the Articles of War,) for the government of the soldiers, and of the militia, and to convene courts-martial, with jurisdiction to try and punish offences according to the Articles of War, and the provisions of the act. Without the mutiny act, the soldiers could only be proceeded against according to the common law, that is by action for not fulfilling their contract of enlistment, and by prosecution for assault and battery, for beating their officers, which, of course, would put an end to all discipline. This obstacle it was which prevented James II from establishing a standing army, and governing by means of it, as he had designed to do. (1 Bl. Com. 413 & seq; 2 Steph. Com. 600.)

This martial law which is thus applied by the potency of an act of parliament, is viewed with great jealousy, and is rigorously confined to persons in military service, either as regular soldiers or as militia. (2 Steph. Com. 602.)

31. Provision for disabled soldiers.

Pensions are provided for the sick, hurt, and maimed; and for such as are worn out in their duty, the royal hospital at Chelsea, &c. (1 Bl. Com. 417; 2 Steph. Com. 602–’3.)

28. The Maritime State.

This includes the persons employed in the royal navy, which has ever been the chief defence and ornament of Great Britain, and as such has been assiduously cultivated from a very early period. So eminent was the naval reputation of England in the twelfth century, that the marine code, known as "laws of Oleron," which was compiled by Richard I of England, (about A. D. 1194,) at the Isle of Oleron, on the coast of France, then part of the possessions of the English crown, was speedily received by all Europe, and now constitutes the ground of all their maritime constitutions. (1 Bl. Čom. 418, & n (13); 1 Th. Co. Lit. 9, 48; Bac. Abr. Court of Adm. (E).)

W. C.

1h. The naval power of England, cherished and enlarged by the navigation acts.

By these acts the constant increase of mercantile shipping and seamen was immensely and unavoidably promoted, the trade of the country, and especially of the colonies, being thereby more or less restricted to English ships, manned chiefly by English crews. (1 Bl. Com. 418-'19, & n (14), &c.)

2h. Modes adopted to supply the Royal Navy with sea

men.

The supply is kept up, not by voluntary enlistments alone, with many advantages of wages, but also by impressments, in pursuance of royal commissions, (which, though much complained of, have been adjudged, upon the plea of necessity, to be in accordance with the common law,) and by authorizing parishes to bind poor boys apprentices to masters of merchant vessels. (1 Bl. Com. 420-221; 2 Steph. Com. 604-5.) 3. Laws to enforce Naval Discipline.

The rules and articles of the naval service, whereby persons connected with it are governed, are set down in certain permanent acts of parliament, and are not left, as in case of the army, to executive discretion, under an annual mutiny act. (1 Bl. Com. 421; 2 Steph. Com. 605-26.)

4. Privileges conferred on sailors.

Nearly the same as on soldiers; e. g., pensions to the maimed, wounded or superannuated, and a refuge in the royal hospital at Greenwich, &c. (1 Bl. Com. 421; 2 Steph. Com. 607.)

CHAPTER XIV.

OF MASTER AND SERVANT.

2o. The Private Relations, and the rights and consequent duties belonging thereto.

The private relations are those of (1), Master and servant; (2), Husband and wife; (3), Parent and child; and (4), Guardian and ward;

W. C.

14. Master and Servant; W. C.

The relation of master and servant, in its proper and more comprehensive sense, pervades the whole of society, and demands careful consideration. The subject may be presented under the heads following, namely: (1), The definition of a master and of a servant; (2), The several classes of servants; (3), The manner in which the relation of service affects master and servant respectively; (4), The manner in which strangers may be affected by the relation; and (5), The doctrine touching the termination of the relation; (6), The doctrine touching the liability of a master where government is

concerned; (7), The doctrine touching the liability of an employer for the acts and defaults of a contractor; and (8), The doctrine touching the liability of the owner of real property for its use for hurtful purposes;

W. C.

1e. Definition of a Master, and of a Servant.

(1

A master is one who exercises personal authority or control over another, and that other is his servant. Pars. Con. 86-'7.)

2o. The several classes of servants; W. C.

The several classes of servants include (1), Slaves; (2), Menial servants; (3), Apprentices; (4), Laborers; and (5), Stewards, bailiffs, factors, agents, &c.;

W. C.

1. Slaves.

Slavery is properly a state of involuntary servitude for life. The extent of the master's authority is greater or less, according to the municipal law of each country where such a system prevails. It was never understood in Virginia to confer on the master, as it did by the Roman law, absolute and unlimited power over the life and limbs of the slave, and for a century past has been with us little more than an apprenticeship for life, with power in the master to assign it at pleasure.

Slavery existed in England, at common law, under the name of villenage; and that country for a century and a half was the great patron of the African slave-trade (the most monstrous wickedness of modern times), and continued it for nearly thirty years after it had been abolished by Virginia. (1 Th. Co. Lit. 405 & seq.; 1 Hargr. Jur. Exerc's 18 & seq.; Bract. Lib. IV, fol. 208; Somerset's Case, Lofft's Rep. 1, 17; S. C. 20 How. St. Tri. 1; 1 Rob. Pr. (2d Ed.), 18, &c.)

The growing density of her population having made it more profitable to hire laborers than to own them, villenage sunk gradually into disuse, and the English people (like some of our own countrymen), mistaking the promptings of interest for those of moral principle, as men are prone to do, have loudly applauded their own philanthropy, and have been fain to atone to the world. for their very active participation in the worst incidents of slavery, by remorseless abuse of Virginia for continuing to tolerate what they would not allow her to prevent.

We may note, (1), The origin of slavery in general; (2), The origin of slavery in Virginia, its justification, and its history here; (3), Slavery in its relation to the world; and (4), Who shall be deemed a negro or colored person in Virginia;

W. C.

18. The Origin of Slavery in general, and objections thereto; W. C.

1. Origin of Slavery.

Slavery, which seems to be well nigh as ancient as human society, is referred by Justinian to three sources, viz., captivity in war, purchase for a price, and birth of a slave mother. Servi aut nascuntur aut fiunt. Nascuntur er ancillis nostris; fiunt aut jure gentium, id est, ex captivitate; aut jure civili. (1 Th. Co. Lit. 403-4; Gen. ix. 10, 11; Just. Inst. Lib. I, Tit. iii, § 4.)

2. Objections to the validity of these sources of slavery. Blackstone very justly observes that the three ori-. gins of the right of slavery, assigned by Justinian, are all of them built upon false foundations. As first, jure gentium, from captivity in war; as if the conqueror, having spared the life of his captive, has a right to deal with him as he pleases. But war is itself justifiable only on principles of self-preservation, and therefore gives no other right over prisoners, but merely to disable them from harming us, by confining their persons; much less can it give a right to kill, torture, abuse, plunder, or even to enslave an enemy, when the war is over.

But secondly, as to slavery beginning jure civili, when one man sells himself to another; if this is meant only of contracts to serve or work for another, it is very just; but when applied to strict slavery, where the bondsman becomes the property of the master, it is repugnant to sense and reason. Every sale implies a price, an equivalent, or what may possibly be an equivalent to the seller in lieu of what he parts with; but what can possibly be an equivalent for one man's thus surrendering himself up to the absolute disposal of another during his whole life, as his property?

Lastly, if slaves cannot be made, either jure gentium, from captivity in war, nor jure civili, by purchase for a price, it is manifest that no one can be a slave by birth. (1 Bl. Com. 423; Montesq. Sp. L., B. XV, c. 2; Vat. B. III, § 152; 1 Hargr. Jur. Ex. 12 & seq.) In its origin, therefore, slavery cannot be justified; but when once instituted, and when slaves constitute a considerable part of the population of a State, the continuance of the institution may, and generally will become a necessity, because more injury would result to the body politic from its precipitate abolition than from its maintenance.

28. The Origin of Slavery in Virginia, its justification, and its history there.

We are to take notice in this connexion of, (1), The origin of slavery in Virginia; (2), The justification of slavery in Virginia; (3), The history of slavery in Virginia; and (4), Slavery in its relations to the Federal government;

W. C.

1. The Origin of Slavery in Virginia.

In August, 1620, says Beverly, a Dutch man-of-war landed twenty negroes for sale, which were the first of that kind that were carried into the country. (Bev. Va. 35; 1 Rob. Pr. (2d Ed.) 15 & seq.)

2h. The Justification of Slavery in Virginia.

The continuance of slavery in Virginia was justified. by an inexorable political necessity. It was imposed on the colony, in the first instance, against the earnest and oft-repeated protests of the General Assembly, by the negatives of the King of England, or of his governors, on the laws enacted to prohibit the importation of and traffic in slaves; the further importation was forbidden under heavy penalties, within two years after our declaration of independence (i. e., in 1778), almost thirty years before it was prohibited by Great Britain, and before New England would consent entirely to forego its profits, by allowing the United States to prohibit it; Virginia being thus the first country in the world to set the seal of reprobation upon that opprobrium of modern civilization, the African slave-trade; and when, at length, the commonwealth acquired the power to direct her own policy, the number of slaves was so great (exceeding 230,000) as compared with the whites (about 360,000) us to make it alike disastrous to both races to liberate the blacks. (1 Tuck. Com. 75; Dew's Essay on Slavery, 76, & seq.; 3 Ell. Deb. 590, Speech of P. Henry.) 3. History of Slavery in Virginia.

The history of slavery in Virginia may be briefly presented under the heads following, namely:

(1). The first progress of slavery in Virginia; (2). Efforts of Virginia to arrest the importation of slaves.

(3). Prohibition of the slave-trade in Virginia;

(4). What persons were capable of being enslaved; (5). Legislation in Virginia touching the rights of master to slaves;

(6). Penal legislation in Virginia touching slaves; (7). Manumission of slaves by the owner;