three weeks of his wedding-day, and kept by express order of
Admiralty. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1537--Capt. Barker,
23 July 1806.]

For some years after the passing of the Act exempting the foreigner,
his rights appear to have been generally, though by no means
universally respected. "Discharge him if not married or settled in
England," was the usual order when he chanced to be taken by the gang.
With the turn of the century, however, a reaction set in. Pressed men
claiming to be of alien birth were thenceforth only liberated "if
unfit for service." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 2733--Capt.
Young, 11 March 1756, endorsement, and numerous instances.] For this
untoward change the foreigner could blame none but himself. When taxed
with having an English wife, he could seldom or never be induced to
admit the soft impeachment. Consequently, whenever he was taken by the
gang he was assumed, in the absence of proof to the contrary, to have
committed the fatal act of naturalisation. [Footnote: _Admiralty
Records_ 1. 581--Admiral Phillip, 26 Feb. 1805.] Alien seamen in
distress through shipwreck or other accidental causes, formed a humane
exception to this unwritten law.

The negro was never reckoned an alien. Looked upon as a proprietary
subject of the Crown, and having no one in particular to speak up for
or defend him, he "shared the same fate as the free-born white man."
[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 482--Admiral Lord Colvill, 29
Oct. 1762.] Many blacks, picked up in the West Indies or on the
American coast "without hurting commerce," were to be found on board
our ships of war, where, when not incapacitated by climatic
conditions, they made active, alert seamen and "generally imagined
themselves free." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 585--Admiral