minary to Condemnation.]

The Proceedings Preliminary to Condemnation may be roughly described
as follows:--

The _captor_, immediately on bringing his prize into port, sends up
and delivers upon oath to the registry of the Court of Admiralty, all
papers found on board the prize. The preparatory examinations of the
captain and some of the crew of the _captured ship_ are then taken,
upon a set of standing interrogatories, before the commissioners of
the port to which the prize is brought. These also are forwarded to
the registry of the Court of Admiralty. A written _notice_, called a
_monition_, is extracted by the captor from the registry, and served
upon the Royal Exchange, notifying the capture, and calling upon all
persons interested, to appear and show cause why the ship and goods
should not be condemned. At the expiration of twenty days, the
monition is returned into the registry, with a certificate of its
service; and if any claim has been given, the cause is then ready for
hearing, upon evidence arising out of the ship's papers and
preparatory examinations.

The _neutral master or proprietor of the cargo_ takes measures as
follows:--Upon being brought into port, the master usually makes a
protest, which he forwards to London as instructions, (or with such
further directions as he thinks proper) either to the correspondent of
his owners, or to the consul of his nation, in order to claim the ship
or such parts of the cargo as belong to his owners, or with which he
was particularly entrusted; or the master himself goes to London to
take the necessary steps, as soon as he has undergone his examination.

The master, correspondent, or consul, applies to a proctor, who
prepares a claim supported by the affidavit of the claimant, stating
briefly to whom, as he believes, the ship and goods claimed belong;
and that no enemy has any right or interest therein; security must be
given to the amount of sixty pounds, to answer costs, if the case
should appear so grossly fraudulent on the part of the claimant as to
subject him to be condemned therein. If the captor has neglected in
the mean time to take the usual steps, (but which seldom happens, as
he is strictly enjoined both by his instructions and by the Prize Act
to proceed immediately to adjudication,) a process issues against him,
on the application of the claimant's proctor, to bring in the ship's
papers and preparatory examinations, and to proceed in the usual way.