The following is a copy of the Collision Clause recommended by the Committee for managing the affairs of Lloyd's, after communication with the "Liver pool Underwriters' Association" and the "Salvage Association." "And it is further agreed, that if the ship hereby insured shall come into collision with any other ship or vessel, and the insured shall in consequence thereof become liable to pay, and shall pay, to the persons interested in such other ship or vessel, or in the freight thereof, or in the goods or effects on board thereof, any sum or sums of money not exceeding the value of the ship hereby assured, calculated at the rate of eight pounds per ton on her registered tonnage, we will severally pay the assured such proportion of three-fourths of the sum so paid as our respective subscriptions hereto bear to the value of the ship hereby assured, calculated at the rate of eight pounds per ton, or if the value hereby declared amounts to a larger sum, then to such declared value, and in cases where the liability of the ship has been contested with our consent in writing, we will also pay a like proportion of three-fourth parts of the costs thereby incurred, or paid, provided also, that this clause shall in no case extend to any sum which the insured may become liable to pay or shall pay in respect of loss of life or personal injury to individuals for any cause whatsoever." This clause will protect shipowners from all claims arising through or in consequence of collision, except claims relating to loss of life and claims in respect of goods being carried in the ship insured and which may be damaged by the collision. The other parts of the policy explain themselves. CLAIMS IN RESPECT OF RISKS COVERED BY THE POLICY. Whenever any loss happens to the property insured, the first consideration of the assured should be: does the loss arise from any risk covered by the policy? If it does, and the claim is sufficient, he must make his claim within a reasonable time. But if the loss does not arise from any risk so covered he must bear it himself. And should it happen to be a loss which he might have covered, his meditations upon such economy or folly will not be over-pleasant companions; more especially if the loss is a heavy one. Claims under the policy may be divided into— Upon each of which, and also upon the mode of adjusting them, a few observations follow. First :— Claims in respect of an Absolute Total Loss. An actual total loss occurs when the subject-matter ceases to exist. As when a ship is destroyed by explosion, wreck, or other accident causing it to break up. An actual total loss also occurs when the subjectmatter of the insurance ceases to be under the control of the assured, as when a ship founders and sinks in deep water, in this case there will be a total loss of ship, cargo and freight, because although the ship and cargo may be then in existence, it is out of the control of the assured. A ship, therefore, is totally lost whenever she ceases to be a ship, although the whole of the wreck may reach the shore. The cargo is totally lost when it either ceases to exist at all, or its species has entirely changed through the perils insured against. The safety of the ship is said to be the mother of freight, therefore freight is totally lost whenever the ship is prevented by the perils insured against from earning the freight, and that whether the cargo has been actually put on board or not, if the contract for earning the freight has been entered into and the ship was ready to receive it. In every case of actual total loss the assured is entitled to recover the full amount without giving notice of abandonment. When a ship has not been heard of for long after the usual time occupied in making the voyage it was engaged upon, it is treated as a total loss, and paid for as such, subject to repayment in case the ship ever returns. According to a custom at Lloyd's, underwriters are allowed twelve months to pay the claim on a missing ship, though the practice is to pay the claim at a much earlier date. There is no fixed time for considering a vessel lost. D Claims in respect of a Constructive Total Loss. The assured is also entitled to call upon the underwriters to pay for a total loss when in point of fact it is not an actual total loss, but only a constructive one. The following rules will enable owners and masters to understand whether they are entitled to claim for a total or a partial loss: A constructive total loss of a ship takes place whenever by wreck or other casualty she is so broken up as to lose the character of a ship. In other words, whenever by wreck or other casualty it is impossible by repairing a vessel to render it navigable, and it is no longer safe to proceed to complete the voyage it was engaged upon before the accident happened; or, whenever by wreck or other casualty a ship is so injured that the cost of repairing her would so far exceed the value of the ship when repaired that no prudent owner if uninsured would undertake it, there is constructively a total loss. A constructive total loss of the cargo takes place whenever its nature or kind is so far deteriorated or changed as to give it a different character, or when that has happened which must inevitably result in a complete change of species on its arrival at its destination. A constructive total loss of cargo takes place also if without any fault of the assured, goods fall into the hands of parties over which the assured has no control, and from whom he cannot recover them, or if he can recover them he cannot do so within any reasonable time. Freight and profit will be lost if the ship or cargo in or upon which it was to be made is lost either actually or constructively. But it has been held that the owner will not lose his freight in consequence of an interruption of the voyage which is afterwards completed, such as a capture and recapture, provided no fault can be imputed to such owner himself. So if the goods have been thrown overboard for the ship's preservation the merchant must pay freight and be recouped by a general average.— Also if part of the goods be sold for necessary food or the repairing of the ship, the owner pays the merchan the value and receives the freight from him. Upon the maxim that "freight is the mother of wages, "the insurance of a seamen's wages was formerly held to be illegal, because it was for the public good that mariners should be stimulated to exertion—which, but for such a provision, might be evaded—but now by the (17 & 18 Vict. ch. 104, sec. 183) it is enacted "That no right to wages shall be dependent upon the earning of freight; and every seaman and apprentice who would be entitled to demand and recover any wages if the ship in which he had served had earned freight, shall, subject to all other rules of law and conditions applicable to the case, be entitled to claim and recover the same, notwithstanding that freight has not been earned; but in all cases of wreck or loss of the |