any degree of hardship on the fair convenience of commerce, the Court has held, even when the blockade of a port in Europe has been notified in America, that the merchants of that country might still clear out conditionally for the blockaded port, on the supposition that before the arrival of the vessel a relaxation might have taken place. But as to the line of caution to be observed in this state of uncertainty, the Court has always expected that the enquiry should be made at some of the British ports in the Channel. It could not be, that ships should be permitted to resort to the ports of the blockaded country for the information, since every one must perceive that such a liberty would place it in the power of the enemy to determine the continuance of the blockade. The ports of the blockading country are certainly the proper ports for enquiry; and it would not be too much to expect, that this precaution should be noted in the papers, and that it should be most explicitly enjoined on the master and supercargo in their instructions to obtain the information, which might be necessary to fix the destination, at some of the British ports in the Channel 53"

54

In another case 5 Lord Stowell declared it "to be a measure of necessary caution and of preventive legal policy to hold the rule general against the liberty of enquiring at the very mouth of the blockaded port, as such a liberty would amount in practice to an universal license to enter, and on being prevented to claim the liberty to go elsewhere." On the other hand, the Lords of Appeal in Prize Causes have ruled that it was not a necessary ground for condemnation, that the captain of an American vessel had instruc

53 The Shepherdess, 5 Ch. Rob. p. 265. The Betsey, I Ch. Rob. P. 335.

54 The Spes and Irene, 5 Ch. Rob. p. 81. Cf. The Posten, I Ch. Rob. note, p. 336.

tions to make enquiry of the cruising vessels off the Eyder respecting the existence of the blockade of the River Elbe 55, and that he had not, in fact, made enquiry during the prosecution of his voyage up the Channel in some British Port. They have also ruled that the captain of an American vessel might be instructed to go to Heligoland for a pilot, and there make enquiry if the blockade of the Weser was raised, without thereby exposing his vessel to condemnation for violation of the blockade. But the Lords of Appeal have held in all such cases that, in order to entitle the claimants to the favourable consideration of the Prize Tribunal, the strictest proof of bona fides is required, as the presumption of law in the absence of such proof would be adverse to the claimant of the ship and cargo.

able Con

§ III. After the blockade of a port has once been established, every neutral vessel, the master of which voluntarily attempts to enter the port with his vessel either in ballast, or in cargo, without a license from the Government of the blockading Power, is liable to capture and condemnation for breach of the blockade. A license, however, which is expressed in general terms, to authorise a ship to sail from any port in the FavourBaltic with a cargo, will not authorise the same vessel struction of to sail from a blockaded port with a cargo taken in Licenses. there. To exempt a blockaded port from the restrictions incident to a state of blockade it must be specially designated with such an exemption in the license; otherwise a blockaded port will be taken as an exception to the general description in the license 57. Licenses however are to be favourably regarded; and it imports the honour and good faith of a Government 57 The Byfield, Edwards, p.

55 The Little William, Acton, p. 141.

56 The Dispatch, Ibid. p. 163.

188.

which grants them, not to press the letter of them too rigorously. Thus a license to go to the ports of the Vlie, Embden, Rotterdam, or elsewhere, was granted by the British Government to an American vessel, which on arriving at Falmouth had found that the port of Amsterdam was under blockade. It was held by Lord Stowell 58 that the license must be taken to include Amsterdam, as being one of the ports of the Vlie. So a license granted to import Spanish wool from Holland, dated on the day of the date of the Notification of the blockade of Holland, was interpreted to give the parties the full benefit of importing such articles without molestation from the blockading squadron 59. If however the master of a neutral vessel should have been involuntarily driven to enter a blockaded port by stress of weather, or want of provisions, or need of water, or by some other imperative and overruling necessity, such necessity will excuse him from the charge of violating the blockade, if his vessel should be captured. But it will not be sufficient for him in such a case to show that there were existing and adequate causes to explain the circumstance of his vessel seeking refuge in the blockaded port; it must be established beyond a doubt, that the vessel under the circumstances could not have proceeded without hazard to any other port than the blockaded port, in other words, that the necessity was imperative.

Breach of § 112. A vessel coming out of a blockaded port is by egress. prima facie liable to seizure, and if the cargo has

blockade

been taken on board since the commencement of the

58 The Juno, 2 Ch. Rob. p. 116.

59 The Hoffnung, 2 Ch. Rob. P. 162.

60 The Fortuna, 6 Ch. Rob.

P. 27.

61 The Hurtige Hane, 2 Ch. Rob. p. 127. The Arthur, Ed

wards, p. 263. The Charlotta, Ibid. p. 232.

blockade, both ship and cargo will be liable to condemnation 62. "A blockade," says Lord Stowell, "is just as much violated by a vessel passing outwards as inwards. A blockade is a sort of circumvallation round a place, by which all foreign connection and correspondence is, as far as human force can effect it, to be entirely cut off. It is intended to suspend the entire commerce of the place, and a neutral is no more at liberty to assist the traffic of exportation than of importation. The utmost that can be allowed to a neutral vessel, is, that having already taken on board a cargo, before the blockade begins, she may be at liberty to retire with it. But it must be considered as a rule, which this Court means to apply, that a neutral ship, departing, can only take away a cargo bona fide purchased and delivered before the commencement of the blockade. If she afterwards takes on board a cargo, it is a fraudulent act and a violation of the blockade 63.5 The United States' Courts have held the same doctrine 64. Further, it is not necessary, that the whole of the cargo should be laden on board after the blockade has commenced, in order to render the departure of the vessel from the blockaded port an unlawful act. When any portion of the cargo has been taken on board after the existence of the blockade is known in the port, the act of egress is treated as a fraud against the right of the belligerent. This rule of the Prize Courts is founded on the principle that the interposition of a neutral in any way to assist in exporting goods from an enemy's port, after a blockade of that port has been established, tends directly to relieve the enemy

"

62 The Frederick Molke, 1 Ch. wards, p. 33. Rob. p.

86.

63 The Vrow Judith, 1 Ch. Rob. p. 152. The Comet, Ed

64 Oliveira v. Union Insurance Company, 3 Wheaton, p. 183.

Egress lawful in certain cases.

from the distress which the blockade was intended to create, and that the continuing to take in cargo after the time when the master of the neutral vessel was bound to take notice of the blockade, is inconsistent with good faith towards the blockading power65.

§ 113. It has been already observed that neutral vessels, which have entered an enemy's port before that port has been placed under blockade, may come out in ballast without violating the blockade, for their egress under those conditions cannot in any way prejudice the blockading power 66; and neutral vessels may also come out of a blockaded port without violating the blockade, if they have been compelled to enter it, after the blockade has been established, from stress of weather or other imperative necessity. Neutral vessels are also at liberty to come out without molestation if they have entered the port under the authority of a license from the Government of the blockading Power; for such license to enter the port implies a permission to come out of it. Again, a neutral vessel does not violate a blockade by reshipping and bringing out of a blockaded port goods which have been sent into the port before the blockade by a neutral merchant for sale, and which have been found unsalable, and are bona fide withdrawn by the owners. Again, a neutral vessel may take on board, and bring out after the commencement of a blockade a cargo, which has been purchased by a neutral merchant from the enemy during the blockade, if there be a well founded expectation of an immediate war between the country of the neutral merchant and that to which the blockaded port be

65 The Calypso, 2 Ch. Rob. p. 298.

66 The Juno, 2 Ch. Rob.

p. 119.

67 The Charlotta, Edwards, P. 252.

68 The Juffrow Maria Schroeder, in notis, 4 Ch. Rob. p. 89.