xxii LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL 275 



Paris, July 12th, 1889. 



My dear Sir John — I must apologise for having left 

 your letter of the 8th three days unanswered ; but the 

 subject of it was too important for hasty reply. 



Personally, I have always thought that the Declara- 

 tion of Paris went either too far, or not far enough ; and 

 that, having precluded ourselves from issuing letters of 

 Marque, or seizing enemies' goods under neutral flags, 

 we made an immense mistake in opposing the Exemption 

 of private ships from capture. I believe that our accept- 

 ance of this principle at the time would have secured the 

 adhesion of America and Spain to the Declaration of 

 1856. But, as matters now stand, the difficulty of 

 obtaining its adoption by the other Maritime Powers of 

 Europe (especially if such a proposal were to emanate 

 from us) lies in the obviousness as well as the magnitude 

 of the advantage we should derive from it. We have 

 the largest navy and the largest carrying trade : and I 

 fear that no European Power which approaches this 

 question from the point of view of a possible belligerent 

 would now be disposed to centuple the strength of our 

 large navy by relieving it from the necessity of protecting 

 our large carrying trade. 



Without actually making the proposal, I cannot 

 ascertain for certain how it would be received by the 

 present French Government. But I have the strongest 

 impression, that at the present moment, it would have 

 no chance of a favourable reception. 



I am collecting, and hope to be able to send you 

 shortly, the opinions of French Jurisconsults on the 

 expediency of treating private property at sea like private 

 property on land in time of war. These opinions, if in 

 the main favourable, might perhaps be usefully cited in 

 any international discussion of the question in the event 

 of a propitious occasion for raising such a discussion. 

 But they would have no influence over the French 

 Government in its practical consideration of the question 

 from a belligerent point of view : and that is the point 

 of view which would be of paramount importance to 

 any French Government at the present moment. In 

 the event of War between France and England, or 

 between France and any other country looking to the 

 naval support of England, it would undoubtedly be the 

 object of France to tie up our navy as much as possible, 



