Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 9.djvu/225

GENERAL AVERAGE. 197 the general good of ship, freight, and cargo, and the trial judge had charged these expenses to general average, his judgment, which had been reversed by the Court of Appeal, was restored. No question of sole motive was raised in either court. Considering the underlying principle of general average, which is that he who receives the benefit should share the burden, and that this has been applied to many cases where neither the master nor any one connected with the command of the adventure has ordered the sacrifice, as in the instances of captors, passengers, seamen, money awarded for a recapture, and for saving a derelict, and that even where the master acts, it is often rather as one in authority than as an agent for the owner of the cargo, I cannot but conclude with Mr. Justice Brown that " there is no distinction in principle between a sacrifice made by a master, and one made by authority of law, provided the common safety of the ship and cargo be the object of the action. " J, Lowell,