The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-06-01
ing had you for so many years at the head Of

ing had you for so many wears at the head of
her maritime and admiralty court.
Inc people who have subdued and controll-
GU .le sea have from the earliest times dictat-
eo so u, i.s laws While powerful chiefs subjected
~ Snielr sway such territories of the land as
tto soo oosuu occupy and defend with their arms.
'raro hro,isy OF the ocean was for them who
Werg pravest in its dangers. While. on the
northern coasts of the Meditnrranaar ooi III az az
s0utn shores OF the Baltic and North seas
merchants were gathering wealth. ond ,s,or;'
ners finding exciting adyentnras thn,,oi,as,I
minds were collecting and exponndino tbnsa
principles OF natural equity, and tho'o o.,S1
toms and usaees to which traffic had Iearnad
to accommodate itself, which still for the
most part unencted form the BODY Of tho
Commercial Law of the world.
As citizens of our State we feel no moro
pride in the rank among commercial and mari
time communities our merchants and shin
builders and seamen have won, than in the
high repute your labors and studies have gain.
ed Tor you in interpreting and developing the
principles Of maritime Jurisprudence.
1t was the pious surmise of the Psalmist
that "they who go down to the sea in ships,
ana 10 business in great waters see the works
o. the Lord and his wonders in the deenn
Howeverth Sc wonders NAV affect refined and
e,e'ateu spirit, 1t would seem as if the effect of
=
10 arouse the storms OF evil passion, and that
tne lawlessness of the open ocean bepot in
thehl ieellng that they had sailed beyond the
constraints OF human law and crossed the
line that bounds the jurisdiction of conscience
ana OF Gou. Certain it is that the sea has
been the theatre of some OF the darkest deeds
oi winch human nature Is capable and its un-
fathomed caves hold the secrets OF the bloodi-
est cruelties ever perpetrated by man upon
his kind. The early commerce, halt traffic
and half plunder. though it drew civilization
In its train, was scarcely above the grade of
statute piracy, nor could we believe unless
compelled by history, in looking at the quiet
civil and decent social Lille of the thriving
communities on the new continents and Is
lands, the massacres, enslavements and extor-
tons that accompanied their discovery and
colonization. Even now that necessarily
despotie system of mastery which places the
persons and lives of unarmed seamen ON ship
board under the custody of one doubly-armed
man, whose ferocious passions are stimulated
Dy L9toxication, sometimes brings back as
ireightage from tar-oH seas horrors that afflict
the human heart in the recital
The ocean, that seems almost to defy its
Maker, the last of chaos to feel the coercion of
creative order. has hitherto baffied man. But
every age it yields to his daring and inventive
spirit. Long AGO he found means TO venture
efNh As1 OPOh WdolCo, uciIlS us CuITtDLS
and its very storms as propulsions for his trav-
el and transportation. Within our time, in
the steamboat, he has subjected it to forces
more completely within his control; and DEFY
ing its own, he is just about TO span it with a
line upon which his whispered messages shall
make themselves heard beneath all its up
roar from continent to continent.
Not more remarkable than these physical
achievements by which science and skill have
made the 1npiln tO tho rs
the moral agencies which have carried the
majesty and sanction of laws to the lone,iest
| waters OF the most barbarous coasts This
law, written in part only in those axioms of
natural equity which large, liberal and can
did mind can read it has been your province
to explain, and to apply to settlement of con-
troyersies, without aid from the deliberations
OF jury. How justly and wisely you have
done 1T, the confidence and respect of this
community whose claims YOU decided and
whose property has been controlled by your
DEGREES is ample testimonial. The shipmas-
ter, IN the port of foreign land has
been made to feel that the charter party de-
inning The due compensation for his toll and
risk, the interest of the ship in its proportion
OF the gains Of commerce and Of the mer-
chants in profits OF bis venture, would be en-
forced against his goods and his person upon
his return from however prolonged VOYAGE.
has found in the humane patience with which
you have listened 70 the recital OF his wrongs.
MS beatlngs, his tyines-up,. his privations OF
1000 and wages, that your guardianship was
something more than maxim. And the
coaster and adventurous landsman who have
bravedt the storms of our own rocky coast to
rescue wrecked ships, wrecked goods and per-
llled lives, have been encouraged by your
bounty to venture again upon a like benet
cence.
We congratulate ourselves that your reports
to be further enlarged as we trust by the pub
licatien OF your Ms, will be enduring monu-
ments OF your humane feelings, your cultiyat-
ed sense of justice, your learning, and need
not characterize in other terms than those
used in the resolutions we have adopted.
books quoted in all Admiralty Courts of the
world and never bnt with Difference and re-
spect, and attractive to the general scholar by
their perspicuous statements, their vivid stye
and the cogency and conviction of their argu-
ments. There is one obligation, however. due
from counsel for the uniform fullness and ap-
precative fairness which in YOUR oDinions
you state, and the candor with which YOU de-
fer to arguments of theirs, which you found
yourself compelled upon closer analysis or a
more comprehensive review to overrule.
The members then gathered about the
bench, and listened to the following reply:
GENTLEMEN OF THE BAR:
This expression on the part of the bar prac-
ticinS in this court, wholly unsought for and
unexpected on my part, deserves from me and
is received with the deepest gratitude. 1t is n
source OF great qualification that the course of
the court durine the protracted period have
long had the honor to sit in it has received
the appreciation OF men learned in law who
have been familiar with its practice from
whom nothing has been or could be conceal
ed and has cahed forth such an EXPRESSION
In every case one party or the other must be
disappointed, in almost every instance of rea-
sonable and in some perhaps of Just expecta-
tons, especially as the jurisdiction and prac-
tice of the court were in some degree uncer-
tain and unsettled. In Admiralty the pre-
yailing opinion of the soundest and most
learned jurisconsults of this country is that our
courts have larger jurisdiction than the
High Court of Admiralty in England. OF
course the English decisions, to which we ha-
bitually look as safe guide, fail. The halt
ing practice and the imperfect reports of our
own court afford but an imperfect substitute
We are therefore left to find our way as well
as we can by looking to general princples.-
When these are our only guide there will be
of course different opinions. 1t cannot be ex.
pected that there will always be an entire
agreement and the most that can be honef
Ior ID lnteSIluy VI HllentlonS, anu this trust
has never Leen doubted. To err is the COM
mon frailty of humanity, and l cannot too
highly value the calmness with which these
errors have been received and the tenderness
with which they have been handled.
The unvarying courtesy and kindness ON
the part OF the bar, which tor so long period
has been uninterlupted, in full measure and
beyond what would reasonably be expected,
call lmperiously for my grateful acknowledge
ment. They can never be forgotten by me,
and will live as long as the pulsations of life
last. .f gr a..
1t only remains that with the best wishes
for your happiness in this life and that which
is to come, bid you final farewell. t
POLITICAL.
"A dispatch to the Boston Transcript says It