6. All personal property engaged in hostilities, or in intercourse which under the provisions of this Book is illegal.'

Article 971 forbids the commission of any hostilities in the territory of a neutral nation.

2 This includes the exercise of sovereignty over it. Nations, pt. II., 122, § 64.

Twiss, Law of

To compel submission, a belligerent may take possession to an extent far beyond what would be a just indemnification, with the design of re storing the surplus by a treaty of peace. Id., pt. II., 122, § 64. The ques tion of title by capture is a distinct one: see Articles 842, 843 and 896.

3 These are cases of ships within the territorial waters at the breaking out of the war, &c.

+ These cases are resisting visitation and search, Article 871; hospital ships, Articles 796 and 797; and contraband, Article 854.

5 Wildman's Intern. Law, vol. 2, p. 11, citing "Answer to Pruss. Mem.," 1 Coll. Jur.,157.

6 By the provisions here referred to, contained in Articles 139, 143, 183 and 184, the dwellings, archives, &c., of diplomatic and consular officers are exempt from the jurisdiction of the nation in which they are situated, with this qualification, that, by Article 109, the exemptions may be withdrawn in the case of an emergency affecting the existence of the nation. The exemption should continue through all ordinary vicissitudes of war. The right to send these officers and their movables out of the country in case of war, is reserved by Article 911.

As to illegal hostilities, see Articles 741 and 742; and as to illegal intercourse, see Articles 920 and 921.

What the belligerent may appropriate, and for what end.

836. Subject to the provisions of this Book,' all public property, which, according to the last article, can be seized, may be used, absolutely appropriated, or destroyed by the belligerent, so far as may be necessary for the following purposes:

1. Overcoming the military power of the hostile nation ;*

2. Retaking property, the withholding of which was the cause of the war;

3. Satisfaction for any other injury which was the cause of the war;

4. Reasonable security against future injuries ;

5. Reimbursement of expenses incurred in pursuit of satisfaction, including the charges of the war, and the reparation of damages; and,

3

6. Infliction of a loss, appropriate as a punishment for resorting to arms without a plausible pretext, or for a breach of the provisions of this Book, to the injury of the belligerent.

1 See the next Article, and Articles 893-896, which require judicial condemnation of contraband and of public property taken at sea not on armed ships.

A seizure of property for the purpose of applying it to military uses,. during the occupation, such as buildings, &c., taken possession of by the military forces, to employ the same for the accommodation of troops, is not necessarily a capture. Case of the Memphis Navy Yard Property, 12 Opinions of U. S. Attorneys-General, 125.

2 Woolsey's International Law, § 19, p. 34. In the exercise of the right of redress, it may be necessary to strip a wrongdoer of a portion of his territory; or in the exercise of the right of self-protection, and possibly of punishment, it may be lawful to deprive him of the means of doing evil. Id., §.21, p. 37.

3 Twiss, Law of Nations, pt. II., 120, §§ 62, 63; Vattel, Droit des Gens, III., c. 9, § 160.

In the case of Miller . The United States, 11 Wallace's U. S. Supr. Ct. Rep., 268, it was held, that the power of a government to confiscate property exists as fully in case of a civil war, as it does when the war is foreign. Rebels in arms against the lawful government, or persons inhabiting the territory exclusively within the control of the rebel belligerents, may be treated as public enemies. So may adherents or aidors and abettors of such belligerents, though not resident within the enemy's territory.

Moneys expended for the support of prisoners of war are to be reimbursed in concluding a peace. Halleck, Int. Law & Laws of War, p. 437 $ 17.

Destroying means of communication.

837. A belligerent, when necessary to prevent the passage of the enemy, or of contraband property, or the carrying on of illegal intercourse, may destroy or impair railways, bridges and other highways of either belligerent, doing as little permanent injury as possible.

Destroying facilities of navigation.

838. A belligerent, for the purpose of self-preserva

tion, may destroy or impair lights, signals, channels and other facilities of navigation, within the territory of either belligerent, doing no more permanent injury than is necessary, and giving reasonable notice before so doing, for the benefit of neutrals;' but the use of false lights and signals is unlawful.

1 In the Franco-Prussian war, 1870-71, the German government gave such notice.

In the case of the obstructing of Southern harbors during the American civil war, the obligation of the government to remove the obstructions when the war should be successfully terminated, was acknowledged.

Ravaging or laying waste enemy's country.

839. For the purpose of self-preservation, a belligerent may ravage or lay waste the territory of the hostile nation.

See Lawrence's Wheaton, Elem. of Intern. Law, p. 598, § 6; Dana's Wheaton, § 347; Twiss, Law of Nations, pt. II., p. 124, and authorities cited; which sustain the rule that it is allowable in extreme cases, when necessary to accomplish the object of the war. The better opinion of the present day, however, condemns it except when necessary for self-preservation.

Property exempt from acts of hostilities.

840. The following, so long as not used for a military purpose, are not objects of hostilities, and must be respected and protected by each belligerent, to whomsoever belonging:

1. Light-houses; storm signals; inter-oceanic canals; submarine telegraph .cables; and all structures and establishments intended exclusively for the uses of peaceful intercourse; except in the cases provided for by article 838;

2. Palaces and offices of government; halls of legislation and of justice; churches and temples of religion ; hospitals; and other establishments of an exclusively religious or charitable character; and,

3. Museums; galleries of art; monuments and works of art; libraries, books and manuscripts; ob

servatories; and scientific instruments; depositories of state papers, and public archives, of historical records, of scientific instruments, of muniments of property, of judicial and legal documents, and their contents; and all other institutions of civil education and culture.

Halleck, Intern. Law & Laws of War, p. 543; Lieber's Political Ethics, p. 7, § 15; 1 Kent's Commentaries, 92; Heffter, Europ. Volker., §§ 130, 131; Dana's Wheaton, note 169, Belligerent Occupation, (5); Lieber's Instructions, ¶¶ 34-36; Twiss, Law of Nations, pt. II., p. 128; and other authorities cited by these authors.

Property exempt not to be sold or carried away.

841. The property mentioned in the last article cannot be sold or removed from the country, by the invader, except when allowed by the treaty of peace.

Such property may be taxed for purposes of government. The rule proposed in this Article is in consonance with the present tendency of the law. For the controversy on this subject, see the authorities cited under the last Article.

In the case of the Marquis de Somerueles, Stewart's Vice-Adm. Rep., 482, a case of paintings belonging to the Academy of Arts at Philadelphia was decreed to be restored, on the ground that the arts and sciences are admitted, amongst all civilized nations, as forming an exception to the severe rights of warfare, and as entitled to favor and protection.

Use of and title to public immovables.

842. When the territory and immovable property of a hostile nation is seized by a belligerent, the title thereto remains in abeyance during military occupation, and until the conquest is made complete ; but, subject to article 844, the revenues thereof meanwhile belong to the nation making the capture.

1

1 This is the rule adopted by the United States, as stated in Lieber's Instructions, ¶ 31. See Bluntschli, Droit Intern. Codifié, § 732, &c.

Other writers say that such immovables become the property of the captor, and may be transferred by it; subject, however, to the subsequent fortunes of the war. See Twiss, Law of Nations, Part II., p. 126.

Article 968 declares it to be inconsistent with neutrality to take a transfer during war.

Title to movables.

843. Except in the case provided for by article 896,' the title to public movable property of the hostile nation, not exempt by the provisions of this Book, and to movable property contraband of war, or engaged in hostilities or in intercourse which, under the provisions of this Book, is illegal, to whomsoever belonging, when lawfully taken by a belligerent, becomes thereby vested in the nation making the capture; and, after being removed to a place of safety, or after twentyfour hours' firm possession, is transferable by it.

Such movables, and no other, may be declared by the commanding officer to be booty, liable to be appropriated by individual captors.

Lawrence's Wheaton, Elements of Intern. Law, p. 598, § 6; Dana's Wheaton, § 359; citing Klüber, Droit des Gens Moderne de l'Europe, § 254 ; Vattel, Droit des Gens, liv. III., ch. 13, § 196; ch. 14, § 209; Heffter, Europ. Volker., § 136. See also Coolidge v. Guthrie, 8 American Law Register, (N. S.,) 22. Booty, (butin,) as used in the most general sense, has been declared to include all movable property which belongs to members of the hostile nation, and which falls into the belligerent's possession. Twiss, Law of Nations, Part II., p. 122, § 64.

All lawful captures and booty belong to the nation by whose authority they are made, or to those to whom such nation awards them. Lieber's Instructions, ¶ 45.

Fioré, (Nouveau Droit Intern., vol. 2, p. 309,) says, that things, when taken in the vicissitudes of the conflict, such as valuables, arms, &c., do not become truly the property of the conqueror, without a renunciation of the first owner's rights, which may be made by the treaty of peace.

Wildman, (International Law, vol. 2, p. 29,) says, that plunder or booty, in a mere continental war, without the presence or intervention of any ships, or their crews, has never been important enough to give rise to any question about it. "There is no instance in history or law, ancient or modern, of any question before any legal judicature ever having existed about it in this kingdom."

As to property captured at sea.

Revenues held in trust for governing the country. 844. A belligerent having military occupation' of any place, may lay taxes and appropriate the public revenues of the place, and the income of the public property, so far as necessary for the maintenance of