emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, expost-facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts; or grant any title of nobility.

2. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all duties and imposts laid by any State, on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of Congress.

No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty or tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another State or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.

The several colonies, founded before the Revolution, were bodies politic and corporate. They had their executive, legislative and judicial departments of government. Acknowledging allegiance to Great Britain, they claimed the great body of the English common law as their law.

The Congress, which met at Philadelphia in 1774, declared without dissent, "that the inhabitants of the English colonies in North America, by the immutable law of nations, the principles of the English constitution, and the several charters or compacts, are entitled to the common law of England and to the benefit of such of the English statutes as existed at the time of their colonization, and which they have by their experience, respectively found to be applicable to their several, local and other circumstances: that these his majesty's colonies are likewise entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted and confirmed to them by royal charter, or secured by their several codes of provincial law."

Thus it will be seen, that when the colonies became independent they retained the whole body of the statute and common laws, which were applicable to them in their new form of government.

The sources of American law then are:

1. The English common law and such statutes as existed when the colonies were founded, so far as the same are applicable to them in their new form of government,-and as modified by the constitutions of the United States and of the several States; by the legislature of the General Government and of the several States, and by judicial decision.

2. The National and State constitutions, which are the supreme law of the nation and of the several States.

3. Laws passed by the Colonial legislatures of any State before it became independent.

4. Laws passed by Congress, and by the legislatures of the several States.

5. The Common Law of the United States and of the several States.

CHAPTER II.

COMMERCIAL LAW.

"Commercial Law" is the system of rules applied by the courts to the regulation, enforcement and control of commercial compacts and affairs. It is hardly synonymous with "mercantile law" or the "law merchant," which is mainly concerned with shipping, marine insurance, the law of bills of exchange and promissory notes, and the law of sales.

Commercial law, in its broad sense, has much wider scope and more venerable antiquity. It is mainly the outgrowth of customs, which commenced with the earliest interchange of commodities, how far back that carries us cannot be determined with certainty, but it can readily be traced to a period fifteen centuries earlier than the beginning of authentic profane history.

The transaction between Abraham and Ephron implies a fixed condition of values. Abraham paid for the field of Macpelah in silver money that was current with the merchants. Hamor, the Hivite prince, permitted the sons of Jacob to "trade in the land." Joseph's brethren sold him to a company of Midianitish "merchants," who were engaged in "commercial trade" with Egypt.

Commerce, however, while it has existed in every community not utterly savage, has yet, from the earliest time, had its special channels, and been the favorite work of certain

races.

The Phoenicians, mentioned by Moses and by Homer, were the earliest who connected the East and the West by trade. Tyre was the "Royal Exchange" of the world. The Carthaginians were Phoenicians by origin, and their commerce was of the most wide-spread character, particularly after the downfall of Tyre. Both Phoenicians and Carthaginians were

however, exclusives in commerce; keeping to themselves, knowledge of the countries they discovered, and destroying others who visited them.

I mention this, partly to show what advancement has, since that day, been made, in a generous Christian liberality; how Christianity, commerce, and general enlightenment have stretched forth their arms to the embrace of nearly the whole earth, till, to-day, the merchant princes of the world, recognizing a fair and energetic competition as the life and health of commerce, vie with each other in promoting, in all fair ways, universal diffusion of such knowledge as will promote the growth of trade among all nations.

The telegraph would not have been a popular institution in the days of Carthage, unless they could at their end, have enjoyed a monopoly of its communications.

Rome in her exclusiveness was not much, if any, better. Indeed, while Carthage and Rome were rivals in trade as well as in power, the commercial and intellectual superiority of the former, in all that is brought to us of their laws, usages, and regulations, is very clearly indicated.

The Greeks were a commercial people, and among their numerous colonies,-"Masilia" (now no inconsiderable commercial city as the modern "Marseilles") was, for many years, one of the most successful seats of trade.

The commerce of Athens was great. Xenophon tells us that "all the choicest products of Sicily and of Italy, of Lydia and the Pontus, of Cyprus and the Peloponesus, were continually attracted into the Athenian marts; whence in return, were conveyed to those different realms the creations. of Athenian labor and skill.

It is pleasant to remember that Athenian commerce was at the summit of its prosperity when Athenian genius was most grandly prolific, in philosophy, poetry, history, oratory, and the fine arts.

History teaches that commerce and Commercial Law, go hand in hand with all that conduces to the highest developement in civilization, cultivation and refinement.

Corinth, called "The wealthy," by Homer, was the great

est of the Greek centres of trade. The commercial historian tells us of the "Ionic League," which embraced Miletus, Ephesus and several other city States,-of Rhodes, of Etruria, of Florence, Genoa, Pisa, and Almalfi.

The "Hanseatic League" laid the foundation of the commercial greatness and national wealth of the Netherlands, of whose commercial life much of historic interest might be told. But to come down to modern commercial history, England, for centuries, has been the greatest of commercial nations. In all time past of which we have any knowledge from sacred or profane history, nothing like her commerce, has ever been seen. She trades with and is carrier, insurer, and banker for all the world.

Our own country must, of necessity, be greatly dependent upon commerce for the development of the largest and fullest national life and power of which she is capable; and before the commencement of our civil war, her commerce was great, and was rapidly pushing forward to absolute supremacy. Why should it not be superior to anything ever known? Nothing like our extent of sea-coast, of navigable rivers, and various internal water communications; of separate States, knit and bound together by national cohesion and unity; of divers and independent races and human forces; of national craving for property and commercial power and greatness, combined with an extraordinary endowment of trading tact, or what Mrs. Stowe would call, "faculty power," has ever been known to the world in ancient or modern time.

The war has been a check to our commercial growth: but it has increased our national navy to such greatness as it never would have attained, but for the necessity which has compelled us to provide for the public defence and protection.

England became by commerce mainly, the most powerful, free and enlightened country in the world. If we out-strip her in the national race and come to a higher result, it will be due in great measure to superior commercial resources, arising out of the internal and external conditions to which I have alluded.