are public property." The Lord Justice then proceeded to discuss the third question, whether the immunity of the Parlement Belge was lost by reason of the ship having been used for trading purposes. Having expressed some doubts as to the competency of the Court to make enquiry as to the uses of the ship, after the ship had been declared in the usual manner by an independent Sovereign to be a public vessel of the State and to be used for national purposes, the Lord Justice proceeded to express the opinion of the Court that the Parlement Belge had been mainly used for the purposes of carrying the mails, and only subserviently to that main object for purposes of trade; that the carrying of passengers and merchandise had been subordinated to the duty of carrying the mails, and the steamship had not thereby been brought within the category of a mere trading ship, as she was used substantially for national purposes. It may deserve remark, although the Lord Justice thought it unnecessary to allude to the fact, that the Crown advocates, in the case of the Prins Frederik, had thought it wise to combat the possible objection that the Prins Frederik was not entitled to the character of a ship of war by reason of her having valuable spices, &c., on board as cargo, and Dr. Arnold, the Admiralty advocate, had maintained that such a circumstance did not affect the public character of the Prins Frederik, and that as she was sailing in the service of the State, under the flag and commission of the State, she was entitled to all the privileges of a ship of war, and to exemption from arrest by the civil process of the Admiralty Court.

We welcome this Judgment of the Supreme Court of Judicature with the highest satisfaction, first, as showing that the principles. of jurisprudence, which Lord Stowell administered in the ancient High Court of Admiralty of England, are fully appreciated by the Lords Justices of the Supreme Court, to which all appeals in Admiralty cases have been recently transferred by the Judicature Acts, and that they are resolved, as an Appellate Court, to constrain the Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice to maintain those principles, and to apply them with due discrimina

tion to new cases as occasion may require; and, secondly, because they have enunciated, in clear language, the true grounds

upon which a foreign ship may claim the privilege of so-called extra-territoriality when she is lying within British waters, namely, when she is a public ship of a foreign State, employed for its public uses, from which she cannot be diverted without prejudice to the independence and sovereign authority of the State itself, whose commission to her commander is an adequate warrant of her character. It is not the circumstance that she is a ship of war which entitles her to an exemption from the jurisdiction of all other States, but the circumstance that she is a public ship, which represents the sovereignty of her own State. We may add that this cardinal principle of international jurisprudence has a farther illustration in the practice of nations in time of war, according to which it is held to be consistent with the neutrality of a State to extend to a public ship of a belligerent State an hospitality within its ports, which it is at liberty to deny altogether to a belligerent privateer.

TRAVERS TWISS.

LIGHTS OF FISHING VESSELS.

ORD SANDON, the President of the Board of Trade, has decided that the new regulations relating to the lights of fishing vessels, contained in Article 10, shall be put off for another year. This being so, our readers will have to bear in mind that the repealed Article 9 of the old regulations will be resuscitated, and will remain in force for a time. As there is very great confusion in the matter in the minds not only of fishermen themselves, and of the masters and officers of other ships, but also in the minds of lawyers and in Courts of Law, concerning the lights that fishing vessels are now really required to carry, we may be doing useful service in making a plain statement of the law, the facts, and the practice. This we are enabled the more easily to do at this moment owing to an exceeding valuable report (just presented to Parliament), and made by Mr. Thomas Gray and Captain Murray, of the Board of Trade, and Captain eller, of the Trinity House.

The existing regulations applicable to fishing vessels are as follows:

"Art. 3. Seagoing steamships when under weigh shall carry :

"(a.) At the Foremast Head, a bright white light, so fixed as to show an uniform and unbroken light over an arc of the horizon of 20 points of the compass; so fixed as to throw the light 10 points on each side of the ship, viz., from right ahead to 2 points abaft the beam, on either side; and of such a character as to be visible on a dark night, with a clear atmosphere, at a distance of at least five miles:

"(b.) On the Starboard Side, a green light so constructed as to show an uniform and unbroken light over an arc of the horizon of 10 points of the compas; so fixed as to throw the light from right ahead to 2 points abaft the beam on the starboard-side; and of such a character as to be visible on a dark night, with a clear atmosphere, at a distance of at least two miles :

"(c.) On the Port Side, a red light, so constructed as to show an uniform and unbroken light over an arc of the horizon of 10 points of the compass; so fixed as to throw the light from right ahead to 2 points abaft the beam on the port-side; and of such a character as to be visible on a dark night, with a clear atmosphere, at a distance of at least two miles :

"(d.) The said green and red side-lights shall be fitted with inboard screens, projecting at least three feet forward from the light, so as to prevent these lights from being seen across the bow."

"Art. 5. Sailing ships under weigh, or being towed, shall carry the same lights as steamships under weigh, with the exception of the white mast-head lights, which they shall never carry.

"Art. 6. Whenever, as in the case of small vessels during bad weather, the green and red lights cannot be fixed, these lights shall be kept on deck, on their respective sides of the vessel, ready for instant exhibition; and shall, on the approach of or to other vessels, be exhibited on their respective sides in sufficient time to prevent collision, in such manner as to make them most visible, and so that green light shall not be seen on the port-side, nor the red light on the starboard-side.

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"To make the use of these portable lights more certain and easy, the lanterns containing them shall each be painted outside with the colour of the light they respectively contain, and shall be provided with suitable screens.

"Art. 7. Ships, whether steamships or sailing ships, when at anchor in roadsteads or fairways shall exhibit, where it can best be seen, but at a height not exceeding twenty feet above the hull, a white light, in a globular lantern of eight inches in diameter, and so constructed as to show a clear uniform and unbroken light visible all round the horizon, and at a distance of at least one mile."

"Art. 9. Open fishing boats and other open boats shall not be required to carry the side-lights required for other vessels; but shall, if they do not carry such lights, carry a lantern having a green slide on the one side and a red slide on the other side; and on the approach of or to other vessels, such lantern shall be exhibited in sufficient time to prevent collision, so that the green light shall not be seen on the port-side, nor the red light on the starboard-side.

Fishing vessels and open boats when at anchor, or attached to their nets and stationary, shall exhibit a bright white light.

"Fishing vessels and open boats shall, however, not be prevented from using a flare-up in addition, if considered expedient."

If the law, such as it is, were complied with, there might be less difficulty than there is; but the law is not complied with. First, as to trawlers, the Report points out

"Under the above rules which form the present law"(1.) A trawler that is not stationary' when her trawl is down, is required to show her green and red side-lights properly fixed and fitted with screens in their places, unless the vessel is so small and the weather is so bad that she cannot keep them up, and in that case, and during the bad weather, she is to carry them on deck at their proper sides, ready for instant exhibition.

"(2.) When she is at anchor, or when her trawl is down and

she is stationary, she is not now required to show her sidelights; but is to show a bright white light, in an all-round' lantern.

"(3.) She may at any time, and whether at anchor or under way, show a flare-up if expedient.

"Existing Practice.

"What the fishermen inform us a trawler actually does now, as a rule and in face of the law, is to show when her trawl is down and when she is at work, that is to say, when she is going over the ground at from half a knot to three knots an hour, a bright white light in an all-round' lantern. The method of carrying the present illegal light while at work, will be seen on reference to Diagrams numbered 1, 2, and 3 in the Appendix to the Report. This light, as will be seen, is carried at a crane at the fore-masthead in some cases, and in others at the crosstrees, sometimes on the weather crosstree and sometimes on the lee one; and the vessel sometimes shows a flare-up, but she rarely shows her coloured side-lights. In some exceptional cases, however, we learnt that a trawler has, when at work, shown her side-lights as well as the illegal white masthead light. Thus, when she shows the white light only, she appropriates to herself the light of a ship at anchor, or a stationary ship, or the light of a pilot vessel; and when she shows, in addition to her side-lights, the white masthead or crosstree light, she assumes the distinctive lights of a steamship under way. When her trawl catches in the ground and she in consequence becomes immovable, she displays two white lights. It is not surprising that approaching merchant ships are puzzled: and that collisions occasionally occur.

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"At the same time we think that the very fact of the trawlers exhibiting this white light at their masthead shows that they are of opinion that their safety is imperfectly provided for by the sidelights and flare-up light of the existing regulations."

Secondly, with reference to drifters

"As regards the lights of these vessels there is also at present some confusion and law breaking, which is not altogether unreasonable under the circumstances.