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sulato. The chapters of the Consulato relating to prize law have been translated into English by Dr. Robinson, and published in a little work entitled Collectanea Maritima. The Italian version is the only one cited by the English civilians, who appear to be wholly unacquainted with the original Catalan editions or Spanish translations.

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The collection of maritime customs called the Rôles d'Oléron, or Jugemens d'Oléron, appears to have been known to the compilers of the Consulato, by whom its decisions are frequently copied, sometimes in the same identical terms, and in other instances with the modifications and explanations which experience had suggested. The supposed English origin of the Rôles d'Oléron, attributed by Selden and other writers to Richard Coeur-de-Lion, has been sufficiently refuted by M. Pardessus. There is no longer any doubt respecting their French origin, but by whom, or when, or where this very ancient compilation was made, still remains a matter of the greatest uncertainty. Vague tradition indicates the isle of Oleron as the place where it was first promulgated, all the MSS., both in France and England, bearing the title of Rooles d'Oléron, and several of these manuscripts, with all the French printed editions, conclude with this finale, " témoin le scel de l'isle d'Oléron." But there is nowhere else in the different articles of this collection any mention of Oléron the ports of Bordeaux and La Rochelle, and the coasts of Brittany and Normandy, being alone specified. It seems, therefore, certain, that they are not the records of local customs peculiar to that island, but only received there as a dependency of the duchy of Aquitaine. They formed the common maritime law of that duchy, as well as of Normandy and Brittany, and even of England under our kings of the Norman line. Clairac, whose work was published in 1647, attributes their compilation to Elénore of Guienne, but without citing a single historical authority to support his assertion respecting a fact which occurred five centuries before his time. Nor is there any thing in the matter or style of the Rôles or Jugemens to induce us to attribute their publication to any sovereign legislative authority. The formula by which each article is terminated, "tel est le jugement," sufficiently attests that they do not constitute a code of laws promulgated by the supreme power of any state, but a mere collection of precedents and decisions in maritime cases. The text of this compilation, most generally known and most frequently cited, both in France and in other countries, is that published by Clairac in his Us et Coutumes de la Mer, printed for the first time in 1647. He copied this text from a book less known in the present day than his own, composed by Garcie Ferrande, printed

VOL. XIX. NO. XXXVII.

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for the first time in 1541 under the title of Grand Routier de la Mer. The most ancient English translation is also entitled Rutter of the Sea, and was first published by W. Copland, without date, and republished by Godolphin in his View of the Admiralty Jurisdiction. M. Pardessus, who has bestowed great pains upon the critical examination of the Rôles d'Oléron, concludes, as the result of his laborious inquiries, that they were not compiled at one and the same time, but that the whole collection may be divided into four several parts of distinct origin, The first consists of twenty-five articles, which the learned editor calls primitive, because they are the only articles found in the MSS. of the Bodleian and Cottonian libraries, and in the Castilian and Flemish versions. The second part consists of two articles (the 23d of the edition of Garcie, and the 23d and 24th of Clairac), which are not contained in any of the English MSS., nor in the Castilian and Flemish translations. The third part consists of eight articles added to the first in the collection so often cited by the English civilians, called the Black Book of the Admiralty; which articles are evidently of English origin, and may be referred to the time of Richard I, or Henry III. It is perhaps owing to this circumstance that the English jurists have claimed for the whole collection an English origin, and attributed it to the reign of the first of these kings of the Norman line. Finally, the fourth part, consisting of twenty-one articles, which had never been published until they were printed by Garcie, in his Routier de la Mer. From the style of language of this part, it is evident that it must have been composed in the sixteenth century. The primitive parts of the Rôles d'Oléron were probably first reduced to writing in the eleventh century, after having been long preserved in oral tradition. Their language, as published by Clairac, is the old French of the time of Francis I., the period when Garcie published his Routier de la Mer, from which Clairac copied his text. The habit of copyists modernizing the language of MSS. would naturally be employed in the editions which were intended for practical use in France. But the English MSS. preserve the old Norman-French, without any admixture of Gascon expressions, or more modern French; from which we may conclude that they contain the oldest text now extant, if not the true text of the original compilation of the Rôles d'Oléron.

The next most remarkable collection of maritime customs noticed by M. de Miltitz is that known by the name of the Supreme Maritime Laws of Wisby-Hogeste Water-Recht tho Wisby, and which has been represented by the northern jurists and historians as the most ancient monument of commercial

jurisprudence of the middle age. The early fame of the emporium whose name it bears the capital of the isle of Gothland, and which had become in the twelfth century the great mart of the Baltic, and the resort of merchants and navigators from western Europe, and even from Asia-naturally gave rise to this supposition, and swelled into exaggerated importance a collection which is certainly not older than the fourteenth century, and which has evidently been compiled from the Rôles d'Oleron, and the maritime customs of the Low Countries. The most probable conjecture respecting the formation of this collection refers it to the work of some private compiler, who brought together the various customs and laws by which the different factories of foreign merchants established at Wisby, with special immunities, were governed as a matter of privilege. The most ancient known copy is the edition published at Copenhagen in 1505, very soon after the first introduction of printing into Denmark; it is entitled in the commencement,-Her beghynt dat hogeste Water-Recht, Here begins the supreme maritime law it terminates with these words,-Hyr endet dat Gothlandsche WaterRecht dat de gemeyne Koppman und Schippers geordineret unn gemakt hebben to Wisby,-Here endeth the Gothland maritime law which all the merchants and ship-masters have made and ordained at Wisby. This collection must not be confounded with the code called the Wisby Stadt-Tag, the third book of which comprises several provisions respecting commerce and navigation, which M. Pardessus has published in his work. This code was compiled and promulgated under the auspices of Magnus II., King of Sweden and Norway, who reigned from 1320 to 1365. The Wisby Hogeste Water-Recht has been translated into English, and published in the work entitled A Treatise of the Dominion of the Sea, in that called The Laws and Institutions of the Admiralty, and in Postlethwayt's Dictionary of Commerce, vol. ii.

The commercial legislation of the renowned Hanseatic league has hitherto attracted much less attention than the history of its political constitution. Even the latter was very imperfectly known out of Germany until the recent publication of the continuation of Sartorius's history by Dr. Lappenberg, and the work of the latter, entitled Urkundliche Geschichte der deutschen Hanse. The history of the Confederation, published in French by Mallet, is nothing but an abridgment of the two first volumes of Sartorius, inaccurately translated, with a continuation compiled from the elementary books used in the common schools of Germany. The history of its maritime jurisprudence has been succinctly but clearly developed by M. Pardessus, in a preliminary disser

tation to his edition of the Hanseatic commercial ordinances, published in the second volume of his great work. M. de Miltitz has embodied in his own work a rapid view of the vicissitudes of the rise, decline, and fall of the Confederation, with an account of its commercial legislation as exhibited in the different ordinances framed in the general congress, or by the particular members of the league, such as Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck, &c. The Hanseatic league rapidly declined and fell, as soon as the original circumstances which had given rise to its formation had ceased to exist. The interests of so many different cities, widely separated from each other, in various lands, and surrounded by the dominions of powerful neighbours, soon ceased to be the same, when the discovery of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, and of the New World, gave a new direction to the commerce of Europe, and broke up the monopoly which the Hanseatic towns had so long enjoyed from their enterprise, skill, and political dexterity in availing themselves of the inferior civilization and improvement of other countries. Besides, the league was ever deficient in a supreme federal head of sufficient vigour to give effect to its common resolutions against refractory members. The thirty years' war, which desolated Germany, and dissolved all the political ties which bound the empire together, undermined the Hanseatic Confederation, which was reduced from seventy-two cities, of which it consisted in the fifteenth century, to fourteen in 1612. During the troubles of the thirty years' war, the cities of Lubeck, Hamburg, and Bremen, were exclusively entrusted with the care of the common concerns of the league. These three cities formed with each other a closer union in 1630 and 1641, to which Dantzic subsequently acceded, and they vainly endeavoured, after the peace of Westphalia, to revive the federal congress. The last meeting of this assembly was held in 1669, and composed only of deputies from Lubeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Dantzic, Cologne, and Brunswick. From this time the original league was superseded by the more imperfect union which still subsists for certain purposes between Hamburg, Lubeck, and Bremen. These three original Hanseatic towns have preserved their independence from total shipwreck, through the jealousy of the great powers, and their common utility to all nations as free ports, where the commerce of all enjoys equal privileges.

The work known by the name of Guidon de la Mer, compiled in France by some unknown author in the latter part of the sixteenth century, contains a rich collection of principles and decisions respecting the law of insurance, which was then beginning to receive that development which has since converted it into a

science. The substance of this and other old French law works was incorporated into the famous ordinances of Louis XIV. promulgated in 1673 and 1681, the first under the title of Ordonnance du Commerce, and the second under that of Ordonnance de la Marine. The Ordonnance on Commerce is supposed to have been principally compiled by Jacques Savary, an intelligent merchant, author of the Parfait Negotiant, a valuable work containing a commentary upon the Ordonnance. The Ordonnance de la Marine is a code of still greater merit, which embraces the general principles of maritime jurisprudence applicable to civil contracts, as well as captures and prizes in time of war. It was soon received as authority throughout Europe, together with the admirable commentary of Valin, the study of which prepared the mind of Lord Mansfield to lay the foundations of that vast fabric of commercial law reared by him and his successors on the English bench. These two codes, with the works of Valin and Pothier, furnished the principal materials from which was constructed the Code de Commerce, promulgated in 1807 by the Emperor Napoleon, of whom it may be said, as of Justinian, that "the vain titles of his victories are crumbled into dust; but the name of the legislator is inscribed on a fair and everlasting monument." This code, established throughout the vast extent of the French empire and its vassal kingdoms, is still preserved as law in France, Belgium, the Prussian Rhine province, in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom (except Venice), and in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. It is certainly a proof of the great intrinsic merit of this and the other codes promulgated under the auspices of Napoleon, that they should still be retained in countries where they were originally established as badges of conquest.

It would be obviously impossible to follow the learned author of the work before us through the immense detail of his analysis of the existing laws and judicial institutions of the various maritime countries of Europe. This laborious and difficult task has been executed with the greatest skill and success; and whoever has occasion to consult his book, will find in it an inexhaustible source of information on these subjects, equally useful to the merchant, the jurist, and the consular agent. We look forward with great interest to the appearance of the second part of the work, which more immediately concerns the practical duties of the consular office, and which cannot fail to be of still more general utility.

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