Mr. Plimsoll, though sharply and even bitterly opposed by the
Government, was very near indeed to obtaining a triumph for his Merchant Shipping Survey Bill on Wednesday. He obtained 170 votes for it to 173 against it, and was thus beaten only by three votes. The division was not a party one, Mr. Forsyth (Con- servative) seconding Mr. Plimsoll, and Mr. A. Peel and Mr- Leievre voting with the Government against him. The large vote for Mr. Plimsoll did not in all probability mean that his supporters generally agreed with the details of his Bill, but that they admitted the array of facts showing the peril encountered by-our merchant seamen in unseaworthy vessels, and were not content with the eternal plea for delay founded on the expected Report of the Royal Commission. The President of the Board of Trade (Sir C. Adderley) had himself admitted, in a speech of the 5th May,_ that of 264 vessels detained by the department as
unseaworthy, only 13 had been found fit to go to sea. With such confessions from the Board of Trade, it was not easy to justify an indefinite delay on the old plea, and Mr. Plimsoll must have given the Board of Trade a fright which will do them good. There is something scandalous in this languor of delibera- tion in relation to a system which is costing so many sturdy English lives every year.
Previous page
