3. The captured vessel is called a prize, and must be taken into some port of the United States, or into some port of a country in amity with the United States, where legal proceedings are taken before some court of competent jurisdiction; and the capture and all the circumstances of it inquired into; and if all is found to have been done according to the laws of civilized nations, the captured vessel and cargo is condemned as a prize. But if not condemned, the captors lose her. When adjudged to be a lawful prize, the ship and cargo are sold, and the money is divided between the officers and men, according to rank, and according to the laws of Congress on this subject. These laws give the whole to the captors, when the ship taken is of equal or superior force to the ship making the capture; but if of inferior force, then the United States takes one-half. 4. Privateering, as this business is called, was once considered a lawful and honorable mode of warfare. It was generally practiced between belligerent nations; but in later days its propriety and morality have been questioned. It is beginning to be looked upon as a kind of robbery not very distantly related to piracy. That it is robbery no one can deny, and, query, “Can it be justified on the ground that the robber and the robbed are the subjects of nations at war with each other?” 5. In Europe an effort has been made to do away with this species of warfare. We hope it will yet succeed, and that all nations will agree to abolish this system of plunder. Innocent parties are generally the sufferers, while but small injury is done to the power of the hostile nation. CHAPTER XXX. NAVY AND MARINE HOSPITALS. 1. These institutions are still more important for sailors than for soldiers; as the sailor is more likely to have lost his adaptation to any kind of business on land, and to lose sight of family relations by reason of his long absences to foreign regions. The government very early took this subject in hand and made ample, and extremely comfortable, provision for disabled seamen belonging to its navy. 2. In 1811 an act was passed to establish navy hospitals, for the exclusive use of such seamen as belonged to the navy. This new institution was at first placed under the management of a board of commissioners known as the commissioners of navy hospitals. This commission consisted of the Secretaries of the Navy, Treasury, and War. But in 1832 this was changed, and the Secretary of the Navy was made sole trustee of the navy hospital fund, which was made up of $50,000 appropriated by Congress for that purpose, together with twenty cents per month collected from seamen belonging to the navy, and the fines imposed on navy officers, seamen, and marines. The commissioners were authorized to purchase or erect suitable buildings for navy hospitals. THE MARINE HOSPITALS.