In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the INTRODUCTORY CORRESPONDENCE. F. H. UPTON, Esq. : UNITED STATES COURT, NEW YORK, June 3, 1861. Dear Sir:-It seems certain that the unfortunate civil conflict in which our country is engaged, will call into exercise to no inconsiderable extent the prize jurisdiction of our Courts of Admiralty. If this be so, a work which shall include a summary of the Practice and Proceedings in Prize Courts, will be of great value to the profession and to suitors before the Prize Courts of the country. Knowing the interest which you have heretofore taken in the study of this subject, and your past experience in the practice in prize causes, we suggest to you, if you may control your time for such purpose, that you undertake the preparation of such a work as shall supply, in this respect, the urgent want of the profession and of the community. Yours, respectfully, SAM. R. BETTS, Judge of the Dist. Court of the United States. E. H. OWEN, Prize Commissioners. TO THE HONORABLE SAMUEL R. BETTS, JUDGE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND E. H. OWEN AND HENRY H. ELLIOTT, ESQS., PRIZE COMMISSIONERS. The suggestion, formally communicated to me in your note of the 3d of June last, was informally made by one of you, in a conversation had directly after the organization of the Federal Court for the exercise of its prize jurisdiction. Pursuant to that suggestion, it was my original purpose to limit my labors to the endeavor to supply what seemed to be an urgent necessity, namely: a review of the origin and character of the jurisdiction of Prize Courts, and of the Practice and Proceedings |