PRIZE RULES. [The following Rules of the district court of the United States for the southern district of New York in prize cases were in force during the time covered by the foregoing decisions made by that court: ] Rule 1.-There shall be issued, under the seal and authority of this court, commissions to such persons as the court shall think fit, appointing them severally commissioners to take examinations of witnesses in prize causes in preparatorio, on the standing interrogatories, which have been settled and adopted by this court, and all other depositions which they are empowered to require, and to discharge such other duties in relation to ships, or vessels, or property brought into this district, as prize, as shall be designated by the said commissions, and the rules and orders of this court. Rule 2.-The captors of any property brought into this district as prize, or some one on their behalf, shall, without delay, give notice to the district judge, or to one of the commissioners aforesaid, of the arrival of the property, and of the place where the same may be found. Rule 3.-Upon the receipt of notice thereof from the captors, or district judge, a commissioner shall repair to the place where the said prize property then is; and if the same be a ship, or vessel, or if the property be on board a ship or vessel, he shall cause the said ship or vessel to be safely moored in sufficient depth of water, or in soft ground. Rule 4.-The commissioner shall, in case the prize be a ship or vessel, examine whether bulk has been broken; and if it be found that bulk has been broken, one of the said commissioners shall take information upon what occasion, or for what cause, the same was done. If the property captured be not a ship or vessel, or in a ship or vessel, he shall examine the chests, packages, boxes, or casks, containing the subject captured, and shall ascertain whether the same has been opened, and shall, in every case, examine whether any of the property originally captured has been secreted or taken away subsequently to the capture. Rule 5.-The commissioner in no case shall leave the captured property until he secure the same by seals upon the hatches, doors, chests, bales, boxes, casks, or packages, as the case may require, so that they cannot be opened without breaking the said seals; and the said seals shall not be broken, or the property removed, without the special order of the court, excepting in case of fire and tempest, or of absolute necessity. Rule 6.-If the captured property be not a vessel, or on board a vessel, the commissioner shall take a detailed account of the particulars thereof, and shall cause the same to be deposited, under the seals as aforesaid, in a place of safety, there to abide the order or decree of this court. Rule 7.—If no notification shall, within reasonable time, be given by the captors, or by any person in their behalf, of any property which may be brought as prize within this district, and the commissioners, or either of them, shall become informed thereof by any means, it shall be the duty of the said commissioners, or one of them, to repair to the place where such property is, and to proceed in respect to the same as if notice had been given by the captors. Rule S.-The captor shall deliver to the judge-at the time of such notice, or to the commissioner or commissioners, when he or they shall, conformably to the foregoing rule, repair to the place where such captured property is, or at such other time as the said commissioners, or either of them, shall require the same-all such papers, passes, seabriefs, charters, bills of lading, cockets, letters, and other documents and writings as shall have been found on board the captured ship, or which have any reference to or connection with the captured property, and which are in the possession, custody, or power of the captors. Rule 9.-The said papers, documents, and writings shall be regularly marked and numbered by a commissioner, and the captor, chief officer, or some other person who was present at the taking of the prize, and saw that such documents, papers, and writings were found with the prize, must make a deposition before one of the said commissioners that they have delivered up the same to the judge or commissioner as they were found or received, without any fraud, subduction, or embezzlement. If any documents, papers, or writings, relative to or connected with the captured property, are missing or wanting, the deponent shall, in his said deposition, account for the same, according to the best of his knowledge, information, and belief. Rule 10.-The deponent must further swear that if, at any time thereafter, and before the final condemnation or acquittal of the said property, any further or other papers relating to the said captured property shall be found or discovered to the knowledge of the deponent, they shall also be delivered up, or information thereof given to the commissioners or to this court, which deposition shall be reduced to writing by the commissioner, and shall be transmitted to the clerk of the court, as hereinafter mentioned. Rule 11.-When the said documents, papers, and writings are delivered to a commissioner, he shall retain the same till after the examination in preparatorio shall have been made by him, as is hereafter provided, and then he shall transmit the same, with the same affidavit in relation thereto, the preparatory examinations, and the information he may have received in regard to the said captured property, under cover and under his seal, to this court, addressed to the clerk thereof, and expressing on the said cover to what captured property the documents relate, or who claim to be the captors thereof, or from whom he received the information of the capture; which said cover shall not be opened without the order of the court. Rule 12.-Within three days after the captured property shall have been brought within the jurisdiction of this court, the captor shall produce to one of the commissioners three or four, if so many there be, of the company or persons who were captured with, or who claim the said captured property; and in case the capture be a vessel, the master and mate, or supercargo, if brought in, must always be two, in order that they may be examined by the commissioner in preparatorio upon the standing interrogatories. Rule 13.—In the examination of witnesses in preparatorio, the commissioner shall use no other interrogatories but the standing interrogatories, unless special interrogatories are directed by the court. He shall write down the answer of every witness separately to each interrogatory, and not to several interrogatories together; and the parties may personally, or by their agents, attend the examination of witnesses before the commissioners; but they shall have no right to interfere with the examination by putting questions or objecting to questions; nor to take notes of the proceedings before the commissioner, to be used otherwise than before the court. All objections to the regularity or legality of the proceedings of the commissioners must be made to the court. Rule 14.-When a witness declares he cannot answer to any interrogatory, the commissioner shall admonish the witness that, by virtue of his oath taken to speak the truth, and nothing but the truth, he |