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BUT, befides this method of impreffing, (which is only defenfible from public neceffity, to which all private confiderations must give way,) there are other ways that tend to the increase of feamen, and manning the royal navy. Parishes may bind out poor boys apprentices to mafters of merchantmen, who fhall be protected from impreffing for the first three years; and if they are impreffed afterwards, the mafters fhall be allowed their wages: great advantages in point of wages are given to volunteer feamen, in order to induce them to enter into his majefty's fervice; and every foreign feaman who during a war fhall ferve two years in any man of war, merchantman, or privateer, is naturalized ipfo facto". About the middle of king William's reign a scheme was fet on foot for a register of feamen to the number of thirty thousand, for a conftant and regular fupply of the king's fleet; with great privileges to the registered men, and, on the other hand, heavy penalties in cafe of their non-appearance when called for: but this re* Stat. 13 Geo. II. c. 3. Stat. 7 & 8 W. III. c. 21.

P Stat. 2 Ann. c. 6.

q Stat. 31 Geo. II. c. 1o.

the King v. Jubbs, lord Mansfield fays, "the power of preffing " is founded upon immemorial usage, allowed for ages. If it be "fo founded and allowed for ages, it can have no ground to ftand

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upon, nor can it be vindicated or justified by any reason, but "the safety of the ftate. And the practice is deduced from that "trite maxim of the conftitutional law of England, that private ◄ mischief had better be fubmitted to, than public detriment and "inconvenience fhould enfue.' And though it be a legal power, "it may, like many others, be abused in the exercife of it.” Cowp. 517. In that cafe the defendant was brought up by habeas corpus, upon the ground that he was entitled to an exemption; but the court held that the exemption was not made out, and he was remanded to the ship from which he had been brought.

Lord Kenyon has alfo declared in a fimilar cafe, that the right of preffing is founded on the common law, and extends to all perfons exercifing employments in the feafaring line. Any exemptions, therefore, which fuch perfons may claim, muft depend upon the pofitive provifions of ftatutes. 5 T. R. 276.

A. seaman ferving in the merchant fervice is not exempt from being imprelled becaufe he is a freeholder. 5 Eaft, 477.

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giftry, being judged to be ineffectual as well as oppressive, was abolished by statute 9 Ann. c. 21.

2. THE method of ordering feamen in the royal fleet, and keeping up a regular discipline there, is directed by certain exprefs rules, articles, and orders, firft enacted by the authority of parliament foon after the restoration; but fince new-modelled and altered, after the peace of Aix la Chapelle ", [ 421 ] to remedy fome defects which were of fatal consequence in conducting the preceding war. In these articles of the navy almost every poffible offence is fet down, and the punishment thereof annexed; in which refpect the feamen have much the advantage over their brethren in the land-service; whofe articles of war are not enacted by parliament, but framed from time to time at the pleasure of the crown. Yet from whence this diftinction arofe, and why the executive power, which is limited fo properly with regard to the navy, fhould be fo entenfive with regard to the army, it is hard to affign a reason: unless it proceeded from the perpetual establishment of the navy, which rendered a permanent law for their regulation expedient; and the temporary duration of the army, which fubfifted only from year to year, and might therefore with lefs danger be fubjected to difcretionary government. But whatever was apprehended at the first formation of the mutiny act, the regular renewal of our standing force at the entrance of every year has made this distinction idle. For, if from experience past we may judge of future events, the army is now laftingly ingrafted into the British constitution; with this fingularly fortunate circumftance, that any branch of the legislature may annually put an end to its legal existence, by refufing to concur in its continuance.

3. WITH regard to the privileges conferred on failors, they are pretty much the fame with thofe conferred on foldiers; with regard to relief when maimed, or wounded, or superannuated, either by county rates, or the royal hospital at Greenwich; with regard also to the exercife of trades, t Stat. 13 Car. II. ft. 1. c. 9.

Stat. 22 Geo. II. c. 23. amended by 19 Geo, II. c. 17.

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and the power of making nuncupative teftaments: and father", no seamen on board his majesty's ships can be arrested for any debt, unless the fame be fworn to amonnt to at least twenty pounds; though, by the annual mutiny acts, a soldier may be arrested for a debt which extends to half that value, but not to a less amount. (12)

Stat. 31 Geo. II. c. 10.

(12) But, by the late mutiny acts, a foldier, like a feaman, cannot be arrested or taken in execution for any debt less than 207. The ftatutes except any criminal matter, and thereupon it has been decided, that a foldier may be committed for refusing to indemnify the parish against a baftard child; or for difobeying an order of juftices to pay a weekly allowance for it. 5 T. R. 156. 2 T. R. 270.

The 44 Geo. III. c. 13. enacts, that if any petty officer or seaman, belonging to his majesty's navy, shall be arrested or apprehended for any debt or criminal charge, after he shall be entitled to his discharge, he shall be re-conveyed by the sheriff, gaoler, or other officer, to fome officer of his majesty's fleet empowered to receive feamen. And if he wilfully or negligently permits him to efcape, he shall forfeit one hundred pounds.

Here it may not be improper to add, that fince the time of queen Anne, a variety of ftatutes have been passed to encourage attempts to discover the longitude at fea; and by the 14 Geo. III. c. 66. which has repealed the former ftatutes, it is enacted, that the author of any useful and practicable plan to discover the longitude at sea, either by time-keepers or aftronomical calculations, shall be entitled to a reward of 5000l. if the longitude can be determined at fea within a degree of a great circle, or fixty geographical miles; to 7,500l. if within 3 of a degree; and to 10,000l. if within a degree. And if any useful discovery shall be made respecting the longitude, though not entitled to those great rewards, or if any beneficial improvement fhall be introduced into navigation, the commiffioners of the longitude may award fuch lefs fum as they think the ingenuity or industry of the author deferves.

And by 16 Geo. III. c. 6. if any fhip difcovers a paffage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, beyond the 52d degree north latitude, the owner or commander, if a king's ship, shall receive 20,000l.; and 5000l. fhall be given in like manner to the first ship that shall approach within one degree of the north pole.

CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH.

OF MASTER AND SERVANT.

HAVIN

AVING thus commented on the rights and duties of perfons as standing in the public relations of magistrates and people, the method I have marked out now leads me to confider their rights and duties in private oeconomical

relations.

THE three great relations in private life are, 1. That of mafter and fervant, which is founded in convenience, whereby a man is directed to call in the affiftance of others, where his own skill and labour will not be fufficient to answer the cares incumbent upon him. 2. That of husband and wife; which is founded in nature, but modified by civil society: the one directing man to continue and multiply his fpecies, the other prescribing the manner in which that natural impulse must be confined and regulated. 3. That of parent and child, which is consequential to that of marriage, being it's principal end and defign: and it is by virtue of this relation that infants are protected, maintained, and educated. But, fince the parents, on whom this care is primarily incumbent, may be snatched away by death before they have completed their duty, the law has therefore provided a fourth relation. 4. That of guardian and ward, which is a kind of artificial parentage, in order to fupply the deficiency, whenever it happens, of the natural. Of all these relations in their order.

IN difcuffing the relation of master and fervant, I shall firft confider the feveral forts of fervants, and how this relation is created and destroyed: fecondly, the effect of this relation with regard to the parties themselves: and, lastly, it's effects with regard to other persons.

I. As to the feveral forts of fervants: I have formerly obferved that pure and proper flavery does not, nay cannot, fubfift in England: fuch, I mean, whereby an absolute and unlimited power is given to the mafter over the life and fortune of the flave. And indeed it is repugnant to reason, and the principles of natural law, that such a state fhould fubfift any where. The three origins of the right of flavery, affigned by Juftinian, are all of them built upon false foundations. As, firft, flavery is held to arife "jure gentium,” from a state of captivity in war; whence flaves are called mancipia, quafi manu capti. The conqueror, fay the civilians, had a right to the life of his captive, and, having spared that, has a right to deal with him as he pleases. But it is an untrue pofition, when taken generally, that by the law of nature or nations a man may kill his enemy; he has only a right to kill him in particular cases; in cases of abfolute neceffity, for self-defence; and it is plain this abfolute neceffity did not subsist, since the victor did not actually kill him, but made him prifoner. War is itself juftifiable only on principles of felf-preservation; and therefore it gives no other right over prisoners, but merely to disable them from doing harm to us, by confining their persons : much less can it give a right to kill, torture, abuse, plunder, or even to enslave an enemy, when the war is over. Since, therefore, the right of making slaves by captivity depends on a supposed right of flaughter, that foundation failing, the consequence drawn from it must fail likewife. But, fecondly, it is faid that flavery may begin " jure civili ;" when one man fells himself to another. This, if only meant of contracts to ferve or work for another, is very

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