The Vier de Brudas and crew were taken to Dover, and the crew were put on board the Severn man-of-war then lying in the Downs.
A curious question of law arose in this case ;-- the Vier de Brudas was a foreign vessel ; was sailing under a foreign flag, and was bound to another foreign port. The municipal law of England, however stringent as regarded English vessels, their crews and cargoes, was powerless as regarded a foreign vessel. The owners of the 'Vier de Brudas soon set the law in motion, and the men were, in the first place , removed by a writ of habeas corpus to London. One curious feature was, that the men were kept in custody twenty-one days before being taken before a magistrate. In London they were taken before the magistrates at Bow Street, and were committed to Newgate.
It may be mentioned that the Revenue cutter and the Severn, man-of-war, were of two distinct services. The cutter was of the Preventive Service, and was under the control of the Customs ; and the Severn belonged to the Coast Blockade, and was under the control of the Admiralty. At all events, the commanding officer of the Severn, a Scotchman, was not at all pleased at having the men placed in his charge, and growled at their being, as he said, " thrust upon him." He threw no obstacles in the way of the legal gentlemen, upon whom devolved -
