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It may be said, Why do not the consuls prevent masters of vessels from thus leaving their seamen behind? But how can they? Our present laws give them no such power and no means to do so; and what can a consul do when seamen, who are thus left behind by shipmasters in foreign ports, are brought to him after the vessel has sailed by the police authorities, sick and destitute, other than to provide for them at the expense of the government?

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It frequently happens that a shipmaster knows more of maritime laws and consular duties than a consul, and will interpret the same to his own advantage, and the consul becomes but the tool of the shipmaster.

All honor is due to the respectable and honest portion of the American shipmasters (and there are many such) that matters are not much worse than they are. They complain, however, dreadfully, and I think with justice, of the inefficiency of our present maritime laws, the trouble they have with seamen, the difficulty of getting good men, and the extravagant wages and advances they have to pay in most of our ports at home, while the ships of other nations are better manned, with a larger number of better men, at much less expense. If it was not that the American ship-builder produces a better class of vessels, and which sail faster, and that the American shipmasters are in general more clever than those of most other nations, our mercantile marine would soon dwindle down to mere nothing. Already, in many ports in Europe and elsewhere, insu rance companies charge higher rates of premium for merchandise shipped in American vessels, and which drives our vessels entirely out of these trades, and all only because our vessels are badly manned. This shows that our maritime laws and our consular establishment have not been kept in pace with the requirements of the present age.

In my opinion, we ought to revise our maritime laws totally, and take the lately revised laws of the continental states of Europe for our guide.

I think we have followed the English parliamentary laws hitherto too exclusively, and our legislators should study more particularly the enactments of the forty legislative assemblies of continental Europe, and they would receive much valuable information from the same. For, while the time of our legislators has for some years past been necessarily occupied with discussing the slavery and other great political questions, the legislative assemblies of Europe have, particularly since 1848, matured an immense amount of practical legislation and laws, more perfect than the world has ever seen before; and amongst the best of these are the laws regulating commerce, shipping, exchange, the civil service, &c., &c. All these laws should by this time have been made easily accessible to our legislators, by being translated and sent home, immediately after they are enacted, by our consuls in the respective countries.

I am well aware of the difficulty of getting laws for the regulation of commerce and shipping framed and enacted by Congress, because but few of the members are practically acquainted with the subject, and all dread the severe task and the spending of their time to study the same, their work in the committees being already very laborious; and I would therefore respectfully make the suggestion that the same method be adopted by our Congress as by the different legislative assemblies of Germany-that is, by appointing a regular commission, in the manner of our Court of Claims, composed of gentlemen of talent and learning, whose business it should be to edit and frame all drafts of laws which may be put before the same by any department of our government, or by Congress, or its committees. The commissioners then would not only examine the laws of all other nations on similar subjects, but also examine persons who are practically acquainted with the matter in question, and draft the bills for submission to Congress and its committees. Not only would labor be saved thereby to the gentlemen in Congress, but also a much more perfect system of law-making would be the consequence.

Having now tried to give what information I am possessed of on the subject of the inquiry, I will endeavor to point out such modifications of our laws as are in my opinion necessary, amongst others, to reduce the expenditure for the relief and protection of American seamen abroad, and at the same time to increase the amount of money collected for the seamen's relief fund.

1. All mariners below the rank of master should be viewed, during the time they are in service on board of American vessels, somewhat like minors—that is to say, the government to act, through its officers of the customs at home and its consular officers abroad, as their guardian. No contract made nor receipt given by mariners while in such service, or going into or out of the same, should be binding, except when given in the presence, and under the supervision of an authorized officer of the government. (Such is now the law of France, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.) This is the only way of preventing all illegal shipping and discharging and paying off of seamen at home and abroad. It would make it the interest of shipinasters to pursue a proper and legal course in their transactions with their crews.

2. It should be made unlawful to pay any wages in advance to such mariners. It is better for the shipmaster or shipowner to pay a direct bonus to the shipping-masters or the boarding-house keepers for their assistance in procuring

seamen.

3. The form and conditions of the so-called shipping articles should be prescribed by law or regulation.

4. A penalty should be inflicted on every mariner who hires himself as an able seaman, or for any other special duty on a vessel, and afterwards proves to be incompetent to perform what he has hired himself for; and he should be liable to be reduced in rank and pay upon proper proof, by a consul abroad or an authorized officer at home, but with the privilege of subsequent appeal to a higher tribunal.

5. The law requiring three months' extra wages to be paid by masters of vessels for every seaman discharged in a foreign port, and which law often operates too hard on shipmasters and shipowners, and is therefore much evaded, should be so modified that the three months' wages be always required to be paid by masters, unless they can find employment on board of an American vessel for the American seaman, and employment on board of foreign ships for the foreign seaman, at corresponding wages, always, however, only with the sanction of the consular officer, and who take the reasonable wishes and the interest and the welfare of the seaman into consideration; and the master should in these cases have to pay a reasonable amount to the seaman, as well as to the consul, for the benefit of the seamen's relief fund, say about one-half month's wages to each.

pounds of beef or

6. The quantity and kind of victuals the mariners are entitled to should also be regulated by law, as all other nations have done; and this law should be printed upon the so-called shipping articles, amongst other conditions, which are signed by the mariners. For instance, it should be clearly stated that every mariner was entitled each day to pounds of pork, or, instead, 1 pound of beef, or one pound of pork a day, with one pound of butter a week; also pounds of bread a day, and one-half pound of coffee, and one-quarter pound of tea, and one pound of sugar, or a corresponding quantity of molasses a week, with one sufficient vegetable mess, such as peas, beans, pickled cabbage, (sourkrout,) or flour, every day, together with a sufficient quantity of fresh water for drinking and cooking purposes, and that all should be of good and wholesome quality.

7. The law requiring of American vessels two-thirds of American seamen on board should be repealed, because a sufficient number of American seamen cannot be obtained in many of our ports.

8. To increase the number of native seamen every sea-going vessel should be

compelled by law to have on board a certain number of boys between the ages of twelve and eighteen years, according to the tonnage she is registered for. For instance, under 300 tons, one boy; from 300 to 500 tons, two boys; from 500 to 800 tons, three boys; 800 to 1,100 tons, four boys, &c.; or under 250 tons, one boy; and for every further 250 tons one boy more.

9. No officers should be allowed to ship on board of American vessels in home ports unless they have passed an examination before, and hold a certificate of competency from, a regularly appointed board of commissioners; and such commissioners should be appointed by our government in every important seaport.

10. An officer of the customs should be appointed as shipping inspector and marine magistrate (watershout) in every important seaport, who should have about the same functions in relation to the shipping at home as the consular officers have abroad. No shipping, discharging, or paying off of seamen, nor any contract entered into by the same, in home ports, connected with their wages or service on board of American vessels, should be binding, except when executed before him and under his supervision. This officer should also be empowered to give certificates of American citizenship to the mariners (the so-called protections) instead of the collectors of the ports; and every assumption of a false name by any mariner should be made a misdemeanor, and severely punished by fine and imprisonment. The fees collected by these officers would, if thrown together, in my opinion, be amply sufficient to pay their salaries.

11. A total revision of our consular system, as indicated in the foregoing, and as suggested by me in a memorandum and sketch of a revised consular system, and sent into your department from Elsinore in the

year 1860.

Such are the modifications I would respectfully suggest to be made in our maritime laws and in our laws regulating the consular service, with a view to a reduction of the expenditure for the relief and protection of American seamen abroad.

I feel confident if these modifications of our laws, amongst others, are adopted by our government, that not only the expenditure for the relief and protection of American seamen abroad will be materially reduced, but that at the same time much more, money will be collected for the seamen's relief fund, and also that the fees collected for consular service will be so much increased that both would soon be made self-supporting.

MAY 26, 1862.

The kingdom of Sweden has, during the last twenty-five years, made such remarkable progress in all branches of industry and commerce, that a person like myself, who has only lately arrived in the country, and whose commerce and resources have hitherto been but little known to us Americans, feels at a loss where to commence and which interesting subject to make a report upon first, everything being new, and each branch taking considerable time concerning which to gather the necessary information to enable one to make a valuable and interesting report thereupon; and I feel even now that an attempt to note down facts of sufficient importance for an official report will not do justice to the subject in question.

To show the progress I have spoken of, it is only necessary to enumerate in general terms the increase of the productions and commerce of the country, as, for instance, the production of bar iron, which in 1833 was but 180,000,000 pounds, had increased to 326,000,000 pounds in 1856. The export of grain, principally oats and barley, increased from 360,000 bushels to 4,000,000 bushels during the same time. The export of timber and lumber increased also in the H. Ex. Doc. 63- -20

same period to a five-fold quantity. The manufacture of cotton and linen fabrics has, since 1834, also been developed in an unprecedented degree, being now nearly six-fold to what it was in that time. In 1834 there was 323.000 rix dollars cotton yarn spun, but in 1856 the cotton mills of Sweden produced cotton yarn to the amount of 6,340,000 rix dollars; and so the productions of the machine shops increased from 78,000 to 2,430,000 rix dollars. In the same ratio did the foreign commerce increase, for in 1856 the total commerce was four and a half times greater than in 1834. In ten years, from 1846 to 1856, the exports exceeded the imports to the amount of 34,000,000 rix dollars. The shipping also shared largely in the general prosperity; for in 1834 Sweden had but 1,809 vessels, of 153,194 tons burden, while in 1856 it had 3,020 vessels, of 333,102 tous burden, and, besides, 147 steamers, with 6,594 horsepower.

Such was the prosperous position of the industry and commerce of Sweden when, in the fall of 1857, the great money crisis broke in upon the same, and but for the prompt aid rendered by the state, as well as by associations of wealthy men both in Stockholm and Gottenburg, its effect, bad as it was, would have been much more disastrous. It checked, however, materially the industry and manufacture all over the country. For instance, the cotton and woollen factories of Norrkjoping produced, for three millions of rix dollars, less cloth in 1858 than the year previous. The imports also fell off very much; Gottenburg, which imported in 1856 16,500,000 pounds of sugar, imported in 1857 but little over 11,000,000 pounds. The exports of Gottenburg fell off almost as much, for in 1856 this city exported 93,000,000 pounds of bar iron, 259,000 dozen planks and deals, against only 72,000 pounds of bar iron, and 205,000 dozen planks and deals, in 1858; and so in the ratio declined the commerce of other ports and inland places in Sweden, creating inconveniences and distress.

The large factories and iron-works, however, many of them belonging to incorporated companies with large capital, withstood the crisis better than was expected. None of them stopped altogether, although some of the cotton mills and cloth factories worked short time. The iron mines were worked with an undiminished number of laborers, and thus in two years time, in 1860, we see that the commerce of Sweden had almost come up to the same height that it was before the crisis.

Gottenburg, particularly in the beginning of the crisis, suffered very much in consequence of a system of blank credit which its merchants enjoyed at Hamburg. The crisis checking this very abruptly, and the failure of some of the largest firms, caused the ruin of others. Trade having lost its accustomed facility, declined for a time in a most fearful degree, as will most clearly be seen by the table here given, but it soon regained all it lost on account of the generally prosperous condition of the country.

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The price of iron declined from 1 to 2 rix dollars per centner, and the price of lumber and freights went down from 25 to 33 per cent. In fact, every branch of commerce suffered; so that the total imports, which amounted to 105,844,000 rix dollars in 1856, and to 85,290,000 rix dollars in 1857, and so the exports, which in 1856 were 92,433,000 rix dollars, and in 1857 78,434,000 rix dollars, declined in 1858 to 58,844,000 rix dollars.

The revival of the commerce of Sweden during the years 1859 and 1860 is almost equally astonishing, and its sudden depression will be made by me the subject of another report. The rebellion in the southern part of the United States is now, however, again putting a check upon it, not only by the want of a supply of cotton, but also that the principal exports of Sweden iron and lumber do not find such ready markets and remunerating prices as heretofore.

The stock on hand of American cotton is fast dwindling away, and although the factories have commenced working East India cotton, which is a very poor substitute, I fear many of them will have to stop before long unless they receive new supplies soon. If it had not been that the money of 1857-'58 had caused a large stock of raw cotton and cotton manufactures to have accumulated all over Europe, by having checked the consumption, Europe would not, in my opinion, have been able to get along for such a length of time without a fresh supply of the raw material. The large stocks on hand enabled the manufacturer to curtail and economize, and work off his old stock at good profits.

NORWAY.

BERGEN.-O. E. DREUZER, Consul.

JUNE 2, 1862.

I have also the honor to submit later corrections of heights and mountains, and remarkable places visible at sea, on the southwest coast of Norway, (enclosure No. 1;) also, notes concerning the variation and inclination of the magnetic needle; also, of tide-water, temperature, &c.

Geographical positions and heights of mountains visible at sea, and of some other remarkable places on the southwest coast of Norway.

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H. denotes Ch. Hausteen, professor, superintendent of the trigonometrical survey, Nor

way.

W. denotes H. Welles, captain in royal navy, author of the chart of the Norwegian coast, from Egmund to Hurdenger.

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