JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 9I 



damages done by the Alabama to the Northern commerce during 

 the war of secession. England has also retained for many years on 

 her statute books a foreign enlistment act, and she has recently 

 strengthened its provisions. This act prevents the fitting out of war- 

 like expeditions in Great Britain or her colonies to be used against 

 powers with which Great Britain is at peace. It was under the pro- 

 visions of this act that the Jamieson Raiders were tried and 

 punished. Thus we see that from the rudimentary propositions of 

 international law, which contemplate no other relations than those 

 of war and peace, in which if hostilities broke out between two . 

 states, every other was an ally or an enemy. A third attitude has 

 become recognized as possible and legitimate, namely, that of 

 neutral. 



Contraband of war was not covered by the declaration of Paris, 

 nor was the case of ships endeavoring to obtain entrance to a block- 

 aded port. This branch of international law is both complex and 

 difificult, and much of its difficulty arises from the question as to 

 what is or is not contraband of war. Indeed the test of what is 

 contraband is not yet settled, but it may be generally stated that 

 things which are only used for war are contraband, and things which 

 ase both useful for war and for peace may be declared contraband ; 

 e.g.^ coal was declared contraband by Great Britain in the recent 

 war with Spain. 



Let us now turn to the mitigation of war. The humane ten- 

 dency of the present age cannot be denied. Take the case of the 

 treatment of the wounded and the prisoners. At first they were 

 tortured, then killed, as in a Roman triumph ; then in mediaeval 

 times there appears to have been rather ignorance and carelessness 

 than actual cruelty ; but it is only in modern times that friend and 

 foe alike receive the care of the surgeon and the comfort of the 

 hospital. 



One reason of this humane tendency is that neutrals check 

 belligerents. Manuals of rules and usages for the use of officers in 

 the field have been compiled by England, Germany and France. 

 The poisoning of water and food is absolutely forbidden, but the 

 stoppage of supplies is still recognized. The use of poisoned 

 weapons, or weapons calculated to produce unnecessary pain, e.g., a 

 bursting bullet, is prohibited. Still nations verge on the rules laid 



