vessel should exhibit her own national flag, unless already displayed, and should lie-to if required by the cannon.

1585. Such is the ordinary conduct when the cruiser falls in with a vessel on the sea, or when one under no personal suspicion issues from even a suspected port; but rumour, and often distinct information, attaches such suspicion to a ship starting forth like a courser on the race, that little time is afforded for the interchange of signals, or the ceremonial to which we have referred.

1586. FLIGHT.—A ship is not bound to put herself in the way of, or without necessity to submit to the inconvenience of search, seizure, detention, prize-court expenses, loss of voyage, and other injuries, to gratify the suspicion of persons whose interest it is to suspect, whose right rests in its execution and the power of interception.

1587. Consequently, a ship is justified in escaping by flight and skill in navigation; she is entitled to pursue her course as speedily, and with as little inconvenience as she can, and to avoid alike cruisers, privateers, pirates, and the storms, rocks, and shoals, and other perils of the sea. She is exercising her right in flying with her cargo of shells and mortars as well as with her cargo of cinnamon and silks. The cruiser is exercising her right in the pursuit. Neither owes allegiance or duty to the other. The chase may seek the sanctuary of her own or any neutral shore; so also may she seek the asylum of the belligerent port, and the shelter and protection of the land batteries of the adversary of her pursuer.

1588. By parity of reason, she is entitled to fly to the floating batteries, the ships of war of either belligerent, to seek protection from the visitation which the pursuer desires to inflict.

1589. On the same principle, she may fly to the asylum afforded by the armed convoy of another neutral Power; although it is the duty of the commander of the convoy, except under convention, to refuse protection to the ships of any nation except his own.

1590. Flight involves no penalty; but prize courts have violated this law, and condemned vessels for seeking the protection of the hostile ships.

1591. Flight however involves some degree of suspicion that the cargo will not bear inspection, and, though not sufficient of itself, may give such a colour to other circumstances as to warrant detention for a more rigorous examination than can be prosecuted on the sea.

1592. It is said that the English prize courts were inclined to hold the attempt of a neutral to withdraw from search, simply by flight or evasion, sufficient to warrant their condemning her as prize. (3 Phil. 440, 441.) That is, they will rob a man of his property because he runs away.

1593. The belligerent has small right to complain of the trouble occasioned by the attempt to prevent flight or evasion; it is trivial indeed, when compared with the injury which the exercise of his process inflicts on the commerce of the neutral.

SECTION 9. DETENTION, ARREST, AND CAPTURE.

1594. These are consequences of the right of visitation and search. We have said that the visit is to ascertain whether the vessel is hostile, is freighted with contraband, or meditating the breach of blockade.

1595. The first proceeding is visitation,-that is, inquiry of the officers of the vessel; if that is satisfactory she may proceed, but if not, the visitation extends to inspection of papers, which may remove all suspicion; if so, she must be allowed to proceed. But if the inquiry still leave suspicion, she is to be detained for the institution of such search as can be conveniently pursued on the sea under the circumstances of the ships. Suspicion may be satisfied, and the vessel entitled to continue her voyage. It is the duty of the searcher to give a certificate of the result of his visit and examination, to obviate as much as possible the inconvenience of further molestation. Of course, new grounds of suspicion may

arise on another visit by the same or a different man-of-war. It is also the duty of the visiting commander to record on a principal paper notice of the blockade of any port which the neutral may be likely to approach.

1596. If reasonable suspicion remain after such search as the circumstances will permit, the ship is to be arrested and sent into the most convenient port of the belligerent for further examination before the officers appointed to conduct the preliminary inquiry, there to be subjected to further examination of her papers, her master, officers, and crew, and the cargo which she contains. Unless reasonable ground for suspicion remains, she must be discharged with a proper certificate of the investigation, and with reasonable compensation for the delay, inconvenience, and damage to which she has, without any fault of her own, been exposed.

1597. If reasonable ground of suspicion remain, she is to be brought under the jurisdiction of the prize court for further examination, and if found guilty to be condemned. The owners of the ship, and the owners of the cargo, are there entitled to appear to maintain their right to their property, and to resist the captor's claim. The ship as well as her cargo is to be deemed innocent until guilt is proved. Unless that is proved, she must be released from her arrest with full indemnity for the delay, inconvenience, damage, costs, and expenses to which, except by her own improper conduct, she has been exposed. If she is guilty, she and her cargo are wholly, or partially, according to the guilt of which they are convicted, to be condemned.

1598. Condemnation converts detention into capture from the moment when she was detained; until condemnation, although she is popularly said to have been captured, she is under arrest. When we come to treat of recapture, we shall have to make some further observations on this intermediate state.

1599. This is the law of nations; we shall have to consider to some extent how far it has been violated, how far it has been observed.

1600. We will, for want of better designations, use the words cruiser to designate the belligerent vessel which exercises the right of visitation, and merchantman to describe the vessel which is to be honoured with the visit, and captive to describe her when taken into custody, and captor to distinguish the cruiser which has taken her under his care.

1601. The attempt of the merchantman to escape, by false flag or by flight, warrants increased suspicion, and, as a consequence, pursuit. The production of ambiguous papers warrants further examination, the destruction of papers or the production of false papers increases the suspicion, the combination of these circumstances renders suspicion more intense. The vicinity of the ship to the port of a belligerent creates suspicion when the port is under blockade. These and other circumstances, especially information which the cruiser may have previously received, warrant detention and a more or less vigilant search. But they do not warrant arrest without further search or inquiry. The information may itself be false, the fictitious papers may be for purposes unconnected with the belligerent, the vicinity to the port may be in her route to a legitimate destination, or she may have been driven out of her course by stress of weather, or for necessary supplies.

1602. Though her cargo contain military stores, however formidable, the merchantman is entitled to proceed, whatever may be the information which the cruiser has previously obtained, unless he can find in her a warrant for justifiable suspicion; her flight and other circumstances already mentioned may intensify the causes of suspicion. False papers may, from their nature, unless their fabrication is reasonably explained, warrant the suspicion that the contraband is destined to the belligerent, and if the grounds of suspicion are strong, warrant her arrest.

1603. The law of nations does not require the merchantman to go unarmed; she may arm herself for defence against pirates with cannon and all the implements of war. An ex

cessive armament, especially if her build is of a martial character, may warrant the suspicion that she constitutes contraband, and, with other circumstances, that she is proceeding to the market for ships of war. But a moderate armament of itself warrants no such suspicion, and, to justify her arrest in the character of contraband, the other grounds of suspicion must be exceedingly strong.

1604. Although the cargo is innocent, and the more so if it include munitions of war, her flight and similar acts, and especially false papers, warrant grave suspicion when she is approaching a blockaded port. If she loiter in that neighbourhood, if she hover about the offing, unless baffled or detained by the weather, the suspicion justly grows more intense that she contemplates breaking the blockade. Such circumstances warrant arrest.

1605. The prize court has held that the very fact of a ship coming out of a blockaded port with a cargo is probable cause of detention, unless the captors were satisfied that she was entitled to leave the port. (Otto.) The right of detention must depend, not on the captor being satisfied, but on whether the information which the master affords as to the time and circumstances of the loading, is such as ought to satisfy the captor that she is a privileged ship.

1606. It may sometimes occur that, although the grounds on which the captor suspected the ship or cargo would not have justified the detention, subsequent circumstances or even statements on the part of the master afford him, in "the indulgent consideration" of the prize court, an excuse, such as material variations between the ship's papers and the depositions on the preliminary examination. Leucade.

1607. The sailing under hostile colours, though assumed some time previously, and during a war between her alleged country and another, has been held sufficient to justify detention. Caroline.

1608. It has been held that detention is not justified simply by a vessel's real being different from her ostensible