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reckoned prohibited. It includes "all sorts of cloaths," and all other woven manufactures; wearing apparel and the stuffs therefor; gold and silver, whether coined or not; metals by name; coals; grain; tobacco; provisions, including wine, salt, &c.; cotton, hemp, flax, anchors, masts, and other ships' fittings, and all other goods not worked into any warlike form. All such non-prohibited goods to be freely carried, even to the enemy's ports, always excepting ports or places under blockade or investment. The circumstance that a treaty expressly sets forth that certain named goods are not to be regarded as contraband, not unnaturally suggests that in the absence of any such agreement it might be open to doubt whether such goods are contraband or not. Some of the articles thus declared to be free are, or at any rate at that time were, certainly by the law of nations liable to be forfeited. The law of nations, in fact, may be taken to be based on the broad principle that a belligerent is entitled to prevent the conveyance of any goods to the enemy calculated to assist him in carrying on the war.

The treaty of commerce formulated in 1796 between Great Britain and the United States sets forth that under the denomination contraband of war shall be comprised all arms and implements serving for the purposes of war by land or by sea, and mentions by name as examples various arms, accoutrements, and warlike implements, including horse furniture and saltpetre. Sulphur is not specially mentioned; and it could, perhaps, scarcely be regarded as within the general head of arms and implements serving for the purposes of war. The treaty then goes on to notice under the same denomination. timber for ship-building, tar or rosin, copper in sheets, sails, hemp and cordage, and generally whatever may serve directly for the equipment of vessels, unwrought iron and fir planks only excepted; all such articles to be just objects of contraband whenever attempted to be carried to an enemy.

After enumerating the goods absolutely contraband, reference is made in the treaty to the subject of "provisions and other articles not generally contraband," but liable to be regarded as such. In order to avoid inconveniences and misunderstandings likely to arise in connexion with such articles, the treaty provides that any "articles so becoming contraband according to the existing law of nations" shall, on seizure, not be confiscated; but that the owners shall be "speedily and completely indemnified" by payment of full value, together with a reasonable mercantile profit, the freight, and any demurrage incident to the detention.

The treaty concluded between Great Britain and Brazil in 1827 adopts, with one exception, the above list of goods to be deemed contraband. The exception, as pointed out by Twiss, is that whereas the 1796 treaty includes "whatever may serve directly for the equipment of vessels," the 1827 treaty with Brazil substitutes for the word "vessels" the phrase "vessels of war."

The treaty of 1796 is interesting as comprising a clearly defined list of articles to be deemed absolute contraband, whilst recognising the fact that there are other goods liable to be regarded as such, but that, as to these, they shall be the subjects of pre-emption and not of confiscation. When war was in progress against Russia in 1854, all Russian ports were invested by the allied fleets; consequently no question of contraband could well arise. In 1877, on the outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Turkey, the former power published a Decree, article vi. of which declared the following to be contraband, viz:

Small arms and artillery, mounted or in detached pieces; ammunition for fire-arms, such as projectiles, fuses for shells, balls, priming, cartridges, cartridge cases, powder, saltpetre, sulphur, explosive materials and ammunition, such as mines, torpedoes, dynamite, pyroxyline, and

other fulminating substances; artillery, engineering, and transport materials, such as gun carriages, caissons, cartridge boxes, campaigning forges, canteens, pontoons, &c.; articles of military equipment and attire, such as pouches, cartridge boxes, bags, cuirasses, sappers' tools, drums, saddles and harness, articles of military dress, tents, &c., and generally everything destined for military or naval forces.

These articles, when found on board neutral ships and destined for an enemy's port, to be liable to seizure and confiscation, except the quantity necessary for the use of the ship on which the seizure was made.

It is clear that the law of nations as regards contraband goods cannot be settled by a declaration on the part of any one nation, for such a declaration for war purposes might well omit from the list of contraband some articles which, in the case of another nation, might be regarded as essentially noxious. And if a list should be published enumerating, under the head of contraband of war, articles not previously commonly so regarded, the fact might create controversy and perhaps difficulties between the declarant and neutral powers. On the general principle, however, that a belligerent shall be allowed to prohibit the shipment to the enemy of all goods calculated to increase or prolong the resistance of the latter, reasonable or even indulgent latitude should presumably be permitted to such belligerent in his enumeration of the goods which he regards as coming, in his case, within this description. And if such isolated declarations are not to be looked upon as expositions of the public law respecting contraband, it is obvious that no mere international treaties can have any greater effect. This law, however, being as to its practice by no means clearly laid down, it is at least interesting to consider its application by such light as may

be thrown upon it by international treaties, and especially by the public declarations of belligerents. As we have seen, some articles are so obviously contraband that even to specify them in a proclamation might seem superfluous. Others, again, are so clearly of a non-warlike character that a neutral may ship them to a belligerent without fear of the risk of confiscation. It is the third class-the goods ancipitis ususwhich creates the difficulty. Whether goods of this class can properly be confiscated or not will depend upon various circumstances-circumstances connected with the destination, the probable use, and especially with the place of production. The subject of such goods is important and demands special consideration.

Goods of Equivocal Nature. (In past times.)—The articles specially coming under this head, according to the views held in earlier days, would seem to be in the main the following, viz.:

Naval stores generally, including specially tar, pitch, resin, hemp, cordage, sailcloth, tallow, masts, spars, planks, anchors, copper sheets, and the like. Naval stores being prohibited, ships suitable for warlike uses would naturally be similarly regarded. Horses, saddles, and money have also been regarded as contraband. Corn and provisions stand on a somewhat different footing, as will appear presently.

Such articles were or were not regarded as contraband according to their destination (?). If destined for a purely trading port of the enemy they were more probably held to be pacific goods. If, on the other hand, they were seized on their way to a governmental naval port or arsenal, they were deemed contraband, and were confiscated accord

(1) Sailcloth, according to The Neptunus, 3 Rob. 108, has been universally contraband.

ingly (m). It was not all timber which was liable to confiscation it had to be made clear that the timber was of such lengths and dimensions as to "directly serve" for shipbuilding (n). But articles of mixed shipbuilding use, partly innocent and partly noxious, were liable to condemnation as a whole (o). Masts were, in the case of The Charlotte (p) and The Staadt Embden (q), expressly declared to be contraband per se. In the case of The Twende Brodre (r), with, a mixed timber cargo from Christiansand to St. Malo or Brest, the cargo was restored on the ground that it was not of a kind. used in naval construction. But ship-timber was apparently not in all cases necessarily contraband, even if bound to a hostile military port. So at least it was decided, in 1807, by the Council of Prizes at Paris, where the Council decided against the captors on the ground that the timber was of an ordinary character, and not exclusively applicable to the building of ships of war (s). Tallow, again, whilst contraband to a port of naval equipment, was not so regarded if shipped to a purely mercantile port (†).

The subject of the contraband nature of naval stores was a fertile source of dispute between Great Britain and the Baltic Powers throughout the eighteenth century, and various special stipulations were made from time to time respecting these articles. The practice of this country was, in Sir W. Scott's time, to relax the prohibition against the shipment of pitch and tar to the enemy's country when such goods were the

(m) The Jonge Margaretha, 1 Rob. 194; The Peterhoff, Blatch. Pr. Ca.

463.

(n) The Eendraght, 1 Rob. 23.

(0) The Eleonora Wilhelmina, 6 Rob. 331.

(p) 5 Rob. 305.

(2) 1 Rob. 29.

(r) 4 Rob. 33.

(s) Maritime Warfare, p. 257.

(t) The Neptunus, 3 Rob. 108.

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