father, on the 1st of March following, after holding the seals sixteen years. Lord Clarendon, in his history of the rebellion, has drawn his character with so much force, that we shall conclude with an extract from it. "He discharged all the offices he went through with great abilities and singular reputation of integrity, and he enjoyed his place of Lord Keeper, with an universal reputation (and sure justice was never better administered) for the space of sixteen years, even to his death, some months before he was sixty years of age. Which was another important circumstance of his felicity, that great office being so slippery, that no man had died in it before, for near the space of forty years: nor had his successors, for some time after him, much better fortune

"He was a man of wonderful gravity and wisdome, and understood not only the whole science and mystery of the law, at least equally with any man who had ever sate in the place, but had a clear conception of the whole policy of the government both of church and state, which by the unskilfulness of some well meaning men, justled each other too much. He knew the temper, disposition and genius of the kingdom most exactly; saw their spirits grow every day more sturdy, inquisitive and impatient; and therefore naturally abhorred all innovations; which he foresaw would produce ruinous effects. Yet many who stood at a distance thought he was not active and stout enough in opposing those innovations. For though, by his place, he presided in all public councils, and was most sharp sighted in the consequence of things, yet he was seldom known to speak in matters of state, which, he well knew, were for the most part concluded before they were brought to that public agitation; never in foreign affairs, which the vigour of his judgment could well have comprehended: nor indeed freely in any thing, but what immediately and plainly concerned the justice of the kingdom; and in that, as much as he could, he procured references to the judges. Though in his nature he had not only a firm gravity, but a severity, and even some morosity, yet it was so happily tempered, and his courtesy and affability towards all men so transcendant, and so much without affectation, that it marvellously recommended him to men of all de. grees, and he was looked upon as an excellent courtier, without receding from the native simplicity of his own manners.

"He had, in the plain way of speaking and delivery, without much ornament of elocution, a strange power of making himself believed (the only justifiable design of eloquence); so that though he used very frankly to deny, and would never suffer any man to depart from him with an opinion, that he was inclined to gratify, when in truth he was not; holding that dissimulation to be the worst of lying: yet the manner of it was so gentle and obliging, and his condescension such to inform the persons whom he could not satisfy, that few departed from him with ill will and ill wishes.

"But then this happy temper and these good faculties rather preserved him from having many enemies, and supplied him with some well-wishers, than furnished him with any fast and unshaken friends; who are always procured in courts by more ardour and more vehement professions and applications than he would suffer himself to be entangled with; so that he was a man rather exceedingly liked than passionately loved; insomuch that it never appeared that he had any one friend in the court, of quality enough to prevent or divert any disadvantages that he might be exposed to. And therefore it is no wonder, nor to be imputed to him, that he retired within himself as much as he could, and stood upon his defence, without making desperate sallies against growing mischiefs, which he well knew he had no power to hinder, and which might probably begin in his own ruin. To conclude, his security consisted very much in his having but little credit with the king; and he died in a season the most opportune, in which a wise man would have prayed to have finished his course, and which, in truth, crowned his other signal prosperity in the world."

L

THE

AMERICAN

Law Journal and Miscellany.

No. III.

Supreme Court of the United States.

FEBRUARY TERM, 1808.

Peisch et al. v. Ware et al. and

The United States v. the Cargo of the Ship Favourite.

FORFEITURE. WRECK. COLLECTION OF DUTIES. SALVAGE. The section of the act of congress for the collection of duties,* which creates a forfeiture of goods not marked nor accompanied by certificates does not comprehend wrecked goods, nor those found on board of a vessel deserted by her crew, and in such a situation as to render it necessary to land them on the nearest accessible part of the coast. Nor will the landing of goods under such circumstances without a permit subject them to forfeiture, because a forfeiture can only be applied to cases in which the means that are prescribed for the prevention of a forfeiture may be employed. The same rule applies to the removal of the goods from the wharf after they are landed.‡

M

ARSHALL C. J. In these causes two questions are to be decided by the court.

1st. Is the cargo of the ship Favourite or any part of it forfeited to the United States?

2d. Are Ware and others entitled to any, and if to any, to what salvage?