Oyster beds are of two kinds as regards the quality of their produce, namely beds of common and beds of native oysters.

"Of two kinds as respects their proprietorship, namely, public beds and private beds.

"Of two kinds as to their origin and system of management, namely, natural and artificial.

"What mainly distinguishes beds of native from beds of common oysters is, of course, the quality of the fish which they produce.

"It is at present impossible to say to what cause or combination of causes is to be ascribed the great superiority of natives over all other oysters. The most remarkable circumstance connected with the native beds is, that they are all situated on the London Clay,' or geological formations of similar character.

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Beginning on the Kent shore, the native beds extend at irregular intervals westward from Ramsgate the modern representative of Roman Rutupia, celebrated in ancient times for its famous Rutupians '-to Sheerness and Queenborough, and eastward on the Essex coast and its rivers, from Leigh to Harwich Harbour.

"Oyster beds in every other part of the country are considered beds of common oysters. "Many of the best known beds of native oysters are to a very great extent factitious. They possess no certain power of reproduction, and would soon become exhausted unless supplied with brood from other beds better situated for the retention of spawn and the production of spat.

"Of this kind are the celebrated Whitstable oyster beds, where a good fall of spat is a mere accident, which, however, sometimes puts as much as 30,000l. into the pockets of the Whitstable Oyster Company in one year, by rendering the purchase of brood unnecessary.

"No artificial contrivances of any kind are in use on those beds for saving the spawn, which is left to settle by chance on the cultch of the beds, or on the adjoining foreshore, or else to be drifted off to sea and lost.

"Certain of the native grounds, as, for instance, the Pont,' at the mouths of the Colne and Blackwater rivers, are, on the other hand, remarkable for furnishing an apparently inexhaustible supply of spat, from which, in the shape of brood, the Whitstable and other Kent and Essex oyster beds are mainly kept stocked.

"This product, so precious for the maintenance of the Thames oyster beds, has recently risen greatly in value, having been sold in the season of 1862-3 as high as 40s. per bushel.

"Private oyster beds are those which from time immemorial have been in the exclusive possession of individuals or companies, and are marked out by buoys or other boundaries.

"All other oyster-beds are public property, and open to all.

"On account of the present state of the law in England relative to navigable waters, the existing private beds, being situated below lowwater mark, are limited to those of ancient date, because there at present exists no power to restrain any one from appropriating oysters bred naturally, or laid down in places not held by prescriptive or other recognised right.

"In Ireland, however, the commissioners of fisheries have been recently empowered to grant licences under the Crown for the exclusive right of growing and fishing oysters in places suited for the purpose to which no prior claims are found to exist.

"The same state of things exists with respect to the foreshores of which the Crown claims to have control, with exception only of such as have been ceded by grant or otherwise. In certain districts, and more particularly in the estuary of the Thames, the Crown has to a very great extent lost or disposed of its rights to the foreshores, which have consequently become the private property of the adjoining landowners.

"Where this is the case, the foreshores are in general carefully preserved by the proprietors for the sake of the winkles, cockles, and mussels which they produce, as well as for the laying down in spring of common oysters to fatten for sale during the following months of summer and autumn.

"Natural oyster beds, properly so called, are for the most part beds of common oysters, and generally public property. They are always situated beyond low-water mark, and are seldom covered with less than three feet of water at low tide.

"Some beds of native oysters, however, are true natural beds: the principal Colne beds belong to this category. But those beds of native oysters which require to be kept in stock by the laying down of extraneous brood, cannot be reckoned truly natural.

"The latter hold an intermediate position between natural beds properly so called, and those of strictly artificial character, none of which have hitherto been formed in England.

"Artificial oyster-beds, truly so called, are those in which reproduction is secured by artificial means.

"With the single exception of the oyster-beds of the Lake of Fusaro, near Naples, which had their origin in Roman times, they are of modern creation, having been invented by Professor Coste, and worked out by him on the French coast, to which they are as yet confined.

"Beds of this description are formed on the foreshores, and not below low-water.

"The object of placing them on ebb-dry ground is to facilitate the construction and care of the contrivances which are required for retaining and fixing the spawn, as well as the 'working' of the oysters on the beds.

"Working is an operation by which oysters are greatly improved. It consists in detaching the brood from the cultch, separating young oysters when joined together, destroying starfish, dog-whelks, mussels, and other vermin, as well as in removing, by stirring it up, the ooze or sludge,' which is liable to settle on the beds and smother the oysters.

"On beds situated below low-water mark, working has to be done in boats by dredging, and requires as many as eight men per acre. Beds on the foreshores are worked by men on foot and armed with rakes, two of whom suffice

to keep in order one acre of artificial oysterbeds.

"Working by dredge from boats, besides being less efficacious than working on ebb-dry ground, owing to the beds being hidden from view, has the additional disadvantage of being destructive to the tender spat and brood which are readily injured by the heavy dredge in its passage along the bottom.

"Frost in winter, and the sun's rays in summer, both of which are destructive to oysters left dry by the tide, are prevented injuring the stock, on artificial beds, by arranging the surface of the ground in such a way as to retain about a foot of water at ebb-tide.

"The experience of the French in this respect is borne out by that of the proprietors of some of the foreshores in the Thames, where spat falls naturally from time to time in uncertain quantities. They find that such spat can always be preserved and reared, even in the most severe winters, on those portions of their grounds where the water, when at its lowest, lies a foot deep, or even less.

"The average rate of reproduction obtained in France by artificial breeding arrangements is about fourteen-fold, which, after paying expenses, leaves a clear profit of 1,000 per cent. Though affording a very handsome return, this still exhibits an enormous amount of waste which further improvements in the means of arresting and fixing the spawn will no doubt greatly lessen, and to that extent augment the profits to be derived from artificial oyster culture."

BILLS WHICH DID NOT BECOME LAW.

Masters and Operatives.-An Act to establish equitable councils of conciliation to adjust differences between masters and operatives. (The Lord Saint Leonards.) May 8, 1865. (92 L.)

"Power to be granted to her Majesty or Secretary of State to license councils of conciliation, when desired by any number of masters and workmen. The council to consist of not less than two masters and two workmen, or of more than ten masters, and ten workmen and chairman. The petitioners for the council to elect the first council.

"The council to have power to appoint their own chairman, clerk, or such other officer or

officers as they may deem requisite, to hear and determine all questions of dispute and difference between masters and workmen, which may be submitted to them by both parties, and to exercise all the powers and authority granted to arbitrators and referees; and any award the said equitable councils of conciliation and arbitration may make in any case of dispute or difference submitted to them, to be final and conclusive between the parties to such arbitration, without being subject to review or challenge by any court or authority whatsoever; the said council being further authorized to adjudicate upon and determine any other case of dispute or difference submitted to them by the mutual consent of master and workman or masters and workmen, and the same proceedings of distress, sale, and imprisonment as are provided by the said recited Acts or any of them to be had towards enforcing every such award (by application to any justice of the peace,) as are prescribed for enforcing awards made under or by virtue of the provisions of them or any of them; but the council not to be authorized to establish a rate of wages or price of labour or workmanship at which the workman shall in future be paid.

"A quorum of not less than three (one being a master and another a workman, and the third the chairman,) may constitute a council for the hearing and adjudication of cases of dispute, and may accordingly make their award; but a committee of council, to be denominated the committee of conciliation, to be appointed by the council, consisting of one master and one workman, who shall sit at such times as shall be appointed, and be renewed from time to time as occasion shall require; and all cases or questions of dispute which shall be submitted to the council by both parties shall in the first instance be referred to the said committee of conciliation, who shall endeavour to reconcile the parties in difference; when such reconciliation shall not be effected, the matter in dispute shall be remitted to the council to be disposed of as a contested matter in the regular course.

"The chairman of the council, who shall be some person unconnected with trade, to preside at their meetings, and to be appointed at their first meeting after obtaining such licence as aforesaid; when the votes of the council shall

be equal, the chairman for the time being is to have the casting vote.

"No counsel, solicitors, or attornies to be allowed to attend on any hearing before the council or the committee of conciliation.

"On the first Monday in November, the council and chairman to be appointed to remain in office, until the appointment of a new council.

"For the purposes of this Act, each person being twenty-one years of age, belonging to the trade, having a licence for a council, and being an inhabitant householder or part occupier of any house, warehouse, counting house, or other property, who being a master in such trade, has resided and carried on the same within the limits of any city, borough, town, stewartry, riding, division, barony, liberty, or other place, wherever an equitable council of conciliation and arbitration is formed, for the space of six calendar months previous to the ninth of November in any one year, and being a workman has resided for a like period within the same limits, and has worked at his trade or calling seven years previous to the ninth day of November in any one year, to be entitled to be registered as a voter for the election of the council, and shall be qualified to be elected a member of such council; but the masters shall appoint their own portion of the council, and the workmen elect their portion of the council.

"A register of voters to be kept, and the clerk of the council to convene meetings of masters and meetings of workmen by advertisement fourteen clear days previous to the first day of November, to elect the council."

Railway Debentures Registry Bill. — An Act for the registry of railway debentures and debenture stock. (The Earl of Belmore.) May 11, 1865. (99 L.)

Railway companies to make yearly returns to the registrar of joint stock companies. Every railway company to deliver to the registrar, every debenture, bond, or certificate of debenture stock, and the registrar after having ascertained that the company has not exceeded the sum authorized to be borrowed, to register the same. The holders of statutory debentures and debenture stock, duly registered, to have a priority to all the other debts of their respec

(3.) At Westminster, the dean and chapter. (4.) At Charterhouse, the governors. (5.) At Harrow, the governors. (6.) At Rugby, the trustees.

(7.) At Shrewsbury, the trustees. "The boys on the foundation' to mean(1.) At Eton, the King's scholars or scholars belonging to the college of Eton. (2.) At Winchester, the scholars belonging to the college of St. Mary, Winchester. (3.) At Westminster, the Queen's scholars and Bishop Williams' scholars. (4.) At Charterhouse, the foundation scholars or boys nominated by the governors, and entitled to receive gratuitous education. (5.) At Harrow, the boys entitled to education wholly or partially gratuitous by reason of their being sons of inhabitants of Harrow. (6.) At Rugby, the boys entitled to education wholly or partially gratuitous by reason of their being sons of residents in Rugby, or within a certain distance of Rugby. (7.) At Shrewsbury, the boys entitled to education wholly or partially gratuitous by reason of their being sons of burgesses.

"The governing body of every school may make statutes with respect to all or any of the following matters :

(1.) With respect to the boys on the foundation, to remove, wholly or partially, local or other restrictions on the class of boys entitled to become boys on the foundation, to make admission on the foundation wholly or partially dependent on proficiency in a competitive or other examination, and to define the age for the admission of such a boy, and the age at which he may be required to leave the school. (2.) With respect to the privileges and number of boys on the foundation, to abridge or extend such number and privileges whenever, from change of circumstances, it seems expedient to abridge or extend them. (8.) With respect to scholarships, exhibitions, or other emoluments, either tenable at the school, or tenable after quitting the school by boys educated thereat, to do all or any of the following things; that is to say,

a. To consolidate any two or more of such emoluments; to divide any single emolument into two or more; to convert any scholarship or exhibition tenable at the school into a prize or prizes; to remove any restrictions on the election

or appointment to such emoluments; to open to general or limited competition within the school emoluments now conferred otherwise than by competitive examination; and to define or vary the subjects of examination for any emolument; provided that the foregoing powers shall not extend to any emolument created within fifty years before the passing of this Act; and,

b. To convert emoluments attached to any particular college at Oxford or Cambridge, but not payable out of funds held by such college, into emoluments tenable at any college in either university. (4.) With respect to the mode and conditions of appointment to any ecclesiastical benefice the patronage of which is vested in the governing body as such, or to which persons educated at or connected with the school have an exclusive or preferential claim. (5.) With respect to the salaries of the masters, so far as they are payable out of property belonging to or held in trust for the school, with power to abolish any mastership other than the head mastership. (6.) With respect to the disposal of the surplus income of the property of the school. (7.) In the case of Eton and Winchester, with respect to any collegiate office which does not entitle the holder to a place in the governing body.

"The governing body of any school may consolidate and amend any existing statutes or regulations relating to such school; and also alter their constitutions.

(1.) Where two or more schools are interested in any scholarship, exhibition, or emolument, a statute made by the governing body of one school shall not affect the interest of any other school, except with the consent of a majority of the governors, trustees, or other governing body of the last-mentioned school. (2.) Where any statute proposed to be made by the governing body of a school affects any scholarship, exhibition, or emolument attached to any college in either of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, notice in writing of such intended statute shall be given to the head of such college two months at least before such statute is submitted to the special commissioners as herein-after mentioned. (3.) No statute made by the governing

body of a school under this Act shall be of any validity until the same has been approved by her Majesty in Council, as herein-after mentioned, but when so approved all the requisitions of this Act in respect thereto shall be deemed to have been duly complied with, and the statute shall be of the same force as if it had been contained in this Act, subject nevertheless to the power of alteration or repeal hereinafter conferred: provided that the governing body, before making regulations on any subject affecting the management or instruction of the school, shall consult the head master in such a manner as to give him full opportunity for the expression of his views.

"All statutes made by the governing body of a school to be laid before her Majesty in Council, and be forthwith published in the London Gazette.

"The governing body to have a general power to make regulations :—

"(1.) With respect to the number of boys, other than boys on the foundation, in the school, their ages and the conditions of admission to the school. (2.) With respect to the mode in which the boys, whether on the foundation or not, are to be boarded and lodged, and the conditions on which leave to keep a boarding house should be given. (3.) With respect to the payments to be made for the maintenance and education of the boys, other than boys on the foundation, including fees and charges of all kinds, and to payments by boys on the foundation in respect of anything which they are not entitled to receive gratuitously: And with respect to the application of the monies to to be derived from those sources, and of monies paid out of the income of the foundation on account of the instruction of boys on the foundation. (4.) With respect to attendance at divine service, and, where the school has a chapel of its own, with respect to the chapel services and the appointment of preachers. (5.) With respect to the times and length of the ordinary holidays. (6.) With respect to the sanitary condition of the school and of the premises connected therewith. (7.) With respect to the introduction of new branches of study, and the suppression of old ones, and the relative importance to be assigned to each branch of study, and with respect to the system of promotion in the school. (8.) With respect