COURT OF ADMIRALTY ESTABLISHED. 165

justices were restrained from' proceeding in cases of doubt or difficulty—such as robberies, murders, felonies, and all capital offences. From this restriction, a subject of considerable difliculty'and inconvenience arose, as persons who had committed capital felonies could only be tried in England; and, in 1751, a commission was issued to Captain William Francis Drake, empowering him to appoint commissioners of oyer and terminer for the trial of felons at NeW« foundland.

In 1742, in consequence of the number of captured vessels brought into St J ohn‘s, a court of Vice-Admi- ralty was established.

A claim was made, in 1754, by Lord Baltimore, to that part of the island originally granted to his ancestor, and named by him “ the province of Ava- lon.” This claim was declared inadmissible by the Board of Trade, agreeable to the opinion of the law officers ; and it has since then been relinquished.

In June 17 62, the French took St John’s, Trinity, and Carbonier, and retained them until September following, when they were retaken, with some diffi— culty, by the forces sent from Halifax, under Lord Colville and Sir Jeffrey Amherst.

The peace of 1763, by which we acquired all the French possessions in North America, opened a most favourable opportunity for extending the fishery, to the decided advantage of these kingdoms ; and the Board of Trade, in bringing the subject under their consideration, applied for information to the towns in the west of England, as well as to Glasgow, Belfast,