Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/560

540 not be allowed to lie over. In the anomalous character of the war, during its earlier stages, merchant ships had been taken on both sides by privateers, and it was uncertain whether they were lawful prizes. The French desired that a joint commission should sit to settle all maritime claims. The English council said that they had no power by law to consent to such a commission; their own Admiralty Court had been constituted for the express purpose of dealing with maritime questions, and dealing with them by the civil law of Europe, not by the common law of England. The complaints of French merchants against English cruisers must be heard there or nowhere.