Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/191

 Ch.X. Sec.I/] Foreign Commerce. 171 to enable an enemy to import goods must be express, for an enemy will not be protected by a general licence (a), and it has not been usual to grant licences to an enemy {h). The right itself is established by the common law (c) ; and in the case of Vandyke v, Wintmore {d), Lord Kenyon said, " though the King may, at common law, license a trading with an enemy's country, yet he may also qualify this licence, in which case the parties seeking to protect themselves under it, must conform to its regulations." The Hjiost usual mode in which a dispensation is granted to individuals, from the general prohibition upon all traffic with the enemy, is by the grant of licences. The nature of these licences is clearly explained, and certain rules for their con- struction most ably laid down by the Court, in the case of the Cosmopolite {e). In this case. Sir Wm. Scott said, " a li- cence is a high act of sovereignty ; an act immediately pro- ceeding from the sovereign authority of the state, which is alone competent to decide on all the considerations of com- mercial and political expediency, by which such an exception from the ordinary consequences of war must be controuled. Licences being then acts of sovereignty, they are necessarily stricti juris, and must not be carried farther than the intention of the great authority which grants them may be supposed to extend. I do not say that they are to be construed with pe- dantic accuracy, or that every small deviation should be held to vitiate the fair effect of them." During the latter part of the late war, numerous questions arose on the construction of licences granted by the Crown. The general leaning in all the Courts w^as, to give them a com- prehensive and liberal construction {/). These licences legalize a trade with the enemy, in every respect fairly falling within their import, and incidental to the subject-matter (^). But the King's licence hacs not (a) 1 Acton's Rep. 313, 322, 3'28. (d) 1 East, 475. Mm 6cc 12 East, See IGEast, 197. 1 M. and S. 567. 4 302. Taunt. 605. {e) 4 Rob. Rep. 11. 1 Chltty, L. (A) Pbilimore,2dedit. 9, in notes, and Nat. 261. Preface, 20, 21. (/) 3 Taunt. 554. 4 Ibid. 376. See (c) 2 Roll. Ab. 173. pi. 3 ; and 8 T. 1 Holt. F. 1^2, note. R. 550. Chitty, L. of Nat. 260. (^) 8 East, 273. the