RELATING TO MARINE INSURANCE BY M. D. CHALMERS, C.S.I., ASSISTANT PARLIAMENTARY COUNSEL TO THE TREASURY AND DOUGLAS OWEN, OF THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW, SECRETARY OF THE ALLIANCE MARINE AND GENERAL ASSURANCE CO., LTD. LONDON: WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 27, FLEET STREET. 1901. INTRODUCTION. THE large type propositions of this Digest are taken, with a few slight corrections, and with the necessary verbal alterations (such as the substitution of the indicative for the imperative), from the clauses of the Marine Insurance Bill, which was introduced in the House of Lords in 1894, 1895, 1896, and 1899. The object of that Bill was to reproduce as exactly as possible the existing law, without making any attempt to amend it. Lord Herschell, who originally took charge of the Bill, was strongly of opinion that a codifying Bill, in its inception, ought to be a mere reproduction of existing law. If amendments in the law are made in the initial stage, the whole Bill becomes controversial. Any amendment which seems desirable should be deliberately inserted by the Legislature when the Bill is under consideration. In some instances, of course, the Bill has to deal with questions where the law is unsettled, and the framers of the Bill must decide what they believe the law to be. In the Digest, propositions which appear to be unsettled law are included in square brackets, and the doubt is dealt with in the notes. Again, in one or two instances the Lords Select Committee which partially examined the Bill introduced some small amendment in the law. In those cases the |