158 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 
“principle that, where an injury has been done by one nation 
“to another, a claim for some appropriate redress arises, and 
“that it is on all accounts desirable that this right should be 
“satisfied by amicable reparation instead of being enforced by 
“war, All civil society reposes on this principle, or on a prin- 
“ciple analogous to this; the society of nations, as well as that 
“which unites the individual members of each particular com- 
“monwealth.” 
Now the capture of private property on the seas, 
it can not be denied, is one of the methods of public 
war. Whether such capture be made by letters of 
marque, or by. regular men-of-war, is immaterial ; in 
either form it. increases the resources of one Belliger- 
ent and it weakens those of the other; and if the 
Neutral fits out [or, in violation of sewer duty, suf 
fers to be fitted out in its ports, which is the same 
thing] cruisers in aid of one of the Belligerents, such 
Neutral becomes a virtual participant in the war, not 
only prolonging it and augmenting its expenses, but 
perhaps producing decisive effects adverse to: the 
other Belligerent. ‘These are the national losses, or, 
as the British Government insists, the indirect, losses, 
inflicted by neglect or omission to discharge the ob- 
ligations of neutrality. ‘ 
In deciding that such losses,—that, in general, 
the national charges of war,—can not by the law of 
nations be regarded as “good foundation for an 
award of compensation or computation of damages 
between nations,” the Tribunal in effect relegated 
that question to the unexplored field of the discre- 
tion of sovereign States. 
Claims of indemnity for the national losses grow- 
