34 Geo. 3. c. 68., and the 42 Geo. 3. c. 61. In the sixth section The Coasting. of the first of these acts it is enacted, "that no person shall load Trade. or carry in any ships or vessels whatsoever, whereof any stranger born (unless such as shall be denizens or naturalized,) be owner, part owner, or master, and whereof three-fourths of the mari-, ners, at least, shall not be English, any fish, victual, wares, goods, commodities, or things, of what kind or nature soever, from one port or creek of England, Ireland, Wales, the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, or the town of Berwick, to another port or creek of the same, or of any of them, under pain of forfeiting the goods and ship; one moiety to the king, and the other moiety to the informer." The object of this provision was to exclude foreign property from the coasting trade. The 1 Jac. 2. c. 18. extended this prohibition from foreign property to foreign built ships, which, as may be seen, were not included in the above clause of the act of navigation. By 34 Geo. 3. c. 68. no goods, wares, or merchandize, shall be carried from any port, member, or creek, or place of Great Britain, or of the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, or Man, to any other port, member, creek, or place of the same, or of any of them, in any ship or vessel; nor shall any ship or vessel be permitted to sail in ballast from one of the said ports or creeks to another, unless such ship or vessel shall, respectively, be wholly and solely manned with, and navigated by, a master and mariners, all British subjects. The 42 Geo. 3. c. 61. extends this provision to Irish ships. With the exception of several acts passed to prevent smuggling, which do not fall within the plan of this work, all the regulations of our coasting trade are contained in the above statutes. (a) The navigation law regards this trade to belong as peculiarly to British subjects, as the internal navigation of the country itself. Upon this principle the legislature confines it entirely to British ships, seamen, and capital. The prohibitions upon this head are so simple and unqualified, that no cases have arisen upon any of the statutes. XXVIII. The next branch of the navigation laws is the fisheries, The Fisherics. which being peculiarly adapted to form British seamen to maritime (a) Masters of vessels, before they clear out coastwise, are required to give bond not to be concerned in any illegal transaction, 32 Geo. 3. c. £0.; and the owners are likewise required to give bond that the vessel be not illegally employed, nor out of the limits of her licence, 46 Geo. 3. c. 137. and 56 Geo. 8. c. 104. There are se- The Fisheries. experience and habits, have very early been distinguished by the active encouragement of the legislature. It has been observed by some writers that our fisheries have not increased in the proportion of our commerce; and though our long line of coast, and the character of our population, appear peculiarly favourable to success and enterprize in that branch of industry, we have suffered other nations, and particularly the Dutch, to maintain a rivalship with us in our own waters, and to afford the principal supply of fish to the other kingdoms of Europe. But, within late years, this observation has ceased to be just. The Greenland and Southern whale fishery of Great Britain have long been without rivalry, and the circumstances of the late war have almost made it exclusively our own; whilst our herring fishery, under the encouragement of the legislature, has spread in every direction. The method of curing herrings is now so perfect, and so familiar to the British seamen, that we not only supply the Catholic population of Europe with fish, in preference to all other countries, but we are also enabled to ship large cargoes to the East Indies and South America. XXIX. The British fishery acts are all specially exempted from the operation of the repealing act of 3 Geo. 4. c. 43. The existing rules of our fishery, under these acts, so far at least as they can fall under the cognizance of the courts of law, may be summarily stated to be as follows:-1. Every vessel, employed in the British fishery, must be British built, British owned, and must be manned and navigated by a master and mariners, all British subjects. 34 Geo. 3. c. 68. s. 4. and 42 Geo. 3. c. 61.-I. No fish whatever of foreign fishery, excepting only eels, stockfish, anchovies, turbot, lobsters, sturgeon, and caviare, can be imported into England. 18 Car. 2. c. 2. 10 and 11 Will. 3. c. 24. 1 Geo. 1. st. 2. c. 18.II. All fish caught according to the first of these rules, that is to say, by British subjects, British ships, and duly manued, may be imported into Great Britain duty free. The bounties to the several fisheries, so far as they are continued, belong rather to custom house statutes, and to known and practical regulations, than to a treatise on general maritime law. They are therefore omitted in this place. The regulations of the Greenland and South Wales fishery, and the statutes regulating the licences and limits, as respects the East India Company's charter, are omitted for the same reason. They admit no doubt in law. In this Chapter, it is proposed to treat of the Registry Acts, as forming that portion of our navigation system which is intended to crown and give effect to the whole. The registry of British ships is for the purpose of ascertaining their built and property; to confine the privileges given to such shipping to our own countrymen; to prevent foreigners from being concealed owners in them; and to render it impossible for our merchants to evade the laws for the maintenance and advancement of our naval interests. Before we enter upon this subject it will be necessary shortly to state what the navigation laws had required as to the built and ownership of vessels, previous to the 26 Geo. 3. c. 60. and the new registry act, 4 Geo. 4. c. 41. The principal object of the navigation act, as to the character of the shipping, was to provide that the vessel should be British property, which the legislature at that time deemed sufficient for the two ultimate ends of the system; the maintenance of the navy by the encouragement of sailors, and of commerce by the profits of the carrying trade and colonial monopoly. It was only in a more advanced state of the system that they began to look to the built of the ships, and therein to the further prosecution of our naval interests by the encouragement of docks, shipbuilding, and domestic artificers. Under these confined views in its original objects, the statute of 12 Car. 2. c. 18. was satisfied with requiring that the shipping, employed in the plantation trade, should belong to the people of this country, or, (allowing an alternative) should be of the built of, and belonging to the plantations. If the ship, therefore, were owned by persons in the mother country, it was immaterial where it was built: but if it was owned by some persons in the plantations, it must also have been built there. In the trade with Asia, Africa, and America, the ship might be owned by any subject of this country or the plantations, and nothing is said of the built. The act looked merely to the ownership. In the European trade, the act directs only that goods of the growth, &c. of Russia, (and the other enumerated goods in the eighth section,) Original object tion Act, as, to of the Navigathe built and ownership of British ships. Original object of the Navigation Act, &c. What was to shall be imported in ships which belong to the people of England, Ireland, &c.; except currants and goods, the produce of the Turkish empire, which are not to be imported but in vessels of English built; the clause being silent as to the ownership. In the coasting trade no stranger is to be owner, or part owner, of a ship; but no provision is made to secure an English built and in the fisheries the only rule was that the ships engaged therein should be owned by subjects of this country. And although in all these trades the act invariably required that the master and three-fourths of the mariners should be English, in the fishery nothing is said of the master and mariners. : Lest any doubt should exist as to the term English shipping, where it was required, the seventh section of the navigation act defines what is to be understood by it; that is to say, "shipping built in England, Ireland, Wales, the islands of Guernsey or Jersey, or town of Berwick upon Tweed, or in any of the lands, islands, dominions, or territories to His Majesty in Africa, Asia, or America, belonging, or in his possession." And it provides that where any ease, abatement, or privilege, is given in the book of rates to goods or commodities imported or exported in English built shipping, it is always to be construed as extending only to such ships whereof the master and three-fourths of the mariners are English. And wherever it is required that the master and three-fourths of the mariners should be English, the act declares that the true intent and meaning of this provision is, that they should be such during the whole voyage, unless in case of sickness, death, or being taken prisoners in the voyage. And, in order to prevent frauds in colouring, (as the act terms it,) and buying foreign ships, the tenth section provides, that no foreign built ship shall be deemed or pass as a ship belonging to England, Ireland, &c., or enjoy the benefit and privilege of such a ship or vessel, until the person claiming the property in such vessel shall make appear to the chief officer of the customs in the port next to the place of his abode, that he is not an alien, and shall take an oath before such chief officer, that such ship was bona fide, and without fraud, bought by him for a valuable consideration, expressing the sum, as also the time, place, and persons from whom it was bought, and who are his partners, if he have any; all which partners are required to take the same oath before the chief officer of the customs of the port next to their abode; and that no foreigner, directly or indirectly, has any interest, part, or share therein. Upon taking this oath, the chief officer of the customs is to grant a certificate. A register of such certificates was to be ment of Bri tish shipping by 13 and 14 Car. 2. and Jac. 2. kept, and penalties were imposed upon officers of customs, who should allow the privilege of an English ship to any ship coming into port and making entry, until examination whether the master and three-fourths of the mariners were English; or who should allow such privilege to a foreign built ship, bringing in commodities the growth of the country where it was built, without examination and proof whether it was a ship of the built of that country, and that the master and three-fourths of the mariners were of that country. So, likewise, if any governor should allow a foreign built ship to load or unload before such certificate be produced, and examination made, whether the master and threefourths of the mariners be English, such governor is for the first offence to be removed from his office. We have seen that the act of navigation, except in two instances, Encouragewas content simply with encouraging property in shipping, and was indifferent as to the built: but the benefits of the new system began soon to be felt, and it was the policy of the legislature to extend them. The 13 and 14 Car. 2. c. 11. provides, that for the better increase of shipping and navigation, the collectors of the customs in all the ports of England should forthwith give an account to the collectors and surveyors of the port of London of all foreign built ships in their ports, owned and belonging to the people of England, and of their built and burthen. The collectors and surveyors were further required to make a list of all such ships, and to transmit it to the Court of Exchequer, before 1st December, 1662, there to remain upon record. The act then provides, that no foreign-built ship, that is to say, not built in any of his Majesty's dominions of Asia, Africa, and America, or other than such as shall be bona fide bought before the 1st of October, 1662, and expressly named in the said list, should enjoy the privilege of an English ship, although owned or manned by English, (except such ships as were taken by letters of marque, or condemned as lawful prizes in the Courts of Admiralty,) but that all such ships should be deemed aliens' ships, and pay duties as such. The same act gave a bounty for seven years to persons building ships of three decks, or two decks and a half. The object of this provision was, for the increase of good and serviceable shipping, and for securing the public trade and commerce. The next act for encouraging British shipping, 1 Jac. 2. c. 18. was by continuing certain payments and duties upon foreign-built ships, employed in the coasting trade. Then follows the 7 & 8 Will, 3. c. 22. The professed object of System of rethis statute was to give a monopoly of the colonial trade, both induced in the gistry intro |