Note 110 — PAPERS ON AMERICAN SUBJECTS, DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY TROUBLES. (continued 2)

The case of the court erected by act of parliament 11 and 12th of William III. c. 7, (since the enacting of the habeas corpus act) for the trial of piracies, felonies and robberies committed in or upon the sea, or in any haven, river, creek or place where the admiral has jurisdiction, does no way affect this position: nor doth the 14 § of the said statute, directing that the commissioners, of whom such court consists, may issue their warrant for apprehending such pirates, &c. in order to their being tried in the colonies, or sent into England, any way militate with the doctrine here laid down: nor can it be applied as the case of a jurisdiction actually existing, which supersedes the jurisdictions of the courts in the colonies and plantations, and as what authorises the taking the accused of such piracies &c. from those jurisdictions, and the sending such so taken to England for trial.—It cannot be applied as a case similar and in point to the application of an act of parliament (passed in the 35th of Henry VIII. concerning the trial of treasons) lately recommended in order to the sending persons accused of committing crimes in the plantations to England for trial: because this act of the 11th and 12th of William, c. 7, respects crimes committed in places, "where the admiral has jurisdiction," and cases to which the jurisdiction of those provincial courts do not extend. In the case of treasons committed within the jurisdiction of the colonies and plantations, there are courts competent to try such crimes and to give judgment thereupon, where the trials of such are regulated by laws to which the king hath given his consent: from which there lies no appeal, and wherein the king hath given power and instruction to his governor as to execution or respite of judgment. The said act of Henry VIII, which provides remedy for a case which supposes the want of due legal jurisdiction, cannot be any way, or by any rule, applied to a case where there is due legal and competent jurisdiction.