ANS. BY JAMES ALLAN PARK, Esq. ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S COUNSEL. (NOW ONE OF THE JUDGES OF HIS MAJESTY'S COURT OF COMMON PLEAS.) PRINTED BY A. STRAHAN, LAW-PRINTER TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, FOR J. BUTTERWORTH AND SON, FLEET-STREET, AND 1817. CHAPTER XIII. Of Prohibited Goods. THE 66. Assecur. No. 21. with that of the foregoing; and indeed follows as a consequence from the doctrine there advanced. We then saw that a contract founded upon that which was contrary to law, could never be carried into effect. Thus by the laws of almost all countries, the exportation and importation of certain commodities are declared to be illegal: to act contrary to Ld. Kaims, that prohibition is clearly a contempt of legal authority; and Prin. of Eq. consequently a moral wrong. If the act itself be illegal, the insurance to protect such an act must also be contrary to law: and therefore void. Agreeably to this principle, it seems to Roccus de have been laid down by the writers upon the subject, as a general and universal proposition, that an insurance being made, although in general terms, does not comprehend prohibited goods; and therefore when the insured shall procure such commodities to be shipped, the underwriter being ignorant of it, by means of which the ship and cargo are confiscated, the insurer is discharged. In this passage from Roccus it may be inferred, that if the underwriter knew that the goods were prohibited, the insurance would be valid. But we trust, it was sufficiently shewn in the preceding chapter, that that will not alter the case: because no consent or agreement can render a contract good and valid, which, upon the face of it, is contrary to law. In France this rule was adopted so long ago as the year 1660: for in the work of a very respectable. writer of that age we find this passage: assurances se peuvent Le Guidon, faire sur toute sorte de merchandize, pourvu que le transport ne soit pas prohibé par les edicts et ordonnances du roy. And from Emerigon an authority no less respectable, it appears that the law of Traité des France has undergone no alteration since that period; for, tom. I. è, 3, he says, "that those effects, the importation or exportation 5. "of VOL. II. B or c c C. 2. art. 2. Assurances, |