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The French officer wishes to have a dash at British commerce, and he runs to the northward, along the American coast, burning and scuttling a few Liverpool or Bristol ships, until he finds himself short of fuel and other supplies. He is now off the New England coast, and, shunning the large seaports for prudential reasons, he slips into some quiet nook, say Provincetown, at the back of Cape Cod, or one of the small harbours in the Martha's Vineyard Sound. There he begins to take in such supplies as can be got. The British Consul, if there is one, notifies the local authorities that the Frenchman is no better than a 'pirate,' and that if they don't mind he will infringe the neutrality of the port. The mayor, or the United States marshal, or both, are quite willing to do what is right in the matter, and strict orders are given that no American citizen must enlist on the strange craft, and the local constables are strictly enjoined to keep their eyes

open.

The crew of the Frenchman meanwhile mix with the groups of seafaring men whom they meet along the shore, and tell them that their ship is a fine vessel, that there are twenty or thirty Americans on board who are well satisfied with the fare, the treatment, and the chances of prize-money. The cod-fishing season has been dull, and the men have no employment. A few of them think it would be a fine thing to have a cruise in the natty craft they have been admiring, and which, in spite of her tricolour flag, looks every inch a New York ship; so they slip on board while the marshal and mayor are asleep, and the constables are looking after other matters, and are concealed by their confederates. The next day the French commander, ignorant of the addition to his crew, pays his bills, bids a suave 'good-bye' to the friends he

has made on shore, and steams away in search of more British ships.

Her Majesty's Consul has all this time been fretful, suspicious, and inquisitive. Before the Frenchman has been gone twenty-four hours he discovers, no matter how, that a number of men whom he used to see lounging about the foreshore, or smoking their pipes on the jetties, have disappeared, and some man who was disappointed in getting on board supplies him with evidence that the absentees have gone off in the Frenchman. The fact is duly reported to her Majesty's Minister at Washington, and is notified to the home Government, and then formally to that of the United States. The French cruiser is fortunate: she picks up a good many prizes, costly steamers, rich with the freights of India, the gold of Australia, and the corn of Chili and California. By-and-by there is peace: France and England shake hands across the Channel. Her Majesty's Government compile a list of the captures of British ships by the American piratical cruiser,' refer the list to the Board of Trade to assess the loss, and the bill, say for £2,000,000 or £3,000,000, is forwarded to Washington with the following N.B.' at foot :-' In accordance with the duties prescribed by the rules established in the Sixth Article of the Treaty of Washington.'

Such would be the legitimate, the logical, the unavoidable consequences of enforcing the three rules of the Treaty of Washington as they were construed by the United States and confirmed by the decision of the Tribunal of Arbitration.

One of the most striking examples of the effort made by the United States to extend the meaning and to strengthen the application of the rules of the Treaty is

furnished by their claim in respect to the Sumter. That vessel, it will be remembered, ran out of the Mississippi and began her cruise in June, 1861. During her very successful foray through the West Indies, she touched at various ports, and was permitted to receive coal as follows:- Cienfugos, 100 tons; Curaçoa, 120 tons; British island of Trinidad, 80 tons; Paramaribo, 125 tons; Maranham, 100 tons. From Maranham she proceeded to the French island of Martinique, where she took on board, by the written permission of the Governor, a sufficient supply to carry her across the Atlantic to Cadiz."

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Of the prizes captured by the Sumter during the above West India cruise, eleven were taken before she put in at Trinidad, none from the date of leaving Trinidad to that of her arrival at Paramaribo, two between Paramaribo and Maranham, and three after leaving Martinique.†

It will be seen that the Sumter not only received a less quantity of coal at Trinidad than at either of the Spanish, Dutch, Brazilian, and French ports mentioned above, but she did not take a single prize while consuming the eighty tons she was permitted to receive there; yet the United States asked the arbitrators to declare that Great Britain had failed to fulfil the duties set forth in the three rules in Article VI. of the Treaty of Washington,' etc.; and in considering the amount to be awarded to the United States, they asked that the losses of individuals in the destruction of their vessels and cargoes by the Sumter, and also the expenses to which the United States were

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* See 'British Counter-Case,' pp. 67, 68, and Semmes' ' Adventures Afloat.'

† See list in Appendix to 'United States Case,' vol. iv., p. 473.

put in the pursuit of that vessel, may be taken into account.'*

The Sumter went from Cadiz to Gibraltar, where she was laid up and finally sold, and she never entered any other British port as a Confederate cruiser. What the United States asked the arbitrators to do was simply to declare that if a belligerent ship-of-war is permitted to purchase 80 tons of coal in a neutral port, the neutral nation becomes chargeable with all the damage she may subsequently inflict upon the other belligerent.

Throughout the case of the United States, the contention appears to be that whenever a Confederate cruiser was permitted to buy in a British port what is called 'an excessive supply of coal,' Great Britain was thereby permitting her territory to be used as a base of naval operations,' and made herself liable under the rules of the Treaty to make good the injury inflicted upon the United States by that cruiser thereafter. International law permits a neutral to sell to a belligerent vessel whatever she may require to renew her sailing or steaming power, but not arms or munitions of war, or anything else that will add to her purely warlike force. In the British Counter-Case,' it is contended that the consent of nations has drawn that line and no other, and that there is no such thing known to international law as an excessive supply of coal.' In the British CounterCase' it was shown that if the Confederate ships were permitted to buy coal in British ports, the Federal cruisers got very much more, and therefore the United States had no just cause of complaint. To which the United States rejoined that it was Great Britain, and not themselves, who were on trial.

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When it is considered that the two great maritime * United States Case,' p. 89.

Powers were engaged in a friendly arbitration, which it was hoped would settle principles tending to lessen the unnecessary burdens of war, such quibbling as the foregoing is as lamentable as it is unworthy. To put the case briefly, and from the point contended for by the United States, if Great Britain is ever again engaged in war, and a British man-of-war should go into some port in Alaska, or should touch at one of the Florida Cays, and buy eighty tons of coal, the United States would be responsible for every dollar's worth of damage she might inflict upon her enemy's commerce afterwards, because it must be borne in mind that the Sumter was originally fitted out at a Confederate port, and never entered a British port until after she had been fully recognised as a national ship-of-war.

Does any sane man suppose that any nation, even including the two who were parties to the Treaty, will ever adopt the rules of the Treaty of Washington as the common law of neutral duties? The United States would be the very first to discard them.

There is no reason to doubt that the Executive Government of the United States has always been willing to comply with its neutral duties, but the number of vessels armed, equipped, even officered and manned in American ports for belligerents, to wit, for the French Republic of 1792 and the South American States, and the histories of the Lopez expedition against Cuba, the various filibustering expeditions of Walker, the operations of the Cuban Junta, and the Fenian raids, all combine to prove how powerless the United States are to prevent infringements of their neutrality.

The United States have enormous coast-lines on the two great oceans. They have no navy to speak of, an army in its grand total not equal to a single European

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