SIR WILLIAM SCOTT, KNT.

JUDGE OF THE HIGH COURT OF ADMIRALTY,

Sr. Sc. St.

WHOSE SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE

AND UNRIVALLED ADMINISTRATION

OF

THE CIVIL LAW,

AND

OF THE LAW OF NATIONS,

WHILE THEY REFLECT THE BRIGHTEST

LUSTRE ON THOSE SCIENCES,

PROVE, BEYOND ALL OTHER EXAMPLES,

THEIR GREAT UTILITY,

THIS WORK IS

MOST HUMBLY DEDICATED,

BY HIS

VERY OBEDIENT SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

TO THE

SECOND VOLUM E.

IT is a remarkable truth, that while these countries have been super-eminently confpicous in naval grandeur, power and importance, and the law which governs the courts of admiralty proportionably interesting, no general elementary treatise upon that subject has appeared for more than a century. Those of Exton, Zouch, and Godolphin, learned and able as they are, were compofed while the contests between the courts of common law and admiralty were at their height, and the limits of the jurifdiction of the latter totally unfettled. To fhew that they still are not altogether fettled by the rules of right reafon, is one object of the present treatise; but

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