course is advisable. By not sending the cargo on shore a much greater expense is avoided in landing and reloading than arises when the merchandise is only put into and taken out of the craft. It is customary therefore, in adjusting, to divide the large expense of lighter hire, and consider a portion of it as equivalent to the increased expenses of landing and reshipping which might have been incurred if so determined on; and thus to charge to the cargo, specially, a sum representing warehouse rent only.

Cutting through Ice.

A vessel becoming ice-bound or caught in a drift of ice, and being thereby in danger, when relieved from her situation by the assistance of men cutting the ice and bringing her through to a harbour or clear water, the expense of so doing is to be borne by General Contribution.

The cutting through ice in more ordinary circumstances to enter or go out of harbour, was formerly classed as Petty Average, and the shipowner and proprietor of cargo paid it between them without reference to their underwriters. But latterly there has been a tendency to look upon this expense as more nearly approaching extraordinary assistance: and, if attended by any accessory circumstances of danger, it has been allowed as General Average.

OF CERTAIN DOUBTFUL, UNSETTLED, AND REJECTED SUBJECTS OF GENERAL AVERAGE.

Wages of the Master and Crew.

It is in the particular of wages and provisions for the ship's company during the time she is under average, that the English custom differs from the American and from nearly all foreign usage. As soon as a ship's head is diverted from her proper course for the purpose of going into a port of distress, and until she has regained her homeward direction after leaving port, the wages and provisions are by foreign practice chargeable in General Average. We reject this expense on the ground that an owner is bound by law to keep his vessel manned until she has completed her voyage, and that therefore he has not the option of dismissing the crew. All that can be said is that the protraction of the voyage is an unfortunate circumstance for the owner, but that he has not a remedy; that protraction may be equally unfortunate for the proprietors of the cargo, whose goods, if perishable, may be much depreciated by the delay; and they may lose their market from the same cause. Foreigners and some of our own colonists do not see the subject in the same light, however, and claim the wages and victuals in their adjustments. Many of our own insurance clubs have followed their example, and permit by their rules the wages of ships under detention to be allowed in the average, and they even arrange a scale per diem to remunerate the owner whose ship is detained. Although a vessel be

unfortunately detained in some port all the winter, icebound, the owner has no remedy against his underwriters, and still less claim for contribution from the co-adventurers, since there is no voluntary sacrifice on his part, but an inevitable necessity. The only question that can arise in the case is, whether this position is altered by a ship being ice-bound in a port where she has been obliged to put in by circumstances which make her expenses going there General Average. The answer is in the negative; for neither by our law or custom does detention, with the one or two exceptions I have mentioned, give any claim by which the owner can shift his burden on to others. The exception which Mr. Benecké proposes seems to me a distinction without a difference.

Parts of a Ship used for Fuel.

Before the whaling trade of this country in the North Seas was almost entirely abandoned, it frequently happened that ships were caught in the ice and remained fast-bound prisoners all the winter. Not always being prepared for this contingency, the crews were often put to serious inconvenience and suffering from want of fuel. When everything in the way of firing had been consumed, they were driven to make use of spars, boats and other materials to burn. It has been much discussed whether these do not legitimately form a subject for General Contribution. The lives of the crew would in all probability have been lost without this sacrifice, and the loss of the ship would in general have followed

the loss of the crew, whose lives therefore, even on the most sordid principle, it was important to preserve. But to persons most conversant with these questions the case does not appear to be made out sufficiently. It is one of those unfortunate situations where there seems to be no alternative, and the owner must bear the expense.

Cutting away Things already Lost.

Though to cut away parts of the tackle and apparel of the ship for the common preservation and by a deliberate choice is a most obvious ground for General Contribution, yet there is a cutting away which is not applicable to General Average. The great principle of looking to the primary cause of every act is the safest guide to direct us in the matter. If, therefore, a mast be carried overboard with the sails and rigging attached, and those objects might have been recovered and saved but that it became necessary, to prevent the wreck injuring the ship's sides and bottom, to cut the whole away, the loss of the sails is not the subject of General Average. The original cause is the accidental loss of the mast; and although the loss of the sails and rigging was made absolute and complete by the act of cutting away the wreck, the true nature of that loss must be looked for in the original incident, and the cutting away afterwards must be considered only the consummation of the inchoate act. So, too, when sails have been split by the wind, and in order to get free from them quickly and prevent their injuring the masts, &c., they are cut away, the

first cause of loss is to be considered; and the completion of their destruction, though voluntary, is a matter of mere prudence, hastening the entire loss of that which would be inevitably lost without the step taken but in a less expeditious and in a more dangerous manner.

So, too, a boat, or other article, broken adrift by the sea and beating about the deck, and thrown overboard because it is impossible to secure it again, is not General Average. The act is prudential but not elective, and so not entitled to General Contribution.

I do not say but that there are some exceptional cases which, approaching the circumstances mentioned, tend more to voluntary acts than simple necessary measures, and may properly rank with General Average. And there are a few instances where some division is capable of being made in the cost of the thing sacrificed, a part being carried to General Average, and a part applying to owners or underwriters.

Ransom.

I have already mentioned that a sum of money given to an enemy by whom a ship has been captured is held not to be admissible as General Average. This is excluded on the grounds of patriotism and national expediency, and not because it is inconsistent with the principles of General Average.

Defending a Ship against Enemies.

Nor are the damages received by a vessel whilst defending herself against an enemy claimable as