doubt, that is of itself conclusive. In Bevan's case, the distinction between the high seas and other enclosed parts of the sea, was not denied by the counsel for the United States, and the Court do not even mention it as at all doubtful. But, it is asked, whether the criminal jurisdiction of the admiralty is not as extensive as the civil? To which it is answered, that the criminal jurisdiction depends upon the place where the offence is committed; the civil, upon the nature of the subject; and there can, therefore, be no comparison of their extent.

The Attorney General, in reply, insisted, that although penal laws are to be construed strictly, the intention of the legislature must govern in their construction. If a case be within the intention and reason, it must be considered as within the letter, of the statute. This act having been passed by Congress on the first organization of the government, it must have been their intention to make the exercise of their power co-extensive with their jurisdiction; and to punish all the crimes enumerated, in every place within their jurisdiction. The act must, therefore, be construed so as to engraft the words of the 8th section, descriptive of the place in which murder may be committed, on the 12th section, which describes the place in which manslaughter may be committed. After expressing themselves fully in the previous section as to the places in which one of the crimes intended to be punished by the act must be committed, it was natural that the legislature

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should suppose the language engrafted into a subseU. States quent section on a subject of the same class. Thus, the 1st section of the act defines the crime of treason, and provides, "that if any person or persons owing allegiance to the United States of America, shall levy war," &c. "such person or persons shall be adjudged guilty of treason," &c. The 2d section defines misprision of treason, and in specifying the persons who may commit the crime, omits the words " owing allegiance to the United States," and uses without limitation or restriction the general terms " any person or persons." Yet these general terms were obviously intended to be restrained by the words "owing allegiance to the United States," which are used in the preceding section. The crimes of murder and manslaughter are kindred offences, and are parts of the same general offence of homicide. Congress must have intended to make the same provision for their punishment, as to the places within which they must be committed in order to give jurisdiction to the Courts of the Union. Thus, the 3d section of the act describes the places on land in which murder must be committed in order to give those Courts jurisdiction of the offence; and the 7th section describes in the very same terms the places on land in which manslaughter must be committed in order to give them jurisdiction. Observe the consequences of a contrary construction as to murder alone. The 9th section extends the guilt of the offences enumerated in it to a citizen of the United States committing them under colour of a foreign commission. But this section, in describing the place where the offence may be committed, omits the words " in any river, haven, basin, or bay," and uses the words "high seas" only. It is incredible that it was the legislative intention to distinguish between the same crime, committed under the pretext of authority by a foreign commission, on the high seas, and on the waters of a foreign State, or of the United States. So, also, the 10th section provides, " that every person who shall, either upon the land or the seas, knowingly and wittingly aid and assist, procure, command, counsel, or advise, any person or persons, to do or commit any murder or robbery, or other piracy, aforesaid, upon the seas, which shall affect the life of such person, shall," &c. Here Congress cannot have intended to exempt from punishment those persons who shall be accessaries before the fact to a murder or robbery committed " in a river, haven, basin, or bay," &c. A similar argument is applicable to the 11th section. As to the 12th section, beside the offence of manslaughter, the other offences which it enumerates are all accessorial to those mentioned in the 8th. It is, therefore, evidently connected with the 8th.

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Mr. Chief Justice MARSHALL delivered the opinion Feb. 18th. of the Court. The indictment in this case is founded on the 12th section of the act, entitled, "an act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States." That section is in these words: "And be it enacted, that if any seaman, or other person, shall commit manslaughter on the high seas, or confederate," &c. " such person or persons so offending,

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and being thereof convicted, shall be imprisoned not exceeding three years, and fined not exceeding one thousand dollars."

The jurisdiction of the Court depends on the place in which the fact was committed. Manslaughter is not punishable in the Courts of the United States, according to the words which have been cited, unless it be committed on the high seas. Is the place described in the special verdict a part of the high seas?

If the words be taken according to the common understanding of mankind, if they be taken in their popular and received sense, the "high seas," if not in all instances confined to the ocean which washes a coast, can never extend to a river about half a mile wide, and in the interior of a country. This extended construction of the words, it has been insisted, is still farther opposed, by a comparison of the 12th with the 8th section of the act. In the 8th section, Congress has shown its attention to the distinction between the "high seas," and "a river, haven, basin, or bay." The well known rule that this is a penal statute, and is to be construed strictly, is also urged upon us.

On the part of the United States, the jurisdiction of the Court is sustained, not so much on the extension of the words "high seas," as on that construction of the whole act, which would engraft the words of the 8th section, descriptive of the place in which murder may be committed, on the 12th section, which describes the place in which manslaughter may be committed. This transfer of the words of one section to the other, is, it has been contended, in pursuance of the obvious intent of the legislature; and in support of the authority of the Court so to do, certain maxims, or rules for the construction of statutes, have been quoted and relied on. It has been said, that although penal laws are to be construed strictly, the intention of the legislature must govern in their construction. That if a case be within the intention, it must be considered as if within the letter of the statute. So if it be within the reason of the statute.

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construction of

The rule that penal laws are to be construed strictly, Rules for the is perhaps not much less old than construction itself. penal statutes, It is founded on the tenderness of the law for the rights of individuals; and on the plain principle that the power of punishment is vested in the legislative, not in the judicial department. It is the legislature, not the Court, which is to define a crime, and ordain its punishment.

It is said, that notwithstanding this rule, the intention of the law maker must govern in the construction of penal, as well as other statutes. This is true. But this is not a new independent rule which sub-verts the old. It is a modification of the ancient maxim, and amounts to this, that though penal laws are to be construed strictly, they are not to be construed so strictly as to defeat the obvious intention of the legislature. The maxim is not to be so applied as to narrow the words of the statute to the exclusion of cases which those words, in their ordinary acceptation, or in that sense in which the legislature has obviously used them, would comprehend. The intention of the legislature is to be collected from the words they employ. Where there is no ambiguity in