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the King both as liege lord and as defender of the realn was by the common law under a duty to protect the lives and property of his subjects and to defend his realm and every part of it (including British ships wheresoever they might happen to be) against attacks by enemies.
In support of the proposition that the King owed such a duty as liege lord the following authorities were citied: (1 Blackstone, p.354) "Allegiance is the tie or ligament which binds the subject to the King in return for that pro- Calvin's case tection which the King affords the subject."
(4. Coke's Reports at page 5): "legiance is the mutual bond and obligation between the King and his subjects whereby subjects are called his liege subjects because they are bound to obey and serve him and he is called their liege lord because he should maintain and defend them", and The queen v. Kern (2 Exchequer Division, at page 236):
According to the doctrine of Lord Coke in Calvin's case
Counsel also protection and allegiance are correlative." referred to In re Johnson (1903, 1. Chancery, page 821) and Markwald v. Attorney-General (1920, 1. Chancery, page 348) on this point.
In support of the proposition that by the common law the King owed a duty to the Plaintiff Company to defend its ships against internal piracy, Sir Leslie Scott cited the following authorities: Attorney-General v. Tomline (14. Chancery Division, page 66), which was a case dealing with the King's duty to defend the realm from the enroachments of the sea, "It is said by Lord Coke, who is a great authority in the case of Isle of Ely (10. Rep. 141a) that by the Common Law the King ought of right to save and de- fend his realm as well against the sea as against the enemies that it should not be drowned or wasted, that is to say there is a duty on the King, by reason of his being King to defend his realm and therefore of course all his realm and every part of his realm": The queen v. Anderson (1. Crown Cases Reserved, page 163) "It has been decided that a ship which bears a nation's flag is to be treated as a part of the territory of that nation. A ship is a kind of floating island": Hawkin's Pleas of the Crown (Vol. 1, chapter 20, page 251) "A pirate is one who to enrich him- self either by surprise or open force sets upon merchants or others trading by sea to spoil them of their goods or treasure; and he is called hostis humani generis": Army Act 1881, Section 190, sub-section (20) "The express- enemy' includes all armed mutineers armed rebels, armed rioters and pirates:" Attorney-General for Hong Kong v. Kwok-a-Sing (Law Reports, 5. Privy Council, page 200) where it was held that passengers as well as mariners who violently dispossess the master and carry away the ship or
It is contended that any part of the cargo are pirates. these authorities support the proposition that as by the common law it is the duty of the King to defend every part of his realm against enemies, and as every ship belonging to the Plaintiff Company (being part of the territory of England) is a part of the King's realm, and as all pirates are enemies, so the King ought of right to defend the Plain- tiff Company's ships against piratical attacks by the passen- gers carried in those ships.
i on
It is admitted by Sir Leslie Scott that the manner in which the King should perform this alleged duty is en- tirely in his discretion; that it is for the King to say
hether any case for its exercise has arisen and in whose favour it ought to be exercised, and that the King could not be compelled by any process of law to perform it:
8.