to determine and to alter the attitude they will assume, and the extent to which they will endure the disturbance occasioned by the quarrel.

CHAPTER XI.

NEUTRALIZATION.

1371. The neutralization of a country or district differs from neutrality. It is a condition in which the country or place is put by compact between several nations. The state of each neutralized country depends upon the special terms of the compact of its neutralization. It in general loses some of the powers of independent action, and is compensated by the protection of the Powers which have taken part in that compact, and often by the privilege of immunity from, hostilities. Of course, it cannot by any compact be deprived of the right of self-defence against insult or invasion.

1372. Switzerland is placed in this condition by the final Act of the Congress of Vienna, March 20, 1815, and the declaration signed at Paris on November 20, 1815; by which England, Austria, France, Russia, and Prussia recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland, and guaranteed the integrity and inviolability of her limits as then settled.

1373. The perpetual neutrality of Belgium was, on its severance from the Netherlands, secured by the five great Powers of Europe, and made an essential condition of her independence.

1374. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna declared the city of Cracow, with its territory, a perpetually free, independent, and neutral state, under the joint protection of Austria, Prussia, and Russia, on certain conditions. How these conditions have been observed, or how the protection has been

afforded, and whether the subsequent treatment of this city is in accordance with the law of nations or the spirit of the declaration, are subjects beyond the limits of this treatise.

1375. The Black Sea has been, as already stated, placed in a state of neutrality as a part of the ocean, with the exclusion of any considerable maritime force.

1376. Turkey is not in precisely the situation of a neutralized nation, but her position is rendered peculiar by the treaty from which extracts have been already given.

1377. By the treaty between England and the United States, April 19, 1850, as to the then projected ship-canal across the Isthmus of Central America, it was stipulated (art. 2) that vessels of Great Britain or the United States traversing the canal should, in case of war between the contracting parties, be exempted from blockade, detention, or capture by either of the belligerents; and it was agreed that this provision should extend to such a distance from the two ends of the canal as it might thereafter be found expedient to establish. The 5th article provides for the protection of the canal, and that it shall be for ever open and free, on equal terms. The 8th article provides that, should a railway be constructed, it should be protected and open on equal terms to subjects of all nations.

CHAPTER XII.

NEUTRALS.

SECTION 1. RIGHTS AND DUTIES.

1378. The war has broken forth, and each nation has determined, at least temporarily, the position it will assume. The rights and duties of the neutrals with reference to the

belligerents, the rights and obligations which war acquires against and imposes upon them,-what are they?

1379. Had, for the last century, the only wars of Europe raged between petty maritime states, while all the great nations were neutral, and troubled in their commerce by the puny combatants, a different practice of nations, and in that sense a different code of international law, would have prevailed. We should have heard louder proclamation of neutral than of belligerent rights. But whoever the combatants, whatever usurpation there may have been upon them, the rights are unalterable and the same.

1380. A nation can neither acquire to itself, nor confer on its adversary, any right against the neutral by making war; otherwise it would achieve, however feeble, a conquest for itself and its opponent over all neutral nations, before either had captured a shallop or won an inch of territory. Except to the extent of conventional obligations, which we have discussed under the head of confederacy, the neutrals maintain as to each of the belligerents, and each of the belligerents maintains as to the neutrals, the same amicable relations as before.

1381. The neutral may meditate on the justice or injustice of the controversy; the neutral government and all its subjects may sympathize with one of the belligerents and detest the other, and talk about their conduct and affairs; but in their own conduct they must act as if the cause of each of the belligerents were equally just.

1382. The rights of the neutral nation are,-that her sovereignty shall not be infringed or insulted, and that neither her commerce, nor any other of her amicable relations shall be disturbed, except so far as they interfere with the legitimate conduct of the war. The rights of each belligerent are that the neutral shall maintain towards it the same amicable relations as before, and that neither the neutral state nor its subjects shall aid the enemy in the article of war. The neutral must not attempt to aid each equally,

for the equalization of such assistance is impossible. Yet emergencies do occur in which some benefits of a military character cannot be withheld; where they occur, the neutral must be impartial to both, and not deny to one that which the other obtains.

1383. Some of the rights of the neutral nation belong to the people as individuals, and some to the state; so some of its duties are to be observed by the citizens and some by the state. Neutral rights and duties may be classified as rights and duties of the state, and rights and duties of the subjects. And, as rights and duties are reciprocal, this classification will exhibit many of the rights and duties of the government and people of the belligerents; and we shall have to consider the consequences of their conflicting rights, under the heads of contraband, blockade, search, and cap

ture.

SECTION 2. RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE STATE.

1384. The neutral public ships have the same right to visit the waters and ports of each belligerent as before the war; but that right, previously subject to qualifications, may be further qualified through an increased apprehension of danger on account of the strength of the neutral force, or the uncertainty of political relations. The belligerent is entitled in such case to confine their admission to certain ports, and under reasonable restrictions, or, if necessary, to entirely exclude them from his coast, except when driven upon it by distress. But when they are admitted they must be entertained with the former respect.

1385. This respect involves the total exemption of public vessels from visitation and search. Far more are they exempt from that indignity on the open sea, where they are as independent as the belligerent ships. Visitation for the purpose of inquiry merely, may, under circumstances, particularly in the case of convoy, be conceded, but it cannot be enforced. Even in such case the signal must be that of

invitation, not of command. A blank cartridge may be fired, lest the signal of the flag may have been unobserved; but the firing of a shot at, or the menacing pursuit of a public vessel cannot be endured. Search of the neutral ship of war can in no case be permitted,—it is derogatory to the independence of the state. Search of private ships under convoy may be conceded on conditions to which we shall refer.

1386. The right to maintain and protect the national commerce is the right of the state; the right to enjoy it is that of the subjects.

1387. The state is not a trader; even were its prince a merchant, his mercantile vessels and merchandise would be private merchandise and private ships, until he chose to give them a military commission. The state cannot carry contraband; the state cannot be guilty of breaking blockade. If the state furnish, whether by gift or sale, munitions of war to either belligerent, it is not contraband, but military assistance, a breach of neutrality, a just ground for war; if the public armed ships of the state force, or attempt to force, their way through the blockade, it is irregular war; if they clandestinely escape through the blockade, they cannot be pursued or captured, but the state must make reparation for the wrong, or it affords a just ground for war.

1388. So that which would be contraband on board private unprotected merchant ships, when conveyed in merchant ships under the protection of the public vessels of the neutral, constitutes military supply, and a violation of belligerent rights. The ships which sail under convoy, except in conformity with conventions, are not independent traders, but members of a national fleet; they are responsible to their sovereign for their cargoes and conduct, and the sovereign is responsible to the belligerent state as though their misconduct were his own.

1389. CONVOY.-Subject to the undertaking of such responsibility, the neutral nation is entitled to take her com