and Bridgman being not paid his money, arrests the ship, and declares in the admiralty against the owner of the ship; who being condemned to pay the money, sues a prohibition, and suggests, that the master had no power to pawn his ship. Hereupon Bridgman, who had lent his money bona fide, to preserve the ship from perishing, has his pawn taken from him, and is left to his remedy against the master; indeed if the master be solvent, he must pay the money, from which he never had any advantage; if he prove insolvent, Bridgman must lose it. Which will be a sufficient discouragement to him, and every one else, another time, from lending their money to preserve an English bottom. The reason of this prohibition must have been, because the contract was made upon the land in Sevil. And yet the judgment of the admiralty is there approved of, in allowing the master power to pawn his owner's ship for the preservation of it, though it was disagreeable to the rules of the common law.

It is said, that the common law courts have often judged these cases; and when they do, they judge according to the marine law: and that what defect is in their law, as to arrests or executions on the water, may be easily supplied by a new act in favour of them, and not of the admiralty.

It is true, my lords, that the legislative power is at liberty to trust whom it thinks fit, with his majesty's jurisdiction upon the water; but we hope, that as the admiral was vested with this jurisdiction before England knew Magna Charta, and that we have done nothing to forfeit that title, that we have done nothing contrary to his majesty's dignity, contrary to the just rights of his subjects, or to the prejudice of his neighbours, that we shall not be laid aside. And as for that, that the courts of common law are willing to judge marine causes by the marine law; I will not take upon me to say, how far they may recede from their own law in those cases, wherein theirs and ours do differ; but I think they may as well ask the whole spiritual jurisdiction, and say, they will govern their judgments

according to the ecclesiastical law, and the canons of the church.

The inconveniences of a real and pretended jurisdiction being thus stated, the conveniences of this bill, does, I hope, more manifestly appear. For if it be declared by a law, that no prohibition shall lie in the cases therein specified, it will be,

1. A great satisfaction to foreigners that have causes of action here. For a merchant or factor in Spain, France, or Holland, as soon as his proctor or correspondent shall transmit unto him the copy of a libel, put in against him in the admiralty, he may have recourse to the civilians of his own coun try, and learn from them, as well as from us, which is most advisable, to contest, or submit. Nay, if sentence goes against him, his proctor will be able to transmit him the arguments and reasons of law, which the judge at the time of giving sentence goes upon; and so he may advise, whether he had best appeal or acquiesce: whereas now, all foreigners do complain extremely, that they can have no other account of their cause, but that the foreman of the jury said, they found against them.

2dly. Mariners will have their wages, or their punishment time enough to go to sea again with the next fair wind; and all the crew of a ship may join in one action, and not cost them one shilling a piece: and if they be faulty, the master or merchant have a remedy against their wages, pro rata, without being put to several suits.

3dly. Owners shall recover their freight, and merchants their damages, when they happen, in one and the same judgment, and charter-parties, which are only calculated for seaaffairs, shall be interpreted and adjudged by the sea-laws, and according to the style of the court, not from term to term, but from day to day, and tide to tide all the year round.

4thly. When part owners of ships do differ (which is very frequently) about setting out their parts to sea, about a voyage, about letting out their ships to freight, about constituting or removing a master, some being for one master, one

design, some for another; they will have their differences, as soon as they can be stated, decided by the laws of the sea. Whereas it is sometimes impossible for them to have a hearing in several months at common law; and when they have had it, I know not of any thing (as I before said) that is provisional or decisive in these cases, but must be borrowed from the civil law.

But the greatest conveniency of all, will be the encouragement to material men; if they be but secure of their action against the ship, there is nothing in their warehouse, but will be forthwith furnished upon the credit of the ship. And if we may believe men of experience, this will contribute more effectually than any thing to his majesty's designs, for the increase of shipping, and the encouragement of navigation. And if the bill before your lordships will naturally produce these effects, as it certainly will, I need not enlarge upon any other conveniencies.

Yet one more I cannot forbear to mention; the encouragement of a profession, not only as it is a profession or body of men devoted to such a study, but as it may prove, and has been reputed in some little measure useful to the public; and I hope it will not be thought invidious, if I choose the words of a great and wise prince, his majesty's royal grandfather.

I do greatly esteem (says he) the civil law; the profession thereof serving more for general learning, and being most necessary for matters of treaty with foreign nations. And I think that if it should be taken away, it would make an entry to barbarism, and blemish the honour of this kingdom. For it is in a manner lex gentium, and maintaineth intercourse with all foreign nations. My meaning is not to prefer the civil law before the common law, but only that it should not be extinguished, and yet so bounded (I mean to such courts and causes as have been in ancient use) as the ecclesiastical, court of admiralty, court of request, &c.

Thus that great and discerning prince in terminis, with much more to the same purpose. The truth whereof, as to

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the usefulness of this science, is abundantly verified in a very modern instance, I mean, the pretensions of France over the Spanish Netherlands. For by the licensed manifesto's published on both sides, about three years ago, it will appear, not only how useful the professors of that law were to support the titles of their respective masters, and also how necessary the assistance of men, consummate in that science, would be to any neighbour prince, that had occasion to inform himself (as arbitrator or ally) as his majesty might have had, of the true state and merit of the differences. For the several points of devolution, renunciation, and succession, upon which those manifestos join issue, are neither to be thoroughly understood, nor rightly stated, but by a considerable skill and knowledge in the civil law. And in all such sort of intercourses or disputes, what rule or law can we go by, or how is it possible, my lords, to convince foreigners of what we say, but either from the principles and maxims of their own law, or else by that law, which is in some measure received by all, as the fixed and unalterable rules of justice.

However, we have no reason to fear the extinguishment which king James speaks of, since we owe the very name and being we have of a profession to his majesty's most happy return to, and his most gracious influence upon the church of England, and this her constant handmaid. And it is in contemplation of this revival, that the study of this law begins to flourish in the universities. And those members of colleges that are bound by their statutes to spend their time, and take their degrees in this science (and of these there are fifty-three persons indispensably bound in the university of Oxford) do not now say, as they did in the times of usurpation, that they are condemned to a jejune and barren study, by a three penny planet. But there is scarce a college or hall that hath not several volunteers, that, under the favour of his majesty, who so well knows the esteem of this profession abroad, have given in their names to this study.

But whether this of encouraging so many young students, of satisfying foreign traders, of giving dispatch to mariners, and to material men the security which they like best, shall be esteemed real conveniencies or not; yet I hope, my lords, to conclude with something that will give all parties content, and must be understood to be a conveniency; it is, that we of the admiralty are content, that suitors may have their option of the court they would sue in: If mariners will go for their wages, owners for their freight, merchants for their damages, material men for their money, to the common law, we shall not in the least regret it: But if they choose rather to come to the admiralty, (as certainly they will not, unless they find the dispatch quicker, the proceedings less chargeable, and the methods of judgment and execution more suitable to their business) we desire leave to receive them, and to do them justice, without the danger of a penal statute, and without the interruption of prohibitions when once we are possessed of And this is all we desire.

the cause.