something relating to, or bounded by the sea. Thus a maritime province, or country, is one bounded by the sea; and a maritime kingdom is one that makes a considerable figure, or that is very powerful at sea. Hence, by maritime powers among the European states, are understood Great Britain and Holland.

MARITIME State, in British polity, one of the three general divisions of the laity: (See Laity.) This state is nearly connected with the military; though much more agreeable to the principles of our free constitution. The royal navy of England hath ever been its greatest defence and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength; the floating bulwark of the island; an army, from which, however strong and powerful, no danger can ever be apprehended to liberty: and accordingly it has been assiduously cultivated from the earliest ages. To so much perfection was our naval reputation arrived in the 12th century, that the code of maritime laws, which are called the laws of Oleron, and are received by all nations in Europe as the ground and substratum of all their marine conditions, was confessedly compiled by our king Richard I. at the isle of Oleron on the coast of France, then part of the possessions of the crown of England. And yet, so vastly inferior were our ancestors in this point to the present age, that even in the maritime reign of queen Elizabeth, Sir Edward Coke thinks it matter of boast, that the royal navy of England then consisted of three and thirty ships. The present condition of our marine is in great measure owing to the salutary provisions of the statutes called the navigation acts; whereby the constant increase of English shipping and seamen was not only encouraged, but rendered unavoidably necessary. By the statute 5 Ric. II. c. 3, in order to augment the navy of England, then greatly diminished, it was ordained, that none of the king's liege people should ship any merchandise out of or into the realm, but only in ships of the king's licence, on pain of forfeiture. In the next year, by statute 6 Ric. II. c. 8, this wise provision was enervated, by only obliging the merchants to give English ships (if able and sufficient) the preference. But the most beneficial statute for the trade and commerce of these kingdoms is that navigation-act, the rudiments of which were first framed in 1650, with a narrow partial view; being intended to mortify our own sugar-islands, which were disaffected to the parliament, and still held out for Charles II. by stopping the gainful trade which they then carried on with the Dutch, and at the same time to clip the wings of those our opulent and aspiring neighbours. This prohibited all ships of foreign nations from trading with any English plantations, without license from the council of state. In 1651, the prohibition was extended also to the mother-country: and no goods were suffered to be imported into England, or any of its dependencies, in any other than English bottoms; or in the ships of that European nation, of which the merchandise imported was the genuine growth or manufacture. At the Restoration, the former provisions were continued, by stat. 12 Car. II. c. 18. with this very material improvement, that the master and three-fourths of the mariners shall also be English subjects.

Many laws have been made for the supply of the royal navy with seamen; for their regulation when on board; and to confer privileges and rewards on them during and after their service. For their supply. The principal, but the most odious, though often necessary method for this purpose, is by impressing; see IMPRESSING. But there are other ways that tend to the increase of seamen, and manning the royal navy. Parishes may bind out poor boys apprentices to the masters of merchantmen, who shall be protected from impressing for the first three years; and if they are impressed afterwards, the masters shall be allowed their wages: great advantages in point of wages are given to volunteer seamen, in order to induce them to enter into his majesty's service: and every foreign seaman, who, during a war, shall serve two years in any man of war, merchantman, or privateer, is naturalized ipso facto. About the middle of king William's reign, a scheme was set on foot for a register of seamen to the number of 30,000, for a constant and regular supply of the king's fleet; with great privileges to the registered men, and, on the other hand, heavy penalties in case of their non-appearance when called for: but this registry, being judged to be rather a badge of slavery, was abolished by stat. 9 Ann. c. 21.

2. The method of ordering seamen in the royal fleet, and keeping up a regular discipline there, is directed by certain express rules, articles, and orders, first enacted by the authority of parliament soon after the Restoration; but since new-modelled and altered, after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, to remedy some defects which were of fatal consequence in conducting the preceding war. In these articles of the navy almost every possible offence is set down, and the punishment thereof annexed: in which respect the seamen have much the advantage over their brethren in the land-service; whose articles of war are not enacted by parliament, but framed from time to time at the pleasure of the crown. Yet from whence this distinction arose, and why the executive power, which is limited so properly with regard to the navy, should be so extensive with regard to the army, it is hard to assign a reason; unless it proceeded from the perpetual establishment of the navy, which rendered a permanent law for their regulation expedient, and the temporary duration of the army, which subsisted only from year to year, and might therefore with less danger be subjected to discretionary government. But, whatever was apprehended at the first formation of the mutiny-act, the regular renewal of our standing force at the entrance of every year has made this distinction idle. For, if from experience past, we may judge of future events, the army is now lastingly ingrained into the British constitution; with this singularly fortunate circumstance, that any branch of the legislature may annually put an end to its legal existence, by refusing to concur in its continuance.

3. With regard to the privileges conferred on sailors, they are pretty much the same with those conferred on soldiers; with regard to relief, when maimed, or wounded, or superannuated, either by county-rates, or the royal hospital at Greenwich; with regard also to the exercise of trades, and the power of making nuncupative testaments: and, farther, no seaman aboard his majesty's ships can be arrested for any debt, unless the same be sworn to amount to at least twenty pounds; though, by the annual mutiny-acts, a soldier may be arrested for a debt which extends to half that value, but not to a less amount.