556 ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 



Senator Morgan. — But I understaiul the law to be this in re.i?ard to 

 prize courts. They derive their jurisdiction from the niunicipal law. 

 There is, however, a sort of jurisdiction which comes to them from the 

 very ancient usages under tlie international law, which, when they are 

 called prize courts, jnay enlarge the purview of their authority and 

 power: but no nation, as I understand it, can establish a x)rize court 

 within the bosom of anotlier nation. 



Sir KiCHAKD Weestek. — Except by treaty. 



Senator Morgan. — 1 mean by its own authority. 



Sir KiCHARD Webster. — Quite right. 



Senator Morgan. — And therefore the power of a nation to organize 

 and to confer authority upon its prize courts must be a municipal power 

 in its authority, in its rules; and whatever is done within it is accord- 

 ing to what the usages, customs and decisions of that prize court, 

 subject to the api)ellate authorities over it, may consider to be proper. 



Sir EiCHARD Webster. — I believe. Sir, that the true view is that 

 the prize court, constituted by municipal law, has to administer inter- 

 national law. I do not, of course, want to appear to be arguing this 

 matter. 



Senator Morgan. — I have advanced nothing in the nature of advo- 

 cacy. I have a right to ask your opinion upon any question you are 

 discussing. 



Sir EicHARD Webster. — Certainly; but I beg to remind you that 

 you were not responsible for the way in which it was framed by my 

 friends. 



Senator Morgan. — I am not. 



Sir EiCHARD Webster. — Let me put two or three cases which are 

 perfectly well known to the Tribunal. They know what maritime lien 

 is and a condemnation of a sbip in rem; a ship comes into port. She 

 is arrested for salvage, or she is arrested for a collision, and she is sold. 



Senator Morgan. — You mean a vessel brought into i)ort. 



Sir Richard Webster. — ISTo. An American ship comes into the 

 ports of Great Britain. She is libelled in the admiralty court in the 

 case of collision, and the damage is so great that it is more than her 

 value. She is condemned and sold by the Marshal of the court. You 

 would not say, Sir, that tliat court was sitting as a prize court. 



Senator Morgan. — I would not. 



Sir EiCHARD Webster. — The fact that there is condemnation and 

 sale, or condemnation of the vessel, does not make it a prize court; and 

 if there is any thing in this point, or rather in the suggestion that you 

 have been good enough to put to me, it would equally apply to the 

 condemnations in rem in our courts. 



Senator Morgan. — If you will allow me, in the case you suggest of 

 a collision, there is a private wrong to be redressed by the action of a 

 court of admiralty. In the courts of prize jurisdution there is a public 

 wrong to be redressed through the agency of what are termed prize 

 courts. 



Sir EiCHARD Webster. — My next observation would have met that. 

 The most common case for condemnation for revenue is for smuggling. 

 An information is filed in the name of the Attorney-General on behalf 

 of Her Majesty, the Queen. I do not know what the corresponding 

 procedure is in the United States, but I should rather suppose that 

 some public officer has the right of suing for the penalty, or taking 

 proceedings for the penalty, in his own name, against the ship, or 

 against the owner, as the case may be. That vessel is condemned and 



