really are prize, against everybody; giving every body a fair
opportunity of being heard. A captor may, and must force everybody
interested to defend; and every person interested may force him to
proceed to condemn without delay.[101]

[Sidenote: Prize Courts.]

Before the sixth of the reign of Queen Anne there were no laws made on
this subject. Previous to that time all prizes taken in war were of
right vested in the Crown, and questions concerning the property of
such prizes were not the subject of discussion in courts of law. But
in order to do justice to claimants, from the first year after the
Restoration of Charles the Second, special commissions were issued to
enable the Courts of Admiralty to condemn such captures as appeared to
be lawful prizes; to give relief where there was no colour for taking;
and generally to make satisfaction to parties injured. By the Act of
the 13 Car. II. c. 9, (now repealed) indeed, some regulations were
made concerning the treatment of ships taken, but no provisions
enacted respecting any security to be given on delivery; the sole
interest in the thing condemned being in the Crown; it was in public
custody, and the disposition of it a mere matter of prerogative; no
such provisions therefore were necessary.

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