196 



BLOCKADE. 



ed the precepts and doctrines of such men as 

 Chancellor Kent and Justice Story quite com- 

 petent to pronounce judgment according to 

 law, and who, I believe, would not have de- 

 parted from the law in their decisions in such 

 cases. But I do not find that there has been 

 any real discussion in the prize courts of Amer- 

 ica, except, perhaps, in one or two instances, 

 with respect to the efficiency of the blockade. 

 I must confess to the noble lord that the many 

 instances which are given by Consul Bunch 

 and others of the vessels which have run the 

 blockade, induce me to consider the whole of 

 this question with a view to deciding what the 

 course of the Government should be. But, in 

 saying that many vessels have run the block- 

 ade, I think there is great exaggeration, and 

 there is great misapprehension when lists of 

 vessels are given which are, in fact, vessels 

 belonging to the Southern ports, which run out 

 of creeks and creep through shallow waters in 

 order to reach another port on the same coast. 

 These are mostly small vessels from fifty to 

 three hundred and fifty tons, and it is stated in 

 one of these letters that they cannot be regard- 

 ed as vessels of such size and importance as to 

 argue that the blockade was inefficient which 

 allowed them to escape. Your lordships know 

 very well that in 1806 the Government of this 

 country announced a blockade extending from 

 Brest to Dunkirk, but during that and other 

 blockades which we instituted on the French 

 coast there were many coasting vessels which 

 went from one port of France to another, en- 

 tirely escaping the blockade. But would that 

 have justified either America or any other neu- 

 tral power in saying, " This blockade is ineffec- 

 tive, and we will not acknowledge it, and we 

 require you to give up the vessels which you 

 have seized for breach of blockade." It cer- 

 tainly would not have justified such a course. 

 But there is another consideration. Has the 

 Southern coast had a free and uninterrupted com- 

 munication with Europe? Have your lordships 

 heard that cotton has arrived in its usual quanti- 

 ties here, and that the manufactures of Great 

 Britain and France have arrived freely at the 

 ports of the States which are now in a state of 

 civil war ? On the contrary, the intelligence 

 which we have received shows that there has 

 been no such uninterrupted intercourse, but 

 that^ great inconvenience has been suffered by 

 the inhabitants of these Southern States, owing 

 to the existence of that blockade which is said 

 to be ineffective. On the question of the ef- 

 ficiency of the blockade it was desirable to 

 consult the law officers of the Crown ; and after 

 having done so I wrote the despatch to Lord 

 Lyons, stating that : 



Her Majesty's Government, however, are of opinion 

 that, assuming that the blockade is duly notified, and 

 also that a number of ships is stationed and remains 

 at the entrance of a port sufficient really to prevent 

 access to it or to create an evident danger of entering 

 or leaving it, and that these ships do not voluntarily 

 permit ingress or egress, the fact that various ships 

 may have successfully escaped 'through it will not of 



itself prevent the blockade from being an effective one 

 by international law. 



This was the deliberate opinion of her Maj- 

 esty's Government on the subject. I cannot 

 give the papers to which the noble lord refers, 

 on the very ground on which he asks for them. 

 He says, perhaps there may be papers that may 

 show the blockade he thinks ineffective may 

 really have been effective. There are no such 

 papers ; there are no papers that can make the 

 case stronger for the Government than those 

 which have been given: the Government is 

 willing to leave your lordships to judge the 

 case from the whole effect of the papers that 

 have been already printed. As to any repre- 

 sentations from the Government of France that 

 it considered the blockade ineffective, I must 

 state that no such communication has ever been 

 made to her Majesty's Government. The noble 

 Lord has asked whether the Government of 

 the Southern States acknowledges the second 

 and fourth articles of the Declaration of Paris. 

 It has declared that it does acknowledge them. 

 We have entered into no engagement with that 

 Government. It is our duty to see that the 

 Declaration of Paris is agreed to independent- 

 ly of any such engagement ; that is our duty 

 with regard to all neutral nations, and with 

 regard to the peace of the world. 



The subject came up before the French 

 Legislature about March 13, when M. Gal vert 

 Rognait said : " I wish to examine whether the 

 blockade of the Southern ports is maintained 

 by a force respectable enough to constitute this 

 danger. I assert," said the speaker, " that it is 

 not, and think that no more conclusive proof 

 of my assertion can be given than the very long 

 catalogue of ships of all sorts which have en- 

 tered or quitted these ports since the notifica- 

 tion of the blockade. Authentic documents, 

 letters from honorable merchants and ship- 

 owners, show that any ship leaving for South 

 America can be insured by a premium of 7i to 

 15 per cent." The honorable member went on 

 to say that Earl Russell had written a despatch 

 to Lord Lyons to the effect that, although many 

 ships had forced a passage, still the block- 

 ade of the port of Charleston had been regu- 

 larly announced; and that, as ships of the 

 American navy had been charged with its main- 

 tenance, there was ground to regard it as effect- 

 ive. In that despatch Lord Russell departed 

 widely from the declarations of the Paris Trea- 

 ty, and from the language of the circular of the 

 French Minister of Commerce. 



In reply, M. Billault, on the part of the Gov- 

 ernment, said : " One of the honorable mem- 

 bers has expressed doubts as to whether the 

 blockade established by the Northern States is 

 effective, and appears to see an opposition be- 

 tween English and French tendencies on the 

 subject. Such is not the case. The principles 

 laid down by the two governments as to the 

 conditions necessary to render the blockade 

 effective have been mutually accepted. Earl 

 Russell has laid down the principle that the 



