eatly diminished, it was ordained, that none of the king's
liege people should ship any merchandize out of or into the realm but
only in ships of the king's ligeance, on pain of forfeiture. In the
next year, by statute 6 Ric. II. c. 8. this wise provision was
enervated, by only obliging the merchants to give English ships, (if
able and sufficient) the preference. But the most beneficial statute
for the trade and commerce of these kingdoms is that navigation-act,
the rudiments of which were first framed in 1650[e], with a narrow
partial view: being intended to mortify the sugar islands, which were
disaffected to the parliament and still held out for Charles II, by
stopping the gainful trade which they then carried on with the
Dutch[f]; and at the same time to clip the wings of those our opulent
and aspiring neighbours. This prohibited all ships of foreign nations
from trading with any English plantations without licence from the
council of state. In 1651[g] the prohibition was extended also to the
mother country; and no goods were suffered to be imported into
England, or any of it's dependencies, in any other than English
bottoms; or in the ships of that European nation of which the
merchandize imported was the genuine growth or manufacture. At the
restoration, the former provisions were continued, by statute 12 Car.
II. c. 18. with this very material improvement, that the master and
three fourths of the mariners shall also be English subjects.

[Footnote c: 4 Inst. 144. _Coutumes de la mer._ 2.]

[Footnote d: 4 Inst. 50.]

[Footnote e: Scobell 132.]

[Footnote f: Mod. Un. Hist. xli. 289.]

[Footnote g: Scobell. 176.]

MANY laws have been made for the supply of the royal navy with seamen;
for their regulation when on board; and to confer privileges and
rewards on them during and after their service.

1. FIRST, for their supply. The power of impressing men for the sea
service by the king's commission, has been a matter of some dispute,
and submitted to with great reluctance; though it hath very clearly
and learnedly been shewn, by sir Michael Foster[h], that the practise
of impressing, and granting powers to the admiralty for that purpose,
is of very antient date, and hath been uniformly continued by a
regular series of precedents to the present time: whence he concludes
it to be part of the common law[i]. The difficulty arises from hence,
that no statute has expressly declared this power to be in the crown,
thou