HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
tish islands were declared to be in 
a state of blockade ; all subjects of 
England found in countries occu- 
pied by French troops were de- 
clared prisoners of war, and all 
English property was declared law- 
ful prize; all letters addressed to 
Englishmen or written in the Eng- 
lish language were ordered to be 
_ stopped; all commerce in English 
produce and manufactures was 
prohibited ; and all vessels touching 
at England or any English colony, 
were excluded from every harbour 
under the controul of France. The 
pretext for these infringements of 
the law and practice of civilized 
Naticas was founded, partly, on the 
extension given by England to the 
right of blockade, and partly on 
the difference in the laws of war 
by sea and by land. By land the 
_ property of ai enemy is not con- 
sidered lawful prize, unless it be- 
longs to the hostile state. By sea 
the property of unarmed, peaceable 
merchants is liable to capture and 
confiscation. By land no one is 
considered a prisoner of war who is 
not taken with arms in his hands, 
By sea the crews of merchantmen 
are considered prisoners of war 
equally with the crews of armed 
vessels. For these reasons the 
French emperor declared, that the 
regulations of the decree, which he 
now promulgated, ‘‘ should be 
regarded as a fundamental law of 
the French empire, till England 
recognized the law of war to be one 
and the same by sea and by land, 
and in no case applicable to private 
property or to individuals not bear- 
ing arms ; and till she consented to 
restrict the right of blockade to 
fortifed places actually invested by 
a sufficient force.” 
Oa these reasons we shal! mercly 
201 
observe, that the superiority of 
England by sea being at that time 
as greatand undisputed as the’superi- 
ority of France was by land, the 
difference between the laws of war 
by sea and by land was entirely to 
the advantage of England and to the 
disadvantage of France; and in 
these circumstances it was not unna- 
tural for the French emperor to 
attempt either to confine hostilities 
at sea within the same limits to 
which they were restricted by land, 
or to extend to a war by land all 
the rights claimed and exercised by 
belligerents at sea, But, though’ 
it was the interest of France to 
attempt such an innovation in 
public law, the decree was not 
less an innovation of the most per- 
nicious -kind, on account of its 
tendency to revive the ancient 
laws of war, which the progress of 
civilization had gradually softened. 
Nor was the assertion in the pre- 
amble of the decree less a falsehood, 
that. the conduct of England is 
not conformable to the law followed 
by other civilized states, and Jaid 
down and approved of as the law 
of nations; for the law of Eng- 
land with respect to blockade and 
capture at sea is the same, which 
all writers on public law have held, 
and all nations, France not except- 
ed, have followed. That part of the 
decree, which declared the British 
islands to be in a state of blockade, 
at a time when the fleets of ‘France 
and her allies were confined within 
their ports by the naval forces of 
England, was an empty menace, 
which the French government had 
no power to enforce, nor as it 
afterwards appeared, any intention 
to act upon. But those parts of 
the deeree which prohibited all 
commerce in English produce or 
manufactures, 
