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of mariners being arrested and retained for the king's service, as of a thing well known, and practised without difpute; and provides a remedy against their running away. By a later statutek, if any waterman, who uses the river Thames, shall hide himself during the execution of any commiffion of preffing for the king's service, he is liable to heavy penalties. By another', no fisherman shall be taken by the queen's commiffion to serve as a mariner; but the commission shall be first brought to two justices of the peace, inhabiting near the sea coast where the mariners are to be taken, to the intent that the justices may chuse out and return fuch a number of ablebodied men, as in the commission are contained, to serve her majesty. And, by others", especial protections are allowed to seamen in particular circumstances, to prevent them from being impressed. All which do most evidently imply a power of impreffing to reside somewhere; and, if any where, it must from the spirit of our constitution, as well as from the frequent mention of the king's commiffion, reside in the crown alone.

Bur, 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 seamen, and manning the royal navy. Parishes may bind out poor boys apprentices to masters of merchantmen, who shall be protected from impreffing for the first three years; and if they are impressed afterwards, the masters shall be allowed their wages": great advantages in point of wages are given to volunteer seamen in order to induce them to enter into his majesty's service: and every foreign feaman, who during a war shall 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 set on foot for a register of seamen to the number of thirty thousand, for a constant and regular supply of the king's fleet; with great privileges to the registered men, and, on the other hand, heavy penalties in case of their non-appearance when called for: but this registry, being judged to be rather a badge of flavery, was abolished by statute 9 Ann. c. 21.

UT,

* Stat. 2 & 3 Ph. & M. c. 15.

Stat. 5 Eliz. c. 5.

m Stat. 7 & 8 W. III. c. 21. 2 Ann. c. 6.

4 & 5 Ann. c. 19. 13 Geo. II. c. 17. &C.

Stat. 2 Ann. c. 6.

• Stat. 1 Geo. II. ft. 2. C. 14.

P Stat. 13 Geo. II. c. 3.

Stat. 7 & 8 W. III. c. 21.

thousand, 3. WITH

2. THE method of ordering seamen in the royal fleet, and keeping up a regular discipline there, is directed by certain express rules, articles and orders, first enacted by the authority of parliament foon after the restoration'; but fince new-modelled and altered, after the peace of Aix la Chapelle, 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 set down, and the punishment thereof annexed: in which respect the seamen have much the advantage over their brethren in the land service; whose 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 arose, and why the executive power, which is limited so properly with regard to the navy, should be so extensive 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 subsisted only from year to year; and might therefore with less 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 lastingly ingrafted into the British constitution; with this fingularly fortunate circumstance, that any branch of the legislature may annually put an end to it's legal existence, by refusing to concur in it's continuance.

Stat. 13 Car. II. ft. 1. c. 9.

S

Stat. 22 Geo. II. с. 23.

3. WITH regard to the privileges conferred on failors, they are pretty much the fame with those conferred on soldiers; with regard to relief, when maimed, or wounded, or fuperannuate, either by county rates, or the royal hofpital at Greenwich; with regard also to the exercise of trades, and the power of making informal teftaments: and, farther, no seaman aboard his majesty's ships can be arrested for any debt, unless the fame be sworn to amount to at least twenty pounds; though, by the annual mutiny acts, a foldier may be arrested for a debt which extends to half that value, but not to a less amount.

Stat. I Geo. II. ft. 2. c. 14.

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CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH.

OF MASTER AND SERVANT.

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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 assistance of others, where his own skill and labour will not be sufficient 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 species, 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 design: and it is by virtue of this relation that infants are protected, maintained, and educated. But, since the parents, on whom this care is primarily incumbent, may be snatched away by death or otherwife, 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

IN discussing the relation of master and fervant, I shall, first, confider the several forts of servants, and how this relation is created and destroyed: secondly, the effects of this relation with regard to the parties themselves: and, lastly, it's effect with regard to other perfons.

I. As to the several forts of servants: I have formerly obferved that pure and proper flavery does not, nay cannot, subsist in England; fuch I mean, whereby an absolute and unlimited power is given to the master over the life and fortune of the slave. And indeed it is repugnant to reafson, and the principles of natural law, that such a state should subsist any where. The three origins of the right of flavery afsigned by Juftinian, are all of them built upon false foundations. As, first, slavery is held to arife "jure gentium," from a state of captivity in war; whence flaves are called mancipia, quafi manu capti. The conqueror, say 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 cafes; in cafes of absolute necessity, for felf-defence; and it is plain this absolute neceffity did not fubfift, fince the victor did not actually kill him, but made him prisoner. War is itself justifiable 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 perfons: much less can it give a right to kill, torture, abuse, plunder, or even to enflave, an enemy, when the war is over. Since therefore the right of making flaves by captivity, depends on a fuppofed right of flaughter, that foundation failing, the consequence drawn from it must fail likewise. But, secondly, it is faid that flavery may begin "jure civili;" when one man fells himself to another. This, if only meant of contracts to serve or

a

jure gentium, aut jure civili: nafcuntur ex Servi aut fiunt, aut nafcuntur: fiunt ancillis noftris. Inft. 1. 3. 4.

pag. 123.

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