But in the sixth year of Queen Anne, it was thought proper, for the encouragement of seamen, to vest in them the prizes they should take; and for that purpose the statutes, 6 Anne, c. 13 and c. 37, were passed.

The first of these acts only relates to proceedings in the Courts of Admiralty in England, but contains no particular directions to them; the practice of those courts being already settled.[102]

There is a long series of statutes, which follows the above, on the subject of the Prize Courts.  The following may be taken as a general description of their operation.

The judge should proceed, according to their form, to sentence with all possible expedition.  If on the preparatory examination there arises a doubt in the breast of the judge, whether the capture is prize or not, and further proof appears to be necessary, the ship and cargo is appraised by persons named on the part of the captor, and is delivered up to the claimants, on their giving good and sufficient security to pay to the captor the full value, according to the appraisement, if the ship is adjudged lawful prize by the judge; by this the claimant is entitled to the immediate possession of the subject in dispute, which the captor cannot obtain but on the refusal of the claimant to give security for the appraised value.  After a sentence of condemnation, the captor has a right to the possession; the execution of the sentence is not suspended by an appeal, but the party appellant gives good and sufficient security to restore the cargo, or its full value, in case the sentence is reversed.[103]

[Sidenote:  Where Prize Courts can be held.]

Having explained shortly the operation of the Prize Courts, it must be observed, that the Prize Court of an Ally cannot condemn.  Prize or no prize is a question belonging exclusively to the courts of the country of the captor.  The reason is, that the Sovran has a right and is bound to inspect the conduct of the captors, for he is answerable to other states for the acts of the captor.  The Prize Court of the captor may sit in the country of a co-belligerent or an ally, because there is a common interest between such on the subject, and both governments may be presumed to authorize any measures conducing to give effect to their arms, and to consider each others ports as mutually subservient.[104]

It is not lawful for such a court to act in a neutral territory; and it was at one time even doubted, where property had been carried into, and was lying in a neutral port, whether the validity of the capture could be determined even by a Court of Prize established in the captor’s country; because it was thought that the possession in reach of the court was essential to the exercise of a jurisdiction in a proceeding in rem.  The principle was admitted by Sir Wm. Scott to be correct, in the case of the Henrick and the Maria;[105] but he considered that the English Admiralty had gone too far in supporting condemnations in England, of prizes abroad in neutral ports, to permit him to recall the vicious practice of the Court to acknowledged principle.