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London, England, 1825-01-22 00:00:00

THE BRITISH PRESS.

any appearance to the citation. The case came on by letters of re-
quest, signed by Richard Smith, M. A., Commissary of the Arch.
deacon of Bedford; and the Learned Counsel said, the question
which arose was, whether the letters of request should lie in the
Court of Arches, or In the Diocesan Court. The letters of request
should have been assigned to the Chancellor of Lincoln, and not
to this Court. By the canon law there was no doubt an appeal lay
from the Commissary of the Archdeacon of Lincoln to the Chan-
cellor of Lincoln, but not to this Court. The Learned Counsel
cited several portions of the canon law in support of his argument.
Drs. Leant xur ox and SIVAISEY having been heard in argu-
ment,
Sir Joint NICHOL overruled the protest, and assigned the party
to appear absolutely.

HIGH COURT OF ADMIRALTY, JAW. 21.
(Before Lard STOWELL.
JUDO M EN T.—THE ZODIAC.
Lord STovertt said, this case came on last Term, when he re-
ferred it to the Registrar and merchants to report thereon. 'l'hey
had made their Report. and lie (Lord S.) hoped it would not be
considered a departure from the general rule if bAtliaaented from
them in some particular circumstances. The castivas relative to a
bond of bouomry. This description of bond was sometimes occa-
sioned front absolute necessity, particularly in foreign countries
where repairs are done to ships, and bonds are given, which con-
stitute a lien on the vessel. In former times. bottomry bonds were
considered as a lien on the ships until the time of Charles the Se-
cond, when the lien ceased. In foreign ports, however, it is at times
necessary to resort to this :on of contract, and du such cases bot-
tomry bonds have always bat held sacred. The present case was
one which contained some peculiar circumstances, and although his
Lordship had examined the ancient and modern writers on mari-
time law, he had not been able to find one that bore on the present
question. The Court had always been extremely cautious and ten-
der in meddling with these contracts, but it was necessary to look
carefully into them in order to see that no advantage is taken of
the distress under which the vessel may labour; generally speaking,
however, they are contracts in which both parties agree at the time
of execution, and therefore, unless the contract be impeached, the
Court would not interfere. This ease was said to be distinguished
by specialty of circumstances ; one of which was for the services of
a Consul. His Lordship did not recollect such an item occurrins
in a bottomry bond before, but he was not prepared to say that it
might not very properly occur. The circumstances of the case were
these :—.The Zodiac sailed from Bristol in 1022 or 1023, with a
cargo for Boston, United States, and during her voyage she met
with misadventures, one of which was of a very grievous nature—
, the death of the Captain, who was also the ywner. He was of
course succeeded by the mate, the Captain's natural successor, a
person, in many respects, extremely unfit for his situation, as he
himself acknowledged. for he expressed his wish to return to his
more humble station of mate. The cargo was consigned to Mr.
Winslow, a merchant of Boston, who received the cargo and paid
the freight, but declined having any thing to do with the concerns
of the vessel. The Consul was applied to, and he undertook the
charge of her, which be discharged very sedulously. Begot another
freight for her to New Bruswiek, and proceeded in her himself. His
exertions were testified to by the Attorney-Gen. of St. John's, N. B.
as well as by associated merchants, who exercised an impartial
judgment on the Consul's merits. The ship at length returned to
England. That the Consul was, therefore, entitled to remunera-
tion could not be doubted ; but the quantum was objected to by one
of the parties in the cause. The amount charged was 5 per cent.,
and it was charged on two grounds : one by a paper called a tariff;
which authorizes a charge of 5 per cent. for the care of an in.
testate British subject's effects. That the authority of this tariff
was did not appear, nor whether it had been acknowledged by any
competent authority at home. There was, however, no intestacy
proved, and whether the deceased Captain made a will or not, was
not known, therefore the charge on the Intestate person's effects could
not stand, and consequently the matter of the tariff did not apply
to the case. The other ground was, that 5 per cent. was the
common mercantile premium for services of this nature done by
merchants. Now, that aunt may or may not he a proper sum for
the services of the Consul, but it was certainly a very dispropor-
tionate rate generally, because there might be but slight trouble
regarding property of great s slue' or considerable trouble with pro-
perty of small value; therefore the five per cent. would be too
much in one case, and not sufficient in the other. " I tremble at
the idea," said his Lordship, " of making five per cent. the
standard sum on property of every value." Now the only ques-
tion was, what ought the Consul to have for his services? It ap-
heared that an old paper was found In the ship, which stated that
er value was 4,0001. On what opinion that value was fixed, his
Lordship did not know, but it also appeared that she had been pur-
chased by the deceased Captain at 1,800/. and since then she had.
been sold for 2,5261. at long bills, which would bring her under the
value of 1,5001. ; so that how she should be worth 4,000/. in the
intermediate time nothing was known, and yet the per tentage had
been charged on that sum. His Lordship's opinion was, that she
was not worth above 2,0001. at the time alluded to. The per tentage
on the value was not a proper way of remunerating a public officer,
yet the Registrar and merchants bad so fixed it. His Lordship,
after some further observations, confirmed the validity of the bot-
tomry bond, bur limited the remuneration of the Consul to 1001.