This position is, however, more than doubtful. It appears that Eleanor, duchess of Guienne, mother of Richard I., was the real author of these laws, about the year 1150, while she was married to her first husband, Louis the Younger, king of France. She subsequently married Henry duke of Normandy and count of Anjou, afterwards king of England; and his third son, king Richard I., adopted the Laws of Oleron as duke of Aquitaine, making some slight additions thereto. It is also to be observed, that this compilation is less ancient than the Consolato del Mare, composed of ordinances of the Greek and German emperors, the kings of France, Spain, Syria, Cyprus, Majorca, and Minorca, and the republics of Genoa and Venice,2- from whence the greater part of the ancient maritime laws used by the Italians, Spaniards, French, and English, are derived.3 And it is highly probable that the duchess Eleanor had the Laws of Oleron compiled in imitation of the Consolato del Mare. But we must return to our immediate subject. We may judge of the inferiority of our ancestors to the present age in naval power by the boast of lord Coke, that the royal navy of England consisted, under the maritime reign of Elizabeth, of three and thirty ships.4 Blackstone attributes the powerful state of our naval forces to the salutary provisions of the statutes called the navigation-acts, whereby the constant increase of English shipping and seamen was not only encouraged, but rendered unavoidably necessary. "By statute 5 Rich. II. c. iii.,” continues our illustrious commentator, "in order to aug 1 Vinnius, Præfat. ad Peckium. Cleirac, Us. et Cout. de la Mer, introd. 2 Grot. Dr. de la G. et de la P. 1. iii. c. i. § 5. not. 6. 3 Vinnii Com. ad Peckium ad L. i. ff. ad Leg. Rhod. 4 4 Inst. 50. ment the navy of England, then greatly diminished, it was ordained that none of the king's liege people should ship any merchandise out of or into the realm, but only in ships of the king's legiance, on pain of forfeiture. In the next year, by statute 6 Rich. II. c. viii. this wise provision was enervated by only obliging the merchants to give English ships, if able and sufficient, the preference. But the most beneficial statute for the trade and commerce of these kingdoms, at the time, perhaps, at which it was made, was that navigation-act, the rudiments of which were first framed in 1650,1 with a narrow, partial view, being intended to mortify our own sugar-islands, which were disaffected to the parliament, and still held out for Charles II., by stopping the gainful trade which they then carried on with the Dutch, and, at the same time, to clip the wings of those our opulent and aspiring neighbours. This prohibited all ships of foreign nations from trading with any English plantations without license from the council of state. In 1651,2 the prohibition was extended also to the mother-country, and no goods were suffered to be imported into England, or any of its dependencies, in any other than English bottoms, or in the ships of that European nation of which the merchandise imported was the genuine growth or manufacture. At the Restoration, the former provisions were continued by stat. 12 Car. II. c. xviii., with this very material alteration, that threefourths of the mariners should also be English subjects." These acts were further enforced by statutes 26 Geo. III. c. lx. and 27 Geo. III. c. xix., and other statutes. But in 1825, all former regulations on the subject were repealed, by stat. 6 Geo. IV. c. xix., and the system so far altered, that the intercourse of all European nations in amity with 1 Scobell, 132. 2 Ibid. 176. 3 Blackst. Com. b. i. p. 419. this country was placed on the same footing, whereas the old navigation-laws were directed against Holland, the Netherlands, and Germany. That statute was amended by several subsequent enactments; and the law on this subject is consolidated into one act by stat. 3 and 4 Wm. IV. c. liv. The latter statute lays the importation of goods into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and into the British possessions in Asia, Africa, and America, and the carrying of goods from one to another of such possessions, under certain regulations, the object of which is to promote the employment of British ships and seamen, according to the policy of the old navigation-laws. Thus foreign shipping is admitted to the import-trade only in certain cases, and on certain conditions; and the master and a certain proportion of the seamen of every British ship must be natural-born or naturalised subjects of the crown, denizens, or persons who have become subjects by conquest or cession, or have served three years on board a man-of-war belonging to the queen, in time of war. But the proportion of seamen required to be so qualified may be altered, and the period of service may be reduced to two years, by royal proclamation; and British ships, with certain exceptions, must be registered. Many laws have been made for the supply of the royal navy with seamen, for their regulation when on board, and to confer privileges and rewards on them during and after their service. I. First, as to their supply, various regulations have been provided, of which Blackstone gives the following account:-"The power of impressing seafaring men for the sea-service by the king's commission has been a matter of some dispute, and submitted to with great reluctance, though it hath very clearly and learnedly been shewn by sir Michael Foster that the practice of impressing, and granting powers to the admiralty for that purpose, is of very ancient date, and hath been uniformly continued by a regular series of precedents to the present time; whence he concludes it to be part of the common law. The difficulty arises from hence, that no statute has expressly declared this power to be in the crown, though many of them very strongly imply it. The stat. 2 Rich. II. c. iv. speaks of mariners being arrested and retained for the king's service as of a thing well known, and practised without dispute, and provides a remedy against their running away. By a later statute, if any waterman who uses the river Thames shall hide himself during the execution of any commission of pressing for the king's service, he is liable to heavy penalties. By another,* no fisherman shall be taken by the queen's commission to serve as a mariner; but the commission shall first be brought to two justices of the peace inhabiting near the sea-coast where the mariners are to be taken, to the intent that the justices may choose out and return such a number of able-bodied men as in the commission are contained to serve her majesty. And by others," special protections are allowed to seamen in particular circumstances, to prevent them from being impressed; and ferrymen are also said to be privileged from being impressed at common law. All which do most evidently 1 Rep. 154. 2 See also Comb. 245; Barr. 334; and Rex v. Tubb, Cowp. 510. 3 Stat. 2 and 3 Phil. and M. c. xvi. 4 Stat. 5 Eliz. c. v. 5 See stat. 7 and 8 Wm. III. c. xxi. ; 2 Anne, c. vi. ; 4 and 5 Anne, c. xix.; 13 Geo. II. c. xvii. ; 2 Geo. III. c. xv.; 11 Geo. III. c. xxxviii. ; 19 Geo. III. c. lxxv., &c. 6 Sav. 14. imply a power of impressing to reside somewhere; and if anywhere, it must, from the spirit of our constitution, as well as from the frequent mention of the king's commission, reside in the crown alone. "But besides this method of impressing (which is only defensible from public necessity, to which all private considerations must give way), there are other ways that tend to the increase of seamen, and manning the royal navy. Parishes may bind out poor boys apprentices to masters of merchantmen, who shall be protected from impressing for the first three years; and if they are impressed afterwards, the master shall be allowed their wages. Great advantages in point of wages are given to volunteer seamen, in order to induce them to enter into her majesty's service;2 and every foreign seaman, who during a war shall serve two years in a man-of-war, merchantman, or privateer, is naturalised ipso facto.3 About the middle of king William's reign, a scheme was set on foot for a register of seamen to the number of thirtythousand, for a constant and regular supply of the king's fleet; with great privileges to the registered men, and, on the other hand, heavy penalties in case of their non-appearance when called for: but this registry, being judged to be ineffectual as well as oppressive, was abolished by statute 9 Anne, c. xxi."5 It has, however, been partly re-established by stat. 5 and 6 Wm. IV. c. xxi.; and the stat. 5 and 6 Wm. IV. c. xxiv. provides that no person shall be liable to be detained against his consent in the royal navy for a longer period than three years; but the statute authorises the commanding officer of the squadron to detain such person, in cases of exigency, for a further 4 1 Stat. 2 and 3 Anne, c. vi. 2 Stat. 31 Geo. II. c. x. 4 Stat. 7 and 8 Wm. III. c. xxi. 5 Blackst. Com. b. i. c. xiii. p. 420. |