admiralty, ameralte

MIRAL.] [In Ger. admiral ität; Fr. amirauté; Ital. am mir a glia to.] *1. The sovereignty of the sea. (Halli well .) "Cherish marchandise and kepe the ameralte , That we be maesters of the narow see. MS., Soc. Antiq ., 101, 1. 50. ( Hall i well .) 2. That department of the British Government which, subject to the control of Parliament, has the supreme direction of naval affairs. This was formerly in the hands of a Lord High Admiral, but from the reign of George II. it has been placed under certain functionaries called "Lords Commi ioners of the Admiralty." At present (1877) there are a First Lord of the Admiralty with a seat in the cabinet, a senior, a second, and a junior naval lord, and a civil lord, a isted by several secretaries. There are eleven departments in the Admiralty. "There have certainly been abuses at the Admiralty which I am unable to defend."- Macaulay : Hist. Eng ., ch. xxiv. The High Court of Admiralty is a court, the judge in which was originally a mere deputy of the Lord High Admiral, but is now appointed by the Crown. It is divided into a prize and an instance court; the first takes cognizance of cases arising out of the capture of ve els as prizes in time of war at sea, and the last of a aults and batteries occurring on the high seas, collisions between ships, piratical seizure of ve els, officers' and seamen's wages, . Formerly it had cognizance of all crimes occurring on the high seas or in large tidal waters beneath that part of their course spanned by bridges, but these are now transferred to the ordinary judges. Ireland has a court of admiralty; Scotland has none. There are vice-admiralty courts in many of the colonies; from these an appeal lies to the Sovereign in Council. 3. The building in which the Admiralty busine is carried on. Admiralty , Droits of . [DROITS.]