heated. Cotton, rags, hemp and silk, and other articles, if at all heated, would greatly injure by detention; for although put on board the lazaret to air, the airing would be ineffectual to a drying, and far short of what would be given by the merchant, if free in his own warehouse. 4thly, As arrivals accumulate by the detention of quarantine, the market by such known arrivals gets encumbered by the increased quantity for sale, now no longer in a state of expectation, but already safe from sea peril, and therefore regarded by the purchaser as already in port. The cargoes of each arrival are almost immediately known, and the depreciation in price between the arrival of a vessel and the free delivery of her cargo, has sometimes varied from 20 to 40 per cent. This gives a great check to mercantile adventure. 5thly, As quarantine is regarded as a "restraint of princes" generally provided against by merchants in hiring ships, there is no charge to the cargo for demurrage, but the ship-owner bears the loss (calculated in the charge made for the hire of the vessel) by the detention. The seamen's wages and the expence of victuals, together with the wear and tear of the ship, fall upon the ship-owner. There is however no difference in the premium of insurance on account of the ship being liable to quarantine. But the quarantine duties are extremely high. Every ship from Turkey for London, without a clean bill of health, pays the very large amount of sixteen shillings per ton on her register measurement. Thus a vessel of only two hundred tons measurement, coming from London, and performing quarantine at Standgate Creek, would pay £160; if with a clean bill, £85; from other parts, less. Besides this, the ship-owner sustains a serious loss by the great lapse of time, and wear of his cables. Ships are hired according to their classes. No person will hire a vessel which has entered into the second class, if he can obtain one on similar terms which is still in the first class. But in most cases the passing from the first down to the second class is determined by the age of the vessel. A ship subject to delays of quarantine cannot perform so much work in a given time, as one not so subject; she cannot therefore earn her first cost during the time of her being a first class vessel; and thus the owner has, at the expiration of the allowed time, a vessel of depreciated character, and a bar put in the way of her future employment. 6thly, Pilots are subject to confinement during quarantine, though for a less duration than other persons. Pilots get eight shillings per day for every day while the ship is at

the quarantine ground, and themselves under restraint; and the ship-owner (if the ship is bound to London) pays 50 per cent. more pilotage than if the ship came direct to Gravesend. 7thly, Ships have come from Egypt in less than 30 days, and from the Mediterranean in 20 days. But the length of restraint without a clean bill of health, and with enumerated goods, may be, including the airings of the latter, and their delivery and reloading, 60 days, without reckoning the extra time in going to and coming from the place appointed for performance of the quarantine. Enumerated goods are divided into two classes, which have distinct times for release; but though those of the second class are first at liberty, they must wait for those of the first class, if the ship is to receive her cargo again; and that if the ship leave the goods behind, the owner becomes subject to the hire of hoys to bring them up to London from Standgate Creek, and is also responsible to the original shipper for all plunderage, whether by the navigators of the hoys or by water pirates who have been known to watch hoys which have been silk laden, from the creek, and to board them in the night with a strong force, and rob the cargoes to a very serious amount. It also sometimes happens, that when the time by law for release has arrived, the goods could not be delivered from the lazaret, however wanted, because that in the interim of their restraint, other ships and goods have arrived and been put into the same lazaret, and on the same deck, and the former could not be delivered till the time of the release of the latter from quarantine has been completed. It is evident therefore, that the detentions occasioned by quarantine, forms, in a variety of ways, a serious injury to trade. But added to all these, there is another evil of no small amount, in the losses by embezzlement in goods subject to quarantine. Deficiencies have been found in the receipt of goods, some of which have doubtless been traced to the time of quarantine; and although all of them may not be chargeable there, still the difficulty of tracing the loss is vastly increased by the delivery into and out of the lazaret, where the packages have been cut open for airing. Silk is delivered to the lazaret by weight, and received again by weight, but the gross weight of the package is the only criterion; if that be correct, any alterations in the article itself is not perceived. The captain of the ship is subject to no responsibility; the persons employed in the lazaret are no longer responsible, except upon direct proof; the change is not discovered except in the mer

chant's warehouse, or sometimes in the possession of the consumer to whom the goods may have been sold, after a considerable lapse of time. Such being the inconveniences which result from the quarantine system, it is manifest that it is only upon grounds of the most urgent expediency, that the continuance of such regulations could be justified and allowed.

CHAP. V.

Of Convoys.

A CONVOY is a naval force appointed by government for

the protection of merchant ships and others during the whole voyage, or such part of it as is thought to require such protection. The consideration of the laws of convoy, leads us to enquire, first, what vessels are obliged to sail with convoy ; secondly, what is the course to be pursued by those on which this obligation is imposed, the place from which they must sail, with what vessel, how far they must proceed with convoy, with the penalties and consequences attached to sailing without convoy, or separating from it. Lastly, the duties of the officers and seamen belonging to the convoy.

To avert the mischiefs that would arise to the commerce of this country, if vessels were allowed to sail without sufficient protection, acts of parliament have been frequently passed, during the existence of hostilities, to oblige ships to sail with convoy. The last act was the stat. 43 Geo. 3. c. 57. which expired at the temrination of the late war. This statute provided that it should not be lawful for any vessel belonging to his majesty's subjects, except as therein provided, to sail or depart from any port or place whatever, unless under the convoy and protection of such ship or ships, vessel or vessels, as should or might be appointed for that purpose. Some vessels, however, were exempted by statute from the obligation to sail with convoy. In the first place, it did not extend to any vessel not required to be registered. A foreign-built ship, British-owned, is not required to be registered, and therefore may sail without convoy by virtue of this exception (1). Secondly, the act did not extend to any vessel for which a licence to sail without convoy should be granted by the lord high admiral of Great Britain, or by the commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral, or a person duly authorized by him or them for that purpose. A licence for a

(1) Long v. Duff, 2 Bos. & Pul. 209.

ship to sail without convoy, describing her as bound on a voyage to Gibraltar, when in fact she sailed from hence with instructions to make the best of her way direct to Palermo, and not to touch at Gibraltar unless ordered into the bay by cruizers which she might meet in passing it, is fraudulent and void, and will not legalize an insurance by the charterer of such ship sailing without convoy, upon goods put on board, and insured from hence to Palermo, &c. with liberty to proceed to any ports to seek convoy, &c. and therefore will not cover a loss which happened in the latter part of the voyage, although the ship, being compelled by stress of weather, against the master's intentions, did in fact go to Gibraltar, and although no convoy was to be procured there, nor licence to proceed without it (1). So where a trader shipped goods for Cagliari on board a general ship, represented as sailing with licence and without convoy, and bound for Gibraltar, Cagliari, and Majorca, which had a licence to sail without convoy to Gibraltar only, and sailed from Gibraltar without convoy or licence, it was held that an insurance of such goods by the shipper was void (2). An insurance on goods, however, is not vitiated by a mis-description in the licence of the force of the vessel (3). We shall hereafter have occasion to advert to the consequences of sailing without licence and without convoy, and therefore content ourselves with observng at present that there is this distinction between sailing without convoy, and sailing without licence; if a ship sails without convoy, and the assured is ignorant of her sailing without convoy, he is protected; but if he knows of her sailing without convoy, not knowing whether she has a licence or not, he is not protected, unless she has a licence; his security, in this case, depends upon the fact, whether the ship has a licence for the voyage or not (4). A ship licensed to sail without convoy, provided she is armed with a certain force, must take that force on board before she breaks ground (5). Thirdly, the act does not extend to a vessel proceeding with due diligence to join convoy from the place at which she is cleared outwards, in case such convoy is appointed to sail from some other place (except, nevertheless, that the statute requires a bond to be taken upon the clearance outwards

(1) Wainhouse v. Cowie, 4 Taunt. 178. Higham v. Agnew, 15 East, 517.

(2) Darby v. Newton, 6 Taunt. 544. 2 Marsh. Rep. 252. S. C.

Campb. 532. See post.

(4) Wainhouse v. Cowie, 4 Taunt. 187, 8. Darby v. Newton, 6 Taunt. 547.

(5) Hinckley v. Walter, 3Taunt.