Letters by Historicus [William Vernon Harcourt] on Some Questions of International Law; Reprinted from "The Times" with Considerable Additions Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1863 edition. Excerpt: ...and sufiiciently near (suflisamment proches). He further demands that the neutral merchant ship, without any regard to the proclamation of blockade, should be at liberty to sail to the blockaded port in order to ascertain for itself, on the spot, the fact of the sufficiency of the blockade, without subjecting itself thereby to any penalty. This is what is called in the French text-books the notgfication speciale. I shall deal with these two requirements separately. The demand that the blockading force should consist of stationary ships, and not of a cruising squadron, is no new pretension. If M. Hautefeuille had reproduced this doctrine as a speculative opinion which he recommended to the acceptance of Europe, no one could have objected to hearing from an ingenious writer what was to be advanced in favour of a very old proposition. But M. Hautefeuille is so constantly in the habit of confounding the distinct provinces of the legislator and the juris peritus that the inextricable mess in which he thus involves his subject deprives his speculations of all credit and authority. What M. I-Iautefeuille's unlearned readers have a right to complain of is that, professing to state what is the clear and unquestionable Law of Nations on this point, he wholly misrepresents it, and lays that down to be clearly established which, in fact, has been not only denied but solemnly resolved in the negative. _ The words of M. Hautefeuille's definition (bcitiments arretes et suflisamment proches) are borrowed from the Convention of the Armed Neutrality of 1780. It remains to consider how far they have ever been admitted or incorporated into the Law of Nations; whether, centsin short, this novel experiment in International Law wa