"2. Every person who attempts or is party to any attempt to send to sea any ship in such unseaworthy state that the life of any person would be likely to be thereby endangered, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor unless he give such proof as aforesaid, and for the purpose of giving such proof such person may give evidence as aforesaid;

"3. Every master of a British ship who knowingly takes the same to sea in such unseaworthy state that the life of any person would be likely to be thereby endangered, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, unless he prove that her going to sea in such unseaworthy state was, under the circumstances, reasonable and justifiable, and for the purpose of giving such proof such person may give evidence as aforesaid;

"4. The owner of every British ship shall from time to time register at the custom house of the port in the United Kingdom at which such ship is registered, the name of the managing owner of such ship, and if there be no managing owner, then of the person to whom the management of the ship is entrusted, by and on behalf of the owner; and in case the owner fail or neglect to register the name of such managing owner or manager as aforesaid, he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five hundred pounds each time that the said ship leaves any port in the United Kingdom after the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and seventysix, without the name being duly registered as aforesaid;

"5. The term managing owner' in subsection 1 shall include every person so registered as managing owner, or as having the management of the ship for and on behalf of the

owner;

"6. No prosecution under this section shall be instituted except by or with the consent of the Board of Trade;

7. No misdemeanor under this section shall

be punishable upon summary conviction."

PRIVATE BUSINESS.-OBSERVATIONS. LORD REDESDALE said, he had been in communication with the authorities of the House of Commons in reference to the Standing Orders relating to Private Bills, the object of the communications having been to bring the Standing Orders of both Houses in harmony with each other. On Friday he would lay on the Table amended Orders, with the view of having them printed.

VIVISECTION REGULATION BILL. (The Lord Hartismere.) (NO. 85.) SECOND READING. Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.

LORD HENNIKER said, he would, with their Lordships' permission, withdraw this Bill. He had put it off from time to time in the hope that something might have been known of the probable action of the Royal Commission, and so have given an opportunity for a discussion or advance in some degree towards a satisfactory settlement of the question. That was, however, hardly possible, then, and, at that late period of the Sesssion, he thought he should best consider the convenience of their Lordships by withdrawing the Bill. He hoped the Commission might be able to report in time to legislate on the subject next early next year. If not, and it was proper for him to do so when the time arrived, he would re-introduce the Bill or call their Lordships' attention to the question as early as possible next Session. Meanwhile, he hoped some little good might have been done by calling public attention to the practice of vivisection which he was sorry to believe largely prevailed. The noble Lord concluded by moving the discharge of the Order. Motion agreed to.

Order discharged; and Bill (by leave of the House) withdrawn.

FRIENDLY SOCIETIES BILL.

(Nos. 173, 208, 215.)

Commons amendments to Lords amendments, and Commons consequential amendments and reasons for disagreeing to one of the Lords amendments considered (according to Order.)

ment of Militia, who on the 5th of June was sentenced to one month's imprisonment for having applied for and obtained a night's lodging and relief in the Glin Union Workhouse. The noble Earl said, about a fortnight ago he asked a Question on the subject, and the noble Duke (the Duke of Richmond) said the matter was still under investigation. The Limerick Militia was called out for training on the 17th June. John Lee was working in the town of Tralee when the notice was published, and he set out for Limerick early in the month to join the regiment, in which he was a private. On the 3rd he slept at Listowel, where he paid for his lodging. On the night of the 4th he reached the borders of the county of Limerick, and being unable to obtain a lodging, he applied for and obtained a night's lodging and relief in the Glin Workhouse. On the morning of the 5th he was taken before a justice of the peace, and under the provisions of an Act passed in the 10th and 11th years of the Queen was sentenced to a month's imprisonment in the Limerick County Gaol. He disclaimed any personal feeling with regard to the magistrate who passed that sentence and who was not personally known to him. The interest he took in the case was that he had the honour of being Colonel of the regiment in which the poor man served; and he submitted that the Act was intended to apply to professional tramps, and not to such persons as Lee. The unfortunate man died while undergoing his month's imprisonment, and was buried as a prisoner. He begged to ask, Whether, in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, such sentence was legal and proper; and, if not, what action has been taken or is contemplated towards the justice of the peace who passed such sentence?

THE DUKE OF RICHMOND said, he was not prepared at the moment to say whether the sentence inflicted in this case was a legal and proper one; but he could inform the noble Earl as to what action was contemplated towards the justice of the peace who passed that sentence. The whole matter had been laid officially by the Irish Government before the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and was under his consideration. Until the Lord Chancellor came to a conclusion on the case it would be impossible for him to give a more satisfactory answer to the inquiry of his noble Friend.

The Earl of Limerick

THE EARL OF LIMERICK regretted that the answer was not more satisfactory. The time that had elapsed since the matter was brought under the notice of the Irish Government was surely long enough for them to have made up their minds upon it.

THE DUKE OF RICHMOND repeated that the subject was under the consideration of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, whose duties were very important and numerous, and it was impossible to compel him to give an opinion upon a case of this sort within a limited period. The noble Earl was rather unreasonable in complaining that a decision had not been come to before now.

WEST COAST OF AFRICA.
OBSERVATIONS.

THE EARL OF CARNARVON rose to call the attention of the House to the position of certain parts of Her Majesty's Possessions on the West Coast of Africa. The noble Earl said: I had intended, considering the interest which has been felt for some time in the affairs of the Gold Coast, to have made a full statement to the House before the close of the Session with regard to the general progress of the West African Settlements; but, looking to the period of the Session at which we have now arrived and to one or two other circumstances, I do not think this would be necessary at the present moment. At the same time, I may go so far as to say that affairs on the Gold Coast are in a very satisfactory state. Notwithstanding the fact that the climate has always been, and always will be, a permanent cause of difficulty, the political and financial condition of those Settlements has certainly not stood still. The trade has increased-increased, I may say, beyond my expectations. The revenue has greatly enlarged itself. When Sir Garnet Wolseley was there he estimated the revenue of the Gold Coast at £50,000 a-year. In 1873 it was £65,000, and last year-1874it had reached £74,000. The revenue of Lagos, in 1873, amounted to £30,000; last year it amounted to £39,300. So flourishing, in a financial sense, has that Colony become, that it has been in my power to repay the Treasury a loan of £10,000, which had been advanced at a time of greater difficulty than the present. Besides that, in the country itself

the process of pacification has gone on steadily. The Ordinances for the abolition of the slave trade work smoothly and well. Advantage has been taken of them in various parts of the country; and the opportunity of emancipation, if desired, is within the knowledge and reach of every slave throughout the country. The main difficulty which does exist is one which has existed for some time past-the conflict of jurisdictions, so to speak, along the West Coast of Africa. As the House is well aware, the French have stations along that coast, and these stations are intermixed with ours. The result of this, very often, is considerable difficulty in the political administration, and very great loss in all our fiscal arrangements. I frankly say that I hope the time may come, and come before long, when this anomalous state of things may be removed, and some arrangement may be come to with the French Government, by which, on fair and even terms, an interchange may be made which will enable us to carry out that process of development and improvement which has already been so largely effected. I am not sorry to have this opportunity of saying two words on a matter which has created some interest. I allude to the excitement in "another place" arising from the telegram in a French paper to the effect that negotiations for an exchange of territory not only had been on foot, but were concluded. The telegram was wholly inaccurate. Negotiations have been and are on foot; but these negotiations are very far from having come to a conclusion. I will frankly say it is my wish, and my hope, that before any definite conclusion is arrived at, Parliament may have a full and ample opportunity of expressing its opinion on the subject. If there be any apprehension on this subject, I can readily give an assurance to your Lordships that nothing final or conclusive shall be done in the matter till the meeting of Parliament next year. I can only add further that it must not be supposed that the proposal which is now before the two Governments for negotiations is a proposal identical with that which formed the subject of negotiations in former years. In most of its leading features it is distinct, and it rests upon new and wholly different grounds. As regards the interests of a mere handful-for a

mere handful it is-of British subjects in the colony of Gambia, I can only hope, whenever the time comes, that those interests will receive every consideration which Her Majesty's Government can possibly give to them. They are, strictly speaking, a mere handful, for I believe the English population there does not amount to more than 20 souls; but, at the same time, whether they be many or few, it is the duty of Her Majesty's Government to see that they are protected. In saying these few words my desire has been to remove any misapprehension, if such there should be, on the subject which, I think, is one of considerable importance.

For some years it has been asserted that very many lives have been lost owing to ships being sent to sea in an unsound and unseaworthy condition. Now, my Lords, I shall not go into the various statements that have been made on both sides of the question, and which have engaged so much of the attention of the other House of Parliament, because there can no longer be any doubt that, to say the least, there is a great deal of suspicion with respect to some of the vessels which are sent to sea. What I wish more particularly to call your Lordships' attention to is this-that many seamen have been sent to prison for a violation of their contract, because they refused to sail in vessels in which they had taken service. It appears also that in many instances it was believed that the ships in which those men had refused to sail were really in an unsafe state, and that seamen would have risked their lives by embarking in them. It may be that the owners of such ships may sometimes be not altogether in fault. They may be imposed upon occasionally, and ships that are registered as A 1 at Lloyd's