Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/195

 Ch. X.Sec.L] Foreign Commerce. 175 exportation of goods {a). Nor can arbitrary or excessive duties for cranage, wharfage, &c. be taken from the publiq; but the duties must be reasonable and moderate, though settled by the King*s licence or charter {h). As the erection of ports is presumed to be for the advantage of the public, the King in exercising his right to erect them, is not restrained to any particular place, but may erect them in the vicinity but not within the peculiar limits of a former port, though it belong to a subject by charter or prescription ; if by the erection of the new port ships are not excluded from going to the old one (c). The King may also prohibit his subjects from bringing their merchandise by sea to any port within a certain distance from one which his Majesty has newly erected, and this prohibition is obligatory, as against every one but the legal owner, or the inhabitants of any port within the specified distance from that newly erected (^), although an antient port may lie within the prescribed bounds; but, as already stated, his Majesty cannot erect a port de novo within the peculiar precincts or limits which he has by charter previously assigned to a port belonging to one of his subjects {e). The King being entrusted with the safety of navigation, possesses also by the common law, the prerogative right of erecting beacons and lighthouses in such places as his wisdom may deem most convenient for the preservation of ships and mariners, and the general interests of his subjects [f). This royal right is considered so important to the public weal, that it will justify his Majesty in erecting a beacon on the land of a subject without his consent [g). The right of erecting beacons and lighthouses is vested by the common law of the land exclusively in the King ; and a subject cannot raise them without the King's permission {h). It seems that antiently the power of erecting them was gene- rally vested by the royal letters patent in the Lords of the Admiralty, as it previously appears to have been in the Lord (a) Ante, 165. (/) 5 Bac. Ab. 510. 1 Bla. Com. b) 8 Term R. 608. <165. (c) Hale de portibui Maris, ch. 5. (g) See ibid. See 5 Bac. Ab. 502. [h) See ibid, and Carter, 90. 4 Intt. (rf) Ibid. Bac. Ab. 503. 148. {e) Ibid. Hale. High