regularly or illegally condemned, and sold by the master without legal authority, or in an illegal or irregular manner.(a)

312. Cases of collision of vessels, are cases of Admiralty and Maritime jurisdiction.

There have been attempts to exclude from the jurisdiction, in these cases, all cases arising within a county, a port, or a harbor, but the jurisdiction may now be considered as fully settled in all cases within waters affected by the ebb and flow of the tide, and on the great lakes and the rivers connecting them as well within ports, harbors, and counties, as on the open sea.(b)

§ 313. The extent of the political grant of judicial jurisdiction, in maritime cases, to the General Government, as an independent Sovereignty, has been thus treated at greater length than it would have been, but for the conviction, that the subject is one deserving all the importance which the founders of the Republic gave to it. The attempt to limit, and even to destroy, this jurisdiction, has entirely overlooked the great national reasons for which the grant was made, and was in the highest degree necessary to the respectability and usefulness of the General Government, and has confined itself to the narrow, local and municipal grounds which, in an age unlike our own, were taken in a paltry strife of judicial rivalry. I cannot help thinking that if all the judicial power vested in the United States, had, in all its details, been distributed in a judicial system, composed of subordinate judicial officers and courts, as well as of higher tribunals, fully adequate to all the wants of the people, in small matters as well as great, within the range of that grant of power, it would have been felt in the strength, and harmony, and peace and affection which would result from

(a) 1 Wheat. 238. 10 Wheat. 473. 5 Mas. 465. 1 Gal. 585.

(b) Rule 15. 2 Dod. 83. 1 Hag. 109. Gilp. 579. 1 How. 89. 3 Hag. 321. 5 How. 441. Daveis' R. 193. Ibid. 360.

the increased security of the rights of the citizens of the different States. The national judiciary would thus have been visible everywhere, accessible everywhere, and everywhere the shield and the protection of the citizen and the stranger against local prejudices, sectional sympathies, and fanatical animosities, The mere moral effect of that judicial system, with its present limited extent, is of incalculable benefit to the nation, and it is the duty of all who love the honor of the country, to sustain it in its legal and proper extent.(a)

(a) Ante, § 27, 28.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Admiralty Practice.-The Organization of the Courts.

314. The law of National jurisdiction or sovereignty in Admiralty and Maritime cases being ascertained, the next subject of inquiry, is the mode of administering justice in such

cases.

Practice is the means by which justice is administered. And as the first step in providing for the administration of justice, is the creation of courts of justice, so the last step is the exercise of the powers of the court in executing its judgments.—Thus the whole of what is usually denominated Admiralty Practice, is the organization and jurisdiction of the Admiralty Courts, their forms, modes, and rules of procedure, and the duties and responsibilities of their various functionaries.

Admiralty Courts.

315. There are no courts of the United States which are merely Admiralty Courts. The only Courts, except the Courts in the Territories, are-THE DISTRICT COURTS. THE CIRCUIT COURTS. THE SUPREME COURT.And they have each of them Admiralty jurisdiction in certain cases, as well as Common law-civil and criminal-and Equity jurisdiction.

The District Court.

316. The United States, exclusive of the Territories, was originally divided into as many districts as there were States. The great increase in population and business of some of the States, has made it necessary to divide them into two districts. In each of these districts is a court called a District Court, held by a single judge, who is called the District Judge, and in him all the judicial powers of that court are vested.

317. The District Courts have exclusive original cognizance of all civil causes of Admiralty and Maritime jurisdiction, including all seizures under laws of impost, navigation or trade, of the United States, where the seizures are made on waters which are navigable from the sea by vessels of ten or more tons burthen, within their respective districts, as well as upon the high seas.(a)

318. The judges of the District Court must reside within the districts for which they are appointed, and they are required to hold stated terms, at such times and places as are established by law.(b) The stated terms in the southern district of New York are held on the first Tuesday of every month. They are also authorized to hold special courts at their discretion, at such places in their respective districts as the nature of the business, and the discretion of the judge, shall direct. The character of maritime causes, and the necessities and occupations of many of the persons engaged in maritime transactions, and whose presence as parties or witnesses is often necessary to the administration of justice, renders delay, in many cases, equivalent to a denial of justice. It is with a view to speedy justice, that this power to hold special courts has been conferred on the courts; and in the maritime portions of the country, it is the uniform practice to hold special courts frequently for the trial of causes. In the southern district of New York special terms are held on every Tuesday when the stated term is not in session. (c) And as the court is always open, and, wherever the judge is, there is a court, it is the practice to enter all orders in causes, in the vacation of the usual terms, as of a special term held on the day of entering the order.

§319. In case of the inability of the Judge of any District

(a) Jud. Act of 1789, § 9. Conk. Treat. 2d edit. 83, 129.

(b) Vide a full abstract of the terms of the District Courts throughout the United States, Conk Treat. 2d edit. 106, et seq.

(c) Jud. Act of 1789, § 3. Dunlap, 108

Court to attend on the day appointed for holding a District Court, such court may, by virtue of a written order from the Judge thereof, directed to the Marshal of the district, be adjourned by the Marshal to the next stated term of said court, or to such day prior thereto as in the said order shall be appointed. And in case of the death of the said Judge, all process, pleadings and proceedings are continued of course, until the next stated session after the appointment and acceptance of the office by his successor.(a)

In case of the disability of the District Judge to perform the duties of his office, the cases before him are transferred to the Circuit Court, as is more fully stated in section 321.

The Circuit Court.

320. An appointed number of Districts constitute a Circuit, of which a judge of the United States Supreme Court is Circuit Judge; and in every District of said Circuit is held a Circuit Court, composed of two judges, the District Judge of the District, and the Circuit Judge of the Circuit. Either of the judges may hold the Circuit Court in all cases, except in appeals from the District Court, in which cases the District Judge cannot sit.

The Circuit Courts have no original civil Admiralty jurisdiction. In that class of cases, their jurisdiction is confined to appeals from the District Courts in their respective districts, and the court is composed of the Circuit Judge alone. In many of the Districts, the District Court is clothed with the powers of a Circuit Court, in which cases it is to be considered as a Circuit Court, in the exercise of those powers.

From final decrees in a District Court, in causes of Admiralty and Maritime jurisdiction, where the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, exceeds the sum or value of fifty dollars, an appeal is allowed to the Circuit Court next to be holden in the District where the decree was rendered. (a)

(a) Act of March 26, 1804, § 1. Jud. Act of 1789, § 6. 1 Gal. 238. Ast of Aug. 23, 1842, § 5.

(a) Conk. Treat. 2d edit. 96. Act of March 3d, 1803, § 2.