Conquest in India and America, distinguished by violence and cruelty.

came shorter, transportation safer and less expensive, communication was every where opened, commerce increased and assumed new splendour.

10. It was then that the kingdoms of the east first saw arrive on their shores, those immense European structures, from which issued men, who, from one hand, shed over the populous tribes of India the beneficent light of Christian truth, and from the other, the destructive fire of war, treachery, and vice. Then did the Portuguese zealot erect on the banks of the Ganges, sumptuous altars, not so much for the adoration of the Divine Dispenser of all good, as of their idol, interest. Then did the rich mines of Potosi attract to the continent of America, those exterminating expeditions, made by the Spaniards, in the name of the God of Peace. Then did the tolerant Batavian, just free from foreign chains, obtain from Indian generosity, in exchange for his merchandize, that protection under which he formed batteries to thunder in the ears of amazed and too credulous hospitality. They tore by violence from the wretched inhabitants of those unfortunate countries, what they would have freely and liberally granted. Cupidity, ever unjust and atrocious, made them forget that these nations were composed of men. Instead of the virtues, they were offered chains, and under the pretext that they did not follow a religion of which they had never heard, they were murdered, to enrich their conquerors with their spoils. Whole nations were im

Excesses of the first discoveries cease.-New wars.

molated for their fatal contempt of the true faith, or rather, to gratify the thirst of gold, for which the interest of religion was but a specious veil. A portion of Europe was depopulated, to replace these victims of avarice, or to make new sacrifices.(274)

11. At the cries of humanity, the carnage ceased, and the victors contending with each other for the spoils of the vanquished, engaged in their quarrels the nations whom they had so cruelly treated. Yet emulation and industry were reanimated. Those nations who, instead of laws, possessed a marine, dreamed of nothing but the establishment of factories, and colonies in the other hemisphere. The immense seas, which nature seems to have placed between countries to separate the different nations of the world, soon became the means of their reunion, and of that mutual commerce, which, by drawing them closer to each other, may be said to make them one nation.

12. Policy and jurisprudence were soon engaged in regulating those commercial transactions, the names of which were hardly known; the economy of navigation, which they meant to encourage; the dangers and perils of the sea, which they were anxious to diminish or prevent; the safety of transportation, which might be assured, became the

(274) The recent usurpation of the kingdom of Mysore, and the death of Tippoo Saib, sufficiently prove that men are always unjust, when actuated by cupidity.

Commerce and navigation, furnish new objects of policy and legislation.

most interesting and profitable objects of legislative policy; at the same time, that the formation and support of harbours, the system of a military marine to protect the activity of the commercial marine, the facility of navigation, the construction and equipment of vessels of every kind, attracted the regards and fixed the attention of the governments of Eu

rope.

13. The science of legislation has embraced new objects: the regulation of the wages of-labour, the compensation of risks, the indemnities in cases of assurance, and in contracts of bottomry; contributions for losses, happening by tempests at sea, in cases of jettison, or waste of goods, for captures of vessels in time of war; in a word, the principles of the various contracts of a similar nature, which grow out of the numerous branches of industry and commerce, increasing every day, by the vigilance and fostering cares of government.

14. From this period, maritime commerce has become an essential object, in the organization and existence of political bodies, and has been neglected in no wise plan of legislation; since, it is not merely the tie which unites all nations and climates, but the soul, the support, and wealth of the state; for, by familiarising men to navigation, it forms seamen, and facilitates those great naval enterprises which open the way to that maritime power, which at the present day, has so much weight in the balance of Europe.

Increase and progress of maritime laws and ordinances.

15. In the early periods of navigation and commerce, a small number of laws were composed, proportioned to the extent of maritime traffic; but navigation, the only means of obtaining superiority in commerce, having greatly increased its operations were multiplied, as the wants of men became more numerous; the marine also, having put more hands to work, as its utility and benefits accelerated its progress, a greater number of regulations, and a more enlarged system of legislation became necessary.

16. Hence, proceeded the great multiplicity of laws, and maritime ordinances. The first relate to objects common to all nations, and are called the laws, or the public maritime rights, of war and peace; the second comprehend the particular interests of each nation, and are denominated the laws and rules of commercial and maritime contracts.

17. Some of these laws, either on account of the veneration entertained for the ancients, or from an opinion of the superior wisdom of those who framed them, or from the spirit of equity which pervades them, or, in short, on account of the power and reputation of the nation by which they were first promulgated, have become the common law of all nations; such are the Rhodian and Roman laws. Others, on the contrary, have remained, 'as at first, mere local ordinances. With the aid of history and

The Rhodians were the first who published maritime laws.

criticism, we shall rapidly pass over the periods of their origin, and show the progress of universal maritime law.

ARTICLE II.

Of the Rhodian Laws.

§ 1. THE Rhodians, as history informs us, were the first among the ancient nations, who published maritime laws. The practice of navigation, and the different cases which arose on maritime subjects, rendered it necessary for the inhabitants of Rhodes to compile a body of naval laws, which breath the spirit of justice and humanity. Cicero extols the discipline of the Rhodian marine to the highest pitch of glory, and declares, that in his time, it was still the object of admiration. (275) Strabo also speaks in praise of Rhodes, which he found governed by admirable laws, and especially those relative to maritime affairs.(276) It is, doubtless, a noble sight, says

(275) Rhodiarum usque ad nostram memoriam disciplina navalis, et gloria remansit. -Pro lege Manilia.

(276) Strabo in speaking of Rhodes, lib. 14, uses the following words: θαυμαση δε και η ευνομία, και επιμέλεια προσ τε την αλλην πολι τείαν, και τα ναυτικα, αφ' ησ εθαλασσοκράτησε πολύν χρόνον, και τα λησηρια καθείλε, και Ρωμαιοισ εγενετο φίλη, &c. Their excellent laws, and the care bestowed on every part of their political administration, particularly in what concerned their naval affairs, are worthy of admiraVOL. I. LI