“Assumpsit upon a policy of insurance upon merchandise on board of the ship Volant, from her port of lading in France, to her port of discharge in the United States. The policy was in the usual form, and the subscription of the defendant was for 1000 dollars. The declaration contained two counts, in one of which the plaintiffs aver a loss by capture, and in the other ask for a return of the premium. The facts were these. The Volant was captured on her homeward voyage by the British, carried to Halifax, and there, with her cargo, libelled and condemned as prize; war then existing between the United States and Great Britain. Before the ship sailed from Bayonne, where she had been a long time detained, from the difficulty of obtaining permission to unlade her outward, and take on board her homeward cargo; the master applied for, and obtained from the American minister, a commission and letter of marque, and increased his armament from four to fourteen guns, and his crew from twenty-five or thirty to seventy men.”