“ The words 'made good and lawful prize,' do not refer to the capture merely: the act speaks of the capture first, and then adds, 'and made good and lawful prize.' The capture, too, must be of enemy's goods, either in fact, or in contemplation of law. To say, that the goods are, by the act of capture, made good and lawful prize, because the capture is made by a lawfully commissioned cruiser, is to drop more than a moiety of the definition of good and lawful prize, or, rather, to insist on that which is not an essential part of its definition. ”

“ Capture gives possession; but it is the condemnation which ascertains that the things taken are good prize of war: until condemnation, it cannot be known whether they are good prize or not. But, certainly, it is self-evidence, that after restitution it must be held, that they were not good prize. The condemnation does more than destroy the jus recuperandi. It establishes what nothing else can establish, that the goods were lawful prize. ”

“ It was then stated, and made to appear to the satisfaction of the circuit court, that, after the Nereid and her cargo had been libelled by the captors, as prize of war, in the district court, and after the condemnation thereof, except the parts of the cargo which were claimed by Mr. Pinto, and during the pendency of such claim, Peter H. Schenck, the prize agent of the Governor Tompkins, entered the whole of the cargo of the Nereid at the custom house of the city of New-York, and secured the duties thereon ”