Punishment of masters of vessels under merchant convey disobeying orders or deserting convoy. Prize ships and goods liable to duties and forfeiture. Regulations of customs to be observed as to prize ships and goods. Power for treasury to Any contract or agreement entered into, and any bill, bond, or other security given for ransom of any ship or goods, shall be under the exclusive jurisdiction of the High Court of Admiralty as a Prize Court (subject to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council), and if entered into or given in contravention of any such Order in Council shall be deemed to have been entered into or given for an illegal consideration. If any person ransoms or enters into any contract or agreement for ransoming any ship or goods, in contravention of any such Order in Council, he shall for every such offence be liable to be proceeded against in the High Court of Admiralty at the suit of Her Majesty in her Office of Admiralty, and on conviction to be fined, in the discretion of the Court, any sum not exceeding five hundred pounds. Convoy. 46. If the master or other person having the command of any ship of any of Her Majesty's subjects, under the convoy of any of Her Majesty's ships of war, wilfully disobeys any lawful signal, instruction, or command of the commander of the convoy, or without leave deserts the convoy, he shall be liable to be proceeded against in the High Court of Admiralty at the suit of Her Majesty in her Office of Admiralty, and upon conviction to be fined, in the discretion of the Court, any sum not exceeding five hundred pounds, and to suffer imprisonment for such time, not exceeding one year, as the Court may adjudge. Customs Duties and Regulations. 47. All ships and goods taken as prize and brought into a port of the United Kingdom shall be liable to and be charged with the same rates and charges and duties of customs as under any Act relating to the customs may be chargeable on other ships and goods of the like description; and All goods brought in as prize which would on the voluntary importation thereof be liable to forfeiture or subject to any restriction under the laws relating to the Customs, shall be deemed to be so liable and subject, unless the Commissioners of Customs see fit to authorize the sale or delivery thereof for home use or exportation, unconditionally or subject to such conditions and regulations as they may direct. 48. Where any ship or goods taken as prize is or are brought into a port of the United Kingdom, the master or other person in charge or command of the ship which has been taken or in which the goods are brought shall, on arrival at such port, bring to at the proper place of discharge, and shall, when required by any officer of Customs, deliver an account in writing under his hand concerning such ship and goods, giving such particulars relating thereto as may be in his power, and shall truly answer all questions concerning such ship or goods asked by any such officer, and in default shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred pounds, such forfeiture to be enforced as forfeitures for offences against the laws relating to the Customs are enforced, and every such ship shall be liable to such searches as other ships are liable to, and the officers of the Customs may freely go on board such ship and bring to the Queen's warehouse any goods on board the same, subject nevertheless to such regulations in respect of ships of war belonging to Her Majesty as shall from time to time be issued by the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury. 49. Goods taken as prize may be sold either for home consumption or for exportation; and if in the former case the proceeds thereof, after remit Customs payment of duties of Customs, are insufficient to satisfy the just and reasonable claims thereon, the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury duties in may remit the whole or such part of the said duties as they see fit. Perjury. certain cases. 50. If any person wilfully and corruptly swears, declares, or affirms Punishment falsely in any prize cause or appeal, or in any proceeding under this of persons Act, or in respect of any matter required by this Act to be verified on guilty of oath, or suborns any other person to do so, he shall be deemed guilty perjury. of perjury, or of subornation of perjury (as the case may be), and shall be liable to be punished accordingly. Limitation of Actions, &c. 51. Any action or proceeding shall not lie in any part of Her Actions Majesty's dominions against any person acting under the authority or against in the execution or intended execution or in pursuance of this Act for persons executing Act any alleged irregularity or trespass, or other act or thing done or not to be omitted by him under this Act, unless notice in writing (specifying brought withthe cause of the action or proceeding) is given by the intending plain- out notice, &c. tiff or prosecutor to the intended defendant one month at least before the commencement of the action or proceeding, nor unless the action or proceeding is commenced within six months next after the act or thing complained of is done or omitted, or, in case of a continuation of damage, within six months next after the doing of such damage has ceased. In any such action the defendant may plead generally that the act or thing complained of was done or omitted by him when acting under the authority or in the execution or intended execution or in pursuance of this Act, and may give all special matter in evidence; and the plaintiff shall not succeed if tender of sufficient amends is made by the defendant before the commencement of the action; and in case no tender has been made, the defendant may, by leave of the Court in which the action is brought, at any time pay into Court such sum of money as he thinks fit, whereupon such proceeding and order shall be had and made in and by the Court as may be had and made on the payment of money into Court in an ordinary action; and if the plaintiff does not succeed in the action, the defendant shall receive such full and reasonable indemnity as to all costs, charges, and expenses incurred in and about the action as may be taxed and allowed by the proper officer, subject to review; and though a verdict is given for the plaintiff in the action he shall not have costs against the defendant, unless the judge before whom the trial is had certifies his approval of the action. Any such action or proceeding against any person in Her Majesty's Naval service, or in the employment of the Lords of the Admiralty, shall not be brought or instituted elsewhere than in the United Kingdom. Petitions of Right. 52. A petition of right, under the Petitions of Right Act, 1860, Jurisdiction of may, if the suppliant thinks fit, be intituled in the High Court of High Court of Admiralty, in case the subject-matter of the petition or any material Admiralty on petitions of part thereof arises out of the exercise of any belligerent right on behalf right in of the Crown, or would be cognizable in a Prize Court within Her certain cases, Majesty's dominions if the same were a matter in dispute between as in 23 & 24 private persons. Any petition of right under the last-mentioned Act, whether intituled in the High Court of Admiralty or not, may be prosecuted in that Court, if the Lord Chancellor thinks fit so to direct. Vict. c. 34. Power to make orders in council. Order in council to be gazetted, &c. Not to affect rights of Crown; effect of treaties, &c. Commence The provisions of this Act relative to appeal, and to the framing and approval of general orders for regulating the procedure and practice of the High Court of Admiralty, shall extend to the case of any such petition of right intituled or directed to be prosecuted in that Court; and, subject thereto, all the provisions of the Petitions of Right Act, 1860, shall apply, mutatis mutandis, in the case of any such petition of right; and for the purposes of the present section, the terms "Court" and "Judge" in that Act shall respectively be understood to include and to mean the High Court of Admiralty and the judge thereof, and other terms shall have the respective meanings given to them in that Act. Orders in Council. 53. Her Majesty in Council may from time to time make such Orders in Council as seem meet for the better execution of this Act. 54. Every Order in Council under this Act shall be published in the London Gazette, and shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament within thirty days after the making thereof, if Parliament is then sitting, and, if not, then within thirty days after the next meeting of Parliament. Savings. 55. Nothing in this Act shall- (2.) affect the operation of any existing treaty or convention with (3.) take away or abridge the power of the Crown to enter into any treaty or convention with any foreign power containing any stipulation that may seem meet concerning any matter to which this Act relates; or (4.) take away, abridge, or control, further or otherwise than as expressly provided by this Act, any right, power, or prerogative of Her Majesty the Queen in right of her Crown, or in right of her Office of Admiralty, or any right or power of the Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom, or of the commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral; or (5.) take away, abridge, or control, further or otherwise than as expressly provided by this Act, the jurisdiction or authority of a Prize Court to take cognizance of and judicially proceed upon any capture, seizure, prize, or reprisal of any ship or goods, and to hear and determine the same, and, according to the course of Admiralty and the law of nations, to adjudge and condemn any ship or goods, or any other jurisdiction or authority of or exerciseable by a Prize Court. Commencement. 56. This Act shall commence on the commencement of the Naval ment of Act. Agency and Distribution Act, 1864 (7). (1) By the operation of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873 (36 & 37 Vict. c. 66), the jurisdiction of the High Court of Admiralty is assigned, subject to any rule under the Act which may transfer it to some other division, to APPENDIX E. THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON, 1871. Concluded May 8, 1871; Ratifications Exchanged June 17, 1871; ap THE United States of America and Her Britannic Majesty, being desirous to provide for an amicable settlement of all causes of difference between the two countries, have for that purpose appointed their respective Plenipotentiaries, that is to say: the President of the United States has appointed, on the part of the United States, as Commissioners in a Joint High Commission and Plenipotentiaries, Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State; Robert Cumming Schenck, Envoy Extraor dinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain; Samuel Nelson, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, of Massachusetts; and George Henry Williams, of Oregon; and Her Britannic Majesty, on her part, has pointed as Her High Commissioners and Plenipotentiaries; the Right Honourable George Frederick Samuel, Earl de Grey and Earl of Ripon, Viscount Goderich, Baron Grantham, a Baronet, a Peer of the United Kingdom, Lord President of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, &c., &c.; the Right Honourable Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, Baronet, one of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, a Member of Parliament, a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, &c., &c.; Sir Edward Thornton, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Her Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States of America; Sir John Alexander Macdonald, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, a member of Her Majesty's Privy Council for Canada, and Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of Her Majesty's Dominion of Canada; and Mountague Bernard, Esquire, Chichele Professor of International Law in the University of Oxford. And the said Plenipotentiaries, after having exchanged their full powers, which were found to be in due and proper form, have agreed to and concluded the following articles: ARTICLE I. Whereas differences have arisen between the government of the Alabama United States and the government of Her Britannic Majesty; and still claims to be exist, growing out of the acts committed by the several vessels which referred to have given rise to the claims generically known as the "Alabama Claims" :: And whereas Her Britannic Majesty has authorized Her High Com the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice. But any cause or matter assigned to that division may, at the request of the president, with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor, or, in his absence, of the Lord Chief Justice, be heard by another judge of the High Court. By sect. 18 of the same Act, the appellate jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee on appeal from the High Court of Ad miralty is transferred to the Court of arbitration. Arbitrators, how to be named. Vacancies, how filled. Arbitrators to meet, wher, and where; missioners and Plenipotentiaries to express, in a friendly spirit, the regret felt by Her Majesty's government for the escape, under whatever circumstances, of The Alabama and other vessels from British ports, and for the depredations committed by those vessels: Now, in order to remove and adjust all complaints and claims on the part of the United States, and to provide for the speedy settlement of such claims, which are not admitted by Her Britannic Majesty's government, the High Contracting Parties agree that all the said claims, growing out of acts committed by the aforesaid vessels and generically known as the "Alabama Claims," shall be referred to a Tribunal of Arbitration to be composed of five Arbitrators, to be appointed in the following manner, that is to say: One shall be named by the President of the United States; one shall be named by Her Britannic Majesty; His Majesty the King of Italy shall be requested to name one; the President of the Swiss Confederation shall be requested to name one; and His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil shall be requested to name one. In case of the death, absence, or incapacity to serve of any or either of the said Arbitrators, or, in the event of either of the said Arbitrators omitting or declining or ceasing to act as such, the President of the United States, or Her Britannic Majesty, or His Majesty the King of Italy, or the President of the Swiss Confederation, or His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, as the case may be, may forthwith name another person to act as Arbitrator in the place and stead of the Arbitrator originally named by such head of a State. And in the event of the refusal or omission for two months after receipt of the request from either of the High Contracting Parties of His Majesty the King of Italy, or the President of the Swiss Confederation, or His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, to name an Arbitrator either to fill the original appointment or in the place of one who may have died, be absent, or incapacitated, or who may omit, decline, or from any cause cease to act as such Arbitrator, His Majesty the King of Sweden and Norway shall be requested to name one or more persons, as the case may be, to act as such Arbitrator or Arbitrators. ARTICLE II. The Arbitrators shall meet at Geneva, in Switzerland, at the earliest convenient day after they shall have been named, and shall proceed impartially and carefully to examine and decide all questions that shall be laid before them on the part of the governments of the United a majority to States and Her Britannic Majesty respectively. All questions considered by the tribunal, including the final award, shall be decided by a majority of all the Arbitrators. their powers; decide. Agents of each party. Case of each party, &c., when to be given to arbitrators. Each of the High Contracting Parties shall also name one person to attend the tribunal as its agent to represent it generally in all matters connected with the arbitration. ARTICLE III. The written or printed case of each of the two parties, accompanied by the documents, the official correspondence, and other evidence on which each relies, shall be delivered in duplicate to each of the Arbitrators and to the agent of the other party as soon as may be after the organization of the tribunal, but within a period not exceeding six months from the date of the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty. |