is the only prosecutor, if from the nature of the crime, there mutt needs be a penury of witnesses, as in rape, robbery, &c. 12. After all the witneffes have been examined in court, the JURY are fhut.up in a room by themfelves, where they must continue excluded from ail correfpondence, till their verdict or judgment be fubfcrised by the foreman (or chancellor) and clerk; and according to this verdict the court pronounces fentence, either abfolving or condemn ing. It is not neceffary, by the law of Scotland, that a jury fhould be unanimous in finding a perfon guilty; the narroweft majority is as fufficient against the pannel, as for him. Juries cannot be punished on account of an erroneous verdict, either for or against the pannel. 13. Though the proper business of a jury be to inquire into the truth of the facts found relevant by the court, for which reason they are fometimes called the inqueft; yet, in many cases, they judge alfo in matters of law or relevancy. Thus, though an objection against a witness should be repelled by the court, the jury are under no neceffity to give more credit to his teftimony than they think juft; and in all trials of art and part, where fpecial facts are not libelled, the jury, if they return a general verdict, are indeed judges not only of the truth, but of the relevancy of the facts that are fworn to by the witneffes. A general verdict is that which finds, in general terms, that the pannel is guilty or not guilty, or that the libel or defences are proped or not proved. In a special verdict, the jury finds certain facts proved, the import of which is to be afterwards confidered by the court. 14, Criminal judges muft now fufpend for fome time the execution of fuch fentences as affect life or limb, that fo condemned criminals, whofe cafes deferve favour, may have access to apply to the king for mercy. No fentence of any court of judicature S. of the river Forth, importing either death or demembration, can be executed in lefs than 30 days; and, if N. of it, in less than 40 days, after the date of the fentence. But corporal punishments, less than death or dismembering, e. g. whipping, pillory, &c. may be inflicted 8 days after fentence on this fide Forth, and 12 days after fentence beyond it. 15. Crimes are extinguished, 1. By the death of the criminal; both becaufe a dead perfon can make no defence, fo that his trial would be truly a judging upon the hearing of one fide; and be caufe, though his guilt thould be ever so notori ous, he is after death carried beyond the reach of human penalties: Such trials therefore can have no effect, but to punish the innocent heir, contrary to that moft equitable rule, Culpa tenet fuos auctores. 2. Crimes may be extinguished by a remillion from the fovereign. But a remiflion, LAW... (1.) *LAW. n. f. [laga, Sax. loi, Fr. laugh, Erfe.] 1. A rule of action.-That which doth affign unto each thing the kind, the fame we term alas. Hooker. though it fecures the delinquent from the public resentment, the exercise of which belongs to the crown, cannot cut off the party injured from his claim of damages, over which the crown has no prerogative. Whoever therefore founds on a remiffion, is liable in damages, to the private profecutor, in the fame manner as if he had been tried and found guilty. Even general acts of indemnity paffed in parliament, though they fecure against fuch penalties as law inflicts upon the criminal merely per modum pana, yet do not against the payment of any pecuniary fine that is given by ftatute to the party injured, nor against the demand of any claim, competent to him in name of damages. 16. Leffer injuries, which cannot be properly faid to affect the public peace, may be extinguished, either by the private party's exprefsly forgiving him, or by his being reconciled to the offender after receiving the injury. Hence arifes the rule, Diffimulatione tollitur injuria. But where the offence is of a higher nature, the party injured, though he may pafs from the prosecution, in fo far as his private intereft is concerned, cannot preclude the king's advocate, or procurator fifcal, from infifting ad vindictam publicam. 17. Crimes are also extinguished by prescription, which operates by the mere lapfe of time, without any act either of the fovereign or of the private fufferer. Crimes prefcribe in 20 years; but in particular crimes, the prefcription is limited by ftatute to a fhorter time. No perfon can be profecuted upon the act against wrongous imprisonment, after three years. High treafon, committed within his majefty's dominions, fuffers likewife a triennial prefcription, if indictment be not found against the traitor within that time. All actions brought upon any penal statute made or to be made where the penalty is appropriated to the crown, expire in two years after committing the offence; and where the penalty goes to the crown or other pro fecutor, the profecutor muft fue within one year, and the crown within two years after the year ended. Certain crimes are, without the aid of any ftatute, extinguished by a fhorter prescription than 20 years. By our old law, in the cafes of rape, robbery, and hamefucken, the party injured was not heard after a filence of 24 hours; from a prefumption that perfons could not be fo grofsly ir. jured, without immediat ly complaining: And it is probable, that a profecution for these crimes, if delayed for any confiderable time, would be caft even at this day, or at least the punishment restrict. ed. Leffer injuries fuffer also a fhort prescription; law prefuming forgiveness, from the nature of the offence, and the filence of the party. The parti cular space of time fufficient to establish this prefumption must be determined by the judge, accord, ing to circumstances. LAW Unhappy man, to break the pious laws Of nature, pleading in his children's caufe. Dry. 2. A decree, edict, ftatute, or cuftom, publickly eftablished as a rule of juftice. Shak. Cor. 7. The rules or axioms of science; as, the laws of mechanicks. 8. An established and conftant mode or procefs; a fixed correspondence of caufe and effect: as, the laws of magnetism.Natural agents have their law. Hooker. I dy'd, whilft in the womb he stay'd, Attending Nature's law. Shak. Cymb. 9. The Mofaical institution: diftinguifhed from the gospel. Lasu can discover fin, but not remove. Milton. 10. The books in which the Jewish religion is delivered diftinguished from the prophets. 11. A particular form or mode of trying and judging; as, law martial, law mercantile: the ecclefiaftical law whereby we are governed. 12. Jurifprudence; the study of law: as, a doctor of law. (2.) LAW is alfo ufed in many places of Scotland, for a hill or mountain; the courts of law having been anciently held on these eminences. See BERWICK, N° 11; DUNDEE, § 3; LARGO, N° 5; NORMAN'S LAW, &c. (3.) LAW, CANON. See CANON, § IX; and LAW, Part I. (4.) Law, CIVIL. See CIVIL, 4, and Law. (5.) LAW LANGUAGE, or LAW LATIN. In England all law proceedings were formerly written, as indeed all public proceedings were, in Norman or law French, and even the arguments of the counfel and decifions of the court were in the fame barbarous dialect. An evident and fhameful badge, it must be owned, of tyranny and foreign fervitude; being introduced under the aufpices of William the Norman, and his fons: whereby the obfervation of the Roman fatyrift was once more verified, that Gallia caufidicos docuit facunda Britannos. This continued till the reign of Edward III. who, having employed his arms fuccefsfully in fubduing the crown of France, thought it unbefeeming the dignity of the victors to use any longer the language of a vanquished country. By a ftatute, therefore, paffed in the 36th year of his reign, it was enacted, that for the future all pleas fhould be pleaded, fhown, defended, answered, debated, and judged, in the English tongue; but be entered and enrolled in Latin: In like manner as Alfonfo X. king of Caftile (the greatgrandfather of Edward III.), obliged his fubjects to use the Caftilian tongue in all legal proceed ings; and as, in 1286, the German language was eftablifhed in the courts of empire. And perhaps, if the legislature had then directed that the writs themfelves, which are mandates from the king to his fubject to perform certain acts, or to appear at certain places, fhould have been framed in the English language, according to the ancient law, it would not have been improper. But the record or enrolment of those writs, and the proceedings thereon, which was calculated for the benefit of pofterity, was more ferviceable (because more durable) in a dead and immutable language, than in any mutable or living one. The practifers, however, being used to the Norman language, and therefore imagining they could exprefs their thoughts more aptly and more concifely in that than in any other, ftill continued to take their notes in law French; and of course, when those notes came to be published, under the denomination of reports, they were printed in that barbarous dialect; which, joined to the additional terrors of a Gothic black letter, has occafiored many a ftudent to throw away his Plowden and Littleton, without venturing upon a page of them. And yet in reality, upon a nearer acquaintance, they would have found nothing very formidable in the language; which differs in its grammar and orthography as much from the modern French, as the diction of Chaucer and Gower does from that of Addison and Pope. Befides, as the Englifh and Norman languages were concurrently ufed by the people of England for several centuries together, the two idioms have naturally affimilated, and mutually borrowed from each other: for which reafon the grammatical conftruction of each is so very much the same, that an Englishman (with a week's preparation) would underftand the laws of Normandy, collected in their grand coustumier, as well, if not better, than a Frenchman bred within the walls of Paris. The Latin, which fucceeded the French for the entry and enrolment of pleas, during the reign of Edward III. and which continued in ufe for four centuries, anfwers fo nearly to the English (oftentimes word for word), that it is not at all furprifing it fhould generally be imagined to be totally fabricated at home, with little more art or trouble than by adding Roman terminations to Englifh words; whereas in reality it is a very univerfal dialect, fpread throughout all Europe at the irruption of the northern nations; and particularly accommodated and moulded to answer all the purposes of the lawyers with a peculiar exactnefs and precifion. This is principally owing to the fimplicity, or (if the reader pleases) the poverty and boldness of its texture, calculated to exprefs the ideas of mankind juft as they arife in the hu man mind, without any rhetorical flourishes, or perplexed ornaments of ftyle: for it may be obferved, that thofe laws and ordinances, of public as well as private communities, are generally the moft eafily understood, where ftrength and perfpicuity, not harmony or elegance of expreffion, have been principally confulted in compiling them. These northern nations, or rather their legislators, though they have refolved to make use of the Latin tongue in promulging their laws, as being more durable, and more generally known to their con quered quered fubjects, than their Teutonic dialects, yet (either through choice or neceffity) frequently intermixed therein fome words of a Gothic original; which is, more or lefs, the cafe in every country of Europe, and therefore not to be imputed as any peculiar blemish in our Englifh legal latinity. The truth is, what is generally denominated law Latin is in reality a mere technical language, calculated for eternal duration, and eafy to be apprehended both in prefent and future times; and on thofe accounts beft fuited to preserve those memorials which are intended for perpetual rules of action. As to the objection of locking up the law in a strange and unknown tongue, this is of little weight with regard to records; which few have occafion to read, but such as do or ought to understand the rudiments of Latin. And befides, it may be observed of the law Latin, as the very ingenious Sir John Davis obferves of the law French, "that it is so very easy to be learned, that the meaneft wit that ever came to the ftudy of the law doth come to understand it almost perfectly in ten days without a reader." It is true, indeed, that the many terms of art, with which the law abounds, are fufficiently harsh when Latinized (yet not more fo than thofe of other sciences), and may, as Mr Selden obferves, give offence" to fome grammarians of fqueamish tomachs, who would rather choose to live in ignorance of things the most useful and important, than to have their delicate ears wounded by the ufe of a word unknown to Cicero, Salluft, or the other writers of the Auguftine age." Yet this is no more than muft unavoidably happen, when things of modern ufe, of which the Romans had no idea, and confequently no phrases to express them, come to be delivered in the Latin tongue. It would puzzle the most claffical scholar to find an appellation, in his pure Latinity, for a constable, a record, or a deed of feoffment: it is therefore to be imputed as much to neceffity as ignorance, that they were ftyled, in our forenfic dialect, conftabularius, recordum, and feoffamentum. Thus again another uncouth word of our ancient laws (for I defend not the ridiculous barbarisms fometimes introduced by the ignorance of modern practisers), the fubftantive murdrum, or the verb murdrare, however harsh and unclaffical it may feem, was neceffarily framed to express a particular offence; fince no Latin word in being, occidere, interficere, neca:e, or the like, was fufficient to exprefs the intention of the criminal, or quo animo the act was perpetrated; and therefore by no means came up to the notion of murder at prefent entertained by law; viz.a killing with malice aforethought. A fimilar neceffity produced a fimilar effect at Byzantium, when the Roman laws were turned into Greek for the use of the oriental empire: for, without any regard to Attic elegance, the lawyers of the imperial courts made no fcruple to translate fide; commiffarios, didis xomμicvagins; cubiculum, Cu*; filium familias, waida papinias; repudium, gi audiov; compromissum, nouxgɑuicgov; reverentia et obfequium, givεgeria Cox; and the like. They ftudied more the exact and precife import of the words, than the neatnefs and delicacy of their cadence. And it may be suggested, that the terms of law are not more numerous, more uncouth, or more difficult to be explained by a teacher, than thofe of logic, phyfics, and the whole circle of Ariftotle's philofophy; nay, even of the politer arts of architecture and its kindred ftudies, or the science of rhetoric itself. Sir Thomas More's famous legalqueftion contains in it nothing more difficult, than the definition which in his time the phi. lofophers currently gave of their materia prima, the groundwork of all natural knowledge; that it is neque quid, neque quantum, neque quale, neque aliquid eorum quibus ens determinatur; or its fubfequent explanation by Adrian Heereboard, who affures us, that materia prima non eft corpus, neque per formam corporeitatis, neque per fimplicem effentiam: eft tamen ens, et quidem fubtantia, licet incompleta; babetque ac tum ex fe entitativam, et fimul est potentia fubje&iva. The law, therefore, with regard to its technical phrases, stands upon the same footing with other ftudies, and requefts only the fame indulgence. This technical Latin continued in ufe from the time of its first introduction, till the fubverfion of our ancient constitution under Cromwell; when, among many other innovations in the law, fome for the better and fome for the worfe, the language of our records was altered and turned into English. But, at the restoration of King Charles, this novelty was no longer countenanced: the practifers finding it very difficult to express them. felves fo concifely or fignificantly in any other lan guage but the Latin. And thus it continued with. out any fenfible inconvenience till about the year 1730, when it was again thought proper that the proceedings at law fhould be done into English, and it was accordingly fo ordered by statute 4 Geo. II. c. 26. This was done, in order that the common people might have knowledge and underftanding of what was alleged or done for and against them, in the process and pleadings, the judgment and entries in caufe: Which purpose it is doubtful how well it has answered; but there is reason to suspect, that the people are now, after many years experience, as ignorant in matters of law as before. On the other hand, these inconveniences have already arisen from the alteration: that now many clerks and attorneys are hardly able to read, much less to understand, a record even of fo modern a date as the reign of George J. And it has much enhanced the expense of all legal proceeding: for fince the practifers are confined (for the fake of the ftamp-duties, which are thereby confiderably increased) to write only a stated number of words in a fheet; and as the English language, through the multitude of its particles, is much more verbose than the Latin; it follows that the number of sheets must be very much augmented by the change. The tranflation alfo of technical phrafes, and the names of writs and other procefs, were found to be fo very ridi culous (a writ of nifi prius, quare impedit, fieri fa cias, habeas corpus, and the reft, not being capable of an English drefs with any degree of feriouf nefs), that in two years time a new act was obliged to be made, 6 Ġeo. II. c. 14, which allows all technical words to continue in the ufual language, and has thereby defeated every purpose of the former ftatute. (6.) Law, Military. MARINE. See MILITARY, and (7.) LAW, (7.) LAW, MUNICIPAL, See LAW, Part I. Se&. I. (8.) LAWS, BREHON. See BREHONICE LEGES, (9) LAWS, MARITIME. The most ancient fyf tem of maritime laws is that of Rhodes, which was in force during the time of the Grecian empire, and afterwards incorporated into the Roman law. Although, in fome parts, not applicable to the prefent ftate of trade, and in others now hardly intelligible, it contains the groundwork of the moft equitable and beneficial rules obferved in modern commerce. A like fyftem was fet forth by Richard I. of England, called the Statutes of Oleron; and another, by the town of Wifby, in the island of Gothland. From thefe fyftems, improved and enlarged in the course of time, our general maritime law is derived. The jurifdiction of matters purely maritime belongs, in Britain, to the court of admiralty, which proceeds on the civil law; but their proceedings are fubject to the controul, and their decifions to the review, of the fuperior courts. We fhall here confider the obligations which fubfift between the mafters or owners of fhips, the freighters, and the furnishers of provifions or repairs. 1. Between MASTERS and FREIGHTERS. A charter-party is a contract between the master and freighters, in which the fhip and voyage is defcribed, and the time and conditions of performing it are ascertained. The freight is most frequently determined for the whole voyage, without refpect to time. Sometimes it depends on the time. In the former cafe, it is either fixed at a certain fum for the whole cargo; or fo much per ton, barrel-bulk, or other weight or measure; or fo much per cent. on the value of the cargo. This laft is common on goods fent to America; and the invoices are produced to afcertain the value. The burden of the ship is generally mentioned in the contract, in this manner, one hundred tons, or thereby; and the number mentioned ought not to differ above 5 tons, at moft, from the exact measure. If a certain fum be agreed on for the freight of the fhip, it must all be paid, although the fhip, when measured, fhould prove lefs, unlefs the burden he warranted. If the fhip be freighted for tranfporting cattle, or flaves, at so much a head, and fome of them die on the paffage, freight is only due for fuch as are delivered alive; but, if for lading them, it is due for all that were put on board. When a whole hip is freighted, if the mafter fuffers any other goods befides thofe of the freighter to be put on board, he is liable for damages. It is common to mention the number of days that the hip fhall continue at each port to load or unload. The expreffion used is work weather days; to fignify, that Sundays, holidays, and days when the weather ftops the work, are not reckoned. If the ship be detained longer, a daily allowance is often agreed on, in name of DEMURRAGE. If the voyage be completed in terms of the agreement, without any misfortune, the mafter has a right to demand payment of the freight before he delivers the goods. But if the fafe delivery be prevented by any fault or accident, the parties are liable, according to the following rules. If the merchant do not load the fhip within the time agreed on, the mafter may engage with another, and recover damages. If the merchant load the fhip, and recal VOL. XIII. PART I. it after it has fet fail, he must pay the whole freight; but if he unload it before it fets fail, he is liable for damages only. If a merchant loads goods which it is not lawful to export, and the ship be prevented from proceeding on that account, he muft pay the freight notwithstanding. If the fhipmafter be not ready to proceed on the voyage at the time agreed on, the merchant may load the whole, or part of the cargo, on board another fhip, and recover damages; but chance, or notorious accident, by the marine law, releases the mafter from damages. If an embargo be laid on the fhip before it fails, the charter-party is diffol ved, and the merchant pays the expenfe of loading and unloading; but if the embargo be only for a fhort limited time, the voyage fhall be performed when it expires, and neither party is liable for damages. If the shipmafter fails to any other port than that agreed on, without neceffity, he is liable for damages; if through neceffity, he muft fail to the port agreed on at his own expense. If a fhip be taken by the enemy, and retaken or ranfomed, the charter-party continues in force. If the mafter transfer the goods from his own fhip to another, without neceffity, and they perish, he is liable for the value; but if his own fhip be in imminent danger, the goods may be put on board another fhip at the rifk of the owner. If a ship be freighted out and home, and a fum agreed on for the whole voyage, nothing is due till it return; and the whole is loft if the fhip be loft on the return. If a certain fum be specified for the homeward voyage, it is due, although the factor abroad fhould have no goods to fend home. In the cafe of a fhip freighted to Madeira, Carolina, and home, a particular freight fixed for the homeward voyage, and an option reserved for the factor at Carolina to decline it, unless the hip arrived before ift March; the fhipmafter, foreseeing he could not arrive there within that time, and might be disappointed of a freight, did not go there at all. He was found liable in damages, as the obligation was abfolute on his part, and conditional only on the other. If the goods be damaged without fault of the fhip or master, the owner is not obliged to receive them and pay freight, but he muft either receive the whole, or abandon the whole; he cannot choofe those that are in beft order, and reject the others. If the goods be damaged through the infufficiency of the fhip, the mafter is liable; but, if it be owing to ftrefs of weather, he is not accountable. It is cuftomary for fhipmafters, when they suspect damage, to take a protest against wind and weather at their arrival. But as this is the declaration of a party, it does not bear credit, unless fupported by collateral circumftances. If part of the goods be thrown over-board, or taken by the enemy, the part delivered pays freight. The fhipmafter is accountable for all the goods received on board, by himfelf or mariners, unless they perish by the act of GOD, or of the king's enemies. Shipmaf ters are not liable for leakage on liquors; nor accountable for the contents of packages, unless packed and delivered in their prefence. Upon a principal of equity, that the labourer is worthy of his hire, differences arifing with regard to freight, when the cafe is doubtful, ought rather to be de K termined from the enemy, or waiting for convoy; charges of quarantine; goods thrown overboard; mafts or rigging cut; holes cut in the fhip to clear it of water; pilotage, when a leak is sprung; damage, when voluntarily run aground, and expenfe of bringing it afloat; goods loft by being put in a lighter; the long boat loft in lightening the ship in time of danger; hire of cables and anchors; charges of laying in ballaft, victualling, and guarding the thip when detained; charges at law, in reclaiming the fhip and cargo; intereft and commiffion on all thefe debursements. Though goods put on board a lighter, and loft, are charged as a general average; yet if the lighter be faved, and the ship with the reft of the goods be loft, the goods in the lighter belong to their refpective proprietors, with out being liable to any contribution. If part of the goods be plundered by a pirate, the proprietor or fhipmafter is not entitled to any contribution. The effential circumftances that conflitute a gene ral average are thefe; the lofs must be the effect of a voluntary action; and the object of that action the common fafety of the whole. Quarantine, which is allowed, feems to fall within this description. For other maritime laws, fee IMPRESSING; INSURANCE, II; QUARANTINE; WRECK, &c. terminated in favour of the shipmafter. II. SHIP and OWNERS with CREDITORS. When debts are contracted for provifions or repairs to a fhip, or arife from a failure in any of the above mentioned obligations, the fhip and tackle, and the owners, are liable for the debt, as well as the mafter. By the mercantile law, the owners are liable in all cafes, without limitation; but by ftatute, they are not liable for embezzlement beyond their value of ship, tackle, and freight. A fhipmafter may pledge his fhip for neceffary repairs during a voyage; and this hypothecation is implied by the maritime law, when fuch debts are contracted. This regulation is necessary, and is therefore adopted by all commercial nations; for, otherwise, the mafter might not find credit for neceffary repairs, and the fhip might be loft. If repairs be made at different places, the laft are preferable. The relief against the fhip is competent to the court of admiralty in England, only when repairs are furnish. ed during the course of a voyage; for the neceffity of the cafe extends no further. If a fhip be repaired at home (e. g. upon the Tay or Thames), the creditor is only entitled to relief at common law. The creditor may fue either the masters or owners; but, if he undertook the work on the fpecial promife of the one, the other is not liable. If the mafter buys provifions on credit, the owners are liable for the debt, though they have given him money to pay them. If a thip be mortgaged, and afterwards loft at fea, the owners must pay the debt; for the mortgage is only an additional fecurity, though there be no exprefs words to that purpose in the covenant. If a fhip be taken by the enemy, and ranfomed, the owners are liable to pay the ranfom, though the ranfomer die in the hands of the captors. III. OWNERS of SHIP and CARGO with each other. There is a mutual obligation which fubfifts between all the owners of a Thip and cargo. In time of danger, it is often neceffary to incur a certain lofs of part for the greater fecurity of the rest; to cut a cable; to lighten the fhip, by throwing part of the goods overboard; to run it afhore; or the like; and as it is unreafonable that the owners of what is expofed for the common fafety fhould bear the whole lofs, it is defrayed by an equal contribution among the proprietors of the ship, cargo, and freight. This is the famous LEX RHODIA de jactu, and is now called a general average. The cuftom of valuing goods which contribute to a general average, is not uniform in all places. They are generally va lued at the price they yield at the port of deftination, charges deducted; and goods thrown over board are valued at the price they would have yielded there. Sailors wages, cloaths, and money belonging to paffengers, and goods belonging to the king, pay no general average; but proprietors of gold and filver, in cafe of goods being thrown overboard, contribute to the full extent of their intereft. The following particulars are charged as general average: Damage fuftained in an engagement with the enemy; attendance on the wounded, and rewards given for fervice in time of danger, or gratuities to the widows or children of the flain; ranfom; goods given to the enemy in the nature of ranfom; charges of bring ing the fhip to a place of safety when in danger (10.) LAWS, MERCANTILE. The laws relating to commercial and maritime affairs approach nearer to uniformity through the different coun tries of Europe, than thofe on other fubjects. Some of the fundamental regulations have been taken from the Roman law; others have been fuggefted by experience, during the progrefs of commerce; and the whole have been gradually reduced to a fyftem, and adopted into the laws of trading nations, with fome local variations and exceptions. The British legislature has enacted many ftatutes refpecting commerce; yet the greater part of our mercantile law is to be collected from the decifions of our courts of juftice, founded on the custom of merchants. A proof of fuch custom, where no direct statute interferes, determines the controverfy, and becomes a precedent for regulating like cafes afterwards. The existence of a custom not formerly recognised, is, in England, determined by a jury of merchants. -The moft common mercantile contracts are those between buyer and feller; between factor and employer; between partners; between the owners, makers, mariners, and freighters of fhips; between infurers and the owners of the subject infured; and between the parties concerned in tranfacting bills of exchange. See the last section; and BILL, § 19; BOTTOMRY, 2; FACTOR, 2; FACTORAGE; INSURANCE, II; PARTNERSHIP; SALE; &c. (11.) LAWS RESPECTING CUSTOMS, or CusTOM-HOUSE LAWs. The expedient of exacting duties on goods imported, or exported, has been adopted by every commercial nation in Europe. It is of great antiquity in Britain. But the attention of the British legislature has not been confined to the object of raising a revenue alone, but they have attempted by duties, exemptions, drawbacks, bounties, and other regulations, to direct the national trade into thofe channels that contribute moft to the public benefit. And, in order to obtain every requifite information, all goods |