information necessary to assist them in these preliminary inquiries.

Throughout the United States the Editor trusts this work will be held in some estimation. The courts of the different districts, deriving their authority from the same sources and subjected in their determinations to the same laws, should preserve if possible, a uniformity of decision. It has afforded much satisfaction to him to find from the few cases decided in other states which have come into his possession, that this uniformity does in a great measure prevail, and he hopes the present publication will increase it.

By the exertions of some of his friends in neighbouring states, the Editor has been enabled to include in this publication some important and useful determinations, particularly those of the late Judge Winchester of the Maryland district. It would have been a pleasing task for him to have collected the decisions on admiralty subjects from other parts of the union, but his professional engagements denied him the opportunity. To a future, but he hopes no distant period, he has consented to defer it.

He confidently trusts that the cases from the notes of the late Judge Hopkinson will be highly estimated by all who read them; and he thus publicly tenders his acknowledgments to Mr. J. Hop. kinson for these valuable additions to his collections. The principles on which these cases were decided, are those which have been uniformly adopted by the present judge of the Pennsylvania

district, and which claim as authority the best writers on civil and admiralty law.

At the request of many of his friends, the Editor has added, as an appendix to each volume of the work, the maritime laws which are acknowledged as authority by most of the commercial nations of Europe, and some of which have been recognized as such by our own courts. "A Treatise on the Rights and Duties of Owners, Freighters, and Masters of Ships, and of Mariners," as they have been ascertained and determined in Great Britain, is also included. By the lawyer these will be received as a valuable and interesting addition to his stock of professional knowledge; and the American merchant will obtain much satisfaction, as well as advantage, from an acquaintance with the maritime codes of those countries with which he enjoys an extensive and frequent commercial intercourse. If to the legislator they should furnish any information which may be employed in the improvement of our maritime regulations, the editor will be amply compensated for having brought them into his notice.

The laws (and the treatise, &c.) have been extracted from a work of some celebrity, entitled "Sea Laws," but it has not been deemed proper to insert them without a previous careful comparison with such other copies of the same laws as could be commanded. The variance between the copies has been carefully noted, and references to different maritime laws on the same subjects have been added. The laws of the United States relative to seamen are included in the Appendix, and

some explanatory notes are added on the law first enacted by congress on this subject.

While the Editor does an act of justice to his much respected parent, by acknowledging that to him he is indebted for almost every one of the notes on the Admiralty Decisions, he also claims the right to express his gratitude for the frequent and useful assistance he has received from him in other parts of his undertaking. Indeed for himself he expects no other merit from the work, than that which he may derive from the labour of collecting the materials and preparing them for the press.

July, 1807.

RICHARD PETERS, jun.

THIS is a case, in which the general principles are stated in the proceedings and exhibits. There are some circumstances, however, clearly ascertained by those exhibits,† which I shall have occasion to mention in the course of the observations I shall make on the merits hereafter. The libel complains of the illegal capture of the sloop George, and her cargo, the property of the libellant, then and now

The jurisdiction of the district courts, in the several branches of judiciary authority allotted to them, is assigned by the 9th section of the " Act to establish the Judicial Courts of the United States." vol. i, Laws, U. S. page 53. The words, important to this question are......." and shall also have exclusive ori"ginal cognizance of all civil causes of admiralty and maritime "jurisdiction."

the

+ On a careful examination of the record in this case, I find that all the facts, material to this question are stated in decree.-E.

ed. Carson,

one of the owners of the privateer, resided in PennDistrict Court sylvania. The of Pennsylvania has juris

diction over the case, and sustained the suit against the executors

of one of the owners of the capturing pri

vateer.