Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/240

 ISS GENKBAL BUHNSIDE. 233 �Michigan ereditors, upon the ground that their claitns are for- eign, while the Michigan claims are domestic. �I find, on examination, that in every commercial country excepting the United States this distinction between foreign and home liens bas been entirely ignored ; that it does not exist anywhere else, and that it does not exist in the United States as it does in England, and that it exista here only in a modified form. Yarious reasons have been given for draw- ing a distinction between a home port and a foreign port in the English admiralty law. It is supposed by some that the distinction is founded upon the fact that the owner of the vessel is presumed to have credit in his own port, and that, therefore, the credit is given to the owner and not to the vessel. But the true reason, I think, is very plain, and grew eut of the contest that vras waged for a long time between the admiralty and common-lawjurisdictions of England, in which the common-law courts prevailed, and settled and determined ail cases of admiralty jurisdiction, unless the question arose with reference to matters which occurred upon the high seas, asserting that no maritime liens could attach except upon the high seas, as they were not maritime transactions. When Dur own courts began the administration of the admiralty law they departed from this practice and adopted the oppo- site doctrine, asserting the admiralty jurisdiction upon ail waters, including the interior navigable rivers and lakes, dis- regarding the criterion of tide-water, etc.; and, if I may be permitted to say so, necessarily, and, I think, upon principle, placed themselves in a position which should have induced them to adopt the theories of other commercial countries, •whichi ignored distinctions made between home and foreign ports. Our commercial marine is a national affair. It is made so by the constitution. Exclusive jurisdiction in admiralty is given to the federal courts, and it ought to be treated as a national affair and delocalized. But we have fallen into a kind of mongrel System, between the civil and English admiralty practice, and have adopted theidea that a Tessel, owned and registered in one state, is as to anotber state a fore^ yessel^ and bave ^ven to oor eomniercîal ����