The rule has always been that a carrier is not responsible for a loss or delay caused by an act of the public enemy. A capture, by public enemies, of property intrusted to a carrier for transportation, releases him from further obligations respecting it, since such an act puts it out of his power to do what he had undertaken to do.7 In Lewis vs. Ludwick,8 it is said that the term "public enemies" means those with whom the nation is at war, and does not include thieves, robbers, rioters, insurgents, or an irresistible mob. In this case it was held that Morgan and his band of confederates were "public enemies" in the technical sense, and a loss caused by them would not render the carrier liable.

The early rule was that a mob or riot could not properly come within the term public enemy, but this doctrine has been abandoned in America, where it is held that in the case of a mob of such magnitude as to be beyond the control of the ordinary authorities, a carrier is not liable for delay in transportation,9 or even for the destruction of the goods10 where he has taken all such precautions as ordinary care or prudence could suggest.

6 13 Gray (Mass.), 481.

7 Spaids vs. New York Mail Steamship Co., 3 Daly (N. Y.), 139. 6 Coldw. (Tenn) 308, 98 Am. Dec. 454.

8 Geismer vs. Lake Shore, etc., R.

Co., 102 N. Y., 563. The contrary rule prevails in Arkansas. See Missouri Pac. R. vs. Nevill, 60 Ark., 375. 10 Missouri Pac. R. Co., vs. Levi, 4 Tex. App. Civ. Cas., 8.