100 THE TREATY OF WASIlfXGTON. 



5. "Tlie absence of a previous notice can not be regarded as 

 a failure in any consideration required by the law of nations, 

 in those cases in which a vessel carries with it its own con- 

 demnation. 



6. " In order to impart to any supplies of coal a character 

 inconsistent with the second Rule, prohibiting the use of neu- 

 tral ports or waters, as a base of naval operations for the Bel- 

 ligerent, it is necessary that the said supplies should be con- 

 nected with special circumstances of time, of persons, or of 

 place, Avhich may combine to give them such character." 



Keeping in view these rules of construction, tlie 

 Tribunal p'oceeds to judge the British Government 

 in regard to each of the Confederate cruisers before 

 them. 



As to the Alahama, originally "No. 290," construct- 

 ed in the port of Liverpool and armed near Terceira, 

 through the agency of the Ag?'ij)jnna and Baliama, 

 dispatched from Great Britain to that end, the Tri- 

 bunal decides that the British Government failed to 

 use due diligence in the performance of its neutral 

 obligations : 



1. Because "it omitted, notwithstanding the warnings and 

 official representations made by the diplomatic agents of the 

 United States during the construction of the said 'No. 290,' to 

 take in due time any effective measures of prevention, and that 

 those orders which it did give at last, for the detention of the 

 vessel, were issued so late that their execution was not prac- 

 ticable;" 2. Because, " after the escape of that vessel, the meas- 

 ures taken for its pursuit and arrest were so imperfect as to 

 lead to no result, and therefore can not be considered sufficient 

 'to release Great Britain from the responsibility already in- 

 curred;"" 3. liecausc, "in despite of the violations of the neu- 

 trality of Great Britain committed by the ' 290,' this same ves- 

 sel, later known as the Confederate cruiser Alahama, was on 

 several occasions freely admitted into the ports of Colonies of 



