ADMISSIONS. 



ADOPTION 



opportunity of 

 ram Court ha* also 



(l>ougW Report*, p. 572, Ac.) The 

 on in matter* of capture in |>ort or on 

 laud, when the capture has been effected by a naval force, or a mixed 

 naval and military force. 



From prue causes, whether in the Court of Admiralty in England, 

 r in the Vice- Admiralty Court*, an appeal lie* directly to certain com- 

 missioners of appeal in price cause*, who are appointed by the crown 

 under the great *eal. 



Vessels taken under the treaties for the suppression of the slave- 

 trade are adjudicated by a mixed commission, composed of Englixh and 

 r--r."..-n . OOnafal . ; r-. 



In 1840 an act was pawed (3 & 4 Viet. c. 66) to nuke provision for 

 the judge, registrar, and marshal of the Court of Admiralty. It fixe* 

 the salary of tli judge at 4000/., with a retiring pension of MOM, after 

 fifteen yean' sei-rice, or on becoming permanently disabled from per- 

 forming his duties. The salary of the registrar in 1400i, without 

 fees. The registrar is appointed by the judge, and must be a proctor 

 of not less than ten years' standing. One of the duties of the registrar 

 is to attend the hearing of appeals before the Privy Council, instead of 

 the registrars of the Court of Chancery, on whom this duty devolved 

 under 3 ft 4 Wm. IV. c. 41. On the next vacancy in the office of 

 judge of the Admiralty, or judge of the Probate Court, these offices 

 are to be united (20 ft 21 Viet. c. 77). 



All sovereign states which are engaged in maritime war, establish 

 Admiralty Courts, for the trial of prizes taken by virtue of the com- 

 mi--ions which they have granted. In determining prize cases, the 

 Admiralty Courts proceed on certain general principles whirh are 

 recognised among civilised nations. Thus the commission which em- 

 power* the Prize Court to determine cases of prize, requires it to 

 " proceed upon all and all manner of captures, seizures, prizes, and 

 reprisals of ships and goods, which are or shall be taken, and to hear 

 and determine according to the course of the Admiralty and the law of 

 nation*." 



The Court of Admiralty for Scotland was abolished by 1 Win. IV. 

 c. 69. The cases in their nature civil, formerly brought before this 

 court, are now prosecuted in the Court of Session, or in that of the 

 nhcriff. in the same way as ordinary causes. The Court of Justiciary 

 is the tribunal for the decision of the more iui|>ortant m.iritimc 

 offence*. The inferior jurisdictions not dependent on the High 

 Court of Admiralty were not aliolUhed by the above act. (Burton's 

 ' Manual of the I.iw of Scotland.') There is an Admiralty Court in 

 Ireland, but a prize commissioner has never been sent to it. By . 108 

 in the Corporations Reform Act (5 ft (5 Win. IV. c. 76) all chartered 

 Admiralty jurisdictions were abolished ; but that of the Cinque Porte, 

 attached to the office of Lord Warden, was expressly reserved. (Stokes 

 ' On the Colonies,' p. 357.) 



(Dr. Browne's Vieie nf the Ciril /xiir, and the fMf nfthe Admiralty ; 

 Comyn*'* Digeit, tit. ' Admiralty ;' Blackst. Cumm. Mr. Kerr's ed. iii. 

 p. 76 ; iv. p. 314.) 



ADMIRALTY, DROIT8 OF. [Dnorrs OF THE ADMIRALTY.] 



ADMISSIONS, in a suit in equity, are those fact* necessary to 

 support the case of a plaintiff, or of a defendant, the necessity of 

 proving which is removed by the opposite party admitting tltcm. 



Admission* are either, 1, Upon the record; or, 2, By agreement 

 between the parties. 



1. Admissions upon the record, again, are either Actual or Con- 

 stnictivi . 



ArlnalAdmittion$aTe those which ap]>ear in the lull or in the answer. 

 A plaintiff cannot read any ]rt of his bill in evidence, unless it is 

 corroborated by the answer. 



Of Comtrurtirt Arlmiuiun*, the most ordinary instance is when a plea 

 ha* been put in either to the whole or ]rt of a bill ; in which case the 

 bill, or that part of it pleaded to, and not controverted by the plea, is 

 admitted to be true. 



A plaintiff 1 may rest satisfied with the admission, and need not prove 

 the fact not controverted by evidence. 



Again, the statement of fact* contained in a plaint iff V bill is in 

 equity (but not at law) constructive admission as against him of the 

 fact* a* stated, when the allegation is positive, as of his own acts, or of 

 fact* within his knowledge, but not when they are stated hypothuti- 

 cally, for the purpose of raising an answer to an antici|xited defence, 

 with a protest against their being considered a* admitted ; and the bill 

 may be read a* evidence of the facts so positively averred, not only in 

 the suit in which the bill is filed, but in another suit. 



There is a difference between actual and constructive admission*, in 

 the manner in which they are presented to the court The former are 

 read to establish the case of the party reading them, in the same 

 manner a* the other evidence in the cause ; the latter are stated to the 

 court when the pleadings are opened, for the purpose of showing what 

 arc tlie matters in issue between the parties, and what are the fact* 

 whirh by the form of the pleading* they are precluded from disputing. 



In an answer, not only the simple admission of a fact, but the state- 

 ment of a defendant that " he believes,'' or has been " informed, and 

 believes " such a fact to be true, is sufficient, unlee* the statement be 

 accompanied by some clause to prevent its being considered as an 

 admission. The answer of an infant, being in fact the answer of his 

 guardian, cannot be used against the infant. But the rule is different 

 with respect to th* answer of an idiot or lunatic put in by bin com- 



mittee, or that of a |>ersuo of weak intellect put in by hi guard : an. 

 In these cases, admissions in the answers are evidence against them. 

 The joint answer of a husband and wife may be read again-i them in 

 matters relating to the wife's personal estate; but neither t lie joint 

 answer, nor the separate answer of the husband, with relation 

 inheritance. The answer of one defendant is not evidence against a 

 co-defendant, unless where a defendant makes it so by referring to 

 a statement in the answer nf his co-defendant. 



The courts of equity ]>ermit the plaintiff to read any portion of tin- 

 answer which he thinks will sup]>rt his case, provided that, in reading 

 the admission of a fact, he reads at the same time any admissions or 

 qualifications with which it is accoiupanu-d. and the whole of the 

 passage in which the admission is contained. The rule is different in 

 courts of law, in which, if an answer in equity is offered in evidence 

 against a party, he has a right to insist upon the whole being read. 



2. Admissions by agreement between the parties are those which the 

 parties or their attorneys or solicitors agree ii|M>n between themselves, 

 for the sake of saving expense or preventing delay. They are usually 

 made in writing, and signed by the |rties or their solicitors, Imt not 

 necessarily so. Agreements for admissions will not I* sanctioned bj 

 the court if they violate any known principles of law. Thus, there can 

 lie no agreement to waive an objection to an instrument for want of ,1 

 stamp. 



(Daniell's Cluinctry Practiff, by Headlam, 3rd. ed. vol. i. p. 069, 

 et seq.) 



ADMITTANCE. [COPYHOLD.] 



ADOPTION (from ail<>i>lare) means taking by choice. I'.y the 

 Roman law, if a |>erson had no children of his own, he might ap|ioint 

 any other person's, whether related to him or not, to be his children 

 by niliifilion. In order to understand the ordinary mode of adoption 

 and its legal effects, it must be remembered that the relation of father 

 and son was very analogous to that of masU-r and slave, both in tin- 

 right* and duties attached to it, and in the manner in which it wax 

 dissolved. Hence, under the old law (that is prior to Justinian's time* 

 if a person wished to adopt the son of another, the natural father sold 

 the boy to him by a regular sale before a magistrate. In order that he 

 might be emancipated from his father's authority, HO as never to fall 

 under it. again, it was requisite that this sale should be repeated lhn> 

 several times. In strict accordance with the direction of the old law, 

 which is thus laid down in the XII Tables, " Si pater filium Icr veimm- 

 duit films a patre liber esto." [EMANCIPATION.] The father thus lost 

 all his paternal rights over the child, who by this triple sale as 

 regarded the purchaser, was put in manrifiin. and did not become 

 his films familias until a fictitious suit or feigned recover}- took place 

 (called cettio in jure) when the child became, to all intents ami purposes, 

 a member of the family of his purchaser or adopter. If the person to 

 be adopted was > / jurlt, that is, his own master, the mode of pro- 

 ceeding was by a bill (analogous to our private acts of |<arliament) 

 proposed to the people in the comitia curiata. (Aul. Gell. ' Noct. Att.' 

 v. 19, Cicero ' Pro Domo,' 29.) This was called A rrogation, from ragare, 

 to propose a bill. In either cose the adopted child became subj, : t.. 

 the authority of his new father; passed into his family, name, .ind 

 sacred rites, and succeeded to his property. Clodius, the enemy of 

 Cicero, passed by this ceremony from the patrician to the ph-ln-ian 

 rank, in order to qualify him to be tribune. (Cic. ' Pro Domo,' 12, 18 ; 

 Suet. ' Tiber. Nero, 1 2.) 



The history of Rome abounds with instances of adoption. One of 

 the sons of Paulug *milius. the conqueror of Macedonia, was adopted 

 by the son of Scipio Africanus the Elder, and having thus passed from 

 the jfimilian into the Curntlian >its, acquired the name of PuMius 

 Cornelius Scipio, vEmilianus, to point out the family of his birth ami 

 adoption ; when he destroyed Carthage in the third I'unic War, 

 he receive. 1. like his adoptive grandfather, the appellation of Africanus, 

 and is usually spoken of as Scipio Africanus the Younger. 



Under the emperors the mode of adoption became the subject of 

 reform ; and that which for many ages could be effected only by a 

 circuitous course of arbitrary forms, founded upon legal fictions. 

 was allowed to be done by a short and simple process before a 

 magistrate. 



There was also a custom of adopting children by will, which was not 

 only in vogue in tin: days of the Republic, but was even knonn ill very 

 ancient times, when it was not unusual for the Romans to adopt 

 (arltfi Ktre) their kcrtda tut or children into their nomina. (Cic. ' de 

 Offlc. 1 iii. 18 ; Corn. Nep 'Offic.' c. 5 ; Suet. ' Jul." 83 ; Tacit. ' Ann.il. 1 3, 

 30; and Ovid, ' Metamorph.' xv. 818.) Julius Cicsar thus adopted his 

 great nephew Octavius, who was thenceforth called Cains Julius Cesar 

 Oct.-ivi.inus, but is generally known under the appellation of Augustus, 

 which he afterwards assumed. (Heineccius, ' Antiquitates Romann-,' 

 lib. i. tit. xi.) In like manner, several emperors adopted their suc- 

 cessors; for instance, Augustus adopted his grandson Agrippa. ami his 

 step-son Tiberius. (Tacit. 'Ann.' i. 3 ; Suet. ' Aug.' 65.) So Tiberius, 

 by the order of Augustus, adopted bis nephew Oermanicus, who died 

 in the lifetime of Tiberius ; and on the death nf Tiberius, Caligula, the 

 son of Germanicus, became emperor. At a subsequent period, Claudius 

 went so far as to adopt his step-son Domitius, afterwards the Km|*rnr 

 Nero, to the exclusion of his own son Britonnicvis. Tacitus remarks, 

 that Nero was the first stranger in blood over adopted into the Cl.iudi.ui 

 family. (Tacit. ' Anual.' xii. 25.) At various periods of Roman history 



