they are exercised within limits bounded only by the necessities and convenience real or supposed of the belligerent that exercises them. Indeed a very little attention to the nature of war will show that on land no war can be carried on without the exercise of those rights, For on land war must of necessity be carried on in the territory of one or the other of the belligerents. Of two belligerents one must always be the invader and the other the invaded; and there is no single act of warfare which the invader can perform that is not an exercise of the right to appropriate the property of the invaded. The moment he crosses the frontier he seizes the roads, and in these days especially the railroads with their rolling-stock, their stations, and their whole furniture and appliances; he occupies all buildings that he may hold necessary for his purposes, he razes them to the ground if he thinks it fit; he marches over and destroys standing crops, he fells trees, he digs trenches, makes approaches, raises fortifications in and with the land of the enemy; he seizes cattle which he eats as food or employs as beasts of burden; and having seized the material property he soon seizes the money of the inhabitants. All these are the admitted and approved as well as the inevitable results of warfare, and none has ever been found to question the full exercise of the belligerent right on which they rest. If they are exercised with mildness and caution, as they will be by a

belligerent who desires to avoid exasperating the inhabitants whose property is subjected to them, or who desires to leave on his advance all the property he may want on his retreat, that does not affect the rights themselves, nor is any belligerent ever held bound to refrain from their exercise except in so far as humanity and prudence may dictate.

If it be admitted that war can be levied on the seas, it must also be admitted that the same incidental rights belong there to it; for these rights rest on the very nature of war. Neither can it be contended that the same right of sending forth volunteers to take part in the war which exists and is exercised on land, does not equally exist or may not be exercised on the seas. Moreover the practice of nations during the whole modern history of Europe has been in accordance with this principle, which, though often attacked by neutrals, was always successfully asserted and defended by belligerents up to the middle of the present century. In 1854, however, on the outbreak of war with Russia, an extraordinary transaction took place. It was to be supposed that Great Britain would maintain and act upon principles so indisputable, and which had so contributed to her greatness; and in effect on the 16th February, 1854, Lord Clarendon, in reply to a despatch from M. Lousada, directed him to be informed that the produce and property of the enemy was "lawful prize of war,"

and that "its being laden on board a neutral ship will not protect that property;"* while on the 25th March, 1854, he wrote to a deputation of merchants "if it (Russian produce) should still "remain enemy's property, notwithstanding that it "is shipped from a neutral port and in a neutral ship it will be condemned."† Yet the French Government has revealed the fact that while the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs was thus declaring what would be done, the English Ambassador in Paris was at the same time (on the 14th March) declaring that he had received instructions to communicate a declaration of his Government that this same thing should not be done, and that "the neutral flag should cover the enemy's "merchandise. And on the 28th March, 1854, a notification without any signature or other marks of authority whatever was published in the London Gazette to the effect that the Government of Great Britain had determined to waive during the war the right of commissioning Privateers and of seizing enemy's goods (except contraband of war) in neutral vessels.§

Thus within three days of an official declaration signed by the Secretary of State, that the right of seizing enemy's goods in neutral vessels would

* State Papers, 1853-1854, p. 106.

+ Times Newspaper, Mrrch 1854.

British Neutrality Laws Commission Report.

§ State Papers, 1855-1866, p. 36.

be exercised, the public were informed by a notification signed by nobody that it would not be exercised. This is a chapter in history which loudly calls for explanation.

But the rights which had been "waived" in 1854, at the beginning of the war, were again brought under consideration in the Conference of 1856 at the end of it. On a proposal made by the English and French Plenipotentiaries, and which the Plenipotentiaries of Austria and Russia declared themselves to be unprovided for and without authority or power to accept or even to consider, a Declaration was formulated as follows:

66 ANNEXE au Protocole No. 23.

"Déclaration.

"Les Plénipotentiaires qui ont signé le Traité "de Paris du 20 Mars, 1856, réunis en Conférence. "Considérant:

"Que le droit maritime, en temps de guerre, a "été pendant longtemps l'objet de contestations "regrettables;

66

Que l'incertitude du droit et des devoirs en pareille matière, donne lieu, entre les neutres et "les belligérants, à des divergences d'opinion qui

peuvent faire naître des difficultés sérieuses et "même des conflits;

"Qu'il y a avantage, par conséquent, à établir "une doctrine uniforme sur un point aussi im"portant;

"Que les Plénipotentiaires assemblés au Congrès "de Paris ne sauraient mieux répondre aux inten"tions dont leurs Gouvernements sont animés, "qu'en cherchant à introduire dans les rapports "internationaux des principes fixes à cet égard;

"Dûment autorisés, les susdits Plénipotentiaires "sont convenus de se concerter sur les moyens "d'atteindre ce but; et étant tombés d'accord ont "arrêté la Déclaration solennelle ci-après :

"1. La course est et demeure abolie ;

"2. Le pavillon neutre couvre la marchandise "ennemie, à l'exception de la contrebande de 66 guerre ;

"3. La marchandise neutre, à l'exception de la “contrebande de guerre, n'est pas saisissable sous 66 pavillon ennemi;

"4. Les blocus, pour être obligatoires, doivent "être effectifs, c'est-a-dire, maintenus par une force "suffisante pour interdire réellement l'accès du "littoral de l'ennemi.

"Les Gouvernements des Plénipotentiaires sous"signés s'engagent à porter cette Déclaration à la "connaissance des Etats qui n'ont pas été appelés “à participer au Congrès de Paris, et à les inviter "à y accéder.

แม

"Convaincus que les maximes qu'ils viennent de "proclamer ne sauraient être accueillies qu'avec gratitude par le monde entier, les Plénipo“tentiaires soussignés ne doutent pas que les "efforts de leurs Gouvernements pour en génér