Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/148

 128 ADMIRALTY ADOLPHUS eral courts, as a branch and part of the full powers delegated to them. The original juris- diction is vested exclusively in the district courts. From these appeals lie to the cir- cuit courts in admiralty and maritime causes, when the matter in dispute exceeds the value of $50, and from these to the supreme court when it exceeds, the value of $2,000. Upon an appeal in admiralty to the circuit court, unlike the course in such proceedings in other courts, the parties may have the whole cause heard de novo, and the cause is not in fact res adjudicata or finally decided until such appeal is waived or sentence is reached in the appellate court. The case may therefore go before the circuit court upon the same testi- mony taken below, or the parties may intro- duce new evidence there and have all the pro- ceedings as well of fact as of law in the court below reviewed. And even the supreme court, sitting on an admiralty appeal, is very liberal in permitting amendments and additions ; and if justice require that the pleadings be reformed or a new claim brought into the case, that court will refer the cause back to the circuit court for this purpose. But in regard to appeals brought up on the same testimony presented below, the supreme court has lately declined to reverse decisions as to matters of fact in which the district and circuit courts have agreed. The practice of the admiralty courts is simple, and their procedure direct and expe- ditious, and intolerant of technicalities; their administration of the law is liberal and equi- table, trusting rather to the matter than to the form, and seeking always to insure quick rem- edies and to give relief upon the actual merits of the case. The practice is regulated in some of its details by rules framed by the district courts. They differ somewhat in the different districts, but not materially. The forms of proceedings are modelled upon those of the Koman civil law as it has been fashioned in European courts, and especially in European courts of admiralty. The suit is instituted by the filing of a libel, which is a mere statement in the simplest narrative form of the libellant's cause of action. Upon this the court issues its process directing the marshal, in an action in personam, either simply to call the defendant into court to answer, or, if such process be prayed for, to arrest him or attach his goods ; or if the suit is in rem, it directs the marshal to take the thing into his custody, and to give due notice to all persons claiming it to come and show cause why it should not be con- demned ; the theory of the proceeding in rem being that the thing proceeded against, rather than any person, is to satisfy the libellant's ac- tion. The defendant puts in an answer, and if he is the owner of the thing proceeded against in an action in rem, he puts in also a claim to the property, and may remove the hold of the court upon it by giving a bond for its value. In matters of contract, the cause is brought to a hearing before the judge ; and previous to the final hearing by the court the evidence of wit- nesses about to leave the district, as for ex- ample of sailors or officers of ships, may be taken out of court before its commissioners. ADMIRALTY ISLA.MIS, a group in the S. Pacif- ic, N. E. of New Guinea, between lat. 2 and 3 S., and Ion. 146 and 148 E. They consist of one large island, Admiralty or Basko, in the centre of the group, between 50 and 60 m. long, one (Matthew) of about 117 sq. m., 150 m. N. E., and 20 or 30 much smaller ones. They are gen- erally low and fertile, though Basko has high mountains, and abound in cocoanut trees. The inhabitants are dearly black, well formed, and of good features, and go almost naked. The islands were discovered in 1616 by a Dutch navigator, Cornelius Schooten (hence some- times called Schooten's islands), rediscovered in 1767 by Carteret, who gave them the present name, and have been very seldom visited since, access being difficult on account of 1110 coral reefs which surround them. ADMONITION, a part of ancient church dis- cipline. If the offence was of a private nature, the warning was given in private ; otherwise before the assembled church. If the person censured did not amend his ways, excommuni- cation followed. ADOBE HOUSES, dwellings built of unburnt brick, in common use in Mexico, Texas, and Central America. Adobe bricks are made of loamy earth, containing about two thirds fine sand and one third clayey dust, which under the action of the sun becomes a hard, compact mass, without a crack. Four men generally work at the making of these bricks, one to mix the mass, two to carry it in a hand-barrow, which is sprinkled with finely powdered dry manure or dust to prevent adhesion, and one to mould the prepared substance into bricks. The moulds are double, each 16 to 18 inches long, 9 to 12 inches wide, and 4 inches thick, and have projecting handles at each end, but no bottom, the brick being deposited on the surface of the ground, which has been pre- viously levelled ; and the adobes are carefully turned on the edge, and left to harden in the sun. They are laid with mud mortar, made from the earth at the foot of the wall ; and on the completion of every two feet of the struc- ture, an interval of one week is allowed for drying, and a similar space of time between the completion <jf the walls and fixing of the roof. The houses are usually one story high, and the inside plastered before the roof is put on, so that it may dry with the walls. An adobe house costs little ; it is warmer in winter and cooler in summer than either wood or brick, and its duration is extraordinary, adobe houses 50 feet high being in existence whicb have stood for more than a century. ADOLPHIS. It John, an English advocate and author, born in London in 1766, died July 16, 1845. He. studied in London, was admitted attorney and solicitor in 1790, and was called to the bar in 1807^ He soon obtained the