The Apollon. 1324. the substantial merits. Upon the hearing of this cause, the District Court pronounced a decree for damages, from which an appeal was taken to the Circuit Court; and from the decree of the Circuit Court, confirming the decree of the District Court, with an addition of thirty-three and a third per cent. to all demurrage allowed by the latter, the present appeal was taken, and the cause now stands for a final decision. The questions arising upon the record, have been argued with great zeal and ability, and embrace some considerations, which belong more properly to another department of the government. It cannot, however, escape observation, that this Court has a plain path of duty marked out for it, and that is, to administer the law as it finds it. We cannot enter into political considerations, on points of national policy, or the authority of the government to defend its own rights against the frauds meditated by foreigners against our revenue system, through the instrumentality and protection of a foreign sovereignty. Whatever may be the rights of the government, upon principles of the law of nations, to redress wrongs of this nature, and whatever the powers of Congress to pass suitable laws to cure any defects in the present system, our duty lies in a more narrow compass; and we must administer the laws as they exist, without straining them to reach public mischiefs, which they were never designed to remedy. It may be fit and proper for the government, in the exercise of the high discretion confided to the executive, for great public purposes, Such mea to act on a sudden emergency, or to prevent an justi been The first question is, whether there was a fiable cause of seizure. This question has already decided in the proceedings in rem, and the decree of acquittal, not having been appealed from with effect, is conclusive evidence in every inquiry before every other tribunal, that there was no such cause. This point was decided upon great consideration, in the case of Gelston v. Hoyt, (3 Wheat. Rep. 246.) and is not believed to be susceptible of any iegal doubt. In the present case, however, as the parties have been induced to waive objections to this libel, for damages pending the former suit, upon the supposition, that the same questions might be as open here as there, it may not be amiss to examine the ground upon which the right of seizure is now attempted to be maintained. As to any forfeiture, or supposed forfeiture, under the act of 1820, ch. 125. it is very clear, that it cannot be maintained. That act simply authorizes a tonnage duty of eighteen dollars per ton, to be collected on all French ships, which shall be entered in the United States, 1824. The Apollon. tal as a res adjudicata. The Apollon. 1824. and provides for the collection of the duty, in the same manner as tonnage duties are to be collected by the collection act of 1799, ch. 128.; but this act inflicts no forfeiture for the non-payment of the tonnage duty, nor did the libel in rem even affect to proceed for any such forfeiture. The consideration of this act may then be at once dismissed. But the 29th section of the collection act of 1799, is supposed to contain a direct authority for the seizure. That section provides, "that if any ship or vessel, which shall have arrived within the limits of any district of the United States, from any foreign port or place, shall depart, or attempt to depart from the same, unless to proceed on her way to some interior district, to which she may be bound, before report or enry shall have been made by the master, &c. with the collector of some district of the United States, the master, &c. shall forfeit and pay the sum of 400 dollars; and it shall be lawful for any collector. &c. to arrest and bring back, or cause to be arrested and brought back, such ship or vessel, to such port of the United States, to which it may be most conveniently done." It is.observable, that no forfeiture is here inflicted upon the vessel or cargo; but the penalty is personal upon the master. There was no pretence, then, to institute proceedings in the District Court, in rem, for the forfeiture, and the delay occasioned by such proceedings was clearly unjustifiable; in fact, the giroinal libel did not proceed for any forfeiture, except against the cargo. But it is said, that the arrest and bringing into port was justifiable, be 1824. cause the ship had entered the district of St. Mary's, and had departed therefrom, without making The Apollon. any report or entry. The district of St. Mary's, by law, comprehends "all the waters, shores, harbours, rivers, creeks, bays, and inlets, from the south point of Jekyl Island, exclusive, to St. Mary's river, inclusive." St. Mary's river formed, at this period, the boundary between the United States and the Spanish territory, the boundary line, by the treaty of 1795, running through the middle thereof, in its whole course to the Atlantic ocean. The only access from the ocean to the Spanish waters running into the St. Mary's, as well as to the adjacent Spanish territories, was through this river. So that, upon the general principles of the law of nations, the waters of the whole river must be considered as common to both nations, for all purposes of navigation, as a common highway, necessary for the advantageous use of its own territorial rights and possessions. There is no doubt, that the Apollon did not enter the St. Mary's for the purpose of going into any American port, for trade or intercourse. Her avowed destination was for the Spanish waters and Spanish territories; and she never anchored in the St. Mary's, except upon the Spanish side of the river. Her proceeding up Belle river, was still more decisive of this intention. Under such circumstances, the question arises, whether a mere transit through the waters of the St. Mary's, for the purpose of proceeding to the Spanish territory, is to be deemed an arrival within the limits of the United States from a foreign port, within the sense of the 29th section The Apollon. 1824. of the act already referred to. We are decidedly of opinion, that it cannot be so considered. The laws of no nation can justly extend beyond its own territories, except so far as regards its own citizens. They can have no force to control the sovereignty or rights of any other nation, within its own jurisdiction. And, however general and comprehensive the phrases used in our municipal laws may be, they must always be restricted in construction, to places and persons, upon whom the Legislature have authority and jurisdiction. In the present case, Spain had an equal authority with the United States over the river St. Mary's. The attempt to compel an entry of vessels, destined through those waters to Spanish territories, would be an usurpation of exclusive jurisdiction over all the navigation of the river. If our government had a right to compel the entry at our custom house, of a French ship, in her transit, the same right existed to compel the entry of a Spanish ship. Such a pretension was never asserted; and it would be an unjust interpretation of our laws, to give them a meaning so much at variance with the independence and sovereignty of foreign nations. The true exposition of the 29th section is, that it means to compel an entry of all vessels coming into our waters, being bound to our ports; and the very exception of vessels. bound to some interior district, demonstrates the sense of the Legislature, by indicating the entire stress laid upon the destination of the vessel. But, even suppasing, for a moment, that our laws had required an entry of the Apollon, in her transit, does it fol |