1819. CRAUFURD and others v. GENERAL and others. Then the 26th section is this:-"And be it further enacted, that if any of the ships or vessels, goods, wares, merchandize, or effects shall be sold under the authority aforesaid, they shall ATTORNEYbe respectively liable to the duties, and entitled to the drawbacks, and subject to the conditions, rules, regulations, and restrictions, penalties and forfeitures before mentioned; and the Commissioners shall and are hereby authorised and required to cause the duties and expences of the sale, in the first place, to be paid out of the proceeds of such sale; and after such payment shall, except in cases where it is otherwise provided by this act," and which do not belong to or affect the present question; "cause the proceeds of such sale to be paid into the Bank of England, there to remain subject to such orders as his Majesty, with the advice of his Privy Council, may from time to time think fit to give thereupon; and if such proceeds shall arise from a sale under the direction of the High Court of Admiralty, then subject to such orders as that Court shall make, concerning the same:" now much attention is due to these words, "and after the payment of the duties and expences of the sale, the Commissioners shall cause the proceeds of such sale to be paid into the Bank of England, there to remain, subject to such orders as his Majesty, with the advice of his Privy Council, shall think fit to give thereupon." 1819. CRAUFURD and others v. GENERAL and others. The other sections, for the most part, relate to the duties of the Commissioners when they shall be appointed, but it does not seem to me to be ATTORNEY necessary to trouble the Court with them upon the present occasion. occasion. By the 21st section, which I have read, the Commissioners, when appointed, are to attend only to such instructions as they shall from time to time receive from his Majesty, with the advice of his Privy Council; and by the 26th section they are required, after the payment of the duties and expences of sale, to pay the proceeds of sale into the Bank of England, there to remain, subject to such orders as his Majesty, with the advice of his Privy Council, might from time to time think fit to give thereupon. 22d section prevents any actions being brought, otherwise than as is mentioned in the act of Parliament. The In consequence of this act of Parliament, a commission duly issued to the plaintiffs and their colleagues; and pursuant also to the directions in the act, instructions were given to the Commissioners, when they were appointed, for their conduct. Those instructions are the first exercise of the power given by the act of Parliament, and they, referring to the Orders in Council, are in these words: "You are directed to proceed forthwith to take into your possession and under your care, all such ships, goods, wares, merchandizes, and effects as are mentioned in an act of Parliament passed in the 35th year of the reign of his present Majesty, and a commission granted to you under the Great Seal Seal of Great Britain, according to such lists as you shall from time to time receive from the Commissioners of Customs in England and Scotland, in pursuance of directions they are to receive from the Treasury; and you will receive all necessary assistance from the Commissioners of his Majesty's navy at all the ports; and you are hereby authorised to make such allowance to the crews of such ships and vessels as may be taken under your care and protection, in payment of their wages, as shall appear to you to be just, for which purpose money will be issued to you on account;" -so that they were not to be charged with the issue of any money of their own accord, but money was to be issued to them in order to enable them to make these payments, which they are here directed to make to the crews of the ships and vessels; —“but (the instructions proceed), you are to take care that all monies which you shall so pay, shall be replaced out of the sale of the ships, and the goods, wares, merchandizes, and effects as soon as the same shall be sold;" and they were, in pursuance of the directions given, to cause all goods, wares, and merchandizes belonging to the East India Company, to be applied according to the act. They add, "you shall cause minutes to be kept, and fair entries to be made in books, of all your proceedings and transactions whatsoever, in executing the commission, and these your instructions, and also accounts of the proceeds of all sales, distinguishing the ships which shall be so sold, and the goods, wares, merchandizes, and effects 1819. CRAUFURD and others v. ATTORNEY- and others. 1819. CRAUFURD and others v. GENERAL and others. effects taken out of each ship; and also you are to take an account of the monies which, according to the directions of the act, shall be paid ATTORNEY- into the Bank of England, or shall be lodged in the hands of the East India Company, for which, according to the directions of the act, credit is to be given to you in the books of the said Company; all which accounts shall be kept in such form as shall be approved of or directed by the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury, in discharge of the trust conferred on you by the aforesaid commission; and you are to be careful to execute the direction given you in the several clauses of the said act; and in all cases of doubt or difficulty you are to apply to the Privy Council for further instructions, which will be issued to you from time to time as the case may appear to require." Construction of public do pointing persons to serve the Crown by commission. Under these circumstances, the constitution of cuments, ap this body was certainly formed by the commission, and they were clearly Commissioners acting under the authority of the act of Parliament. They were not originally Commissioners as Agents relating to any prize beyond all question; for there was no war then depending between us and Holland, whatever opinion might prevail of war being likely to take place, which was certainly justified by the event. That result took place on the 15th of September, 1795, when letters of reprisal were issued against the inhabitants of the United Provinces of Holland, which are always considered as a declaration of war. The situation of the Commis 1819. CRAUFURD and others V. ATTORNEY GENERAL Commissioners seems to me to have then had an alteration made in it; for before, they were not Commissioners with a view to the war; they were Commissioners in the state of things anterior to the war, and independently of the war; their and others commission was applicable only to the state of things as it was before the commencement of hostilities. Upon that event a perfect alteration seems to me to have taken place in respect of the objects of the commission; for any vessels taken before the declaration of war, were to be kept subject to the orders of the King in Council, for the benefit of those to whom they might belong; but after the declaration of war, all the captured enemies' ships, &c. became prize, and belonged absolutely to the King jure coronæ. Until the declaration of war, the King had no right jure coronæ, or any claim to the ships or vessels, or property which might be taken by the Commissioners into their possession; but after the declaration of war, all captures were prizes of enemies' property, and belonged to the King in right of his Crown: yet still, though their precise and strict character was altered, and the duties which they had to perform were altered, no alteration took place in the terms under which they acted, or the nature of their subsequent employment, unless, as they contend, an instrument which I shall presently advert to, necessarily imported a change in the conditions on which they afterwards served his Majesty. The |