Combinations among Workmen.

741. [The law on this subject is now regulated by the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, 1875 (38 and 39 Vict. c. 86), which repealed the earlier Act of 34 and 35 Vict. (c. 32). It is provided that no agreement or combination to do any act in furtherance of a trade dispute between employers and workmen is indictable as a conspiracy unless the act, if done by one person, would have been punishable as a crime, but that provision is not to exempt from punishment any persons guilty of a conspiracy punishable by statute (sec. 3). Workmen in gas or water works who, either singly or in combination, wilfully and maliciously break their contract of service, in the knowledge or belief that by their doing so the supply of gas or water will be cut off, are liable in a penalty of £20, or three months' imprisonment. (4) The same penalty is imposed on workmen, singly or in combination, knowingly breaking their contract so as to endanger human life or cause serious bodily injury, or so as to expose valuable property to destruction or serious injury. (5) "Every person who, with a view to compel any other person to abstain from doing or to do any act which such other person has a legal right to do or abstain from doing, wrongfully and without legal authority-(1) uses violence to or intimidates such person or his wife or children, or injures his property; or (2) persistently follows such person about from place to place; or (3) hides any tools, or clothes, or other property owned or used by such person, or deprives him of, or hinders him in, the use thereof; (4) watches or besets the house or other place where such other person resides or works, or the approach thereto; (5) follows such other person with two or more other persons in a disorderly manner in or through any street or road," is liable in a like penalty. But "attending at or near" a house or workshop merely to obtain or "communicate information" is not watching or besetting. (Fraser, 422 et seq.)]

742. Trade-unions.-By 34 and 35 Vict. c. 31, trade-unions are declared not to be illegal by reason merely that they are in restraint of trade. The Act defines trade-unions, and excludes from their operation agreements between partners as to their own business, or between employers and employees as to such employment, or in consideration of the sale of the goodwill of a business, or of instruction in any trade or handicraft. But no Court can entertain a proceeding arising out of disputes between the members of a trade-union, or between one trade-union and another. A union may hold property vested in trustees, as the Act directs; and any member obtaining fraudulent possession of moveable effects of the society may be prosecuted by the procurator-fiscal or the trade-union with his concurrence. Το acquire legal recognition the union must be registered, and must conform to certain rules as directed by the Act. (Fraser, 352; M'Kernan, 1874, 1 R. 453; Shanks, ib. 823.)

Seamen.

743. In the Merchant Shipping Act (17 and 18 Vict. c. 104), the Merchant Shipping Amendment Act (18 and 19 Vict. c. 91), the Passengers Act (18 and 19 Vict. c. 119), and others of minor importance, we now possess a code of mercantile legislation tolerably complete, and far too minute and complicated to be presented in a work like the present. The relations between seamen and their employers and masters, which alone belong to this branch of law, are regulated by Part III. of "The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854" (17 and 18 Vict. c. 104, secs. 109 to 290).

744. In all ships, except those of small tonnage engaged in the coasting trade, the master is bound to enter into a written The agreement with every seaman whom he carries to sea. seaman undertakes to serve on board the ship during the voyage, the duration and character of which must be specified in the agreement (see 36 and 37 Vict. c. 85, sec. 7), for certain

specified wages and provisions, to conduct himself in an orderly, faithful, and honest manner, to be diligent and obedient to the master, or to any person who shall succeed him in command, and to the officers of the ship. "The breach of these duties, and of this engagement," says Mr. Abbot (Law of Merchant Ships and Seamen, p. 135), "consists in desertion, quarrelsomeness, turbulence, mutiny, disobedience, neglect of duty, drunkenness,— offences which, according to the frequency of their occurrence, the length of their continuance, and their circumstances in each particular case, besides the penalties and forfeitures enacted by the statutes, may at common law justify the personal restraint and correction of the mariner, or subject him to dismissal and forfeiture of wages."

745. However manfully and efficiently the mariner may have performed his duty, and however great may have been the perils or actual sufferings to which he has been exposed, he is not entitled to any remuneration beyond his covenanted wages. For these the ship is pledged to him. "He has a right to cling to the last plank in satisfaction of his wages." The old maxim, that "Freight is the mother of wages," has been abrogated by the Merchant Shipping Act (17 and 18 Vict. c. 104), and wages may now be recovered, either by seamen or apprentices, even though no freight has been earned by the vessel. But in cases of shipwreck the mariner's claim for wages will be barred by proof that he did not exert himself to the utmost to save the ship, cargo, or stores: sec. 183.

746. The following are the regulations of the statute as to the time of payment :

747. "In the case of a home-trade ship, the wages shall be paid within two days after the termination of the agreement, or at the time when the seaman shall be discharged, whichever shall first happen " (sec. 187); and in the case of foreigngoing ships" the owner or master of the ship shall pay to each seaman on account, at the time when he lawfully leaves the

ship at the end of his engagement, two pounds, or one-fourth of the balance due to him, whichever is least, and shall pay him the remainder of his wages within two clear days (exclusive of any Sunday, Fast Day in Scotland, or Bank Holiday) after he so leaves the ship;" and if not so paid, unless the delay was due to the act or default of the seaman, the wages "shall continue to run and be payable until the time of the final settlement thereof" (43 and 44 Vict. c. 16, sec. 4).

748. When a seaman is left on shore at any place abroad, in consequence of being unable to proceed on the voyage, the master is to deliver to certain functionaries, named in the Act, a just and true account of the wages due, and to pay the same to the seaman, either in money or by a bill drawn upon the owner of the ship. (Sec. 209.)

749. In order to prevent desertion, and to preserve the wages of seamen for the benefit of their families, the Legislature has restricted the sum which may be paid to them, in parts beyond. the seas, to one-half.

750. By deserting the ship, the seaman forfeits not only his wages, but also all clothes and effects he may have left on board; and if the master has been forced to pay higher wages in order to procure a suitable substitute, the difference will form a ground of claim against the seaman. (Sec. 243 (1).) If the seaman, having left the ship with leave from the master, refuses to return, his wages are forfeited. (Sec. 243 (2).) A seaman arrested for desertion may, on a ship being found, on a subsequent survey, not to be in a fit condition to proceed to sea, or that her accommodation is insufficient, obtain damages against the master or owner. (36 and 37 Vict. c. 85, sec. 9.)

751. Arrival of the ship in port does not terminate the agree ment; and by departure without leave from the master, or other just cause, before she is placed in security, the mariner subjects himself to forfeiture of a month's wages. (Sec. 243 (3).)

752. The seaman is entitled to his food, and want of provi

sions will justify him in leaving the ship. (1 Hagg. 59 and 182; Shee's Abbot, 136.)

753. Cruelty on the part of the master, or an entire change in the destination of the vessel, will also justify departure. (Limland v. Stephens, 3 Esp. 269; Edward v. Trevellick, W. R. vol. ii. 586; Shee's Abbot, ut sup.)

754. It is not desertion if a seaman leave his ship for the purpose of forthwith entering the royal navy; and stipulations for the purpose of defeating the proviso of the Act to this effect are not only void, but they subject the master or owner who has caused them to be inserted in the agreement to a penalty of twenty pounds. (Sec. 214.)

755. It has been decided by the Court of Admiralty, that if a woman does the work, she is entitled to claim the wages of a mariner. (Jane and Matilda Chandler, 1 Hagg. Ad. Rep. 187.)

756. As the chief aim of the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876 (39 and 40 Vict. c. 80) is the protection of the lives of seamen, its main provisions may be indicated here. Sending or taking a ship to sea in an unseaworthy condition, unless where proved to have been in the circumstances reasonable and justifiable, is a misdemeanour; and it is an implied condition, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, in every seaman's engagement, that the owner, master, and all others concerned, shall use all reasonable means to have the ship in seaworthy condition, but exempting them from liability where the reverse was reasonable and justifiable. (Secs. 4, 5.) The Board of Trade may detain ships deemed unseaworthy for survey; for which purpose it provides for the appointment of Courts, and prescribes procedure. This may be done on the complaint of any one, who may, however, be required to give caution, unless where the complainers are one-fourth, being not less than three, of the crew. Grain cargo may not be carried in bulk; deck cargoes are subject to dues as if added to the registered tonnage; and heavy penalties are