Scott averaged 57001. a year, the salary being 25001. and the fees 32001. About a thousand cases a year were determined by the court during the war. (Evidence of Dr. Nichol before Select Committee on Admiralty Courts, in 1833; reprinted in 1843 by order of the House of Com mons.) The Prerogative and Admiralty Courts were presided over by one judge on two occasions in the last century, from 1710 to 1714, and from 1773 to 1779. The Parliamentary Committee of 1833 recommended that the two judges of these courts should sit interchangeably, when occasion may require, either in one court or the other.
All sovereign states which are engaged in maritime war establish Admiralty Courts, for the trial of prizes taken by virtue of the commissions which they have granted. In determining prize cases, the Admiralty proceed on certain general principles which are recognised among civilized nations. Thus the com mission which empowers the Prize Court to determine cases of prize, requires it to " proceed upon all and all manner of cap tures, seizures, prizes, and reprisals of ships and goods, which are or shall be taken, and to hear and determine accord ing to the course of the Admiralty and the law of nations." The Court of Admiralty for Scotland was abolished by 1 Win. IV. c. 69. The representative of the nominal head of the court (the Lord High Admiral) was the judge; and there were inferior Admiralty jurisdictions, in which the law was ad ministered by admirals-depute. The cases formerly brought before this court are now prosecuted in the Court of Session, or in that of the sheriff, in the same way as ordinary civil causes. The Court of Justiciary has become the tribunal for the decision of the more important mari time offences. The inferior jurisdictions
not dependent on the High Court of Ad miralty were not abolished by the above act. (Burton's Laws of Scotland.) There is an Admiralty Court in Ireland, but a prize commissioner has never been sent to it. By § 108 in the Corporations Re form Act (5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 76) all chartered Admiralty jurisdictions were abolished, but that of the Cinque Porta, attached to the office of Lord Warden, was expressly reserved. In several of our colonies there are Courts of Vice-Ad miralty, which not only have authority both as Instance Courts and Prize Courts, but have also, in certain revenue cases, concurrent jurisdiction with the colonial Courts of Record. (Stokes, On the Co lonies, p. 357.) From the Vice-Admiralty Courts of the colonies an appeal lies, in instance causes, to the Court of Admiralty in England ; and from the Court of Ad miralty in England an appeal lies, in in stance causes (whether originating in that court or coming before it by appeal), to the king in council ; to which body the powers in maritime as well as ecclesiasti cal causes were transferred from the High Court of Delegates by 2 & 3 Wm. I V. c. 92. From prize causes, whether in the Vice Admiralty Courts or in the Court of Admiralty in England, the appeal lies directly to certain commissioners of ap peal in prize causes, who are appointed by the king under the great seal, and are usually members of his privy council, and whose appointment is generally re gulated or recognised by treaties with foreign nations.
For the law on the whole of this sub ject, see Dr. Browne's View of the Civil Law, and the Law of the Admiralty ; and Comyn's Digest, tit. " Admiralty."