The Act of 1862 also laid down more clear and distinct sailing rules; and as these are of great importance, I furnish them at length in a footnote.[166] For these rules the country is greatly indebted to the exertions of Mr. Milner Gibson, when President of the Board of Trade, without whose practical knowledge of the subject (as a first-class yachtsman and navigator), and his patience and temper, the nautical men connected with the Board of Trade and Trinity House, as well as various naval officers, in office and out of doors, would never have consented to them. Even now we frequently read in the daily press letters opposed to these rules, just as we find writers on finance who have their currency hobbies, and who are not, and never will be, satisfied with Sir Robert Peel’s Bank Charter Act of 1844. [Sidenote: Examination now required for engineers as well as masters of steam-ships.] By the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854, the master and chief mate of all sea-going vessels, whether sailing ships or steamers, are, as I have already explained, required to possess a certificate of previous servitude or of competency. The Act of 1862 extended, and to great advantage, the principle of examination, also, to engineers engaged in sea-going steamers, who, since then, have been required to undergo an examination, and produce certificates of good conduct and sobriety. Their certificates of competency are of two grades—first class and second class. Any sea-going home-trade _passenger_ steamer, or any foreign-going steam-ship of more than one hundred horse-power nominal, must, therefore, now carry, at least, one engineer who possesses a certificate of competency; and all steamers of greater power must have, at least, two such engineers, one of whom may be of the second class. But all engineers who had served as such in sea-going vessels, previously to the 1st April, 1862, were entitled to a certificate of service, and were not required to undergo an examination. Though many owners of steam-ships were strongly opposed to any legislative interference with the engineers whom they employed, alleging, among other reasons, that they were thus frequently prevented from promoting men in their service who had served them well and faithfully—as for instance, those in an inferior capacity, such as the head stoker—there can be no doubt that the effect of the law, enforcing these examinations, has been as salutary in the case of engineers as it has proved in the case of masters and mates. There may be exceptions to the rule, but, on the whole, the requirements of the Act have tended, materially, to improve the class of men now employed as engineers on our merchant steamers, and have, as such, been generally accepted by the men themselves. [Sidenote: Injurious action of the crimps.]