I9I2.] MOORE— CONTRABAND OF WAR. 31 



security to dispose of such cargo in a country in amity with Great 

 Britain. The British government assumed to justify this order on 

 the ground that by the law of nations, as laid down by the most 

 modern writers, and particularly by Vattel, all provisions were to 

 be considered as contraband, and as such liable to confiscation, where 

 the depriving an enemy of them was one of the means intended to 

 be employed for reducing him to reasonable terms of peace ; and 

 that the actual situation of France rendered this reasoning pecu- 

 liarly applicable, not only because the scarcity there was caused by 

 the unusual measure of arming almost the whole laboring class of 

 the nation, but also because the trade was to be regarded, not as a 

 mercantile speculation of individuals, but as an immediate operation 

 of the very persons who had declared war and were carrying it on 

 against Great Britain. On these considerations, said the British 

 government, the powers at war would have been perfectly justifiable 

 if they had considered all provisions as contraband and had directed 

 them as such to be brought in for confiscation, but they had only 

 sought to prevent the French from being supplied with com, omit- 

 ting all mention of other provisions, and even in respect of com, 

 instead of confiscating the cargoes, had secured to the proprietors, 

 if neutral, a full indemnity for any loss they might sustain. 



The United States on the other hand declared that the position 

 that provisions were contraband in the case where the depriving an 

 enemy of them was one of the means intended to be employed for 

 reducing him to reasonable terms of peace, or in any case but that 

 of a place actually blockaded, was entirely new ; that reason and 

 usage had established that, when two nations went to war, those 

 \^ho chose to live in peace retained their natural right to pursue their 

 agriculture, manufactures, and other ordinary vocations, and to 

 carry the produce of their industry, for exchange, to all nations, 

 belligerent or neutral, except that they must not furnish implements 

 of war to the belligerents or send anything to a blockaded place. 

 Implements of war destined to a belligerent were treated as con- 

 traband, and were subject to seizure and confiscation. Corn, flour, 

 and meal were not, said the United States, of the class of contra- 

 band, and consequently remained articles of free commerce. The 



