558 A. D. 1357. 



The neutral nations thought it necefiary to obtain letters of fafe con- 

 dudt for their fliips from tiie belligerent powers. We have three in- 

 flances of fuch letters granted by King Edward to veflels belonging to 

 Venice, the chief feat of commerce in the Mediterranean, fiiiling to 

 Flanders, the chief feat of commerce on the weft coaft of Europe. 

 [Fo'dera, V. vi, pp. 11, 92, 120.] 



April 29''' — We now find what is probably the earlieft precedent ex- 

 tant of the law, or ufage, of recapture, as determined by King Edward 

 and his council. Some goods, which had been taken ii\ a Portuguefe 

 veflel by the French, having been retaken by the Englifh, the Portu- 

 guefe owners claimed their property in virtue of the treaty of the year 

 1353. But the Englilli admiral condemned them as lawful prize ; and 

 the king of Portugal thereupon wrote to the king of England for refti- 

 tution. Edward, after advifing with his council, anfwered, that, if a 

 neutral owner were along with his goods onboard an enemy's veflel when 

 taken, they fhould be reftored : but the goods in queftion having been 

 found as French property, and taken from the French in fair war, the 

 captors were entitled to them. [Fadera, V. \'i,p. 14.] 



April 29''' — In a truce between England and Scotland it was agreed, 

 that, if the fliips of either nation fliould be forced into the ports of the 

 other by fiorm or other unavoidable neceflity, they might quietly reft 

 for a reafonable time, and vidual, without being liable to any arreft or 

 hinderance. [Fa;dera,V. v'l, p. 15.] 



September — Three Scottiih fliips of war, with 3C0 chofen armed men, 

 cruifed (apparently without any authority) on the eaft coaft, and annoy- 

 ed the Englifli commerce very much, till the equinodial gale drove 

 them, with a number of Englifli veflels, into Yarmouth, where the people 

 of the place feized them, and put an end to their cruife. \^K!iygbton, 

 col. 2617.] Tliefe were, however, powerful fliips to be fitted out by 

 private adventurers in that age, and in a country fo exhaufted as Scot- 

 land ii.uft have then been with almoft feventy years of war : but the 

 diftraded ftate of the country forced the people to forfake honeft in- 

 duftry, and fly to rapine for fubfiftence. 



September 26 '' In a parliament, or full council, of the prelates, 



nobles, and communities, of the kingdom of Scotland, held at Edin- 

 burgh, the following feventeen towns were reprefented, and may thence 

 be prefumed to have been the chief towns of the kingdom at the time, 

 viz. 



Edinburgh, Cupar, Dunbarton, 



Perth, S . Andrews, Rutherglen, 



Aberdeen, Mimrofs, Lanark, 



Dundee, Stirlii g, Dunfries, and 



Inverkeithing, Linlitligow, Peebles. 



Carail, • Hadiugton, 



