Note 1 — THE ELIZABETH.

From Anthony Stokes's View of the Constitution of the British Colonies (London, 1783), pp. 284-288; already in print, but inasmuch as the most learned of American admiralty judges told the editor of this volume that he had never seen a set of the standing interrogatories, that were used at this period, it seems not superfluous to print one here. Later sets, more elaborate, as used in 1798, may be found in Christopher Robinson's Admiralty Reports, I. 381-389, and in Marriott, Formulare Instrumentorum (London, 1802), pp. 130-148. Since in civil-law procedure witnesses were not examined orally in open court, but all testimony was obtained in the form of written depositions, it was advisable in prize proceedings, in order that examinations might be thorough and searching, to employ standard sets of questions, ready-made. Anthony Stokes (1735-1799), from whose book the present specimen is taken, was an English or Welsh lawyer, practised law in Antigua and St. Christopher 1763-1769, and was chief-justice of Georgia, 1769-1776, 1779-1782, then retired to England as a loyalist. His book contains many specimens of documents used in proceedings before the vice-admiralty courts in the colonies.