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 Century of English Judicature. keep the peace of the seas, as his courts of common law kept his peace on the land,— so as "to maintain peace and justice amongst the people of every nation passing through the sea of England." Conflict having arisen between this court and the local courts of certain seaports, like Ipswich and Padstow, which also administered the law maritime, the authority of the Admiral was, in the reign of Richard II, placed upon a distinct statutory basis, and from that time forward the court has exercised jurisdiction over all causes, matters and persons maritime. In order that the court thus constituted, with authority to decide on international as well as English rights, should have definite principles and a recognized practice to guide its deliberations, there was prepared during the reign of Ed ward III or Richard II the Black Book of the Admiralty. This book is a quarto vol ume of some 250 MS. pages, written partly in French and partly in Latin, containing chapters on the duties and privileges of the Lord High Admiral and how he should con duct his court; on the crimes and punish ments of the admiralty, with a transcript of the laws of Oleron; forty-nine articles or sea laws adopted by maritime experts at Queensborough in 1375; on the practice of certain foreign courts, and the Duke of Norfolk's treatise on the law and practice, of the duello. This book was continued under succeeding sovereigns down to Edward IV, by whom, in 1482, the first judge of the admiralty court was appointed by royal patent in the person of Dr. William Lacy. Until the accession of Henry VIII the admiralty exercised both civil and criminal jurisdiction, by virtue of the royal prerogative, and was independent of the common law courts. From the numer ous documents relating to its judgments and jurisdiction to be found scattered through the records of other courts and offices, and from the regular records of the court, which begin in 1524, it is possible to gather some idea of its work. Some of the more com mon classes of business were spoil or piracy

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cases, its original jurisdiction; wrecks, sal vage and deodand, and torts committed on the seas. The most conspicuous part of its business, from an historical point of view, consisted of mercantile and shipping cases, in which it exercised jurisdiction as early as the latter part of the fourteenth century. This jurisdiction appears to have been very ex tensive. As the common law gave no rem edy in cases of contracts made or torts com mitted outside the body of a county, the admiralty undertook to supply this defi ciency. Under this head of foreign con tracts it even took jurisdiction of marriages and wills. Indeed, the law merchant which it administered, particularly with reference to bills of exchange, bills of lading and char ter parties, appears to have been far more fully developed than in the common law courts. This fact occasioned much friction with the superior courts of common law, and in the reign of Henry VIII the powers of the admiralty were much curtailed by various statutes enacted in the interest of the com mon law courts. From this time on its jurisdiction was rigidly confined to strictly maritime affairs. The admiralty continued to assert its jur isdiction over claims for necessaries and materials supplied to ships and over charter parties; but unless the contract was actually made and the goods actually sup plied on the high seas, the Court of Kmg's Bench issued prohibitions without mercy, for the admiralty was not a court of record, and did not become so until 1861. The com mon law courts, furthermore, encroached upon the admiralty jurisdiction by means of a fictitious allegation that the contract was made at the Royal Exchange. Thus the jurisdiction of the Admiralty over contracts and torts of a transitory character gradually fell into disuse. It was not until the enact ment of various statutes from 1840 to 1868 that its earlier jurisdiction was to a large ex tent restored. The sittings of the court were originally held within the ebb and flow of the tide; in