Part 56 (1/2)

104. +Personal Property of Enemy Subjects+

_Brown_ v. _United States_, 8 Cr. 110

It was held that British property within the territory of the United States at the beginning of hostilities with Great Britain could not be condemned without a legislative act, and that the act of Congress declaring war was not such an act. The property in question was the cargo of an American s.h.i.+p and was seized as enemy's property in 1813, nearly a year after it had been discharged from the s.h.i.+p.

110. +Privateers+

_United States_ v. _Baker_, 5 Blatchford, 6

This was an indictment in 1861 against Baker, the master of a private armed schooner, and a part of the officers and crew for piracy. They claimed to have acted under a commission from Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America. Nelson J. charged the jury at length; but they failed to agree on a verdict.

112. +Capture and Ransom+

_The Grotius_, 9 Cr. 368

The question in this case, which was heard in 1815, was whether the capture was valid. The master, the mate, and two of the seamen swore that they did not consider the s.h.i.+p to have been seized as prize, and that the young man who was put on board by the captain of the privateer was received and considered as a pa.s.senger during the residue of the voyage. It was held that the validity of the capture of the vessel as a prize of war was sufficiently established by the evidence.

113. +Postliminium+

_The Two Friends_, 1 C. Rob. 271

An American s.h.i.+p was taken by the French in 1799 when the relations between France and America were strained. She was recaptured by the crew, some of whom were British seamen. They were awarded salvage.

_The Santa Cruz_, 1 C. Rob. 49

A Portuguese vessel was taken by the French in 1796 and retaken by English cruisers a few days later. It was held that the law of England, on recapture of property of allies, is the law of reciprocity; it adopts the rule of the country to which the claimant belongs.

115. +Non-hostile Relations of Belligerents+

_The Venus_, 4 C. Rob. 355

A British vessel went to Ma.r.s.eilles, under cartel, for the exchange of prisoners, and there took on board a cargo and was stranded and captured on a voyage to Port Mahon. Held that the penalty was confiscation.

_The Sea Lion_, 5 Wall. 630

This case held that a license from a ”Special Agent of the Treasury Department and Acting Collector of Customs” in 1863 to bring cotton ”from beyond the United States military lines” had no warrant from the Treasury Regulations prescribed by the President conformably to the act of 13th July, 1861.

119. +Termination of War by Treaty of Peace+

_The Schooner Sophie_, 6 C. Rob. 138

A British s.h.i.+p, having been captured by the French, was condemned in 1799 by a French Consular Court in Norway. Other proceedings were afterwards had, on former evidence in the case, in the regular Court of Prize in Paris and the sentence of the Consular Court was affirmed. Sir William Scott said, ”I am of opinion, therefore, that the intervention of peace has put a total end to the claim of the British proprietor, and that it is no longer competent to him to look back to the enemy's t.i.tle, either in his own possession, or in the hands of neutral purchasers.”