sentences:  Practicing maritime law, he earned a strong enough reputation for his work that in 1801 he was offered his choice of appointments to the newly established vice-admiralty courts in Nova Scotia or the West Indies.Croke's bench in Nova Scotia had considerable jurisdiction; over all maritime cases in a colony based largely on fishing and where smuggling was commonplace.Since the population and the Assembly was highly sympathetic to smuggling, the court, which denied jury trials to the accused was unpopular.