Slave Trade Act 1873

This Act may be cited as “The Slave Trade Act 1873.”

In this Act—

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• The term “vessel” means any vessel used in navigation:

• F2. . .

• The term “governor” includes the officer for the time being administering the government of any colony; and where there is a local governor or lieutenant-governor under a governor-general, means the local governor or lieutenant-governor: . . . F3

• . . . F1

• F2. . .

• The term “vessel of a foreign state” means a vessel which is justly entitled to claim the protection of the flag of a foreign state, or which would be so entitled if she did not lose such protection by being engaged in the slave trade:

• The term “treaty” includes any convention, agreement, engagement, or arrangement:

• The term “slave trade” when used in relation to any particular treaty does not include anything declared by such treaty not to be comprised in the term or in such treaty:

• The term “Vice-Admiralty Court” does not include any Vice-Admiralty Court which for the time being has under its commission a limited jurisdiction only in matters relating to the slave trade:

• The term “British slave court” means the High Court of Admiralty of England, every Vice-Admiralty Court in Her Majesty’s dominions out of the United Kingdom, F4:

• The term “slave court” means every British slave court, every mixed commission or court established under any existing slave trade treaty, and the court of any foreign state having jurisdiction to try and condemn a vessel engaged in the slave trade:

• The term “existing slave trade treaty” means a treaty made by or on behalf of Her Majesty or Her Royal predecessors with any foreign state for the more effectual suppression of the slave trade and in force at the passing of this Act.

All persons authorised to make seizures under this Act shall, in making and prosecuting any such seizure, have the benefit of all the protection granted to persons authorised to make seizures under any Act for the time being in force relating to Her Majesty’s customs in the United Kingdom F22. . ..

This Act shall be construed as one with the enactments of the M1Slave Trade Act 1824, F29. . . and the expression “this Act” when used in this Act, shall include those enactments.

Any offence against this Act or the said enactments with which this Act is to be construed as one, or otherwise in connexion with the slave trade, shall for all purposes of and incidental to the trial and punishment of a person guilty of such offence, and all proceedings and matters preliminary and incidental to and consequential on such trial and punishment, and for all purposes of and incidental to the jurisdiction of any court, constable, and officer with reference to such offence, be deemed to have been committed either in the place in which the offence was committed, . . . F31 or in any place in which the person guilty of the offence may for the time being be F32. . .; and the offence may be described in any indictment or other document relating thereto as having been committed at the place where it was wholly or partly committed, or as having been committed on the high seas or out of Her Majesty’s dominions, and the venue or local description in the margin may be that of the place in which the trial is held.

Where any such offence is commenced at one place and completed at another, the place at which such offence is to be deemed to have been committed shall be either the place where the offence was commenced or the place where the offence was completed.

Where a person being in one place is accessory to or aids or abets in any such offence committed in another place, the place at which such offence is to be deemed to have been committed shall be either the place in which the offence was actually committed or the place where the offender was at the time of his being so accessory, aiding, or abetting.

F32. . .