ch commissions
should make application in writing, and therein set forth a particular
and exact description of the vessel, specifying the burden, and the
number and nature of the guns on board, to what place belonging, as well
as the name or names of the principal owner or owners, and the number
of men: these particulars to be inserted in the commission; and every
commander to produce such commission to the custom-house officer who
should examine the vessel, and, finding her answer the description,
give a certificate thereof gratis, to be deemed a necessary clearance,
without which the commander should not depart: that if, after the first
day of July, any captain of a privateer should agree for the ransom of
any neutral vessel, or the cargo, or any part thereof, after it should
have been taken as prize, and in pursuance of such agreement should
actually discharge such prize, he should be deemed guilty of piracy; but
that with respect to contraband merchandise, he might take it on board
his own ship, with the consent of the commander of the neutral vessel,
and then set her at liberty; and that no person should purloin or
embezzle the said merchandise before condemnation: that no judge, or
other person belonging to any court of admiralty, should be concerned in
any privateer: that owners of vessels, not being under fifty, or above
one hundred tons, whose commissions are declared void, should be
indemnified for their loss by the public: that a court of oyer and
terminer, and gaol delivery, for the trial of offences committed within
the jurisdiction of the admiralty, should be held twice a-year in the
Old Bailey at London, or in such other place within England as the board
of admiralty should appoint: that the judge of any court of admiralty,
after an appeal interposed, as well as before, should, at the request of
the captor or claimant, issue an order for appraising the capture, when
the parties do not agree upon the value, and an inventory to be taken;
then exact security for the full value, and cause the capture to be
delivered to the person giving such security; but, should objection be
made to the taking such security, the judge should, at the request of
either party, order such merchandise to be entered, landed, and sold at
public auction, and the produce to be deposited at the bank, or in some
public securities: and in case of security being given, the judge should
grant a pass in favour of the capture. Finally, the fo