to shew that the patriotic example of Lord Aberdeen, is worthy of imitation by such noblemen and gentlemen who reside in maritime localities, and upon conspicuous headlands, where simple signals might be established to warn ships at sea, and caution the poor fishermen to look out for squalls. Thus a common flag-staff with a ball at different altitudes might denote change, rising or falling. The upper section or half the spar being white, the lower painted black, or a white flag denoting fair; a red, change; and a blue, foul, or falling barometer; white above blue, barometer high but falling; red above blue, change and falling; blue, above white very low, but rising; and so on for the rising of the mercury. Such signals need not be kept constantly flying, but might also denote the time of day every four hours, or the time of high-water and half tide. This would be a great boon to the fisheries, and to coasters continually navigating our dangerous tide ways and channels; and at particular seasons of the year might be the saving of many valuable lives and much property. There are few maritime towns or villages but could support, by the subscription of a few shillings per week, an old tar to attend to such signals. To all Coast Guard stations it would be easy to the man on watch, and to many of their officers a source of scientific amusement and interest; and a common barometer to each station would be very little expense to the governnment.

I am, &c.,

K. B. MARTIN, Harbour-Master.

THE EARL OF ABERDEEN AND THE SCOTCH FISHERMEN.-The recent melancholy shipwrecks on the coast of Scotland have attracted universal condolence with the unfortunate class of fishermen, for the great periodical suffering which results therefrom. We are glad, however, to announce that the general sympathy has, at least in one instance, been shown in a practical shape, and that the noble and benevolent Earl of Aberdeen has given orders to Mr. West, the well-known optician, of the Strand, for a first-rate barometer, to be placed in a solid block of granite, and to be fixed in a conspicuous and accessible spot on the coast, near Aberdeen, for the sole use and advantage of the fishermen of that neighbourhood. The instrument, which is fitted in a gothic case, made of solid carved oak, surmounted with the earl's coronet, has the advantage of the double verniers for registering from one observation to another.

It is the opinion of numbers of old and experienced seamen that many of the accidents occurring from storms at sea, arise from the want of due observation of the barometer, and if the same attention were paid to the indication of the coming gale given by the barometer, as was observed on board Lord Collingwood's ship, we should not have to record so many grievous disasters to our intrepid but careless seafaring populaation. In Lord Collingwood's ship, we are told, it was the custom of

This would be of great advantage in the herring season as those craft have a large fleet of nets always out while driving, and would be warned to get in a part, if not the whole, before the heaviest of a gale came on.

every officer of the watch to take a register of the barometer on going on duty, and it was generally remarked that by so doing they frequently, by reducing sail, &c., were enabled to guard against accident.

We have no doubt that this very appropriate and handsome present of the Earl of Aberdeen will be duly valued by his lordship's tenantry; and we are sure that the hardy and fearless race of fishermen will not fail to evince their gratitude to the noble earl, by strictly attending to the indications of the barometer, and thus save their property and their lives from destruction, and their wives and families from destitution.

CONSULAR PAPERS.-No. II.

SIR.-I trust that the valuable concession made to British Consuls in page 473 of your September number, wherein you express a desire to render your periodical useful to their important branch of the public service, will induce them to have recourse to you for the mutual communication of their various cases.

They will require, in addition, a brief record of magisterial and judicial decisions, relative to merchant ships and seamen, to assist them in their judicial functions; and a notice of any privileges granted in England to foreign Consuls, as precedents whereby to extend their local efficiency.

I beg leave to offer you the accompanying paper, rather for the purpose of calling attention to an important subject, that of the rights of Consuls, than to take the place of more qualified commentators; and I propose to make further similar communications from time to time if you think they deserve insertion.

To the Editor N.M.

CONSULAR PAPERS.-No. III.—Duties.

B. C.

The progress of civilization has, in most trading countries, established a system and practice of government in accordance with principles of equity and hospitality; taught authorities an impartial administration of justice, and made the residence of strangers as secure abroad as it would be in their own countries. This may be considered the rule of the present day, and any laws or acts opposed to it, as exceptions. Such exceptions are however to be found; not alone in particular countries under defective constitutions, but in laws inadvertently passed by enlightened legislatures; in steps taken by well intentioned public functionaries; in hostile general measures, and in arbitrary local proceedings. Commercial treaties and conventions have been adopted as a means of anticipation and prevention, to give security to international trade and communication, and to lay down a written law for the differences in which the common law, of civilized usage might be open to controversy.

Under this written law the arrival of a foreign ship to trade, flying before an enemy, or in want of assistance, is no longer a signal for the exercise of fiscal rapacity, the forced discharge of her cargo, or the detention of her crew; wrecked ships and all they contain are not taken as droits of the crown; resident foreigners are not oppressed with forced loans, compulsory military service, and vexatious domiciliary visits and searches; they are not denied equal justice; they can sue natives for debts and prosecute them for personal injuries; the free exercise of their religion is secured to them; they may safely hold, bequeath, and inherit property; the religious rite of their marriages is respected, and they are not condemned after death to be buried below high-water mark.

But the very importance of these stipulations rendering a vigilant supervision necessary, commercial nations have consented to the reciprocal appointment of public agents, whose duty it should be to reside in each other's territories and procure the necessary observance of treaties. Such are Consuls, the representatives of their government, the advocates and protectors of their nation's interests, the guardians of their countrymen's security, and the bearers of functions, whose importance is proportionate to the communication existing between their own country and that in which they reside. There is no proper service which a Consul is not bound to render to any of his nation standing in need of it, and no information, likely to promote the national intercourse committed to his vigilance, that he is not called upon to report to his government and communicate to any of his countrymen who may be able to profit by it.

Yet how little attention does the service attract at home. The public,-nay, merchants and travellers, who most directly receive benefit from it, are no more than acquainted with its existence. Protecting British subjects of all classes from the violence of popular disturbances; defending them from oppression and injustice; extricating them from the consequences of inadvertent offences; privately relieving them in distress; incurring personal risk to save their lives and property, and to secure to them proper attention when sick; consuls follow their useful course from year to year, performing multifarious duties without relaxation, and discharging weighty responsibilities without default; efficient yet unappreciated, indispensible yet unknown.

One prejudicial consequence of this ignorance has been the want of good publications on subjects connected with Consuls' duties, and pointing out the particulars of their rights. The instructions of the Secretary of State, published with the evidence taken on the service by Parliament in 1835, contain the best possible general directions for their official conduct; but in that evidence, given by our Consuls, there are many proofs of the number of cases for which special rules are required.

It is time that this defect should be supplied; and I would earnestly recommend to Consuls, who themselves are best acquainted with such cases and their decisions, to combine and place on record the several authorities and precedents so established. I will give the few following points of Consular rights, on which such an elucidation is required:

Treaty, Statute, and Vattel have not so clearly defined any of them, as not to leave cases for argument and settlement.

Use of national flag and arms; local precedence; presentation at court; inviolability of house, office, property, person, letters and messengers; exemptions from costs of official process, import duties, taxes, and services; freedom of local enquiries; co-operation of local authorities in prosecutions, information and official acts; jurisdiction over intestates, seamen, offenders and lunatics; authority in inquests, affidavits, notarial acts, committals, and boarding ships; attendance at trials and legal processes; inspection of prisoners and pending process; representation of British Government, and absent or disabled British subjects; advocacy for the subjects of allied powers; official language and the text of treaties. (To be Continued.)

OBSERVATIONS ON THE TIDES OF THE ENGLISH AND IRISH CHANNELS. From a Paper in the Transactions of the Royal Philosophical Society by Capt. F. W. Beechey, R.N.

It is with pleasure we notice a paper which has been published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1848, entitled "A report of observations made upon the tides in the Irish Sea, and upon the similarity of the tidal phenomena of the English and Irish Channels, &c.," by Captain F. W. Beechey, R.N., F.R.S.

A paper of this description has long been a great desideratum, and, we hail with real gratification an attempt to amalgamate, and refer to one general local standard, the scattered and discordant references with which our charts and sailing directions abound, whenever the subject of the stream in the offing is treated of.

Nothing can be more puzzling and annoying to the anxious navigator when near the land, and desirous of knowing how the tide is affecting his route, than to be told that the stream in the offing turns so many hours after it is high water by the ground, and a few miles further on that it turns so many more hours after it is high water at some place on the coast, for neither of which places does he in all probability possess tide-tables; and thus throughout his passage to be referred to data which either has to be collected, and the required quantity to be calculated or which he cannot command: for there are but comparatively few places on the coast for which the times of high water are given in our tide tables.

It was to simplify this question that Captain Beechey set on foot a series of observations on the course of the stream in all parts of the Irish Sea, and his labours are fully repaid by the gratifying fact that, although the tides in their progress along the channel run through all the hours of the quadrant, making low water at one end of the channel whilst it is high water at the other, the turn of the stream is simultaneous; that the northern and southern streams in both channels (that is of the Tuskar in one instance, and of Kintyre in the other,)

commence and end in all parts, practically speaking at the same time, and that that time corresponds with the time of high and low water on the shore at a spot where the streams from both channels meet, (or what may be termed the virtual head of the tide) which in this case happens to be Morecambe Bay. So that the seaman now, whenever he wishes to know how the stream is running in any part of the Irish Sea, may consult the tide-table at Liverpool, (which is within a few minutes of the establishment at Morecambe Bay), and note whether the tide is rising or falling there, to ascertain whether he is being carried into or out of the channel; as the rising tide at Liverpool answers to the ingoing stream, and vice versâ, the falling tide to the outgoing stream, in all parts of the channel from Tuskar to Rathlin.*

Some time previous to these observations being made a very accurate series of operations was carried round Ireland at the suggestion of Mr. Airy,† to ascertain whether the half tide line or mean water level was, as its name implies, a level line or otherwise, during which it was discovered that at Camtown, near Wexford, there was little or no rise or fall of the tide, and Captain Beechey referring to this point furnishes us with these curious facts, that whilst in one part of the Irish Sea where there is neither rise nor fall the stream runs with great rapidity, there is in another a spot where the rise and fall, are considerable, and where there is no perceptible stream. These and other curious phenomena will be found interspersed over this interesting paper. But the paper is more than interesting, the information has been turned to good practical account, by being embodied in a chart, shewing the courses and rate of the stream in all parts of the channel on a spring tide, an inspection of which will instantly shew the seaman the effect the tide is having on his vessel wherever he may be placed, and is especially useful in apprizing him of the danger of approaching either Cardigan or Caernarvon Bays at particular times of the tide.

To render the observations of further utility another chart accompanies the paper on which are given lines shewing the range of the tide at springs in all parts of the channel, and a simple rule and table are added for the purpose of reducing soundings, taken at any hour to the lowwater standard of the chart, that the seaman may have a ready method of comparing his soundings with the depths given in the Admiralty surveys.

In this part of the paper there are some instructive remarks upon the reduction of soundings, in which it is shewn and illustrated by diagrams that the rising and falling tides are not similarly influenced, but that the latter fall more in the first half of the tide than the last, and that whilst we may with safety reduce our soundings on a rising tide by the rule of the cosines, we cannot do so where accuracy is required on a falling tide, especially toward the springs.

* This remark refers only to the fair run of the stream, away from the eddy tides of the bays and headlands.

+ The present Astronomer-Royal.