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 shares of prizes; which shares were afterwards called tenths, in imitation, probably, of the French, who gave their admiral, for supporting the dignity of his office, son droit de dixieme. All prizes are now wholly given up by the crown to the captors; and such share of the droits as, from circumstances, may be thought proper. The Lord High-Admiral also claimed, and enjoyed as his due, the cast ships, and the subordinate officers of the navy, as their perquisites, all other decayed and unserviceable stores.

Though, by act of 2d William and Mary, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty are vested with all and singular authorities, jurisdictions, and powers, which have been, and are vested, settled, and placed in the Lord High-Admiral of England for the time being, to all intents and purposes, as if the said Commissioners were Lord High Admiral of England, yet there is this remarkable difference in the two patents by which they are constituted, that the patent of the Lord High Admiral mentions very little of the military part of his office, but chiefly details his judicial duties as a magistrate; whilst, on the contrary, the patent to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty is very particular in directing them to govern the affairs of the navy, and is almost wholly silent as to their judicial powers.

These powers, as set forth in the patent to the Earl of Pembroke, in 1701, are, the power to act by deputy, to take cognizance of all causes, civil and maritime, within his jurisdiction; to arrest goods and persons; to preserve public streams, ports, rivers, fresh waters, and creeks whatsoever, within his jurisdiction, as well for the preservation of the ships, as of the fishes; to reform too straight nets, and unlawful engines, and punish offenders; to arrest ships, mariners, pilots, masters, gunners, bombadiers, and any other persons whatsoever, able and fit for the service of the ships, as often as occasion shall require and wheresoever they shall be met with; to appoint Vice-admirals, Judges, and other officers, durante bene placeto; to remove, suspend, or expel them, and put others in their places, as he shall see occasion; to take cognizance of civil and maritime laws, and of death, murder, and maim.

It was by no means necessary that the Lord High Admiral should be a professional man. Henry VIII. made his natural son, the Duke of Richmond, Lord High Admiral of England, when he was but six years old. When the High Admiral, however, went to sea in person, he had usually a commission under the great seal, appointing him admiral and captain-general of the fleet, sometimes with powers to confer knighthood, and generally to punish with life and limb. Such a commission was granted by Henry VIII. to Sir Edward Howard, who executed indenture with the king to furnish 3000 men, 18 captains, 1750 soldiers, 1232 mariners and gunners; the pay of himself to be 10s. a-day, of a captain 1s. 6d., of the rest 5s. as wages, and 5s. for victuals each man, for twenty eight days, together with certain dead shares.

It appears, from Mr Pepy’s Naval Collections, that the Lord High Admiral did anciently wear, on solemn occasions, a gold whistle, set with precious stones, hanging at the end of a gold chain. The whistle, it would seem, has long since descended to the boatswain and his mates.(.)  ADMIRALTY. This is a court of law, in which the authority of the Lord High Admiral is exercised, in his judicial capacity, and wherein all causes are determined appertaining to the sea, and all offences tried that are committed thereon. Very little has been left on record of the ancient prerogative of the Admirals of England. For some time after the first institution of the office, they judged all matters relating to merchants and mariners, which happened on the main sea, in a summary way, according to the laws of Oleron, promulgated by Richard I. These laws, which were little more than a transcript of the Rhodian laws, became the universally received customs of the western part of the world. “All the sea-faring nations,” says Sir Lionel Jenkins, “soon after their promulgation, received and entertained these laws from the English, by way of deference to the sovereignty of our kings in the British ocean, and to the judgment of our countrymen in sea affairs.”

In the patents granted to the early admirals, between the latter end of the reign of Henry III. and until the close of that of Edward III. no mention is made of marine perquisites, or of civil power, nor does it appear that the Admirals enjoyed either; but, after the death of the latter, new and extraordinary powers were granted to them, and it would appear that they usurped others. The preamble to the statute of 13th Richard II. sets forth, that “forasmuch as a great and common clamour and complaint hath been oftentimes made before this time, and yet is, for that the Admirals and their deputies hold their sessions within divers places of this realm, accroaching to them greater authority than belongeth to their office, in prejudice of our lord the King, and in destruction and impoverishing of the common people;” and it is therefore directed that the Admirals and their deputies, shall not meddle, from henceforth, of any thing done within the realm, but only of a thing done upon the sea: and two years afterwards, in consequence, as stated in the preamble of the statute, “of the great and grievous complaint of all the commons;” it was ordained that the Admiral’s court should have no cognizance of any contracts, pleas, or quarrels, or of any thing done or arising within the bodies of counties, whether by land or by water, nor of wreck of the sea; but that the Admiral should have cognizance of the death of a man, and of maihern done in great ships, being and hovering in the main stream of great rivers, yet only beneath the bridges of the same rivers nigh the sea. He may also arrest ships in the great floats for the great voyages of the king, and of the realm; and have jurisdiction over the said floats, but during the said voyages only. But if the Admiral or his lieutenant exceed that jurisdiction, then, by 2d Henry IV., the statute of 13th Richard II. and common law may be holden against them; and if a man pursues wrongfully in the Admiralty Court, his adversary may recover double damages at common-law, and the pursuant, if attainted, shall incur the penalty of L. 10 to the King.