with the harbour-masters; of whom there are four, one principal, and three subordinate. The Corporation of the City of London receive dues varying from one halfpenny to three farthings per ton on every vessel which enters or leaves the Port, whether engaged in foreign, colonial, or coasting trade: these dues amount to about £13,000 per annum; and in return for them the Corporation make arrangements for the orderly reception of the vessels. Out of this sum the Corporation expend about £8,000 or £9,000 for moorings, salaries to harbour-masters, wages, &c. The Corporation are the conservators of the river; and the Lord Mayor is the chief-magistrate of the Thames as well as of the City. The Corporation, under the Charter of Henry VI., claim the right to the banks and soil of the Thames; subject, however, to the power of the Brethren of the Trinity-House to dredge for ballast below bridge. To assist in the conservancy and management of the Thames, a Navigation Committee" is annually appointed, consisting of forty-six members, viz., sixteen aldermen and thirty common councilmen ; the appointment is for four years, and one-fourth of the Committee is elected every year. The Committee meets once a week, and determines on applications for jetties, driving of piles, and other matters relating to the banks of the river; and the harbour-master carries out the decisions of the Committee. The general duties of the four harbour-masters are to superintend the entering, mooring, unmooring, and moving of the numerous vessels in the river; to inspect the state of the mooring-chains; to take soundings of the varying depths of the river; and to report to the Committee any alterations that may have taken place in the state of the navigation. The ordering of the vessels is regulated in great measure by the nature of the cargo. Every collier on arriving at Gravesend, sends a boat on shore to the "Collier-office" at that place, to deliver the "certificates of cargo" and "Custom-house papers ;" and these papers are forwarded twice a day to the coalfactors in London. The harbour-master at Gravesend assigns to each collier the spot to be occupied by the vessel, until its turn in rotation for proceeding up the river to the Pool, for the purpose of discharging her coal. There are several stations where the colliers are thus temporarily placed,-in Woolwich Reach, in Galleons Reach, in Halfway Reach, in Long Reach, near Greenhithe, near Northfleet, and between Gravesend and the Medway Canal. Some of these stations are under the control of the harbour-master of Gravesend, and some under the harbour-master of Greenwich; and these harbour-masters give the necessary orders when the colliers are to proceed up the Pool. In the Pool the colliers are ranged in tiers, which tiers will accommodate about 240 at one time when full. With respect to the coasters and the trading steamvessels, all of them are bound for some definite wharf, dock, or station in the river; and are so far different from the colliers. The harbour-master has nothing to do with them, beyond seeing that they observe the rules for the navigation of the river. The chief among these rules are, that there shall be a clear water-passage in the middle of the river, 300 feet across; that the ferries and in-shore passages shall be kept clear; and that the dock-entrances and public landing-places be left free from interruption. No vessels are allowed to anchor or moor within a certain distance of the entrances to the several docks, or of the several piers: this distance varies from 75 to 200 yards. The regulation that there shall be a clear waterpassage of 300 feet in the middle of the river, is one which it is found almost impossible to carry out fully. On a particular day, chosen to make the enumeration, it was found that the number of vessels moored in the Pool was as follows:-On the north side, between London-bridge and Limehouse Reach, 233; on the south side, between London-bridge and the Surrey Canal, 439. The relation which the Trinity House bears to the Port of London, is in many respects an anomalous one. Were it not from its antique vested privileges, this Corporation would long ere this have yielded to regulations better fitted to realize the objects in view. The handsome building belonging to this corporate body, on Tower-hill, we speak not of; it is the influence of the Corporation on the Thames navigation, that here calls for a little attention. The Trinity-House Corporation is believed to have been formed by Henry VIII. by increasing the powers of a Seamen's Guild existing long before. It gradually acquired a power similar to that exercised by the London Trading Companies; viz., to regulate the entry and training of apprentices, the licensing of journeymen, and the registry of employers. The State was more dependent on the masters of merchant-ships than in the present day for naval aid in troublous times, and the privileges conceded to the Guild of the Holy Trinity,' are supposed to have been a kind of purchase price for aid solicited and received. After a time, the ballastage and pilotage of the Thames were given up to the management of the same body. From the Thames these privileges extended to nearly all the coasts of England. Queen Elizabeth added the care of sea-marks to the other duties of the Trinity House; and when lighthouses were introduced, they also were, for the most, consigned to the care of the same body; so that a very complicated and important series of duties rest on the officers of the Corporation. It is only so far as affects the navigation of the Thames that the Trinity House and its regulations concern us here. The Corporation consists of Elder and Younger Brethren. The Younger Brethren are unlimited in number; they are commanders of merchant vessels, and are nominated by the Elder Brethren. The Elder Brethren are in number thirty-one; twenty of them are elected from among the Younger Brethren, and the remaining eleven are honorary members,— generally persons of some distinction. The business of the Corporation is practically managed by a Board of thirty-one, who divide themselves into six Committees -the Finance Committee, the Examining Committee, the Ballast Committee, the Lighthouse Committee, the | Some of these work by manual power, and some by Dues' Committee, and the Pensioners' Committee. The management of the buoys and lights in the Thames does not call for the employment of many persons; but the operations of the Trinity House in respect to ballast have many points of interest. A large and hard-working section of the labouring men who assist in developing the wonderful commerce of the port of London, are the ballast labourers. These men provide the means of making an unladen vessel heavy enough to pursue her return voyage; and the routine of duties is such as to give rise to the classification into ballast-getters, ballast-lightermen, and ballastheavers. All ships sailing "in ballast" are exempt from many regulations which press upon laden ships; but still the sailing in ballast or with cargoes depends wholly on the exigencies of commerce. Very varied rules are acted upon in different countries, as to the materials employed as ballast, the place whence obtained, and the place where deposited when not of use. All vessels which come into the Thames in ballast must unload their ballast into a lighter, and none must be thrown into the river, under a heavy penalty. Similar regulations are in force in most ports. In order to insure something like order and system, the bed of the river Thames is made over to the Trinity House, so far as regards the obtaining of sand for ballast from that source. An immense quantity of ballast is required by the colliers, to weight them sufficiently for their return voyage northward. When the master of an empty collier is about to sail, he sends an application to the Ballast-office (belonging to the Trinity House) for a certain amount of ballast. This ballast is usually gravel or sand, dredged up from the bed of the Thames near Woolwich Reach. The ballast is sent to the collier in lighters belonging to the Trinity House, the master paying so much per ton for it. An average of about eighty tons of ballast is required for each collier; and it is computed that about 10,000 tons per week are thus raised and sold by the Trinity House. If the master prefers, he may ballast with chalk from any point below Purfleet; but above that point, he must be dependent on the Trinity House regulations. When the colliers reach the Tyne, Wear, or Tees, the ballast is carried on shore, and piled in heaps on the banks of the rivers, or on waste places on the sea-shore; for it is not permitted to discharge it into the rivers.-The bed of the Thames is thus taking daily journeys to the banks of the Tyne. But colliers are not the only vessels which leave the Thames in ballast. In 1848, the Trinity House provided more than 600,000 tons of ballast; divided into 6,480 supplies for colliers, and 4,744 supplies for other vessels. There are about seventy craft employed in the Thames in furnishing this supply, on which are engaged several hundred men; some of whom are in the employ of the Trinity House, and some in that of steam power. Every one who has passed along the The The ballast-getting by steam power is effected by three steam-dredgers, which are stationed between Woolwich and Erith; they are clumsy-looking vessels, of about 200 tons burden, and twenty-five to thirty horse power; and each has a crew of eight men. Each vessel has two sloping frames, one on each side, to which is connected an endless chain of twenty-nine buckets; each bucket will contain 2cwts. of gravel, and has holes through which water can escape. chain of buckets is set to work by the steam-engine; and each bucket in its turn scrapes or scoops into the ground, and brings up its quota of gravel. When the bucket comes up, it tilts over, and the contents fall into a lighter, moored alongside. So the buckets keep on at their work, filling and emptying in their turn. From 50 to 150 tons are thus raised in an hour by each steam-dredger, the quantity varying according to the depth of the ballast-shoal, and other eircumstances. Next come the ballast-lighters, which convey the ballast from the steam-dredgers to the vessels. There are about seventy of these, each capable of containing sixty tons of ballast; and all float up the river, to the station where the empty colliers lie. Fivepence per ton is paid for this service, divided between the five men who work the lighter. Finally, we trace the chain of operations to the ballast-heavers, who are employed in transferring the ballast from the lighters to the vessels. The vessels are at the time either in the Pool or in the Docks; and it is at the Pool and the Docks, consequently, that the ballast-heavers are employed. Here begins a system First we have to notice the ballast-getters or dredgers. analogous to that which disgraced the coal-whipping the masters of the vessels. employment before the recent changes. The ballastheavers are wholly in the power of publicans and other small traders: the masters of vessels, in order to save themselves trouble, are accustomed to give into the hands of publicans, grocers, or butchers, (who act as contractors,) all the arrangements for ballasting a vessel. The contractor makes the necessary application to the Ballast-Office, gets the ballast brought to the side of the vessel, pays for it, employs the ballast-heavers to load the vessel, pays them their wages, and charges the master the whole in one sum. How this system affects the poor ballast-heavers, may be judged from the description we shall presently give of the coal-whippers. The Trinity House authorities are, we believe, about to introduce improvements in these matters. THE COAL TRADE OF THE THAMES. That the Coal Trade of the Port of London should require a large amount of shipping and of commercial machinery for its due management, will appear evident when we consider how much fuel is required for the domestic comfort of the two millions of beings who inhabit the metropolis. The best way to view this is by taking the ratio which the consumption of London bears to the production and the consumption of all England. tions. 3,418,310 tons of coal brought coastwise to London; they employed 2,717 ships, which brought 12,267 cargoes, of somewhat under 300 tons each on an average. It is estimated that there are about 9,000 square miles of coal fields in Great Britain, which yield 32,000,000 tons of coals annually. This produce is thus appropriated, (taking the average of the last few years): 2,500,000 tons exported, 10,000,000 tons employed in the iron and other smelting works, 8,500,000 tons shipped coastwise from the coal districts to Lon-Thames; and 2s. Thames dues. In 1848, there were don and other British ports, and 11,000,000 tons distributed inland by canal and other transit for general consumption. Of the 8,500,000 tons shipped coastwise, no less than 3,000,000 to 3,500,000 tons are brought to London. About eleven-twelfths of all the coals brought coastwise to London are the produce of the Tyne, Wear, and Tees districts; and about twofifths come from the Tyne alone. One-third of all the produce of those three districts is brought to London. Notwithstanding the efforts of the Railway Companies to compete for the carriage of coal, the distance of London from the coal-districts renders the transit so expensive, that the attempt nearly fails; the quantity of coal brought to London by canal or railway being a very small proportion of the whole. We may then take the great Northumberland and Durham coal-field as the main source of the metropolitan supply it is estimated that there are 12,000 persons in those two counties wholly employed in digging and shipping coals for London alone. The coal-owners have certain arrangements among themselves, concerning the quantity and price of the coals to be forwarded to London; and there have been many struggles by the coal-owners on the one hand, and the public on the other, for and against the maintenance of these regula Once arrived in the Thames, the coals become subjected to the influence of a good deal of legislation. An Act of Parliament, passed in 1831, determines the following among many other points. The Coal Exchange was made a free market, belonging to the Corporation of London; who were empowered to appoint officers, to enlarge or rebuild the Exchange when necessary, to raise loans for managing the market, to pay off these loans by a duty of a penny a ton on all coals brought into the Thames westward of Gravesend, to make bye-laws for the management of the Coal Exchange, and to regulate the purchase and sale of coals in the Port. Various dues which had been granted from time to time to the Corporation, either by Royal Charter or by Act of Parliament, were commuted for a single payment or due of 1s. per ton, which due must be paid before the removal of any coals from the vessel to the wharfs. The vendor must send to the Clerk of the Coal Market, with every cargo of coal, a certificate, stating the date of shipment, the name and owner of the ship, the quan |