Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/177

Rh ADMIRALTY 161 from 1798 to 1814, the salary was 2500, and the fees averaged 2800 a-year. Under the 3 and 4 Viet. c. 66, 1, the salary is fixed at 4000 per annum. All fees of whatever kind, formerly payable to the judge, are now paid to the consolidated fund. The court of admiralty is at present (1873), and pend ing the erection of the new law courts, held in Westminster. In the time of Henry IV. it was held in Southwark, either at a quay on the south side of the Thames, or in the ere- while church of St Margaret-on-Hill, most likely the former. Stow, in his Survey (A.D. 1598), says &quot;A part of this parish church of St Margaret is now a court, wherein the assizes and sessions be kept; and the court of admiralty is also there kept.&quot; Pepys also, in his Diary (17th March 1663), describes the court as sitting there. But it is pro bable that the sittings in St Margaret s Church were com menced shortly before Stow s time ; for in the Rolls of Par liament, 11 Hen. IV. No. 61, the Commons complain that people are summoned by the officers of the admiral a Loundres a le Key de William Norton, Suthwerke. Further, it would appear from an appeal made to the king, Henry IV., that the rule then was for the admiral s court to be held upon some wharf or quay within the flux and reflux of the tide. In the reign of Henry VIII., Horton s Quay, near London Bridge, is mentioned in the records of the high court of admiralty (3d Nov. 1541) as its usual place of sitting. The judges of the vice-admiralty courts in certain of the colonies, limited by 41 George III. c. 96, are allowed a salary not exceeding to each the sum of 2000 a-year, to be paid out of the consolidated fund of Great Britain; to gether with profits and emoluments not exceeding to each the further sum of 2000 per annum, out of the fees to be taken by the said judges, of which a table is directed to be hung up in some conspicuous place in the court; and no judge is to take any fee beyond those specified, directly or indirectly, on pain of forfeiture of his office, and being pro ceeded against for extortion; and on his retirement from office after six years service, or from some permanent infir mity, the Crown may, by authority of the Act above men tioned, grant unto such judge an annuity for the term of his life not exceeding 1000 per annum. This liberal provi sion puts the judges of the colonial courts of vice-admiralty above all suspicion of their decisions being influenced by unworthy motives a suspicion they were not entirely free from when their emoluments depended mainly on their fees. During the war of 1793-1815 a session of oyer and ter- miner to try admiralty causes was held at the Old Bailey, now the central criminal court, twice a-year. The commis sion for this purpose was of the same nature with those which are granted to the judges when they go on circuit; that is to say, to determine and punish all crimes, offences, and mis demeanours, and abuses; the end of both being the same, their limits different; the one relating to things done upon the land, the other to things done upon the water. The lords commissioners of the admiralty, all the members of the privy council, the chancellor and all the judges, the lords of the treasury, the secretary of the admiralty, the treasurer and commissioners of the navy, some of the aldermen of London, and several doctors of the civil law, were the mem bers of this commission ; any four of whom made a court. The proceedings of the court, now probably obsolete, were continued de die in diem, or, as the style of the court was, from tide to tide. 3. The Registrar of the Admiralty formerly held his place by patent from the Crown. The patent was issued under the great seal of the court of admiralty, and the appointment was afterwards confirmed by patent under the great seal of the United Kingdom. The appointment was for life, and was often granted in reversion. The registrar hud no salary, the amount of his emoluments depending on the captures, droits, &amp;lt;tc., condemned by the court, which during the war of 1793-1815 were so enormous that in 1810 an Act was passed for regulating the offices of registrars of admiralty and prize courts, by which it is enacted &quot; that no office of registrar of the high court of admiralty, or of the high court of appeals for prizes, or high court of delegates in Great Britain, shall, after the expira tion of the interest now vested in possession or reversion therein, be granted for a longer term than during pleasure, nor be executed by deputy; that an account be kept in the said offices respectively of all the fees, dues, perquisites, emoluments, and profits received by and on account of the said registrars, out of which all the expenses of their offices are to be paid; that one-third of the surplus shall belong to the registrar and to his assistant (if an assistant should be necessary), and the remaining two-thirds to the consoli dated fund of Great Britain, to be paid quarterly into the exchequer; the account of such surplus to be presented to the court at least fourteen days before each quarter-day, and verified on oath.&quot; Under the 3 and 4 Viet. c. 66, 2, a yearly salary of 1400 is substituted for &quot; all fees, dues, perquisites, emoluments, and profits,&quot; and which may be increased in time of war to 2000. The duties of the registrar are 1. To keep a public registry, to give attend ance therein, and to preserve in a regular manner the registers, acts, records, and documents belonging to the office; 2. To attend all sittings of the court of admiralty, and to attend the judge at chambers; 3. To draw and sign all warrants, monitions, commissions, &c., issuing from the court; to attend other courts with minutes, &c., of the admiralty court when required; 4. To have the custody of all moneys paid into court or paid out of court. 4. The Advocate-General. This officer is appointed by warrant of the lords commissioners of the admiralty. His duties are to appear for the lord high admiral in his court of admiralty, court of delegates, and other courts ; to move and debate in all causes wherein the rights of the admiral are concerned; for which he had anciently a salary of 20 marks (13, 6s. 8d.) a-year. In May 1803, Dr William Battine, who was appointed in 1791, had an addition of 200 to his salary, &quot; for his extraordinary trouble and attendance during the present hostilities.&quot; His salary was continued to him and his successor, Dr Arnold, till 1816; since that time the allowance has been reduced to its original amount of 13, 6s. 8d. Formerly the admiral s advocate was always retained as leading counsel, but after the droits were transferred to the crown, he was gradually supplanted by the king s advocate, who was generally retained in all cases, the admiralty advocate acting only as junior counsel; and while the former during the war made sometimes from 15,000 to 20,000 a-year, the latter rarely received from his professional duties more than from 1500 to 2000 a-year. 5. The Counsel and Jiidge- Advocate for the affairs of the Admiralty and Navy is the law officer who is chiefly con sulted on matters connected with the military duties of the lord high admiral. He advises also on all legal questions. His salary is 100 a-year, besides his fees, which in time of war may be reckoned to amount to from 1200 to 1800 a-year. Till the present reign the offices of counsel of the admiralty and judge-advocate of the fleet were sepa rate and distinct, the latter being a sinecure appointment, with a salary of 182, 10s. attached to it. The salary is now abolished. The duties are very light, the veritable work of the office being discharged by deputy judges- advocate appointed on each occasion of a court-martial, and by resident law agents at Portsmouth and Plymouth, who receive salaries in lieu of all fees and charges. 6. The Solicitor to the Admiralty is also an officer ap~ I. 21