THE PEDALTO INSTITUTION FOR INCORPORATED ART

 
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BUREAU OF COMPROMISES

DIRECTOR   Willard Grimble

ABOUT

A great deal of argument has been used to prove the legality of compromises. It does not seem to me to have any thing to do with the present question. Compromises no doubt have been, and may still be made. Parties may recede from their rights, may desert their appeals, and may dispose of their interests, whether present, or only remote, or contingent, upon any terrains or conditions they chuse; but the real question before the Court upon this defence is, whether the captors have such a vested interest in the prize itself, or the proceeds of the prize, in the present stage of the cause, that they can take possession of them, and alienate them, without any authority from, and in defiance of, the Court of Admiralty. I must own I have my own private opinion upon compromises: that they are making a job of war, not very honorable to the nation, and bad policy in the end for the navy themselves, and many high and eminent persons have entertained the same idea. But that is only ray own private opinion, and I am certainly not disposed to throw any impediment in the way of a compromise, when conducted in a legal, justifiable, manner, and the parties think it for their interest; as. I trust I have ever endeavoured to promote the real good and advantage of the service, as far as was consistent with an impartial performance of my duty. But I cannot but resist an attempt in parties to take the whole law into their own hands, and to wrest prize property out of the legal custody of the Court.