without seizing her or
carrying her off,) and destroying any of the goods on board, are
declared to be acts of piracy; and by the statute 18 George II. c. 30,
any natural born subject or denizen who in time of war, shall commit any
hostilities at sea, against any of his fellow subjects, or shall assist
an enemy, on that element, is liable to be punished as a pirate. By
statute of George II. c. 25, the ransoming of any neutral vessel, which
has been taken by the captain of a private ship of war, is declared
piracy. By the act of congress, April 30, 1790, if any person upon the
high seas, or in any river, haven, or bay, out of the jurisdiction of
any particular state, commit murder or robbery, or any other offence
which if committed within the body of a county, would by the laws of the
United States, be punishable by death, such offender is to be deemed a
pirate. By the act of congress, 1820, c. 113, if any citizen of the
United States, being of the crew of any foreign vessel, or any person
being of the crew of any vessel owned in whole or part by any citizen of
the United States, shall be engaged in the foreign slave trade, he shall
be adjudged a pirate. Notwithstanding the expression used in this
statute, the question, says Chancellor Kent, remains to be settled,
whether the act of being concerned in the slave trade would be adjudged
piracy, within the code of international law. In England by the act of
parliament passed March 31, 1824, the slave trade is also declared to be
piracy. An attempt has been made to effect a convention between the
United States and Great Britain, by which it should be agreed that both
nations should consider the slave trade as piratical; but this attempt
has hitherto been unsuccessful. In the time of Richard III, by the laws
of Oberon, all infidels were regarded as pirates, and their property
liable to seizure wherever found. By the law of nations, the taking of
goods by piracy does not divest the actual owner of them. By the civil
institutions of Spain and Venice, ships taken from pirates became the
property of those who retake them. Piracy is every where pursued and
punished with death, and pirates can gain no rights by conquest. It is
of no importance, for the purpose of giving jurisdiction in cases of
piracy, on whom or where a piratical offence is committed. A pirate who
is one by the law of nations, may be tried and punished in any country
where he may be found; for he is reputed to be o