AVES ISLAND. 255 



All tlie proceedings subsequently are judicial by libel or information, 

 according to the practice of these courts. 



And it may be observed that, whilst the English statutes and the 

 French ordinances and Spanish regulations and those of other coun- 

 tries all prescribe similar rules conformable to the law of nations, yet 

 they are all merely directory, and if they did not exist the general 

 laws and practice of nations, and rules of judicial proceeding adapted 

 to such remedy, would be all-sufficient. They are merely self-im- 

 posed restraints by a government upon itself and upon the acts of its 

 own officers, rather than being ^er se rules of the jus gentium, though 

 in conformity with the latter. 



The English common law writers, as well as the international pub- 

 licists of that nation, all contend that the early English statutes reg- 

 ulating the issuance of special reprisals, did not either strengthen or 

 impair the royal (executive) authority, under the law of nations, to 

 issue such writs, and that these statutes are merely directory regula- 

 tions in regard to the exercise of such authority by the administrative 

 officers. 



In Yiner's abr. before cited, [II,] it is said, (referring to the ancient 

 British statutes as to proceedings to obtain special reprisals,) ''letters 

 of reprisal were granted long before the statutes by the kings of Eng- 

 land, by virtue of their prerogatives, nor was the king's prerogative 

 in the least diminished by them, but remained at common law, (gen- 

 eral treaties of trade, &c., 212,) and this statute does in no respect 

 restrain the king's prerogative and authority which he had at the 

 common law in judging the conveniency and time when to be exe- 

 cuted." V^ner cites Molloy, 30, cap. 2, § 9. Molloy, b. 1, c. 2, §§ 7 

 and 8, referring to the statutes of King John, of Edward III., and 

 Henry V., and Henry VI., says (§ 7,) that letters of reprisal "may 

 issue not only by the^^^s gentium and civile, but by the ancient munic- 

 ipal laws of the kingdom ;" and (§ 8,) that the statutes are made ''for 

 the subject and letters of reprisal, they being granted long before the 

 statutes, and the king's prerogative not the least diminished, but re- 

 maining at the common law to judge when expedient." 



Stephens, in his Comm., before cited, p. 264, pt. 1, §4, p. 515, 

 says : "As the delay of making war may sometimes be detrimental to 

 individuals who have suffered depredations from foreign potentates, 

 our (the English) laws have in some respect armed the subject with 

 powers to impel the prerogative by directing the ministers of the 

 crown to issue letters of marque and reprisal upon due demand," &c. 



Valin, in his Comm. on the French Ord. of 1681, as to special repri- 

 sals, p. 44:4, before cited, says "it is conformable to the law of nations 

 received among all nations ; but further, it has perfected that law by 

 the wise precautions it has taken in addition to those that the author 

 of the Guidon, c. 10, had already demanded, to abate the excesses and 

 temper the rigor thereof." 



Mr. Eeddie, 1 Maritime Int. Law, 157, says : "It is but justice to 

 observe that the ordinance (1681) and the administration under it are, 

 in the great majority of rules and cases, in conformity with the natural 

 and common consuetudinary law of nations, and declaratory of the 

 principles previously recognized by the European nations," and ex- 



