CO885(1-2) — Page 420

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference:

C.O.

· 885

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference :-

885

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

OFFENCES committed on the high seas were originally cognizable only in courts constituted under an Admiralty Commission, which Courts proceeded according to the course (not of the law of England but) of the civil or Roman law.

In the 28th of Henry VIII, it was provided by Parliament that crimes committed on the sea should be tried according to the common course of the law in England, in case of similar offences committed on the land in England.

seas.

In the reign of William III a statute (11 and 12 Wm. III, cap. 7) authorized the trial in any British colony, according to the rules of the civil law, (under a Royal Commission to be issued for the purpose) of any crimes committed on the high

In the year 1806 another statute (46 Geo. III, cap. 54) enacted that all crimes committed on the high seas might be tried, according to the common course of the law of England, within any British colony in pursuance of a Royal Commission, to be issued under the Great Seal of Great Britain, to be directed to such persons (being at least four in number) as the Lord Chancellor should see fit to appoint.

Under this last Act commissions have been and are still, frequently addressed to Commissioners in the Of those Commissioners the principal colonies. Governor, the Admiral, or other naval officer on the station, the Chief Justice and various other persons, are members. Substantially, and in truth, the trial is always by the Chief Justice and a Jury.

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