be that by the law of nations, a forcible act of hostility committed upon the sea without the sanction
of a national commission, may by itself be a
sufficient foundation for disciplinary action on
the part of the Amiral. when interrupted in his
operations a pirate is treated as an enemy and as
one without the rights of a belligerent.
It may
well be, as suggested by Sir James Fitzjmes Stephen
in his "Digest of the Criminal Law" that no naval
officer would hesitate to seize an armed vessel
belonging to no state and obviously cruising for
piratical purposes; also, that a pirate is a name
of a know class of persons like a soldier or
sailor and that a man may be a pirate though he has
never actually robbed as he may be a soldier though
he has not actually fought. But the legal status
of a person arrested for piracy alters when he is brought to trial. ▲ person here accused is no
longer hostis humani generis; he is a person on
trial under the common law. He enjoys the legal presumption of innocence; and before he can be
convicted, the orom must by evidence establish
against him a crime committed within the jurisdiction
of the Admiralty which is recognised under the law
of the realm interpreted by the judgments of the
courts as the crime of piracy punishable by the
court in which he is tried.
By the offences of the Sea Act, 1844,
89
(7 & 8 Vist., c.2, s.1,) Justices of Assize Üyer and
Terminer and Gaol Delivery were given all the powers
for trying of offences committed within the jurisdiction
of