Harrison

The libel in this case is to recover half pilotage claimed to be payable under the laws of this state, when the services of a pilot are offered and declined. The case is clearly not of admiralty jurisdiction. It has been decided by the supreme court, in a recent case, that a contract of affreightment for the transporta, tion of goods from one port to another in the same state, is not cognizable in the admiral, ty. Maguire v. Card, 21 How. [62 U. S.] 249. They have also decided that liens given by the state laws to material men, who supply domestic vessels, cannot be enforced in this court; and in the case above cited, the general and just principle is established, that contracts growing out of the completely internal commerce of the states, which is the subject of regulation by their municipal laws, should be left to be dealt with by the local tribunals. Whatever may be said of a claim for pilotáge performed on the seas and to outward bound vessels, it is clear that a contract for service performed between Benicia and this port cannot be enforced in the admiralty.

In this case, however, no services were rendered. The claim is for an allowance given by the state law to pilots who…