peabody are now to be conveyed across the Atlantic in the British vessel to his native country to be buried with his kindred, while the American national vessel will accompany her as consort on the voyage. All that was mortal, therefore, of our lamented friend was taken this morning from Westminster Abbey, where very rarely before in history did a foreigner of any nation find sepulture, whether temporarily or permanently, and has been brought to this port. As Minister of the Republic at the Court of her Majesty, I have been requested by the relatives and executors of Mr. Peabody, who are now present, to confide these his revered remains to your keeping. This duty I have now the honour of fulfilling."

Captain Commerell, in reply, said " Mr. Motley, I accept this sacred trust, sir, in the same spirit in which you have confided it to my care; and I assure you that these remains shall be cared for and guarded by me and those around me with jealous interest, as the sacred

relics of one whose memory will ever be held dear by the people of my country.'

The falling tide rendered it necessary to use expedition in getting the Monarch out of the port. Within a few moments after the mourners had left the deck sentries were placed before the pavilion, the hawsers were cast off, the ship's head was turned by a steam tug, and the magnificent man-of-war steamed slowly out of the harbour with all the ease of a small pleasure boat. The Plymouth and other ships dipped their ensigns as she passed. As an indication of her funeral errand, the masts, yards, turrets, platforms, boats, and other exposed portions of this singular ship have been invested with a funeral grey colouring, giving her a striking and, to English eyes, a strange aspect. The same alteration has been made in the appearance of the Plymouth, which is a smaller vessel, wood built, and mounted with Dahlgren guns.

When the Monarch had departed, she was visited by great numbers of persons, by whom her clipper build and smartly uniform crew were much admired. Crowds of the inhabitants of Portsmouth, who had not braved the exposure of the dockyard, assembled on the battery wall to see the Monarch steam to her anchorage. Owing to the state of the tides it was absolutely essential for the Monarch to go to Spithead this afternoon, a restriction which did not fall upon the lighter draughted American. Had the departure been deferred even for a few hours, another delay of ten days would have occurred. Some of the shops in the town were closed during the departure, bells were tolled, and flags placed at half-mast.

The Rev. J. C. M'Ausland, rector of Cronmore, near Drogheda, has (we learn from the Dublin Evening Mail) received from the executors of Mr. Peabody intimation of his having bequeathed him a sum of £2,000 (less legacy duty and law expenses), in consideration of the "pleasure," as he was pleased to express it, with which he had perused a treatise of his on the Jewish subject entitled "The Hope of Israel."

THE SUEZ CANAL.-Lake Lesseps probable.

SIR-The various telegrams which arrived, gave much more flattering accounts of the Suez Canal than the letters from " our correspondents' which followed them, and the silence that has now taken place tells of difficulties which are now felt.

I noticed the few facts which convey information to those who can reason on this interesting subject. We had an account of "the very shoal water," and of "a man overboard who said he had footing, and was in no danger." This must have been simply from the fact, that the discharge into the then nearly empty Bitter Lakes, had lowered

the surface of the water in the canal to the north of it; and this would have continued for a very long time, if the dams across the channel at Serapeum had not been constructed to raise the level of the canal, so as to enable vessels drawing seventeen or eighteen feet to steam from Port Said to the Bitter Lakes. I must confess that I give the engineers more credit for discernment, than to be so very late in finding out "a rock eighty feet in length" in the dry cutting at Serapeum. I have little doubt of twenty-six feet having been excavated in depth from Port Said to the Bitter Lakes, and therefore, there ought to have been no vessels aground which only had a draught below eighteen feet. We heard also the Bitter Lakes were only being "filled at the rate of an inch in twenty-four hours," although the part then filling was of very limited area!

At what rate per day will they fill, when the area of the Bitter Lakes is approximating to one hundred and fifty square miles? The question to be answered is-will the supply through such a narrow cut compensate for the enormous evaporation going on?

Will not embankments have to be made through the Bitter Lakes, so as to diminish the consumption by evaporation of the supply through the narrow channel or cut, connecting the Bitter Lakes with the Red Sea? I have already said that the tidal supply from the Red Sea is not to be calculated upon as effective. The tidal range will not reach the Bitter Lakes.

There will be an influx of sand with every tide for a few miles from the new entrance to Port Suez, and nearly all that is brought in will have to be lifted by dredgers, I will give more credit to the reports of the success of the Suez Canal, when I am assured that the level of the water in the Bitter Lakes, has attained the level of the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and then, and not till then I will confess to have drawn erroneous conclusions-and further I will add that it will be a glorious event to have obtained, and to be able to maintain even twenty feet of available depth throughout the Suez Canal and its approaches, in lieu of twenty-six feet as promised by M. de Lesseps.

In the communication from me which appeared in the Civil Engineer and Architects' Journal in June and July, 1861, relative to the projected Suez Canal, I pointedly referred to the new line of fore shore, which would be created by the protrusion into the Mediterranean of the Port Said piers. It is evident that this is now rapidly forming, and on a part of this deposit, brought by the easterly set of the waters of the Nile, and prevailing winds from the north-west, the iron clads Royal Oak and Prince Consort must have touched. In fact, nature is now forming a new bank, similar to that which separates Lake Menzaleh from the Mediterranean, leaving a long narrow lake of about two miles in breadth between it and the present foreshore. some future period this may appropriately be called Lake Lesseps. I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, W. A. BROOKS.

4th December, 1869.
To the Editor of the Nautical Magazine.

At

"THE MERCHANT SHIPPING BILL OF 1869."

In a previous Number we gave a summary of this most important Bill, which we trust will be consummated as the "Merchant Shipping Act, 1870," in the next Session of Parliament.

We now proceed briefly to remark on the other parts of the Bill. Part IV. is solely of a commercial character.

Part V. defines the extent to which a shipowner shall be held liable for personal injury or loss of life to any person on board his ship, or for damage or loss to any goods carried on board when such injury, damage, or loss was not occasioned by or with his actual fault or privity, and provides for the empannelling of juries for the trial of such cases, and the summoning of all necessary witnesses.

Clause 393, which defines the extent of the liability of the shipowner for loss of life or personal injury to any one on board his ship, or caused by collision with his ship through her improper steerage is as

follows:

"The owner of any ship, whether British or Foreign, shall not, in cases where any or all of the following events occur without his actual fault or privity, that is to say

"(1.) Where any loss of life, or personal injury is caused to any person being carried in his ship.

"(2.) Where any loss or damage is caused to any goods, or other things whatever on board his ship.

"(3.) Where any loss of life or personal injury is by reason of the improper navigation of his ship, caused to any person carried in any other ship or boat.

"(4.) Where any loss or damage is, by reason of the improper navigation of his ship, caused to any other ship or boat, or to any goods or other thing whatsoever on board any other ship or boat

"Be answerable in damages in respect of loss of life or personal injury, either alone or together, with loss or damage to ships, boats, goods, or other things, to an aggregate amount exceeding £15 for each ton of his ship's tonnage; nor in respect to loss or damage to ships, goods, or other things, whether there be in addition loss of life or personal injury or not, to an aggregate amount exceeding £8 for each ton of his ship's tonnage; but shall be answerable as aforesaid, in respect of every distinct occasion on which any such event or events occur, to the same extent as if no such event had occurred on any other occasion."

These requirements are, as regards the loss of life or injury to the person, precisely the same as in the Act of 1862, which Act was an amendment of that of 1854.

The next clause, however, makes Foreign vessels also amenable for loss of life or injury to the person of British subjects.

This part of the proposed Act is one of undoubted importance. The liabilities for loss of life, or injury to the person, are more especially necessary where a system of marine insurance prevails, which in

D

numberless cases relieves the shipowner of all pecuniary interest in the safety of his vessel.

We could wish that, whilst the upright shipowner should not be harshly dealt with when loss of life occurs, not occasioned by any fault of his, yet that in flagrant cases of sending overladen or unseaworthy ships to sea, such as in the case of the Utopia, a heavier punishment than any pecuniary penalty or remuneration to the relatives of those thus deliberately sacrificed, should be exacted.

Part VI, headed "Wrecks,* Casualties, and Salvage," includes all matters connected with the loss or serious damage of vessels by stranding, foundering, or collision with other craft. The first fifteen clauses of this part relate to investigation, and define the duties of the Receivers under the Act, and of those who are authorised, in the absence of the Receiver of the district, to act for him; and give him, as did the former Act, the supreme command of all persons present at the scene of a wreck.

Clause 417 authorises the master of any ship or boat, stranded or in distress, to repel by force any person, not a Receiver or Receiver substitute, who shall attempt to board his vessel without his permission. Clause 419 requires all persons finding and taking possession of wreck, whether owners of the same or not, to give notice of the fact as soon as possible, to the Receiver, and if an owner, requires him to describe in the notice the marks by which he has distinguished it.

Clause 420 requires the master of any British ship or boat taking possession of any wreck at sea, beyond the limits of the United Kingdom, to deliver the same on his arrival in a British port to the Receiver of the district, or if he shall have previously delivered it to the owner, or have otherwise disposed of it, to render an account of the same to the Receiver, and hand to him the proceeds, if any, that he may have received for it.

Clauses 437 to 439 decree, as did the former Act, that for all services in saving life or property from any British ship or boat a reasonable sum for salvage shall be paid by the owner of the vessel; the salvage for life being payable in priority of all other claims, and that when there shall not be a sufficient amount of property saved to adequately remunerate the salvors of life, the Board of Trade may award, from the Mercantile Marine Fund, such remuneration as they may think fit.

Člause 440 to the end of this Part refers exclusively to salvage of property, jurisdiction, valuation, disputes, apportionment of salvage, enforcement of salvage claims, agreements as to amount, etc.: the appointment of Receivers, their powers, and remuneration, etc. It also, by the 453rd clause, entitles the officers and men in the Coastguard service to remuneration for services rendered in watching and protecting wrecked property, according to a scale to be determined on by the Board of Trade.

A very important portion of this part of the Bill is that which

* It is said that the wrecks of 1869, amount to above 2710,-ED.