violators of the law of nations, and disturbers of the public. repose; and shall suffer such penalties and corporal punishment as the said judges, or any two of them, shall think fit. Thus, in cases of extraordinary outrage, for which the law has provided no special penalty, the legislature has intrusted to the three principal judges of the kingdom an unlimited power of proportioning the punishment to the crime. III. The crime of piracy, or robbery and depredation upon the high seas, is an offence against the universal law of society; a pirate being, according to Sir Edward Coke, hostis humani generis. As, therefore, he has renounced all the benefits of society and government, and has reduced himself afresh to the savage state of nature, by declaring war against all mankind, all mankind must declare war against him: so that every community has a right, by the rule of self-defence, to inflict that punishment upon him, which every individual would in a state of nature have been otherwise entitled to do, for any invasion of his person or personal property. By the ancient common law, piracy, if committed by a subject, was held to be a species of treason, being contrary to his natural allegiance; and by an alien, to be felony only: but now, since the statute of treasons, 25 Edw. III. st. 5, c. 2, it is held to be only felony in a subject. Formerly it was only cognizable by the admiralty courts, which proceeded by the rules of the civil law." But it being inconsistent with the liberties of the nation that any man's life should be taken away, unless by the judgment of his peers, or the common law of the land, the 'legislature' established a new jurisdiction for this purpose, which proceeds according to the course of the common law, and of which we shall say more hereafter. The offence of piracy, by common law, consists in committing those acts of robbery and depredation upon the high seas, which, if committed upon land, would have amounted to felony there. But, by statute, some other offences are made piracy also: as by statute 11 Wm. III. c. 7, if any natural-born subject commits any act of hostility upon the high seas, against others of his Majesty's subjects, under colour of a commission from any foreign power; a d This act was passed to put an end this, though it would only be an act of war in an alien, shall be construed piracy in a subject. And further, any commander, or seafaring person, betraying his trust, and running away with any ship, boat, ordnance, ammunition, or goods; or yielding them up voluntarily to a pirate; or conspiring to do these acts; or any persons assaulting the commander of a vessel to hinder him from fighting in defence of his ship, or confining him, or making or endeavouring to make a revolt on board; shall for each of these offences be adjudged a pirate, felon, and robber. And by the statute 8 Geo. I. c. 24, ‘made perpetual by the statute 2 Geo. II. c. 28, s. 7,' the trading with known pirates, or furnishing them with stores or ammunition, or fitting out any vessel for that purpose, or in anywise consulting, combining, confederating, or corresponding with them: or the forcibly boarding any merchantvessel, though without seizing or carrying her off, and destroying or throwing any of the goods overboard, shall be deemed piracy: and such accessories to piracy as are described by the statute of William III., are declared to be principal pirates, and guilty of felony.' And further, by statute 18 Geo. II. c. 30, any naturalborn subject, or denizen, who in time of war shall commit hostilities at sea against any of his fellow-subjects, or shall assist an enemy on that element, is liable to be tried and convicted as a pirate. 'The punishment for these offences was formerly' death, whether the guilty party were a principal, or merely accessory by setting forth such pirates, or abetting them before the fact, or receiving or concealing them or their goods after it. This was first altered by the statute 7 Wm. IV. and 1 Vict. c. 88, which, while it re-imposed the capital punishment when murder had been attempted, or when the offence had been attended with stabbing, cutting, or wounding, substituted in other cases transportation, for which penal servitude has now been substituted, or imprisonment not exceeding three years. Principals in the second degree, and accessories before the fact, are punishable in the same manner as principals in the first degree; and accessories after the fact, with imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years.' The capture of piratical vessels was formerly encouraged by to a doubt started immediately after the Revolution, whether James II. did not still retain in himself the right of making war, so as to protect those who acted under his commissions. 9 & 10 Vict. c. 24; 27 & 28 Vict. c. 47. bounties on pirates taken or killed;' and seamen wounded in piratical engagements, were' entitled to the pension of Greenwich Hospital; which no other seamen were, except only such as had served in a ship of war. The statutes as to bounties and rewards for services in piratical engagements are, however, no longer in force. Property captured from pirates is now liable to condemnation as droits of the Admiralty, to be restored, if private property, to the rightful owners on payment of one-eighth of the value as salvage; while fitting rewards are assigned for services against pirates.' And if the commander shall behave cowardly, by not defending the ship, if she carries guns or arms, or shall discharge the mariners from fighting, so that the ship falls into the hands. of pirates, such commander forfeits all his wages, and suffers six months' imprisonment. g IV. The carrying on a traffic in slaves may be regarded as another class of offences against the law of nations. Not merely is it an offence against the victims of the trade, but happily for the interests of humanity, it is now in many instances an offence against express treaties entered into between this country and other states.' h 'Taking any of the crew or passengers of a vessel for the purpose of selling them as slaves, seems to have amounted to the offence of piracy at common law; but this had reference rather to the kidnapping of British subjects than to the traffic in the natives of Africa. Be this as it may, the statute 46 Geo. III. c. 52, prohibited the importation of slaves by subjects of this country into any foreign state, and the fitting out of foreign slave-ships from British ports. In the following year another act, 47 Geo. III. sess. 1, c. 36, was passed for the abolition of the trade altogether; and by the statute 51 Geo. III. c. 23, slave-dealing was made a felony punishable by transportation. By 5 Geo. IV. c. 17, the shipping and conveying of slaves by British subjects was made piracy; and by 5 Geo. IV. c. 113, s. 9, amending and consolidating all laws relating to slavery, and amended in its turn by the statutes 9 Geo. IV. c. 84, and 5 & 6 Vict. c. 101, any subject of the king, or any person residing or being in any of his dominions, or under the government of the East India Company, or on the high seas, further extended by the 6 & 7 Vict. c. 98, f 11 & 12 Will. III. c. 7; 8 Geo. I. c. 24; and 6 Geo. IV. c. 49. 13 & 14 Vict. cc. 26 & 27. s. 1, to all British subjects, who conveys or removes any person as a slave, is declared to be guilty of piracy, felony, and robbery, and punishable with death; for which penal servitude for life, or an imprisonment not exceeding three years, is now substituted.' The dealing for or purchasing or bartering persons as slaves, or fitting out or navigating any ship for this purpose, or in any way being connected with the traffic in slaves, also subjects the offender to penal servitude for any term not exceeding fourteen years, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; and the embarking on board of any vessel as a petty officer or seaman, knowing that such vessel is to be employed in the traffic in slaves, likewise subjects the offender to imprisonment for two years. The abolition of slavery in the British colonies accompanied by the legislative declaration, that it was to be mitigated at once and abolished as soon as possible in India, has been followed by several statutes for the more effectual suppression of the slave trade. Numerous treaties have also been entered into with many foreign nations and states, for extending similar provisions to the ships and subjects of those countries; and these treaties may now be carried into immediate execution by the Queen in Council, without waiting for the authority of Parliament.' 17 Will IV., and 1 Vict. c. 91, s. 1; and 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3. j 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 73; 1 & 2 Vict. c. 19. k k 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 95, s. 88. 1 See the statutes 2 & 3 Vict. c. 73; 5 & 6 Vict. c. 91, & c. 114; and 6 & 7 Vict. c. 98. CHAPTER VI. OF HIGH TREASON AND HEREIN OF SEDITION.' THE next general division of crimes consists of such as more especially affect the supreme executive power, or the Queen and her government; which amount either to a total renunciation of that allegiance, or at the least to a criminal neglect of that duty, which is due from every subject to his sovereign. We have already had occasion to mention the nature of allegiance, as the tie or ligamen which binds every subject to be true and faithful to his sovereign, in return for that protection which is afforded him. And this allegiance, we may remember, was distinguished into two species: the one natural and perpetual, which is inherent only in natives of the sovereign's dominions; the other local and temporary, which is incident to aliens also. Every offence, therefore, more immediately affecting the royal person, his crown, or dignity, is in some degree a breach of this duty of allegiance, whether natural and innate, or local and acquired by residence: and these may be distinguished into four kinds: 1. Treason. 2. Felonies injurious to the royal prerogative. 3. Præmunire. 4. Other misprisions and contempts. Of which crimes, the first and principal is that of treason. a Treason, proditio, in its very name, which is borrowed from the French, imports a betraying, treachery, or breach of faith. It therefore, happens only between allies, says the Mirror: for treason is indeed a general appellation, made use of by the law, to denote not only offences against the sovereign and his government, but also that accumulation of guilt which arises whenever a superior reposes a confidence in a subject or inferior, between whom and himself there subsists a natural, a civil, or even a spiritual relation and the inferior so abuses that confidence, so forgets the obligations of duty, subjection, and allegiance, as to destroy the : a C. 1, § 7. |