ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 559 



biinal, if my learned friends would supply nie with the statutes which 

 support the view that the court is to sit as a jirize court when it is con- 

 demning a iierson for having shot a seal under section 1956, or under 

 section 1954. 



If you would kindly look at page 95 of the statutes which have been 

 set out, ''the laws of the United iStates relating to customs, commerce 

 and navigation are extended to and over all the mainland, islands and 

 territory"; and I will assume that among the laws or customs is a pro- 

 hibition against smuggling, and I will assume that the American ship 

 has been caugbt smuggling and is condemned, just like a vessel in Great 

 Britain caught smuggling is condemned by the Exchequer Division, it 

 used to be in old days, on the Eevenue side of the Court of Exchequer, 

 but now by proceedings upon what is called the Crown side of the High 

 Court of Justice. 



Lord Hannen. — We will assume for a moment that there is such a 

 thing — we shall have proof of it if it exists — a court established and 

 called a prize court, and that it should be said that it should have all 

 the powers of the prize court; and amongst the rest that it should have 

 the power of seizing any vessel which was engaged in the slave trade. 

 Still, it would not be a inize court, in that sense. It would have eflect 

 against the subjects of that nation, but not against other nations. 



Sir KiCHARD Webster. — That is my respectful contention, my Lord, 

 in answer to the learned Senator; but of course, in my point of view, 

 if one can jiut a case a fortiori, the case is so much stronger because 

 the statutes of the United States which are set out, as we have seen, do 

 not purport anything of the kind. The statutes simply purport to give 

 an ordinary municipal court municipal jurisdiction. 



Perhaps 1 might conclude, Mr. President, by giving an instance. Sup- 

 posing that the law of United States provides that every coasting ves- 

 sel shall have a certain number of cubic feet of space for the crew to 

 sleep in, or a certain amount of lime juice put on board, or a certain 

 amount of medicine for the crew, with a penalty for not doing it, confis- 

 cation, if you like. It would be a strong thing to say that because the 

 court had jurisdiction in prize cases, when it was condemning that ship 

 for a breach of the laws of navigation, it sat as a prize court. The 

 learned Senator will, I am sure, understand that I only desire to grasp 

 his meaning; and desiring to grasp his meaning, I cannot see the 

 slightest ground for coming to the conclusion that there is any justifi- 

 cation for saying that when any vessll is taken into a court and con- 

 demned by that statute, the court that condemned it was sitting as a 

 prize court. 



Sir, I have all but concluded. If you will permit me a short time 

 tomorrow morning, I will try to sum up and deal with the point I said 

 I should deal with, in reference to the jurisdiction of this Tribunal, 



The Tribunal thereupon adjourned until Wednesday, June 7, 1893, at 

 11.30 o'clock A. M. 



