Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/337

 9. HOLDSWORTH: THE LAW MERCHANT 323 titled, who might or might not reward the finder. ^ If a claimant appeared, he was entitled to restoration on proof of his claim, and the payment of a reasonable salvage. Such salvage was often allowed to the Vice- Admirals of the coast as a reward for taking possession of, and looking after, the property.^ The Admiralty droits, where the right has not been granted to other persons, are now transferred to the consolidated fund. ^ But it is provided that the crown may reward the finder. In 1854 they were put under the control of the Board of Trade.* In 1894 the method of dealing with wreck, flot- sam, jetsam, and lagon found within British jurisdiction, was regulated by the Merchant Shipping Act. ^ (2) Prize jurisdiction. The term Prize is applied to the property of a belligerent seized at sea. Prizes can as a rule only be made by some vessel acting under the authority of the government. ^ It is clear that many complicated questions must arise as to the ownership of the ships or goods so captured. Such questions tended to become more complicated with the growth, during the 18th century, of that part of international law which relates to the rights and duties of neutrals. Lord Stowell, by his decisions in the many cases arising out of the wars at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, settled the principles of prize jurisdiction of the Admiralty, as he settled the principles of the instance jurisdiction of the court. From a very early period jurisdiction over prize was vested in the Admiral or the Council. It is clear that the Admiral had such jurisdiction in 1357.^^ Special provisions with re- gard to the exercise of the jurisdiction were often made by ' Select Pleas of the Admiralty xxxviii. (1771) 5 Burr. 2732. * 1 Will. IV. c. 25; 1, 2 Vict. c. 2. » 57. 58 Vict. c. 60 §§ 510-529. Prizes can only be made by private vessels if they have been attacked in the first instance, ibid 211. ' Rhymer, Foedera, vi 14, 15, a letter to the King of Portugal stating that the Admiral had rightly condemned goods of his subjects captured by the French, and taken in French ships.
 * Ibid xxxvii. As to wreck see ibid xxxix-xli; Hamilton v. Davis
 * 17, 18 Vict. c. 120 § 10.
 * Pitt-Cobbett, Leading Cases in International Law (Ed. 1892) 205.