Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/185

Ch. X. Sec. I.] Foreign Commerce, 65 safety; being used in time of enmity and threatened hostilities and on an emergency, and not for the private advantage of a particular trader or company [a). Nor can a civil embargo, that is, an embargo vrhich is employed in the case of allies and subjects, be imposed upon British ships in a foreign port, un- less by the concurring authority of the state to which that port belongs ; for the King has no right to disturb the peace of other nations, by any seizures, however useful to the interests of his own people. This may be collected from the judgment of Sir William Scott, in the case of the Gertruyda (Z>). In 1721, on the occasion of ships of war being built by English subjects in England for the Czar, which was com- plained of by the King of Sweden, the Judges were of opinion that the King could not prohibit the same (c). Lord Hale does indeed in his treatise de portibiis Maris (d) consider this question very cautiously; and, with his usual diffidence on doubtful and important constitutional subjects, avoids giving a decided opinion : but it is tolerably evident what his sentiments were. He concludes {e) by observing, ^' that upon the whole matter, it will appear from the several Acts of Parliament that have been made for the support and increase of trade, and for the keeping of the sea open to foreign and English merchants and merchandise, that there is now no other means for the restraint of exportation or importation of goods and merchandises in times of peace, hut only when and where an Act of Parliament puts any restraint. Several Acts of Parliament having provided, que la mere soil vvert, it may not be regularly shut against the merchandise of English, or foreigners in amity with this Crown, unless an Act of Parliament shut it, as it hath been done in some particular cases, and may be done in others." The following opinion, upon establishing British manufac- tures in France, was written in 1718 by Mr. West, then counsel to the Board of Trade, and who died Chancellor of Ireland, in 1726 (/). (a) Salk. 32, 335. 3 Lev, 352. 4 (rf) Hargr. Tr. Pare Secunda, ch. 9. Mod. 176. 4 Bac. Ab. 595, title e) Ibid. ch. 10. Merchant. Cliilty, L. of Nat. 72. (/) 2 Chalmers' Collection of Opi- (A) 2 Rob. 211. nions, 247. 1 ed. Preface, xxxiii. {f) Fortese^ie ll. 388. "To