peaceably, they are under the king’s protection; though liable to be ſent home whenever the king ſees occaſion. But no ſubject of a nation at war with us can, by the law of nations, come into the realm, nor can travel himſelf upon the high ſeas, or ſend his goods and merchandize from one place to another, without danger of being ſeiſed by our ſubjects, unleſs he has letters of ſafe-conduct; which by divers antient ſtatutes[1] muſt be granted under the king’s great ſeal and inrolled in chancery, or elſe are of no effect: the king being ſuppoſed the beſt judge of ſuch emergencies, as may deſerve exception from the general law of arms. But paſſports under the king’s ſign-manual, or licences from his embaſſadors abroad, are now more uſually obtained, and are allowed to be of equal validity.
Indeed the law of England, as a commercial country, pays a very particular regard to foreign merchants in innumerable inſtances. One I cannot omit to mention: that by magna carta[2] it is provided, that all merchants (unleſs publicly prohibited beforehand) ſhall have ſafe conduct to depart from, to come into, to tarry in, and to go through England, for the exerciſe of merchandize, without any unreaſonable impoſts, except in time of war: and, if a war breaks out between us and their country, they ſhall be attached (if in England) without harm of body or goods, till the king or his chief juſticiary be informed how our merchants are treated in the land with which we are at war; and, if ours be ſecure in that land, they ſhall be ſecure in ours. This ſeems to have been a common rule of equity among all the northern nations; for we learn from Stiernhook[3], that it was a maxim among the Goths and Swedes, “quam legem exteri nobis poſuere, eandem illis ponemus.” But it is ſomewhat extraordinary, that it ſhould have found a place in magna carta, a mere interior treaty between the king and his natural-born ſubjects; which occaſions the learned Monteſquieu to remark with a degree of admiration, “that the Engliſh have made the protection of foreign
