"270--If a commander recapture from the enemy a neutral vessel which would not have been liable to condemnation in the prize court of the enemy he is not entitled to salvage and should without delay and without taking ransom, set her free to prosecute her voyage. "271--If a commander recapture from the enemy an allied vessel his duty is generally regulated by treaty. In default of treaty regulations he will send her into a British port for adjudication and the prize court will award salvage or not according as the prize court of the ally would or would not have awarded salvage to an allied ship for recapturing a British vessel." _NOTES._ Chapter IV, Part 2. [1] 27 and 28 Vict., c 24, Chitty's Statutes, Lely, Editor, London, 1895, tit. Navy, viii, 1, Phillimore, op. cit. iii, 902. [2] State Papers, lxxvii, 1189. [3] Statutory Rules and Orders, Revised, London, 1904, tit. Navy, ix, 109. [4] 27 and 28 Vict., c 25, printed in L. Oppenheim, International Law, London, 1906, ii, 541; Wheaton, International Law, Boyd, Editor, 3rd English Edition, London, 1889, p. 750; Phillimore, op. cit. iii, 908. [5] 57 and 58 Vict., c 59, 1894; Chitty's Statutes, tit. Admiralty, i, 43. [6] Manual of Naval Prize Law, London, 1866. [7] Manual of Naval Prize Law, London, 1888. [8] Quoted in Atherley-Jones, Commerce in War, London, 1907, pp. 575-645. _CHAPTER V. GREAT BRITAIN, RECENT ADMINISTRATION._ PART 1. PRIZE COURTS. In regard to the actual administration of these laws of prize distribution the decisions of prize courts in cases where the questions of distribution have arisen furnish the most satisfactory clue to the practice. It may be well to devote a short space to a consideration of the organization of courts exercising prize jurisdiction.[1] As previously noted, in early times the admiralty jurisdiction, both administrative and judicial was placed in the charge of one man, the Lord High Admiral of England. There were it is true certain favored localities which claimed exemption from his jurisdiction. Such were the Cinque Ports which exercised coordinate jurisdiction through their Warden of the Cinque Ports. To this day the Cinque Ports retain this privilege[2] in some matters, especially questions of civil salvage but in prize matters, the Warden early lost his authority. As time went on the Office of Lord High Admiral began to lose its character of a personal prerogative especially in the judicial field. The admiralty courts came under the authority of the king. They exercised instance and prize jurisdiction without distinction but in the middle of the seventeenth century the court began to have separate sittings for the two jurisdictions possibly because of the conflict between the Droits of the Duke of York as Lord High Admiral and of King Charles II.[3]