Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/850

 836 FEDEEAL BEPORTEB. �act with conliolling efflcacy. This principle is that where the lex loci con- tractus and the lex fori, as to conflicting rights acquired in eaeh, corne in direct collision, the cotnity of nations must yield to the positive law of the land.' Mr. Burge has expressed his own exposition of the doctrine in the fol- io wing terms: 'The law of a foreign country is admitted in order that the contract may receive the effect which the parties to it intended. No state, however, is bound to admit a foreign law, even for this purpose, when that law would contravene its own positive laws, institutions, or policy, which prohibit such a contract, or wlien it would pryudioe the rights of its own subjects.' " �We are not left, however, to rely upon the authority of the distin- guished text writer above quoted in the solution of the question at issue, as it has been directly adjudicated in our own courts. In the case of The Bark Selah, in the district court of the United States for the district of California, Judge Hoffman rendered the following decision : �" The master of the above bark, which is a British vessel, iutervenes for the payment of his wages out of the proceeds, concurrently with the seamen, and in preference to the claims of certain material-men for supplies furnished in this port on the usual credit of the ship-owners and masters. He claims this right under the Statute of 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, § 191, which provides that every master of a ahip shall, so far as the case permits, have the same rights, liens, and remedies for the recovery of which, by this act, or by any law or oustom, any seaman not being master has for the recovery of his wages. �"No decision is produced under this act.to the effect that the master may assert his claim for wages in priority to those of material-men with whom he has contracted and to whom he is persoually liable. �"But, even if such be the law of England, it cannot supersede our own laws, which determine the rights of persons within our jurisdiction. and the effects of contraets made under them. As the contract with the material- man was made in this port, its efEect, and the remedies under it, must depend upon our law, which is at once the lex fori and the lex loci contraottis, �" By the general maritime law prevailing in the United States and admin- istered by the national courts of admiralty, the claim of the material-man for materials furnished to a foreign vessel carries with it a lien on the vessel and has a priority over the master's claim for wages. �" It was held by Mr. Justice Story that even the states of this Union have no power to alter, eularge, or narre w, with respect to foreign vessels, the admiralty jurisdiction of the United States, as governed by the legislation of congress, and by the general principles of maritime law. They have no authority to change that law, in respect to such vessels, by denylng liens existing under it, by creating new liens not recognized, or alter the priorities among different lienholders. The Chiisan, 2 Story, 463. �" If such powers are withheld f rom the states they surely cannot be con- ceded to the legislature of a foreign country. By the maritime law which it is the duty of this court to administer, the libellant is entitled to a lien on the ��� �