to confer these extended powers, a large discretion is left to the Government to determine how far they shall be put in operation. But as a fact, this discretion will be more nominal than real; and with the view of precluding international complaints, it will be absolutely null. Whatever power is conferred, in effect creates an obligation on the part of the Government to put it in force, and a responsibility on the part of the nation if any neglect to enforce it should occur. If the Government are authorized to interfere by prosecution and seizure at all stages of the building, then, at the first suggestion of any belligerent power they will be compelled, almost without discretion, to interfere, because, should they decline to do so, their responsibility and that of the nation will be involved, even by an error of judgment, in a case where the obligation is admitted. Thus we shall be made liable for acts for which at present no nation would hold us responsible. The reason why it has been considered inexpedient and impossible to enforce a prohibition of the exportation of munitions of war from the neutral territory is because to do so would involve a system of repression and espionage on the part of the neutral Government which would be wholly intolerable to the trade of its subjects. If the thing is forbidden it is the duty of the neutral Government to see that the prohibition is in fact enforced. But in order to enforce it we must establish on every occasion of war in foreign countries a sort of belligerent excise in the bosom of our own people. And this is precisely the evil in which we shall involve ourselves by undertaking to prohibit "building" with an unlawful intent. If we create and assume this duty we are bound to execute it, and in order to execute it we must ascertain at our own peril the intent and the future destination of every keel laid in the United Kingdom and even in our most distant possessions. If this is done honestly and efficiently it will place the whole ship-building trade under a supervision of a most odious and oppressive description, which would hardly be endured even for the security of our own interests, and certainly will not be tolerated for the advantage of foreign States.

There are those who reconcile themselves to such a course by supposing that in fact this new crime would never practically be prosecuted in its early stage. If so then to what purpose is it created? But in fact if it is made a crime the neutral Government must proceed against it in its earliest inception at the risk of being held responsible for what may happen in its further progress. There is an immense difference in this respect between the offence of arming and fitting out, which, especially in modern warfare, is a fact sufficiently obvious and patent, and may be easily detected in time to prevent the despatch of the vessel. But if all building with a certain intent is to be constituted a crime which it is part of the duty of the Government to repress, then there is not a keel laid, a bolt driven, or plank sawn in any yard in the country which may not at every instant be exposing the nation to a responsibility hitherto unknown.

The objections which forcibly strike me are these:

(1.) We shall create a new duty which it will be difficult and probably impossible to

execute.

(2.) In creating such a duty we shall incur a new responsibility by its non-execution. (3.) The attempt to execute it will be odious to our own subjects, and the failure to execute it will be a just ground of complaint to foreign states.

(4.) We shall be placing the trade of our own country at an uncalled for disadvantage as compared with that of the rest of the world.

Either the creation of this new offence will or will not tend to embarrass and injure the ship-building trade of the country. If it will not (as some believe), it would be satisfactory that this should be clearly established. I confess if I were satisfied of this, my objections to the course proposed would be in a great measure removed. But if, as I believe, the necessity of a perpetual official supervision and interference would greatly hamper, and probably ultimately destroy, this branch of our commerce, that again is a point on which I think the nation has a right to expect that we should afford them the means of forming a sound judgment. It may be that for adequate objects we should be willing to sacrifice such a trade. But it is well that we should estimate the amount of the sacrifice, being as it is wholly gratuitous and without example in the case of other nations. I regret that the Commission have not taken evidence to show how far the proposed prohibition would in fact affect this particular trade and the general naval resources of the country. I venture to think that before any legislation on this matter is attempted, such an inquiry should be instituted. If the preventive powers of detention recommended in the Report are (as I believe) sufficient for all practical purposes and the performance of all legitimate duties, every argument of policy would dissuade us from carrying the law any further.

I entirely share the desire to make abundant provision that the duties of neutrality should be honestly, fully, and effectually carried out. But in creating new duties, which

do not at present exist, either in principle, precedent, or practice, it is worth while to consider whether by exaggerating the obligations of neutrality we are not creating a discouragement to its practice. We may end by making the duties of neutrality so irksome and intolerable, that on a mere calculation of expediency a prudent Government would prefer to go to war. And thus we may defeat the end we have in view by the means we adopt to attain it.

There is one condition of things for which it seems especially necessary to make provision. A contract may be made by a foreign government for the building in this country of an iron-clad in time of peace and without any contemplation of present war. Such vessels require many months for completion and their cost is enormous. The foreign government may have paid several hundred thousand pounds by instalments during the construction of the vessel, and the property in the incomplete vessel will have passed to the foreign government. What is to be done to such a vessel in case the contracting government is involved subsequently in war? Is the vessel to be forfeited and the builder to be prosecuted because he proceeds with a contract which was perfectly lawful when it was made? If so, what chance is there for the future that any foreign government will ever build in England, or indeed that any English builder will venture to undertake their contracts? This singular state of things might easily arise. The recent war between Austria and Prussia lasted less than two months; a vessel might have been contracted for by one of those governments with an English shipbuilder; the vessel might have been half finished before the war, and wholly completed after the war; in respect of the work done before the war and after the war, i.e. for the beginning and ending of the ship, the shipbuilder would be innocent; but in respect of the work done during the few weeks of the war, i.e. for the middle of the ship, he would be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to fine and imprisonment. This may seem an extreme illustration, but it shows the necessity of providing some protection for contracts bona fide made and commenced in time of unless it is intended wholly to prohibit the trade.

peace,

There is one other matter which I should gladly have seen embodied in the recommendations of the Report. A strong feeling has recently grown up against the recognition of belligerent commissions granted to vessels on the high seas, by which such vessels become at once raised to the position of lawful belligerent cruisers, though they start from no belligerent port, and, in fact, derive no support from the natural and legitimate naval resources of those on whose behalf they wage war. It seems to me that for all reasons it is wise to discourage such a practice. As there is no rule of international law which forbids such delivering of commissions on the high seas, we cannot of course refuse to recognize the title of such a cruiser to all the legitimate rights of war in places beyond our jurisdiction. But we are masters of our own actions and our own hospitality within the realm. Though, therefore, we cannot dispute the validity of such a commission on the high seas, or the legality of captures made by such a vessel, we may refuse to admit into our ports any vessel which has not received its commission in a port of its own country. By so doing we should be acting strictly within the principles of the law of nations, and our example would very probably be followed by other maritime states, and thus in the end tend to repress the practice altogether. For this purpose I should have been very glad if the commission had thought fit to recommend that in time of war no armed vessel engaged in hostilities should be admitted into any of our ports which should not hold a commission delivered to it in some port of military or naval equipment actually in the occupation of the government by which she is commissioned.

W. V. HARCOURT.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX No. I.

BRITISH FOREIGN ENLISTMENT ACT.

liable to any punishment or penalty under this Act,
who at any time before the first day of August one
thousand eight hundred and nineteen, within any part
of the United Kingdom, or of the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, or Sark, or at any time before
the first day of November one thousand eight hundred
and nineteen, in any part or place out of the United
Kingdom, or of the said Islands, shall have taken or
accepted, or agreed to take or accept any military
commission, or shall have otherwise enlisted into any
military service as a commissioned or non-commissioned
officer, or shall have enlisted, or entered himself to
enlist, or shall have agreed to enlist or to enter him-
self to serve as a soldier, or shall have served, or
having so served, shall, after the said first day of
August one thousand eight hundred and nineteen,
continue to serve in any warlike or military operation
either as an officer or soldier, or in any other military
capacity, or shall have accepted, or agreed to take or
accept any commission, warrant, or appointment as an
officer, or shall have enlisted or entered himself to
serve, or shall have served, or having so served shall
continue to serve as a sailor or marine, or shall have
been employed or engaged, or shall have served, or
or having so served shall, after the said first day of
August, continue to serve in and on board of any ship
or vessel of war, used or fitted out, or equipped or
intended for any warlike purpose; or shall have en-
gaged, or contracted or agreed to go, or shall have
gone to, or having so gone to shall, after the said first
day of August, continue in any foreign State, country,
Colony, Province, or part of a Province, or to or in
any place beyond the seas, unless such person or per-
sons shall embark at or proceed from some port or
place within the United Kingdom, or the Islands of
Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, or Sark, with intent to
serve as an officer, soldier, sailor, or marine, contrary
to the provisions of this Act, after the said first day of
August, or shall embark or proceed from some port or
place out of the United Kingdom, or the Islands of
Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, or Sark, with such intent
as aforesaid, after the said first day of November, or
who shall, before the passing of this Act, and within
the said United Kingdom, or the said Islands, on or
before the first day of November one thousand eight
hundred and nineteen, in any port or place out of the
said United Kingdom, or the said Islands, have hired,
retained, engaged, or procured, or attempted or en-
deavoured to hire, retain, engage, or procure, any
person or persons whatever to enlist or to enter, or to
engage to enlist or to serve, or be employed in any
such service or employment as aforesaid as an officer,
soldier, sailor, or marine, either in land or sea service,
or to go, or agree to go or embark for the purpose or
with the intent to be so enlisted, entered, or engaged,
or employed contrary to the prohibitions respectively
in this Act contained, anything in this Act contained
to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding; but that
shall be in such
state and condition, and no other, and shall be liable
to such fines, penalties, forfeitures, and disabilities,
and none other, as such person or persons was or
were liable and subject to before the passing of this
Act, and as such person or persons would have been
in, and been liable and subject to, in case this Act and
the said recited Acts by this Act repealed had not
been passed or made.

all and every such persons and person

IV. And be it further enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for any Justice of the Peace residing at or near to any port or place within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, where any offence made punishable by this Act as a misdemeanour shall be committed, on information on oath of any such offence, to issue his warrant for the apprehension of the offender, and to cause him to be brought before such Justice, or any Justice of the Peace; and it shall be lawful for the Justice of the Peace before whom such offender shall be brought, to examine into the nature of the offence upon oath, and to commit such person to gaol, there to remain until delivered by due course of law, unless such offender shall give bail, to the satis

faction of the said Justice, to appear and answer to any information or indictment to be preferred against him, according to law, for the said offence; and that all such offences which shall be committed within that part of the United Kingdom called England, shall and may be proceeded and tried in His Majesty's Court of King's Bench at Westminster, and the venue in such case laid at Westminster, or at the assizes or session of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery, or at any quarter or general sessions of the peace in and for the county or place where such offence was committed; and that all such offences which shall be committed within that part of the United Kingdom called Ireland, shall and may be prosecuted in His Majesty's Court of King's Bench at Dublin, and the venue be laid at Dublin, or at any assizes or session of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery, or at any quarter or general sessions of the peace in and for the county or place where such offence was committed; and all such offences as shall be committed in Scotland shall and may be prosecuted in the Court of Justiciary in Scotland, or any other Court competent to try criminal offences committed within the county, shire, or stewartry within which such offence was committed; and where any offence made punishable by this Act as a misdemeanour shall be committed out of the said United Kingdom, it shall be lawful for any Justice of the Peace residing near to the port or place where such offence shall be committed, on information on oath of any such offence, to issue his warrant for the apprehension of the offender, and to cause him to be brought before such Justice, or any other Justice of the Peace for such place; and it shall be lawful for the Justice of the Peace before whom such offender shall be brought, to examine into the nature of the offence upon oath, and to commit such person to gaol, there to remain till delivered by due course of law, or otherwise to hold such offender to bail to answer for such offence in the Superior Court, competent to try and having jurisdiction to try criminal offences committed in such port or place; and all such offences committed at any place out of the said United Kingdom shall and may be prosecuted and tried in any Superior Court of His Majesty's dominions competent to try and having jurisdiction to try criminal offences committed at the place where such offence shall be committed.

V. And be it further enacted, that in case any ship or vessel, in any port or place within His Majesty's dominions, shall have on board any such person or persons who shall have been enlisted or entered to serve, or shall have engaged, or agreed, or been procured to enlist, or enter, or serve, or who shall be departing from His Majesty's dominions for the purpose and with the intent of enlisting or entering to serve, or to be employed, or of serving or being engaged or employed in the service of any foreign Prince, State, or Potentate, Colony, Province, or part of any Province or people, or of any person or persons exercising or assuming to exercise the powers of Government in or over any foreign Colony, Province, or part of any Province or people, either as an officer, soldier, sailor, or marine, contrary to the provisions of this Act, it shall be lawful for any of the principal officers of His Majesty's Customs where any such officer of the Customs shall be, and in any part of His Majesty's dominions in which there are no officers of His Majesty's Customs, for any Governor, or persons having the chief civil command, upon information on oath given before them respectively, which oath they are hereby respectively authorized and empowered to administer, that such person or persons as aforesaid is or are on board such ship or vessel, to detain and prevent any such ship or vessel, or to cause such ship or vessel to be detained and prevented from proceeding to sea on her voyage with such persons as aforesaid on board: Provided nevertheless, that no principal officer, Governor, or person shall act as aforesaid upon such information upon oath as aforesaid unless the party so informing shall not only have deposed in such information that the person or persons on board