298 MARITIME INTERNATIONAL LAW. 



and Rome felt deeply interested in the extirpation of piracy, but it 

 was not until the downfall of Imperial Rome, and when the 

 commerce in the waters of the Mediterranean was hindered by its 

 depredations, that the wisdom and courage of the merchants of 

 Venice and Genoa suppressed it, and inaugurated an enlightened 

 commercial policy. 



Carthage, in the greatness of her power interdicted piracy, which 

 had sapped the foundations of the commercial greatness of 

 Phoenicia. 



The merchants of North Germany, in order to suppress piracy in 

 the waters of the Baltic, formed the celebrated Hanseatic League, 

 and, thereby, helped to extirpate the "Northern Freebooters," as 

 they were justly termed. 



When the civilised nations of Europe in the isth century refused 

 to crush piracy, and permitted rather its enthronement as a 

 maritime right, the Knights of St. John, jealous of the policy 

 of the Barbary States, created by piracy, determined to check it. 

 They successfully held Malta for three centuries, and thus sup- 

 pressed during that prolonged period piratical depredations on the 

 waters of the Mediterranean ; and, lastly, in the beginning of this 

 century. Napoleon Buonaparte, enraged by the depredations of 

 the Barbary States upon the merchant marine of France, issued 

 the following proclamation : — 



" I will destroy your city and harbour, I will seize upon your 

 territory, if you do not respect France, of which I am the Chief, and 

 Italy, where I command," which declaration, forced the Algerines 

 to abandon their policy, and, in 1829, after the deposition of the 

 Buonapartes, and, during the Orleans rigime, Algeria, which then 

 became a French colony, wherein piracy ceased. 



These historical references, though far from complete, are yet 

 sufficient to prove our assertions : that piracy was felt, and considered 

 by civilised nations formerly, to be a crime, which they were bound 

 to suppress. 



It may be affirmed, that the analogy of piracy with privateering, is 

 not valid, inasmuch as the former is proscribed by the laws of 

 nations, whilst the latter is in accordance with the Maritime Rights 

 of belligerents. Granted, but the distinction is one of degree only, 

 and of recognition and non-recognition by the laws of nations, 

 privateering, being in reality, legalised piracy, plunder, and 

 l^illage. 



