a Bill of Discovery, in any Court of Equity. The Owners, on exhibiting every such Bill, are to swear, that they are not guilty of any collusion on the Subject.

It is expressly declared, that the Acts shall not lessen or discharge any remedy against the Master or Mariners.

THUS has the Author endeavoured to bring under the review of his Commercial and Nautical Readers, that species of Information with respect to the Laws of Commerce, Shipping, and Navigation, which cannot fail to be interesting, and of course likely to be useful and advantageous.

The mass of Information, which is thus compressed within so narrow compass, will prove also a convenience to Men of Business, whose time does not admit of that minute Investigation, to which it is only necessary to resort, where cases occur requiring legal discussion.

As a Directory through the Labyrinth of Commercial and Nautical Jurisprudence, this General View will be found desireable. It will require but a very short time to fix upon the mind a knowledge of what is required of Commercial and Nautical Men to perform; while a Beacon is held out, shewing the Pains and Penalties which it is necessary to avoid.

In no Work, which has come under the Author's notice, notice, has the same comprehensive View been given of this interesting Subject, which may not be the less valuable, as much pains have been bestowed in stripping the acts of their Technical Phraseology and Verbiage, and reducing the extracts as much as possible, without doing violence to Accuracy in the Abridgements, to which the greatest attention has been paid.

It remains therefore, only for the Author to close this Work by a Summary View of such particular Laws, as may be considered as a Ground-Work for a Compilation, long and ardently called for by the Ship-Masters trading to the River Thames, namely, The Rules and Regulations of the Port of London, which will form the subject of the following and last Chapter.

CHAP.

i

!

CHAP. XVII.

Introduction, explanatory of the advantages of an Abstract of the Regulations applicable to the River Thames:-1st. Legislative Rules respecting Pilots. -2nd. Revenue Officers.-3d. The Passage from Gravesend to London. -Ath. Guns Shotted in the River.-5th Gunpowder, and when and where to be Landed.-6th. Ships Mooring in St. Saviour's Dock.-7th. Vessels from Foreign parts. 8th. Ships Laden with Tobacco. 9th. Harbour Masters.10th. Principal Regulations to be observed on the arrival of Ships at the Port of Discharge. 11th. By Vessels taking in Cargoes.-12th. Ships in Ballast.-13th. Ballast for Ships outward-bound.14th. The Heating or Melting Pitch, or other Combustible Matter. -15th. Bumboats. - 16th. Bye Laws of the Trinity Corporation, as they relate to the River Thames.-17th. Regulations of the General Meeting of the West-India Merchants, respecting Ships in that Trade.-18th. Legislative Regulations respecting Quays, Wharfs, and Wharfingers. -19th. Respecting the Hiring of Seamen.-20th. -Incroachments and Nuisances on the River Thames. -And Lastly, General Observations on the Penal Statutes applicable to the River; the means of Prevention; and the mode of obtaining relief when Offences are committed.

!

AN

AN ardent desire to convey that species of infor

mation, within the shortest possible compass, which may protect Ship-masters and others, trading to, or employed on the River Thames, against a variety of penalties, has produced the following Compendium, which may, in most respects, be considered as comprehending the principal Rules of the Port. If, by such a compilation, containing a concise Abstract of the Laws and Usages as they apply to the River Thames, good order should be promoted, in a greater degree than heretofore, and innocent and uninformed Ship-Masters and others instructed, with respect to the duties incumbent on them to perform, and the offences they ought to avoid, a considerable object will be gained in the improvement of the Police of the River Thames; as, by this species of knowledge, the unwary are forewarned, and a prospect opened, through the same medium, of lessening the demand for punishment, and diminishing the convictions on penal offences-while a greater degree of security is established with respect to the danger of conflagration.

Impelled by a strong sense of the importance of the object explained, and by an anxious wish, in some degree, to supply a deficiency, which has been long felt as a grievance, an attempt is now made to arrange, under the following Heads, a sketch of what may not improperly be denominated,

AN ABSTRACT OF THE LEGISLATIVE,

AND OTHER

RULES AND REGULATIONS'

OF THE

PORT OF LONDON,

For the Information of Ship-Masters, and others frequenting the Port of London, or employed in different Pursuits on the River Thames, or the Wharfs, and Landing Places adjacent thereto.

SECT. I.-Respecting Pilots.

Every person taking upon himself the charge of any Ship or Vessel (except Colliers and Coasters) approaching the River Thames or Medway, or departing therefrom down the said Rivers, or through the North Channel, to or by Orfordness, or round the Long Sand-Head into the Downs, or down the South Channel into the Downs, or from or by Orfordness up the North Channel, or the River Thames, or Medway, must be piloted only by persons duly licenced and authorized under the Seal of the Cor*poration of the Trinity-House of Deptford Strond. By the Act of 5 Geo. II. cap. 20. every Pilot taking charge of Vessels as aforesaid, without being duly licenced, forfeits 20l. The Rates of Pilotage are settled by the said Corporation of the TrinityHouse, under the Authority of the above-mentioned Act.

L

Pilots