Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-09-11

he was an exile without single port, under
took to issue letters of marque. 1t was ar
gued unanswerably before the privy council
OF William Ill, that, whatever might be the
claims de JhTe of deposed prince he could
not receive from any other sovereign inter
national priyileges;' that if he could grant a
commission to take the ships of IL single ma
ton, 1t would in effect be a general license to
! plumber, because those who were SO commits
stoned would be their own Judges of what.
ever they took; and that the reason of the
thing which pronounced that robbers and pi-
rates, when they formed themselves into a
civil society, became just enemies, pronounced
also that king without territory, without
power OF protecting the innocent or furnishing
the guilty, or in any way Of administering
justice, dwindled into pirate if he issued
commissions to seize the goods and ships of
nations, and that they who took commissions
from him must be held by legal inference to
have associated 'ScelerHS cGuSa' and could not
be considered as members of civil society,"
(Pmllimure, International Law, vol j. 40l y
These words are strictly applicable to the
present case. Whatever may be the force of
the rebel slave-mongers on land, they are no
better on the ocean than the 'deposed prince
without power Of protecting the innocent or
puniehlns the guilty, or in any way OF admin
lSterlng Justice;' and, like the prince, they
100 have 'dwlndled into pirate, except so
lar as they may be sustained by British recog-
milton.
And there is yet another precedent which
shows that the appropriation of a captured
slip or cargo without judicial proceedings, is
piracy. The case is memorable 1t is none
other than that of the famous Captgin Kid,
VIII, on his indictment for piracy. as long ago
as 1913, produced commission in iustifica-
non. But it was at once declared that it was
not enough to show commissions he must
also show condemnation of the captured
snip. The Lord Chief Baron Of that day said
that III he had acted pursuant to his COMMITS
sion, he ought TO have condemned ship and
goods; that by not condemning them lie
showed his aim, mind and intention, and that
he did not act in that case by virtue of his
commission, but quite contrary to it; that he
took the ship and shared the money and
goods, and was taken in that very ship,
SO that there is no color or pretcnce that
he intended to bring this ship to Eng
lahu to he condemned or to have condemned
1t IN amy OF the English plantations; and that
Whilst men pursue their commissions they
must be justltied but when they do things
not authorized Or ever intended by them, it
was as if they had no commissions. (Har-
graves State Trials, vol. v. p. BAD Captain
Kidd was condemned TO death and executed
as pirate If he was IA pirate worthy of
death, then, by the same rule, those rovers
who burn ships, rob cargoes and adorn their
cabins with rows of stolen thermometers
without any pretcnce Of IL prize court-must
be pirates, worthy Of death likewise.
but without now considering more criti-
cay what should be the fate OF these ocean
ncehdlaries, or what the responsibilities OF
England, out Of whom they came, | content
myself with the conclusion that they are not
entitled to ocean belligerency."