Judgement

This was an action on the case, brought by the Appellant, (the owner, to the extent of eight sixty-fourth parts, of a vessel, called the "Genera Wood") against the Respondent, the registering officer of ships, at the port of Bombay, appointed under the Act of the legislative Council, No. X. of 1841; for refusal to register the ship, at that port. To the declaration, the Respondent pleaded, that the ship was not, on the 11th of September 1844 (the day named in the declaration, when the refusal was made), or before, had not been, or was then, entitled to the privileges of, or to be registered as, a British ship; and there upon issue was joined. It was afterwards agreed between the parties that the following special case should be stated for the opinion of the Court.

“In the year 1816, a ship was laid down, and in 1817, was completed and built at Damaun a Portuguese settlement in India within the limits of the Companys Charter (as those limits are defined by the 3 & 4 Vict., c. 56), for and as the property of one Manoel Pereira a Portuguese subject, and resident at Macao, who continued to own the ship, and navigate her, under the flag of Portugal, until the year 1824, when h