t the same time I am convinced that a union conducted on
the plan of the one I have been describing is capable of
doing much towards training an efficient race of seamen, and
I hope Mr. Wilson, or somebody else, will give it a trial.

Since the above was written Lord Brassey, by the invitation
of the Newcastle Chamber of Commerce, has read a carefully
prepared paper, in the Guildhall, to a large audience of
shipowners and merchants, on the best means of feeding the
Mercantile Marine and the Royal Navy with seamen. Lord
Brassey must have been at infinite trouble in getting the
material for his paper, and, notwithstanding the errors of
fact and of reasoning in it, I think the shipping community,
and indeed the public at large, owe him their hearty thanks
for giving so important a subject an opportunity of being
discussed. So far as his advocacy of the establishment of
training vessels for the supply of seamen to the Royal Navy
is concerned, I have nothing to say against it. The lads in
those ships are trained by naval officers, under naval
customs and discipline, and there should be some recruiting
ground of the kind for that service. But Lord Brassey
advocates it for the Mercantile Marine also. He suggests a
plan of subsidy to be paid to the owner or the apprentice,
and that the lad after serving four years, should be
available for service in the Royal Navy. But to begin with,
it may be objected that men trained in Royal Navy discipline
and habits never mix well with men trained in the other
service; their customs and habits of life and work are quite
different to those of the merchant seaman. It used to be a
recognised belief that the sailor of the merchantman could
adapt himself with striking facility to the work of the
Royal Navy and its discipline, but the Navy trained man was
never successful aboard a cargo vessel. The former
impression originated, no doubt, during the good old times
when it was customary for prowling ruffians from men-of-war
to drag harmless British citizens from their homes to man
H.M. Navy, and all the world knows how quickly they adapted
themselves to new conditions, and how well they fought
British battles! But what a sickening reality to ponder
over, that less than a century ago the powerful caste in
this country were permitted, in defiance of law, to have
press-gangs formed for the purpose of kidnapping respectable
seamen into a service that was made at that time a barbarous
despotism b