Pliny and Cicero highly commend the laws, &c. of Marseilles.

strengthen the natural propensity of its inhabitants to maritime commerce, the great object of their policy. By its wise and prudent institutions, according to Cicero, (350) more easily admired than imitated, players, and all those who under the cloak of religion lived in voluptuousness, were banished from the city.(351) A celebrated academy, where the youth were instructed in every kind of learning, contributed to raise the sciences and fine arts, in Marseilles, to the highest degree of perfection. It deserved, therefore, the appellation given it by Cicero, of the Athens of Gaul, Galliarum Athena; and the name bestowed by Pliny, the mistress of liberal studies, Magistra Studiorum, The Roman youth, according to Strabo, went to form their minds in its schools; and many cities of Italy were eager to entrust the charge of public instruction to the learned citizens of Marseilles. (352) Cicero could not refrain from expressing an opinion, that the excellent discipline establish

(350) Cicero, pro Flacco, ch. 26, Ut omnes ejus institutæ laudari facilius possint quam æmulari.

(351) Inde Massilienses quoque ad hoc tempus..... Eadem civitas severitatis custos accerrima est; nullum aditum in scenam mimis dando. Omnibus autem, qui per aliam religionis simulationem alimenta inertia querunt, clausas portas habent. Valerius Maximus, de Exter. Instit. lib. 2, cap. 6, § 7.

(352) See my two Essays on the maritime voyages of Pythias of Marseilles, read at the public sittings of the academy of that city, the 10th July, 1803.

Excellent maritime regulations have long existed at Marseilles

ed in that city, was superior, not only to that of Greece, but to that of every other nation.(353)

2. Mornac and Giballinus assert, that, after the example of the Rhodians, the Marseilloise published naval laws, which they caused to be engraved on stone, "Eorum leges Ionico more erant publicè proposita ;" but they have been destroyed by time.(354)

3. The republic of Marseilles, was wisely governed, and maintained its excellent principles, for a long period. The municipal ordinances, published in the 13th century, contain many chapters on navigation, and maritime contracts, which are worthy of the most enlightened ages of antiquity. The Marseilloise may be proud, that their ancient naval laws are not lost; engraven on their hearts, they have been transmitted from age to age, and are sufficient to preserve and cherish that love of equity, and that ardent commercial spirit, which render that city the richest port in the Mediterranean.(355)

(353) Cujus ergo civitatis disciplinam atque gravitatem non solum Græciæ, sed haud sio an cunctis gentibus anteponendam dicam. Cicero pro Flacco, ib,

(354) Mornac, on the 9th law of the tit. of the Digest, ad legem Rhodiam de jactu. Quondam a Massiliensibus plurimæ leges nautica instar Rhodiorum, conditæ fuerunt, quas hodie ignoramus, eo quod vel injuria temporum, vel hominum ignavia perierunt. Giballinus, lib. 4, cap. 11, art. 2, n. 2.

(355) See the Introduction to the excellent work of M. Emerigon, entitled, Traité des Assurances.

Origin of the Hanseatic confederacy.

ARTICLE XIII.

Of the Laws of the Hanse-Towns.

§ 1. THE confederation of the Hanseatic cities, called Hanse-Teutonick,(356) originated at Bremen, a city of lower Saxony, in Germany, in the year 1164, and became afterwards so considerable, that it reckoned, under its dependence, sixty-two cities, without comprehending those of many of the states of Europe, which afterwards joined the league, on account of the immense increase of commerce the confederate cities acquired by means of their union.(357)*

2. There was nothing military in the first institution of this confederacy: Its principal object was a

(356) This was an union of privileges and rights termed Aenzee Steden; that is, steden, city, and aenzie, on the sea. These words were afterwards abbreviated into anserche or ansesche. The French pronouncing this word after their manner, have made it hanse, taking this word to mean a company, or an alliance.-Raguenau, at the word Hanse.

(357) Ang. de Werdenhagen, de rebus publicis hanseaticis, Emman. de Meteren, in his Chronicle.

See also Anderson's History of Commerce, Vol. I. p. 209, (Dublin edition.) Werdenhagen makes the word hanse to signify, on the sea, The Hanseatic league is called by the French, Hanse Teutonique, which is the title of this article. Werdenhagen gives a minute account of the origin and progress of all the towns admitted into this confederacy. See also Cleirac, page 160, Collection of Sea Laws, p. 191....T.

The Hanseatic union was originally commercial, and not military.

mutual participation of privileges among the contracting parties, in regard to commerce, not for any determinate time, as is usual in all warlike confederacies, but for an indefinite period. In the lapse of time, there were formed, among the Hanseatic towns, associations of the other kind, as in 1370, when the confederacy declared war against Waldemar III, king of Denmark, and on several other occasions. The latter associations were entered into by special conventions, and for limited periods. They were incidents of the Hanseatic league, but formed no part of the basis of the structure. It is evident, therefore, that the Hanseatic confederacy, was originally nothing more than articles of copartnership, by which the cities who were made parties to the contract, divided the profits of the trade carried on by the aid of the association. The jealousy of the powers of Europe, private interest, and the force of time, have reduced the members of this wise institution, to the cities of Lubeck, Hamburg, Dantzic, Bremen, Rostock, and Cologne.

3. The deputies of this confederacy, sensible of the necessity of particular laws to regulate their commerce, enacted, in their general assembly, some ordinances relative to navigation. They were published for the first time, at Lubeck, in the year 1591, and not in 1597, as Cleirac, and Emerigon have asserted.(358)

(358) Cleirac, Us et Coutumes de la Mer, p. 195. Emerigon, Traite des Assurances, tom. 1. preface 13.

Laws and ordinances of the Hanse-Towns.

4. On the 23d of May, 1614, the deputies of these cities assembled again at Lubeck, when they corrected, and enlarged their former regulations. This last compilation, is entitled, Jus Hanseaticum maratimum. The different matters are distributed into a great number of articles, and divided into fifteen chapters, or titles. It is better arranged than the first, but is nearly the same in substance. The difference consists in a few corrections, and alterations. It is written in Latin and German, and is to be found in the work of Kuricke, entitled, Ad Jus maritimum Hanseaticum, enriched with many excellent notes. It is also inserted in the French language, together with the ordinances of Wisbuy, in the collection of Cleirac, next to the laws of Oleron.* Among these ordinances, some mention is made of the contract of Bottomry; but not a word is said on that assurance. Conditiones juris maritimi Hanseatici, materiam assecurationis sicco planè pede præterierunt, says Kuricke, in his Diatriba de assecurationibus.†

* In Cleirac, p. 157, the Hanseatick laws are divided into 60 articles. In Kuricke, where they are arranged under 15 titles, the number of articles amount to an hundred. An English translation of them in 60 articles, is inserted in the "Collection of Sea Laws," p. 195.....T.

+ Kuricke, Diatriba de Assecurationibus, preface. See also Emerigon, tom. 1, preface, p. xiii....T.