SELECTED FROM THOSE

HEARD AND DETERMINED IN THE

VICE-ADMIRALTY COURT

FOR

LOWER CANADA.

RELATING CHIEFLY TO THE

Jurisdiction and Practice of the Court,

OR INVOLVING

Questions of Maritime Law

OF FREQUENT OCCURRENCE IN THE TRADE AND NAVIGATION
OF THE RIVER AND GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE.

PRECEDED BY

THE RULES AND REGULATIONS ESTABLISHED UNDER THE
AUTHORITY OF THE IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

WITH

AN APPENDIX

CONTAINING THE ORIGINAL COMMISSION CONSTITUTING THE COURT,
AND OTHER DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE SAME.

EDITED BY

GEORGE OKILL STUART, ESQ., Q.C.

LONDON

V. & R. STEVENS, AND G. S. NORTON,
26, BELL YARD, LINCOLN'S INN.

Law Booksellers and Publishers.

1858.

LIBRARY OF THE

LELAND STANFORD, JR., UNIVERSITY

LEY DEPARTMENT.

58.788

LONDON:

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

PREFACE.

SHORTLY after the Treaty of Paris of the 10th of February, 1763, by which Canada was ceded by the Crown of France to that of Great Britain, His Majesty King George the Third issued a Commission under the Great Seal of the High Court of Admiralty of England, establishing a Court of Vice-Admiralty for the province of Quebec (now called the province of Canada), to have jurisdiction therein according to the civil and maritime laws, and ancient customs of His Majesty's High Court of Admiralty; and this Court, as will appear by the documents in the Appendix, has been continued by repeated Commissions down to the present time, so far as Lower Canada is concerned.

The records of the Court up to the time of the passing of the Imperial Act, 2 Will. 4, c. 51, to regulate the practice in the Vice-Admiralty Courts, and to obviate doubts as to their jurisdiction, afford little