of the ship. The first-named person was insured in the Eligible Insurance Association of North Shields, but neither party gave notice to the Association of the transaction. The ship was lost, and the Court held that the assignor could recover. From which it would appear that in spite of the "selling clause," the assignor having a good interest when he commenced his insurance, his right to recover remained, in spite of the assignment.

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PART THE SEVENTH.

OF ARBITRATION.

It has been seen that the policy is the instrument which represents the contract between the insurer and the assured. In its language it is obsolete, in its scope it is contracted; it is too long to be simple, and too short to be explicit. In its continued use some expressions are conventionally allowed to be daily contradicted, whilst on the other hand a question of law may be raised on almost every word it contains. Its small base is the foundation of a thousand legal decisions; and each new judgment delivered leaves open a fresh question. Like a piece of old china, it is venerable from the number of its mended fractures.

Occasionally, Insurance Companies in assuming it for the text of their particular contract have made a few timid alterations in its reading; they strike out its pious expressions, and insert the Running-down clause. The Clubs or Insurance Associations have gone farther; and although the old marine policy generally forms part of their contract, it appears to be retained mainly on account of stamp-duty, but the

"Rules" give the meaning of the mutual indemnification intended.

The claims of assured persons on their underwriters are of the most various description. Each claim is reduced to writing, and the document which sets it forth is called the Statement or the Adjustment. Formerly, before commerce had expanded into its present gigantic proportions, the assured used to make up his own claim, or get some more experienced neighbour to do it for him. Afterwards, certain persons doing business at Lloyd's became esteemed for their knowledge and experience in such matters, and to them were entrusted many of the claims to get settled. Until about forty years ago the business of making up adjustments was combined with that of an insurance broker; but at that period there was sufficient business to establish Average Adjusting as a separate profession. There is There is a great objection to having statements made up by an insurance broker, as there would be in having them arranged by an underwriter, because they would in either case be ex parte, and could not fail to be differently tinctured in some degree with the pardonable and natural views which persons take who see the same object from different positions.

The persons who devote themselves to this profession are called Average Adjusters, or Average Staters. In the majority of cases they decide the questions which emerge, and they make the numerous calculations which are involved in claims on goods. The position of the Average Stater is not official or

authoritative; and both Underwriter and Assured are at liberty to dissent from his decisions, and raise questions on each separate case. The respective rights of two parties bound by a contract so susceptible of misunderstanding as that of the policy of insurance are necessarily often ill-defined, and become the grounds of serious discussion; and in matters relating to marine insurance there is frequently the collision of law and custom. Then there is the consideration of foreign codes and usage; for although English underwriters are in strictness bound only by the laws of our own country, yet our system may be said to make nutations to foreign practice, which is too large and important to be ignored.

Some remedy is therefore required for the settlement of disputed claims independently of the ultimate appeal to law. In some cases, it is true, a legal decision may be the most satisfactory solution; but as the process is very expensive, and the position of litigants generally indicates or leads to some hostility of feeling, and inasmuch as claims are very numerous -of hourly occurrence, so that it may probably be stated that a claim large or small arises upon one policy in every five effected, taking the various trades together a constant recourse to law would be most undesirable, and must eventually overthrow the system of insurance. Such a remedy is found under the head of Arbitration. There is something quite consistent with friendly feeling in offering to leave to another's decision the opposing views which two persons have entertained upon a difficult subject. And

when it is borne in mind how seldom questions arising out of the transactions we have been considering are pure and simple, or resolve themselves into the mere form of "yes" or "no," but, on the other hand, how often little equitable rights are found on both sides and accessory matters are discovered, which have to be discussed pro and con, and all bring in their weight, it is not wonderful that arbitration has been a favourite resource, and has been a valuable reconciling medium between men of business.

Number of Arbitrators.

When it is determined to leave a matter to arbitration or to reference,-for it is indifferent which term is used, the first step is to decide on an arbitrator or arbitrators. Certain qualifications are necessary in those who accept the office, of which integrity, independence, and knowledge of the subject about which the disagreement arises are the principal. It is usual either to have the case decided by a single arbitrator or by three; experience having shown that two referees, if they once take opposite views, might never be able to bring the matter to a conclusion. For as the award would require to be signed by both, that could only be done by one of the two being induced to change his particular ideas and being won over to those of his colleague. Whenever, therefore, two arbitrators are named it is always with the condition that they may or must choose a third, or an umpire, otherwise called an oversman, or by another term now obsolete, daysman. The distinction between