APPEALS, &c. (PRIVY COUNCIL). REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE CASE OF THE SHIP GUIANA, AND THE DISMISSAL OF THE APPEAL IN THE SAID CASE; TOGETHER WITH THE MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, [2] Martis, 4° die Julii, 1843. Ordered, THAT a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the Facts attending the Delay in extracting the Inhibition in the case of the Ship Guiana, and the Dismissal of the Appeal in the said Case by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Ordered, THAT the Committee have power to send for Persons, Papers, and Records. Ordered, THAT Five be the Quorum of the Committee. Martis, 11° die Julii, 1843. Ordered, That the Committee have power to report their Opinion, together with the Minutes of the Evidence taken before them. THE REPORT MINUTES OF EVIDENCE 1 P. 3 p. 5 REPORT. THE SELECT COMMITTEE appointed to inquire into the Facts attending the Delay in extracting the Inhibition in the case of the Ship Guiana, and the Dismissal of the Appeal in the said case by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council; and who were empowered to report their Opinion, together with the MINUTES of EVIDENCE taken before them to The House; HAVE considered the Matters to them referred, and have come to the following RESOLUTION: Resolved, THA HAT it does not appear to the Committee that there are sufficient grounds to sustain the Twelfth Clause in the Privy Council Appeals Bill. 11 July 1843. 1. Chairman.] ARE you the Registrar of the High Court of Admiralty and Appeals ?-I am. 2. Do you attend the Judicial Committee on all appeals from the Admiralty or Vice-admiralty Courts?—I do. 3. Since what time have you attended?-Since the passing of the Act in the year 1833, on the transfer of the power of the Court of Delegates to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. 4. Were you previously in the habit of attending prize appeals, appeals to the Delegates, and appeals to the High Court of Admiralty in slave cases ?-I attended all those courts as deputy registrar. 5. Previously to the passing of the Judicial Committee Act, to what court did appeals in slave cases lie?-To the High Court of Admiralty in England. 6. Was there any and what regulation as to the time within which such appeals must be prosecuted from the Vice-admiralty Courts to the High Court of Admiralty?—Within 12 months, by the Slave Trade Abolition Act, the 5th of Geo. 4, c. 113. 7. Can you give the words of that limitation ?" That no appeals shall be prosecuted from any decree or sentence of any Court of Admiralty or Vice-admiralty touching any of the matters provided for in this Act, unless the inhibition shall be applied for and decreed within 12 months from the time when such decree or sentence was pronounced." 8. When the appeal lay to the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty in England, within what time after the application for the inhibition could the inhibition in the ordinary case be decreed ?-The application and the decree was a contemporaneous act altogether, the prayer was made and the decree was granted. 9. The decree followed the prayer instanter ?-Yes. 10. If the party desired to appeal from the sentence of the Vice-admiralty Court to the High Court of Admiralty in a slave case, what were the steps which he would take, both in the court below and in the High Court of Admiralty? He would either appeal apud acta in the court below, or else he would interpose a protocol of appeal before a notary, within 12 months from the date of the sentence. 11. Did everything then at that time depend upon himself, or could the appeal be defeated by accident; as, for instance, take the death of the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, and a vacancy in the office of judge, would not that also have defeated the right of appeal?-The vacancy of the office of judge would defeat the right of appeal, but nothing else. |