CHAPTER VII.

THE LIFE OF LORD STOWELL CONCLUDED.

Ir we follow the steps of Sir William Scott from the Consistory to the Admiralty Court, we shall discover equal traces of judicial excellence, which have fortunately been preserved with scrupulous care. The commencement of his judgments forms an era in the history of English legislation. Dr. Robinson, in a happy moment for his own and predecessor's fame, determined, in Michaelmas Term, 1798, on his first taking his seat, to add to the collection of reports in the other Courts of Judicature those of the High Court of Admiralty. He justly thought that the honour and interests of our own country were too deeply and extensively involved in the administration of the law of nations, not to render it highly proper to be known at home, in what manner, and on what principles, its tribunals administered that species of law; whilst to foreign states and their subjects, whose commercial concerns were every day discussed and decided there, it was most expedient that such information should be given. These Reports, and their continuation in the valuable publications of Drs. Dodson, Edwards, and Haggard, entitle the Admiralty Judge to the high praise of being the author of the law of his court-its founder and legal architect. With the exception of a few manuscript notes of Sir E. Simpson, some scattered memoranda among the records of the Tower, very obscure and imperfect, and occasional references to tradition or personal memory, there appear to have been no precedents for the guidance of Sir William Scott, in adjudicating upon the many difficult and novel cases which were submitted to him during that long and complicated war, the most important in our annals, involving property to the amount of some millions, and comprehending in their extent the rights of settlers in the most distant regions of the globe, the almost empyrean

sovereignty of princes in the East, and the wild laws of the Algerines. It may be remarked, by the way, that he paid particular attention to the claims of Turkey and Portugal, assigning as a reason, that the former country was connected with this by ancient treaties and engagements of a peculiar nature, and that the latter had long maintained a singular relation of something more than amity to this nation. The legal interruption to navigation which both belligerent parties may create against neutrals the right of joint captors— cases of unlawful detention and seizure the force and construction of different treaties the existence of an actual blockade the condemnation of merchant ships, for resisting search questions of domicile, which turn frequently on minute considerations - the extent of the protection of cartel -the extent of territorial claims—the validity of orders in council, are among the subjects adjudicated on by that able jurist, with such unerring accuracy that, though often appealed against, there is no instance in our remembrance of a single one being reversed. A code might be formed from our Admiralty reports, far more complete, full, and satisfactory than the works of the Dutch or Swedish writers on the law of nations could furnish. Coleridge, after recommending a perusal to all statesmen of Grotius, Bynkershoek, Puffendorf, Wolfe, and Vattel, adds the Reports of Dr. Robinson to the catalogue, as comprehending whatever is most valuable in those authors, with many important improvements and additions, declaring truly that international law is under no less obligation to the Admiralty Judge than the law of commercial proceedings was to the late Lord Mansfield. "As I have never seen Sir William Scott," continues that admirable author, "nor either by myself or my connections enjoy the honour of the remotest acquaintance with him, I trust even by those who may think my opinion erroneous, I shall at least not be suspected of intentional flattery." *

Authorities equally distinguished, Grenville, and Canning, and Peel, have exhausted the terms of eulogy on a Judge whose opinions, they declared, were revered in every part of

Coleridge's "Table Talk."

the world where a love of justice and equity prevailed. But a still more convincing tribute to his merit, above the suspicion of partiality, has been supplied by a generous adversary. Lord Stowell printed, for private distribution, some copies of his judgments, and sent one to the Admiralty Judge of the United States. After acknowledging the present, this gentleman continued "In the excitement caused by the hostilities then raging between our countries, I frequently impugned your judgments and considered them as severe and partial, but on a calm review of your decisions after a lapse of years, I am bound to confess my entire conviction both of their accuracy and equity. I have taken care that they shall form the basis of the maritime law of the United States, and I have no hesitation in saying that they ought to do so in that of every civilised country in the world." Mr. Justice Storey, in his valuable Commentaries, reiterates this eulogy in the strongest terms.

We have strung these testimonies together like the laudatory verses prefixed to an old poem, that we may tempt the reader to peruse the judgments of Sir W. Scott themselves; for the fullest extracts, however illustrative of his dignity, firmness, and abundant learning, can afford at the best but very inadequate specimens.

We have just referred to his condemnation of certain American vessels, the Fox, Snipe, and Wasp. The short history of the transaction was this. In November, 1806, the emperor of France had published a decree from Berlin, declaring the British Isles to be in a state of blockade. The British Government, in 1807, published retaliatory orders in council against France, declaring those ports from which the British flag was excluded to be also in blockade, but announcing at the same time that such retaliatory measures were only meant to continue till the decree should be revoked. Bordeaux was one of the ports in blockade. In the spring of 1812, an American ship was taken by our cruizers on her voyage to Bordeaux, and condemned under these orders. In the May of that year, the American resident at London. presented to the Government a paper bearing date the April of the preceding year, and purporting to be a document repealing the Berlin decree so far as concerned American vessels. Sir

William Scott would not allow any validity to this asserted revocation:

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Taking all the evidence resulting from the conduct of the French government viewed in every possible direction : from that of the American government and its representative; from that of the French tribunals; in short, from that of every moral agent whose conduct could be at all connected with this paper, it results that this paper never appeared till above twelve months after it bears date, and that it did not appear because, in truth, it did not physically exist. But suppose, for a moment, that it was really executed at the time it bears date, would that give it a legal existence till it was actually promulged? Certainly not!—in all reason and in all practice such an instrument operates only from the date of its promulgation. If accident has delayed for a great length of time the publication, it ought to be re-executed, and with a reference to the real time of its promulgation; or it should be issued with an explanation of the causes that have deferred it, and pointing to the time of its real operation. But if it be sent into the world with its antiquated date, claiming the authority of that date and of that date only; it has either that authority or it has none. That authority it cannot have, and it is just as deficient in point of honest claim as if the execution had taken place in the fraudulent mode of an antedated instrument. In either way, I should depart from the sobriety of judicial language, if I described it in the terms that in my apprehension belong to it. It is one other instance of the exorbitant demands which that person (Napoleon) is in the habit of making on the credulity of mankind. It is sufficient to observe that in my judgment its authority is fully disproved that it comes into the world with such indisputable characters of falsehood, as utterly destroy its operative credit. It likewise appears to follow that the Court cannot make the order prayed for further proof, because, if it is once established that the document is born with such a stain of corruption in its very essence and constitution, it is out of the reach of any purifying means that can be applied to it; and, least of all, such as are to be applied by those to whom it owes that vicious essence and constitution. They who fabricate such an instrument will fabricate the means of supporting it,

and this Court does not, where imposition is intended on itself, resort for proofs of good faith to the officina fraudis which attempted the imposition What this Court demands is a clear and determinate rule of law acted upon in a clear and determinate manner; not a crooked and fluctuating practice, bending to present policy or even to present humour. With these observations I dismiss this case, having brought to the consideration of it, as I trust, all that impartiality and independence of mind so strongly pressed upon me by advice of which I should be less disposed to doubt the propriety, if I had in the slightest degree felt the necessity. In a case which, though not attended with much difficulty, is not without its delicacy, I have endeavoured to discharge my duty, as in other cases, certainly without any disregard to the satisfaction of other minds, but indispensably to the satisfaction of my own." The following was another rebuke, stern yet urbane, which the Admiralty Judge administered to a still worse fraud upon the law of nations. "The magistrates of Emden certified that the owner was an inhabitant, he himself having positively sworn that he was never there in his life. Now, in what manner, or by what means this certificate has been procured, whether by imposition on the magistrates, or whether by some inaccuracy on the part of the magistrates themselves, it is impossible for me to conjecture, but I must add that inconveniences from this kind of conduct may be likely to attach on the inhabitants of that city, if not prevented by those who have the public care of that place, in guarding against practices of such a nature. I should be extremely sorry to suppose that any body of magistrates acted in their public conduct with an insufficient sense of public duty, and of that guarded honour and integrity which belong to public situations, and without which the intercourse of mankind in different states cannot conveniently be supported; and I, therefore, only desire that it may be intimated to the magistrates of Emden, that there is a danger of a surprise on their vigilance in these matters, and that it concerns the public interests of that place to have that vigilance more laboriously exerted against impositions of this sort,-impositions which I must conceive to have been practised upon them, because