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 out of the protection of
all laws. But if the statute of any government declares an offence,
committed on board one of their own vessels, to be piracy; such an
offence will be punished exclusively by the nation which passes the
statute. In England the offence was formerly cognizable only by the
Admiralty courts, which proceeded without a jury in a method founded on
the civil law. But by the statute of Henry VIII. c. 15, it was enacted
that piracy should be tried by commissioners nominated by the lord
chancellor, the indictment being first found by a grand jury, of twelve
men, and afterwards tried by another jury, as at common law. Among the
commissioners, there are always some of the common law judges. In the
United States, pirates are tried before the circuit court of the United
States. Piracy has been known from the remotest antiquity; for in the
early ages every small maritime state was addicted to piracy, and
navigation was perilous. This habit was so general, that it was regarded
with indifference, and, whether merchant, traveller, or pirate, the
stranger was received with the rights of hospitality. Thus Nestor,
having given Mentor and Telemachus a plenteous repast, remarks, that the
banquet being finished, it was time to ask his guests to their business.
"Are you," demands the aged prince, "merchants destined to any port, or
are you merely adventurers and pirates, who roam the seas without any
place of destination, and live by rapine and ruin."

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