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ADMIRALTY —
which had until then been prescribed by occasional Acts passed for each war as it arose, were for the first time made permanent by the Naval Prize Act, by which the High Court of Admiralty and every Admiralty or ViceAdmiralty Court, or any other court exercising admiralty jurisdiction in British dominions, if for the time being authorised to exercise prize jurisdiction, were made prize courts. The High Court of Admiralty was given j urisdiction throughout British dominions as a prize court, and, as such, power to enforce any order of a Vice-Admiralty prize court and the judicial committee of the Privy Council in prize appeals—this power mutatis mutandis being also given to Vice-Admiralty prize courts.. An appeal was given from any prize court to the Sovereign in Council. Prize courts were given jurisdiction in cases of captures made in a land expedition or an expedition made conjointly with allied forces, and power to give prize salvage on recaptured ships and prize bounty; and a form of procedure was prescribed. The High Court was also given exclusive jurisdiction as a prize court over questions of ransom and petitions of right in prize cases, and power to punish masters of ships under convoy disobeying orders or deserting convoy. By the Naval Discipline Act, 1866, power to award damages to convoyed ships exposed to danger by the fault of the officer in charge of the convoy was also given to the High Court. Under other statutes it had power to try questions of booty of war when referred to it by the Crown, in the same way as prize causes, and claims of King’s ships for salvage on recaptures from pirates, which could be condemned as droits of Admiralty, subject to the owner’s right to receive them on paying one-eighth of the value, and also power to seize and restore prizes captured by belligerents in violation of British neutrality, or by a ship equipped in British ports contrary to British obligations of neutrality. All jurisdiction of the High Court of Admiralty has since passed to the High Court of Justice, which is made a prize court under the Naval Prize Act, with all the powers of the Admiralty Court in that respect; and all prize causes and matters within the jurisdiction of that court as a prize court are assigned to the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division; and an appeal from it as a prize court lies only to the King in Council (Judicature Acts, 1873 and 1891). By an Act of 1894 further provision is made for the constitution of prize courts in British possessions. A commission, warrant, or instruction from the Crown or the Admiralty may be issued at any time, even in peace; and upon such issue, subject to instructions from the Crown, the vice-admiral of the possessions on being satisfied by information from a Secretary of State that war has broken out between Great Britain and a foreign State, may make proclamation to that effect, and the commission or warrant comes into effect. The commission or warrant may authorize a Vice-Admiralty Court or Colonial Court of Admiralty to act as a prize court, or establish a ViceAdmiralty Court for that purpose, and may be revoked or altered at any time. The court is authorized to act as a prize court during the war, and shall after its conclusion continue to act as such, and finally dispose of all matters and things arising during the war, including all penalties and forfeitures incurred therein. Rules of court may also be made by Order in Council for regulating, subject to the Naval Prize Act, the procedure and practice of prize courts under that Act, the duties and conduct of their officers and practitioners, and the fees and costs therein (57 and 58 Viet. c. 39, §§ 2, 3). This latter power has been exercised; and prize rules for the High Court of Justice and the Vice-Admiralty prize courts were framed in 1898 (Statutory Rules and Orders, 1898).
ADRIANOPLE United States.—Jurisdiction in admiralty proceedings is exclusively vested in the federal courts of the United States. The remedy in admiralty is much more extensive than in England {Insurance Company v. Dunham, 11 Wallace’s Reports, 1). Where the common law affords another mode of action, either can be pursued. The term “ admiralty ” covers both civil and criminal causes, and is not limited to strictly maritime affairs. The great lakes and rivers are subject to it equally with the sea {United States Revised Statutes, title LXX. chap. iii.; 26 Statutes at Large, 424). The test is not whether the waters are tidal, but whether they are navigable. A jury may be demanded in certain civil causes (see Revised Statutes, 566). The States cannot create maritime liens, nor can State courts enforce them. States can create liens of a non-maritime character on vessels, and the United States Courts of Admiralty may enforce them by in rem proceedings (The “Glide,” 167 United States Reports, 606). A merchantman at sea occupies the position, as to property rights, of a floating portion of the territory of the State to which he belongs {Crapo v. Kelly, 16 Wallace’s Reports, 610). The English International Rules of 1880 were adopted by the United States in 1885. In the United States, waters are held to be within the body of a county though not so land-locked that objects can be distinctly seen by one looking from one shore to the other with the naked eye {Manchester v. Massachusetts, 139 United States Reports, 240, 263). The District Court of the United States is its court of admiralty of original jurisdiction. Authorities.—Marsden’s Select Pleas of the Court of Admiralty, Selden Society, London, 1892 and 1897.—Zouch, Jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England asserted.—Robinson, Collectanea -Brown, Admiralty.—Edwardes, Admiralty.— Phillimore, International Law, vol. iii. (w. G. F. P. ; S. E. B.) Admiralty Islands.
See New Guinea.
Adoni, a town of British India, in the Bellary district of Madras, 307 miles from Madras by rail, has manufactures of carpets, silk, and cotton goods, and three factories for ginning and pressing cotton. The hill-fort above, now in ruins, was an important seat of government in Mahommedan times, and is frequently mentioned in the wars of the 18th century. Population, about 26,000. Adowa., or Adua.
See Abyssinia.
Adrar. See Sahara. Adrian, a city of Michigan, U.S.A., the capital of Lenawee county, situated on the south branch of Raisin river, in the southern part of the state, 30 miles northwest of Toledo, at an altitude of 810 feet. Its plan is somewhat irregular; it is divided into five wards; and it is entered by three railways. Adrian college is a wellknown Methodist institution. The population in 1880 was 7849; in 1890 it was 8756, and in 1900 it was 9654. Adrianople, a city of European Turkey, 141 miles W.N.W. of Constantinople. It suffered heavily by the Russian occupation in 1878, not only through the dislocation of its commerce, but also through the extensive emigration to Asia Minor of the Mahommedan lower classes—a movement which so diminished the labour power of the province that agriculture, its staple industry, was paralysed, and a large area of land fell out of cultivation. This mischief was partially remedied after the annexation (1885) of Eastern Rumelia to Bulgaria, when a large proportion of the Mahommedan inhabitants of the detached province came to settle in and around Adrianople ; but this advantage was more than counterbalanced by
