Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/583

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

THE SANDRINOHAM. 571 �ting nothing at all in the event of failure ; a reward so liberal as not only to satisfy such reasonable expectation of extraordinary compen- sation as prompted this particular adventure, but also to serve as an iuducement to like exertion by salvors in future cases of peril and doubtful success. �Chief Justice Marshall alluded instructively to the policy of the law ofsalvage in the casa of The Blaireau, 2 Cranoh, 266, in the fol- lowing terms : �" If the property of an individual on land be exposed to the greatest peril, and be saved by the voluntary exertions of any i)erson whatever; if valliable goods be rescued from a house in fiames, at the imminent hazard of life, by the salvor, — no remuneration in the shape of salvage is allowed. The act is highly meritorious, and the service is as great as if rendered at sea; yet the claim for salvage could not, perhaps, be supported. It is certainly not made. Let precisely the same service, at precisely the same hazard, be ren- dered at sea, and a very ample reward will be bestowed in the courts of jus- tice. If we search for the motives producing this apparent prodigality in rewarding services rendered at sea, we shall find them in a liberal and enlarged policy. The allowance of a very ample compensation for these services, -one very much exceeding the mere risk encountered and labor eraployed in efifect- ing them, is intended as an inducement to render them, which it is for the public interests, and for the genenil interests o£ humanity, to hold foilh to those who navigate the ocean." �In the case of The Henry Eubank, 1 Sumn. 400, Judge Story gave expression to similar views : �"The law does not stop short with a mere allowance to the owner of an adequate indemnity for the risk so taken. It has a more enlarged policy and a higher aim. It looks to the common safety and interest of the whole com- mercial world in cases of this nature; and it bestows upon the owner a liberal bounty to stimulate Mm to a just zeal in the common cause, and not to clog his voyages with narrow instructions which should interdict his master from salvage service. * * * The law offers not a premium of indemnity only, but an ample reward, measured by an enlightened liberality and forecast." �Of course this liberal policy of the courts thus announced must not be abused to the extent of encouraging or ministering to a spirit of avarice and greed. Another American jurist of the early part of our century, Judge HopMnson, in the case of The Elvira, Gilpin, 60, says that to a just and fair remuneration for the labor, hazard, and ex- pense which a salvor has encountered — �" The court, govenied by a liberal policy, will add a reasonable encourage- ment, which the generous and humane will hardly need, to prompt men to exertions to relieve thotr fellow-men in danger and distress. But we must remember that the policy of the law is not to provoke or satisfy the appetite ��� �