John Bright wrote to Sumner as follows: " The people . . . know that great quantities of arms have been sold to the North and argue that it must be equally lawful to sell arms or ships to the South. And Mr. Seward and Mr. Adams have lent some support to this view in complaining of the sale of arms to the Confederacy as if it were an offense in magnitude equal to that of furnishing ships of war. Since the South were admittted as belligerents, in respect to the sale of arms, you have been treated as two nations equal in the sight of our government and one as much in their favor as the other." Of course, the equipping in England of privateers for the Confederacy was a breach of neutrality for which England paid a consider able sum of money under the decision of the Geneva Tribunal and Lord Rusiell admitted in a speech of 26 Sept. 1863 that such acts or similar ones would constitute such breach: " If you are asked to sell muskets, you may sell muskets to one party or the other, and so with gunpowder. shells or cannon; and you may sell a ship in such a manner. But if you will on the other hand, train and drill a regiment with arms in their hands to take part with one of the two bel ligerents, you your neutrality and commit an offense against the other belligerent. So in the same way in regard to ships, if you will allow a ship to be armed and go at once to make an attack on a foreign belligerent, you are yourself. according to your law, taking part in the war, and it is an offense, which is pumshed by the law." (Speech in reference
to the Foreign Enlistment Act quoted in London Times 28 September).
See CONFEDERATE STATES ; UNITED STATES, DIPLOMACY OF THE; NEUTRALITY; BLOCKADE; DECLARATION OF WAR; CONQUEST, RIGHT OF; INTERNATIONAL LAW; WAR; INSURRECTION; PRIVATEERS ; PIRACY ; REBELLION ; TREASON.
Bibliography.— Bentwich, Norman, 'Bellig erents and Neutrals at Sea' (in Law Quarterly Review, Vol. XXXII, pp. 14-25, London 1916); Callahan,. M. 'Diplomatic History of the Southern Confederacy' (1901); Halleck H. W., 'International Law) (4th ed., London 1908); Laughton, L. G., 'Belligerents and Neutrals' (in United Service Magazine, N. S. Vol. XXIX, Vol. CL, pp. 226-33, London 1904); Metcalfe, A. Wharton, 'Naval Belligerent Rights and Neutral Seaborne Trade( (In /bid, N. S. Vol. L, Vol. CLXXI, pp. 243-54, London 1914) ; MacDonnell, J., Changes in the Rights and Duties of Belligerents and Neutrals ac cording to International Law' (in Journal of the Royal United Service Institute, Vol. XLII, pp. 787-811, London 1890) ; Moore, J. B., 'Digest of International Law' (New York 1906); Oppenheim, L. F. L. 'International Law) (London 1912); Snow, Freeman, (Man ual of International Law' (2d ed. Washington 1898) Spaight, J. M., 'War Rights on Land' (London 1911) • Westlake, J. 'International Law) (Cambridge 1907); Wheaton, Henry, Elements of International Law' (London 1916).