Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/239

 232 FEDERAL REPORTER. �admiraJty law of En^and, where the line betwecn foreign ani domestie commeroe is of course clearij marked, is founded in no good reason here, sinee nearly ail the domestie commerce, properly speaking, of this country is between different states, and therefore legally foreign to each other. Taking into con- sideration tiie national character of our interstate commerce, it seems to me that either aH vessels of the United Statea should be considered domestie, or, if the words "home port" were used, that oaly tha actual domicile of the owner should be considered the home port, and every other port, either in the same or another staie, should be considered foreign, The latter view vas actually adopted by the learned judge for the district of Oregon in the case of The Favorite, 1 Chicago Legal News, 395, but was criticised by Judge Dillon in The Albany, 4 Cent. Law Jour. 16. In view of the settled course of decisions upon this point, I cannot but regard The Favorite as a departure from the hitherto accepted law, and so far unsound, but I regard it as extremely unfortunate that tho line between foreign and domestie creditors was drawn exactly as it is. As an enunciation of what the law ought to be ,1 fuUy coïncide in the opinion of Judge Deady. �But with regard to the main question in this case, viz., the preferential character of foreign material men, it seems to me too well settled, both in practice and upon authority, to be now disturbed. �The exceptions are, therefore, overruled. ���On appeal to the circuit court the following opinion was delivered by — �Baxter, C. J. : This case presents a question which has frequently arisen in the admiralty courts of the lake dis- tricts, as well as at other points. This was a Michigan ves- sel, owned in Detroit. Upon the sale it did not realize enough to pay ail the liens existing in favor of the material men here, and the foreign credkors — I mean foreign ia the •new of thô admiralty law — are elaiming precedence over the ����