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colonies all such collectors, officers of customs, governors, Of the Regisor lieutenant-governors, as have heretofore been accustomed to make such registries. 7. In the case of British ships being repaired in a foreign country, the ship is to lose its privilege as a British ship, where such repairs shall exceed twenty shillings for every ton, unless in case of extreme necessity, and such necessity proved by the master on arrival in England, to the satisfaction of the Commissioners of Customs. 8. Ships declared unseaworthy, are to be deemed lost and broken up. 9. No captured British ship can be again entitled to registry: but ships condemned in the Court of Admiralty as prize of war, or as being for breach of slave laws, may be registered. 10. Ships are to be considered as belonging to the port at or near which one or more of the subscribing owners shall reside, and all ships are to be registered at the port to which they belong: but, in some particular cases, the Commissioners of the Customs may allow a ship to be registered in some other port, in which case the allowance must be by writing under their hands. 11. Whenever any subscribing owner or owners shall have made a transfer of all his or their shares, the vessel must either be registered de novo before she shall depart from port, or (if such register de novo cannot be made in time) the collector may indorse a permission on the certificate of registry, that the ship may perform one voyage. 12. Collectors and Comptrollers of Customs may indorse a similar licence for one voyage in the case of vessels built in our colonies for owners resident in the United Kingdom. 13. The owners, previous to registry, must take the form of oath given in 4 G. 4. c. 41. ; and where there are more than one owner, the oath must be subscribed by the majority of those resident within twenty miles of the port of registry; or by one of such owners, if the others shall be resident at a greater distance. In such case, the attendant single owner is further to make oath, that the other partowners are not resident within twenty miles. 14. At the time of such registry, a bond is to be given by the master and

Of the Regis owners, aud conditioned that the certificate shall be solely,

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employed for the service of the ship; and that in case such ship shall be lost, burned, or broken up, or be forfeited for illicit trading, or be sold in execution for debt, or be registered de novo, such certificate shall be delivered up to be cancelled. 15. If the master be changed, the owner or new master must deliver to the officers of customs of the port (at which such change shall be made) the certificate of registry; and such officer shall indorse and subscribe a memorandum of such change, and shall further take of the new master a bond, that the certificate shall be used, &c. 16. The name of a registered vessel to be painted on the stern, and never to be afterwards changed. 17. Every person applying for a certificate of registry must produce a certificate from the builder of the vessel, which certificate shall state the time and place of building, the name of the first purchaser, and the tonnage ; and such applicant shall make oath, that the vessel, for which such a certificate is required, is the same with the one described by the builder. 18. If the certificate of register be lost or mislaid, the commissioners may permit a registry de novo, or may grant a licence for the present use of the ship 19. Any person detaining a certificate of register, however obtained, is to forfeit one hundred pounds. The owner in such case is to make oath before, any justice of peace resident near the place of such detainer. 20. Ships altered in such a manner as not to correspond with the description of the former register, must be registered de novo. 21. Vessels condemned as prize, or for breach of laws against the slave trade, are to be registered on production of the certificate of condemnation, and to be registered only in the ports of Southampton, Weymouth, Exeter, Falmouth, Plymouth, Liverpool, and Whitehaven. 22. Upon every alteration in the property of a ship after registry, that is to say, upon any transfer of the whole or part, such transfer shall be made by bill of sale, or other instrument in writing, containing a recital of the certificate of registry, or of the principal contents

owner.

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of such certificate. But such bill of sale is not to be void of the Regis by reason of any error in such recital. 23. Every ship, which (upon its first built, or an application made for its registry) is owned by two or more part owners, is to be considered to be divided into sixty-four parts or shares, and the registry must describe each owner as possessing a certain number of sixty-fourth parts; and no person is entitled to be registered as part owner, in respect of any part less than an integral sixty-fourth, and the oath upon first registry must state the number of shares held by each But this rule does not extend to mercantile partnership firms. 24. No greater number than thirty-two persons can be registered as legal owners at one and the same time. But joint stock companies may appoint three trustees, in whose name the vessel may be registered. And corporate bodies may have such registry made, in the name and upon the oath of their secretary, or other proper officer. 25. Upon the registry de novo of every vessel owned in parts, (which registry de novo is required by the 3 Geo. 4. to be made before the 31st of Dec. 1825) the number of such parts held by each owner shall be registered. And, to this end, all the bills of sale shall be produced to the officers of customs; or, where they cannot be produced, oath shall be made by the parties that they are unable to produce them. 26. All vessels must take out a registry de novo under the act 4 Geo. 4. c. 41. within two years from the 31st day of Dec. 1823, unless detained upon any voyage beyond the day of the 31st of Dec. 1825, in which case the vessel must make such registry immediately upon her arrival at her own port, or some other port in the same member of the United Kingdom, or in the same colony. 27. No stamp duty is to be paid on any first registry, under this act, of any vessel before registered. 28. No future bill of sale can be effectual to pass the property in any ship, until such bill of sale be produced to the officers of customs, and until entry shall be made thereof in the book of registry ordered to be kept by such officers. Such registry to be made in the manner

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Of the Regis and effect of the form given in 4 Geo. 4. c. 41. 29. Such entry renders the bill of sale valid to pass the property as against all persons, and to all intents, except as against such subsequent purchasers and mortgagees, who shall first procure the indorsement of such entry, and of the particulars of the bill of sale, to be made upon the certificate of registry, in the manner hereunder mentioned. 30. When a bill of sale has been so entered in the book of registry, the collector shall receive no other bill of sale of the same ship, or same share of the ship, until thirty days have elapsed; or, in case the vessel shall be absent from the port, until thirty days shall have elapsed after the arrival of the vessel at the port to which she belongs; and in every case where there shall happen to be two or more transfers, by the same owner, of the same property in any ship, the collector, in making the indorsement on the certificate of registry, shall give the preference to that bill of sale, under which the person claims property, who shall produce the certificate of registry for that purpose within thirty days next after the entry of his bill of sale in the book of registry, or within thirty days next after the arrival of the ship in her port; and in case the certificate of registry be not produced within the said space of the thirty days, the collector must make the indorsement on such certificate when produced, and to the person producing it. "It being the true intent of this Act (4 Geo. 4. c. 41.) that the several purchasers and mortgagees of any ship or shares of a ship (when more than one appear to claim the said property) shall have priority one over the other, not according to the respective times when the particulars of the bill of sale were entered in the book of registry but according to the time when the indorsement is made upon the certificate of registry." If the certificate of registry be mislaid, lost, or detained, the commissioner of customs may grant further time, or (upon proper cause shewn) may grant a registry de novo. 31. For the convenience of ships, after a bill of sale has been duly entered in the book of registry at one port, it may be produced at

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any other port where the vessel may then be; and the Of the Regisindorsement on the certificate of registry may be there made, previous notice being given to the officers at the port of registry. 32. If it shall become necessary to register any vessel de novo, and any share shall have been sold, and omitted to be recorded and indorsed, since her last register, the omission shall then be supplied. 33. Upon every change of property in a ship, whether such change of property shall require a new registry or not, such registry de novo shall be granted by the officers of customs, if desired by the owner or owners. 34. Copies of oaths and extracts from books of registry are to be admitted as legal evidence, without the personal attendance of officers of customs. 35. Where ships, or shares of ships, are sold, in the absence of owners by their agents without formal powers, the commissioners of customs, on proof of fair dealing, may permit such transfer to be registered and indorsed, or (according to the circumstances of the case) a registry de novo to be made; due security being given to produce the legal powers, or to abide future claims. 36. All transfers by the way of mortgage, or as security for a debt, shall be so stated and recorded in the book of registry, and in the indorsement on the certificate; and where such indorsement or registry de novo shall have been made in the favour of mortgagee, assignee, or trustee, the rights of such parties shall not be affected by any act of bankruptcy of mortgagor or assignor, committed after the time of such registry or indorsement.

Such are the principal rules upon which the Registry Acts are founded; the more subordinate rules, qualifications, and exceptions, will be found in the body of this Treatise. The statute of 7 and 8 Will., which was the origin of the modern Registry Acts, was only intended to prevent fraud and abuses in the plantation trade. It was the policy of Lord Liverpool's Registry Acts (26 and 34 Geo. 3.) to enlarge and improve the provisions of that statute; and to extend and apply them to all merchant ships whatsoever, exceeding a certain tonnage. The