RIGHT TO PROTECT INTERESTS AND INDUSTRY. 161 



It has been said that the right of search is confined to a time of war. 

 That assertion proceeds upon the ground that only in time of war can 

 the necessity for it arise. No one has over claimed that the right 

 should be denied in time of peace, if an equal necessity for it exists. 

 And when such necessity has been regarded as existing, the right has 

 been asserted. Prior to the war of 1S12, between the United States 

 and Great Britain, the latter country claimed the right in time of peace 

 to search American ships on the high seas for British subjects serving 

 as seamen. Though the war grew out of this claim, it was not relin- 

 quished by Great Britain when a treaty of peace was made. It has 

 been disused, but never abandoned. The objection to it on the part of 

 the United States was the obvious one that it was founded upon no 

 just necessity or propriety. Had it been a measure in any reasonable 

 sense necessary to self-defense on the part of Great Britain, its claim 

 would have rested on a very different foundation, and would have been 

 supported by the analogy of all similar cases. The right of search is 

 exercised without question as against private vessels suspected of being 

 engaged in the slave trade. And it is very apparent, that as the in- 

 creasing exigencies of international intercourse of all kinds render it 

 necessary, the principle that allows it in time of war will be found suf- 

 ficient to allow it in time of peace. The rule, as has been seen, grows 

 out of necessity alone, and must therefore extend with the necessity. 



Lord Aberdeen, in a letter of 20th of December, 1811, to Mr. Everett, 

 American minister (British and Foreign State Papers, vol. 30, p. 1177), 

 claims the right of visitation of vessels on high seas in time of peace, 

 far enough at least to ascertain their nationality. And in his dispatch 

 to Mr. Fox, says: 



Lord Stowell in the well-known case of the Swedish convoy, whatever be the ships, 

 whatever be the cargoes, whatever be the destinations, is an incontestable right of 

 the lawfully commissioned ship of a belligerent nation ; because, till they are visited 

 and searched, it does not appear what the ships, or the cargoes, or the destinations 

 .are; and it is for the purpose of ascertaining these points that the necessity of this 

 right of visitation and search exists." 



Every vessel is bound to submit to visitation and search, whether it be the vessel 

 of a friend or of ;n ally or even of a subject; and submission may be compelled, if 

 necessary, by force of arms, without giving claim for any damage incurred thereby, 

 if the vessel upon visitation should be found not liable to bo detained. * * * 

 If the vessel be neutral, a belligerent is entitled to ascertain whether there, is a con- 

 traband of war or enemy's dispatches or military or naval officers of the enemy on 

 board. 



"If the master of a neutral vessel resists by force (the right of search) that is a 

 ground of confiscation, and consequently of capture." (Wildman's Rights of Ves- 

 sels, chap. 2, p. 6.) 



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