We have seen some powers claiming the rights of neutrality even while they were furnishing the greatest part of their troops, and contributing principally to the resisting of the enemy and the continuation of the war ; but imperious circumstances and motives of policy only can induce the enemy to treat such powers as neuter.
When two powers become allies in form, by carrying on the war in common, and with all their forces, with out doubt they may and ought to be treated as enemies by the adverse party.
1. To observe a fierfeet neutrality a state must,iirat, Abstain from all participation in warlike expeditions. Second, It must grant or refuse nothing to one of the belligerent powers, which may be useful or necessary to such power in prosecuting the war, without granting or refusing it to the adverse party ; or, at least, it must. not establish an inequality, in order to favour one of the parties more than the other.
The moment a neutral power deviates from these rules, its neutrality is no longer perfect, but limited: and, indeed, though neutral states sometimes promise more, and enter into a sort of conventional neutrality, a limited neutrality is all that the laws of neutrality impose.
2. It is now generally acknowledged that a neutral pow er ought not to transport to either of the belligerent powers merchandises unequivocally intended for warlike purposes. The list of these merchandises, commonly called contraband, has been differently composed in dif ferent treaties of commerce. Sometimes this list has been swelled out with merchandises which are not evi dently and unequivocally intended for the purposes of war, though they may be useful to the enemy ; and at other times such merchandises have been expressly declared not contraband. This last ought to be presumed also between powers that have no treaty with each other.
Besides this, the maritime powers have begun, especi ally since the latter end of the 17th century, to issue de clarations at the beginning of a war, advertising neutral powers that they shall look upon such and suc?i mer chandises as contraband, and forewarning them of the penalties they intend to inflict on those who shall be .ound conveying them to the enemy. These declarations are rather advertisements than laws ; nor can their effects be by any means extended to those neutral powers with which the powers that issue them have treaties of commerce in which the matter is settled.
3. When a prize has been made, the captor cannot ap propriate it to his own use till it has been condemned as a lawful prize, in a court of admiralty.
The customary, as well as conventional law, authorizes every sovereign in Europe to institute courts of admiral ty and other superior tribunt•ds, vested with full power to determine on the legality or illegality of all prizes made by his subjects.
In trials of this kind the original proprietors of the prize, or those who claim in their stead, are required to prove that the prize is not a lawful one. In other respects, it is not the laws of the country where the court is held, but exist ing treaties and the universal law of nations, that ought to be the basis on which all decisions of this sort should he founded.
4. During the latter wars of the late century, the neutral powers complained that the belligerent powers, and Great Britain in particular, had encroached on their rights of neu trality, either in swelling out beyond just bounds the list of contraband merchandises, or in giving the notion of a bloc kaded place a too extensive construction ; or in vexatious examinations of their vessels, and particularly in deviating from the print;ple established by toe customs and treaties of the scvviiteenth century, according to which (is was :Meg, mutual vessels save neutral goods. Iu conse guy ilve of these imputed encroachments, the Empress of Russia drew up in 1780, at which time she was among the neutral powers, certain principles relative to neutral com merce, wnich she communicated to the belligerent powers, accompanied with a declaration that she would maintain them by force of arms. Hence the system of armed nell trahty.
5. The principles of the system of armed neutrality arc, first, That neutral powers have a right to enjoy a free trade with the ports and roads of the belligerent powers ; second, That neutral vessels make neutral goods, that is, that ene my's goods found in neutral vessels ought not to be confis cated ; third, That no merchandises shall be reputed con traband which have not been declared so in treaties made with the belligerent powers, or one of them ; fourth, That a place shall not be looked upon as blockaded, except when surrounded by the enemy's vessels in such a manner as to render all entrance manifestly dangerous ; and. fifth, That these principles shall serve as the basis of all decisions touching the legality of prizes.