such persons as serve the king or others at sea by navigation and fighting ships, &c. See MARITIME State.

Seamen fighting, quarrelling, or making any disturbance, may be punished by the commissioners of the navy with fine and imprisonment. Registered seamen are exempted from serving in any parish office, &c., and are allowed bounty-money beside their pay. By the law of merchants, the seamen of a vessel are accountable to the master or commander, the master to the owners, and the owners to the merchants, for damage sustained either by negligence or otherwise. Where a seaman is hired for a voyage, and he deserts before it is ended, he shall lose his wages; and in case a ship be lost in a storm, the seamen lose their wages, as well as the owners their freight.

Means of Preserving the Health of Seamen. See MEDICINE, No. 351.

In addition to what has been said on this subject in the place referred to, we shall subjoin some valuable observations which we have met with in the sixth volume of the Memoirs of the Royal Society of Medicine at Paris for the years 1784 and 1785.

In 1783, the marshal de Castries, intending to make some changes in the regulations of the navy, particularly with regard to diet, proposed to the society the two following questions: 1. "What are the most wholesome aliments for seamen, considering the impossibility of procuring them fresh meat? And what kinds of salt meat or fish, of pulse, and of drink, are most proper for them, and in what quantity, not omitting to inquire into the regimens in use amongst other maritime nations for what may be adopted by us, and into what experience has convinced the utility of, from the accounts of the most celebrated navigators?" 2. "A number of patients labouring under different diseases being assembled in naval hospitals, and different constitutions affected by the same disease requiring difference of diet, what general dietetic rules for an hospital would be best adapted to every exigence, dividing the patients into three classes; the first in which liquids alone are proper, the second in which we begin to give solids in small quantities, and the state of convalescence in which a fuller diet is necessary?" A committee was appointed to draw up an answer to these, who investigated the subject very minutely. The result of their labours is there given at large. The observations most worthy of notice are, that the scurvy of the English seamen, who live chiefly on salt meat, is a putrid disease; whilst that of the Dutch, who use farinaceous vegetables and dried pulse in large quantities, has more of an hydroptic tendency. A mixture of both, even at the same meal, is recommended. This is supported by philosophical reasoning, and the example of Captain Cook, who was partly indebted to this mixed regimen for the preserva-

Vol. XIX. Part I. Their jackets, which are made entirely after the European fashion, are of a red colour with yellow facings (as worn by all the infantry of the company on the Coromandel coast). The remaining part of their attire resembles more the country or Indian habit, and consists of a dark blue turban, broad and round at top, descending deep to the bottom, the sides of which, of a concave form, are crossed by a white band, running in front, fastened under a rose above. As an under garment, they have a jacket of linen. A dark blue sash girding, to answer the turban, goes round their middle. On the thighs they have short drawers, fastened by a scolloped band. Their legs are bare, which renders them more ready for action or service. Their arms are a firelock and bayonet; their accoutrements or cross belts black leather, with pouches the same.

A battalion drawn out cannot but strike the spectators with a lively and fanciful military impression, as they unite in their exterior traits respectively Indian and European.

They are brought to the utmost exactness of discipline; go through their evolutions and manoeuvres with a regularity and precision equal to, and not surpassed by European troops. In action they are brave and steady, and have been known to stand where Europeans have given way.

Their discipline puts them on a footing with Europeans troops, with whom they are always ready to act in concert.

Their utility and services are evident; they secure to the company the internal good order and preservation of their territorial districts, which, though possible to be enforced with a strong hand by Europeans, requires numbers, and can only be conducted with that ease and address peculiar to the native forces of the country.

They are considered with respect in the eyes of the other natives, though they sufficiently, and with a good grace, feel and assert their own consequence. In large garrisons, where the duty is great, as Madras, Pondicherry, Trichinopoly, Vellore, &c. two or three battalions might be present together, exclusive of Europeans. If sent singly up the country, they are liable to be detached, sometimes by one or more companies being sent, to a station dependent on the chief garrison or headquarters, otherwise they are dispersed through the districts, four or five together, with a non-commissioned officer (this is a part of the service which is called going on command), on hills, or in villages, to preserve order, convey intelligence, and assist the tassidar, renter, or cutwall of the place, in cases of emergency. They also enforce the police, and prevent in such cases the country from being invested with thieves, which otherwise have combined, forming a banditti, to rob passengers, and plunder cattle, of which there are so many instances upon record. As for such British officers in the company's service as are attached to battalions, they are obliged to follow the fortunes and destinations of their men, with their respective corps, leading a life often replete with adventures of a peculiar nature. An individual in such cases is frequently secluded from those of his own colour, when up the country, or detached upon command, where in a frontier garrison or hill fort in the interior parts of India none but natives are to be found. Here he might live as he pleases, being perfectly absolute within his jurisdiction. Such stations being lucrative, with management may produce great fortunes. Neither is the condition hard to a person conversant in the language of the country, or that of the Seapoys called Moors (which most officers in the company's service acquire); otherwise the loss of society is not recompensed by other advantages, as you forget your own language, grow melancholy, and pass your days without comfort.

The peace establishment at Madras, consists of 30 Seapoy battalions, but in time of war is augmented as occasion requires; or frequently each corps is strengthened by the addition of two companies, which are reduced again in time of peace; the officers remaining supernumeraries in the service. In garrison they are quartered in barracks; they live agreeably to the usage of the country, sleep on the ground on a mat or thin carpet. In their persons they are cleanly, but appear to best advantage in their uniform. Off duty they go as the other natives in poor circumstances; and have only a cloth round their middle and over their shoulders. As to the different casts, the Moormen or Musselmens assert pre-eminence, as coming into the country by conquest. In their persons they are rather robust, and in their tempers vindictive. Their religion and dress is distinct from the Hindoos, who are mild and passive in their temper, faithful, steady, and good soldiers. The Pariahs are inferior to the others, live under different circumstances, dwell in huts, and associate not on equal terms with the rest; they do all menial offices, are servants to Europeans, and think themselves happy when by them employed, though they are equally good Seapoys.

Having thus treated of the company's Seapoys, we shall observe that they are kindly attentive to their officers when often in circumstances requiring their assistance; are guilty of few vices; and have a strong attachment for those who have commanded them. That acute historian Dr Robertson, has remarked as a proof that the ingenuity of man has recourse in similar situations to the same expedients, that the European powers, have, in forming the establishment of these native troops, adopted the same maxims; and, probably without knowing it, have modelled their battalions of Seapoys upon the same principles as Alexander the Great did his phalanx of Persians.

SEARCH-WARRANT, in Law, a kind of general warrant issued by justices of peace or magistrates of towns for searching all suspected places for stolen goods. In Scotland this was often done formerly; and in some English law books there are precedents requiring the constable to search all such suspected places as he and the party complaining shall think convenient; but such practice is condemned by Lord Hale, Mr Hawkins, and the best authorities both among the English and Scotch lawyers. However, in case of a complaint, and oath made of goods stolen, and that the party suspects that these goods are in a particular house, and shows the cause of such suspicion, the justice may grant a warrant to search not only that house but other suspected places; and to attach the goods, and the party in whose custody they are found, and bring them before him or some other justice, to give an account how he came by them, and to abide such order as to law shall appertain; which warrant should be directed to the constable or other public officer, who may enter a suspected house and make search.