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MITCHELL v. RODNEY [1783]
II BROWN.

wards excepting to the report) having used all the delays he could to prevent making the report, and never attended in person, or otherwise, the warrants that were served upon him.

Accordingly it was ordered and adjudged, that the appeal should be dismissed, with £100 costs. (MS. Jour. sub anno 1783. p. 46.)


[423] Case 4.—John Mitchell and John Gay,—Plaintiffs; Sir George Brydges Rodney and John Vaughan,—Defendants (in Error) [24th November 1783].

[Mews' Dig. xiii. 44. 931; xiv. 1793.]

[It is established upon the authority of a regular series of decisions, that the question of prize or no prize cannot be tried at common law, but must be tried before the Judge of the high Court of Admiralty; and that the jurisdiction depends not upon the locality, or upon the parties, but upon the nature of the question, which is such as cannot be tried by any rules of the common law, but by a more general law, viz. the law of nations, which is administered by forms best adapted to the subject of its jurisdiction, and the interests of the parties.]

In Michaelmas term 1781, the plaintiffs brought their action in the Court of King's Bench against the defendants, and declared in trover for divers goods, wares, and merchandise, laying their damage at £10,000. The defendants pleaded not guilty, and the cause being brought to issue, came on to be tried at the sitting after Hilary term. 1782, at Guildhall, London, before a special jury, who found, by a special verdict,

That the said John Mitchell and John Gay, before and at the commencement of hostilities by our Lord the King against the States General of the United Provinces, as thereafter mentioned, were, and from thenceforth to the time of the verdict had been, copartners together in trade and commerce; and that the said John Mitchell and John Gay, before and at the commencement of such hostilities, and continually from thence until the surrender of the island of St. Eustatius, as thereafter mentioned, resided and dwelt in the said island of St. Eustatius, for the purpose of carrying on trade and commerce (the said island then being a territory belonging to the States General of the United Provinces), and carried on trade and commerce there on their joint account, under the stile and firm of Mitchell and Gay: and that the said John Mitchell and John Gay, at the time of the surrender of the said island, and afterwards, until the seizure thereafter mentioned, were possessed of the goods, wares, and merchandises in the declaration mentioned, as of their own proper goods and chattels; and which, at the time of the surrender of the said island, and of the seizure thereafter mentioned, were in the custody of the said John Mitchell and John Gay, deposited in houses, warehouses, storehouses, and buildings, on land in the said island, having been imported there by the said John Mitchell and John Gay, for the purpose of trade and commerce, before the commencement of hostilities against the States General; and that our Lord the King, on the 20th day of December, in the year 1780, by his Royal proclamation in that behalf, caused hostilities to be commenced against the said States General and their subjects, and others inhabiting within any of the territories of the aforesaid States General; and that our said Lord the King, on the 20th [424] day of December, in the year last aforesaid, issued his order, bearing date the same day and year last aforesaid, and directed to the said Sir George Brydges Rodney, as Commander in Chief of his Majesty's ships and vessels on the Leeward Island station, and to the said John Vaughan, as Commander in Chief of his Majesty's land forces in the said islands, in the words following:

By the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of Great Britain and Ireland, etc.

The King having taken into consideration the many injurious proceedings of the States General of the United Provinces, and their subjects, as set forth in his

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