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MARINE REVIEW. : 9 Quaint French Documents. [BY J. W. WALTON. ] In the year 1716 Louis, king of France, lightened the bur- dens of navigation by abolishing a grievous passport system, or at least confining its operation to a limited portion of the earth's surface. On March q in that same year he issued new and elab- orate regulations in regard to clearances, In substance they were: 1. No vessel shall leave one of his majesty's ports without a clearance from the admiral of France, under penalty of confis- . cation of both vessel and cargo, except it be to sail to her home port when the latter is in the same local jurisdiction where she unloaded. 'The clerks shall have two forms, one for domestic, the other for foreign clearances. 2. No clearance shall be given to a vessel not actually in port, unless it be to a vessel bought or builtina foreign country, tn which case the papers shall be made out for three months only, and none others shall be given her unless during that time she be brought into the kingdom. In such a case the master or owner or correspondent to whom such a temporary document shall be sent, shall enter into an undertaking with the -admirality for the return of said vessel into one of the ports of the kingdom within the specified time, under penalty of 1,500 livres ($300) and corporal punishment if it is proved they have abused their clearance. But if it be found that a first voyage may be made with profit by a vessel bought or built in a foreign port before entering France, provision is made for extending the three months' papers for a reasonable time. 3. From whatever port her first voyage shall be made, no French vessel shall be commanded by a foreigner,and the penalty tor false enrollient is, for the master or owner, the galleys; for the vessel and cargo, confiscation. But French officers or seamen found in a foreign port may be employed for the voyage in a higher capacity than the grade to which they belong, if duly enregistered by the consul, who shall furnish duplicate rolls to the officers of the French port to which the ship shall be bound. Upon her arrival at this port, if the owners of the foreign bought or built ship shall still find it necessary to employ the mariners in their advanced grade, they may be formally advanced according to. 'the law of 1689. 4. The clerk in giving a clearance, shall take up the old -one, and this he shall keep until he makes up his report. And if the master or captain do not surrender the same their vessels shall be confiscated as without papers, according to the law of 1681. Ifaship has changed masters, he who asks for a clear- ance shall show the one of the preceding voyage; and the first master must give it to him, under penalty of an arbitrary fine and of imprisonment, which shall last until he has returned the said clearance, or has shown what has become of it; without which the vessel and lading shall be confiscated, as having sailed without papers. 5. The certificate shall be furnished by the authorities gratis, on unstamped paper. 6. No papers shall be' given to anybody but licensed cap- tains or masters. 7. No clerk may issue blank clearances, but he must give out those consecutively numbered, and he must be careful not to give foreign vessels a clearance on blanks provided for domes- tic vessels, under penalty of a thousand livres ($200) and must respond to this in his own and private name, under still more severe pains. - Section 8 provides for declarations in the case of foreign built ships, which, according to section 9 shall be verified before French consuls. 1o. Noconsul on the Mediterranean shall give a clearance © or passport under any pretext whatever. They, and the ambass- ador at Constantinople are strictly enjoined to cause the French flag to be hauled down from any foreign vessel which may under- take to fly the same, to arrest any French masters or owners which may have lent them their names, and to send them and their papers to Marseilles for trial, sending to the admiralty pri- vately all the facts in the case. No consul, however, is excluded from admitting under his protection the foreign vessels which may float the flag of their own country or that of Jerusalem,if by his refusal they might claim the same protection from the con- suls of the other nations, they paying the usual consular fees ac- cording to the capitulations and the usage which is always prac- ticed. There are eight more sections to this old statute, but enough has been given to show the onerous nature of the marine regula- tions ofthe period, as well as the exaggerated penalties which were levied upon delinquents. Around the Lakes. The S. C. Baldwin lumber tow, owned by Whitney of De- troit, is being sold. M. McGrath of Muskegon has sold the schooner Quickstep to Milwaukee parties for $5,000. Capt. McManus, last season mate of the Sitka, will sail the George Spencer, vice Capt. Cowan, who will command the John Mitchell. Through Mr. J. S$. Ashley, Cleveland agent, the New York and Cleveland Gas Coal Company has just placed an order for twelve coal buckets with the Ludlow Manufacturing Company. The buckets are to be of the large size, 5%4x7 feet. Capt. Henry Ellis, master of the steamer Avery, who died of Bright's disease at Detroic, Saturday, had been in the employ of Hawgood & Avery, vessel owners, for thirteen years.. He was one of the first members of the Shipmasters' Excelsior Marine Benevolent Association. Frank Campbell and F.L. McDonald of Duluth were the lowest bidders for the construction of cribs for range lights inthe Ste. Mary's river. Their bid of $8,539 was recommended for acceptance by the light-house engineer. The cribs will be built of wood filled in with stone. Capt. Joseph Braman, harbormaster of the port of Milwaukee, died Monday. Capt. Braman was sixty-eight years old. He commanded some of the best sailing vessels in the early days of lake navigation. He was appointed harbormaster in 1890, suc- ceeding Capt. James F. Trowell. i Capt. Miner, last season in the steamer EK. C. Pope, and Capt. Wm. Brown, who has been in the Bradley fleet for a num- ber of years, will command the two new monitors building at the yard of the Cleveland Ship Building Company for the Lake Superior Iron Company. Capt. Frank Fick, last season in the steamer M. B. Grover, has bought an interest in the steamer Fedora and will sail her. Mrs. Harry W. Granger, whose husband died in Detroit a short time ago, has issued a circular letter stating that the trac- ings of complete sets of working drawings for compound and triple expansion marine engines, which Mr. Granger designed during the last ten years, are now in her possession at St. Clair, Mich., ane that she can supply full sets of blue prints, at very reasonable rates, for a large number of engines of various sizes. If the promoters of mining enterprises on the new Mesaba iron range of Minnesota manage to complete the two railways and docks now under way so as to ship even a small quantity of ore from Duluth towards the close of the coming season, the preparations for Lake Superior business in 1893 will certainly be on a big scale, as Marquette, Ashland, Two Harbors, Duluth, and possibly Huron Bay will be listed among the ore shipping ports. Fifty-Second Oongress-- First Session. The following bills of interest to lake vessel owners have been introduced in Congress recently: S. 2,056, Sawyer--To repeal the provisions of the law known as the line carrying projectile law, so far as they relate to steamers plying exclusively upon any of the lakes, bays or sounds of the United States. S. 2,099, Allen--To amend Sec. 4,415 of the revised statutes relating to inspectors of hulls and boilers H. R. 5,560, Enochs--Authorizing the secretary of war to cause a survey to be made for a ship canal connecting the waters of Lake Erie and the Ohio river between the city of Cleveland and the city of Portsmouth, Ohio. H.R. 5,441, Fithian--For the free admission to American registry of ships built in foreign countries. H. R. 5,890, Payne.--Directing a survey for a harbor of refuge in Mexico bay, Lake Ontario. ; H. R. 5,950, Clover.--Giving states the right to issue their bonds to the United States, not exceeding 15 per cent of assess- ed taxable value, at 21% per cent.interest, for increasing facili- ties for transportation by railroads and waterways. H. R. 5,952, Hooker.--To provide for the improvement and survey of Dunkirk harbor. SEND YOUR ORDER FOR ' PATTERSON'S NAUTICAL DICTIONARY' ($5) TO THE " MARINE REVIEW" AT ONCE.