University of Virginia Library

The Conduct of Other Nations

The evidence from this source is merely negative; but is not
on that account without a convincing effect. If the doctrine
advanced by Great Britain had been entertained by other nations,
it would have been seen in the documents, corresponding

with those which contain the British doctrine. Yet, with all
the research which could be employed, no indication has been
met with, that a single nation, besides herself, has founded on
the distinction between a trade permitted and a trade not permitted
in time of peace, a belligerent right to interrupt the
trade in time of war. The distinction can be traced neither in
their diplomatic discussions, nor their manifestoes, nor their
prize ordinances, nor their instructions to their cruizers, nor
in the decisions of their maritime courts. If the distinction
had been asserted or recognized, it could not fail to have exhibited
itself, in some or other of those documents. Having
done so in none of them, the inference cannot be contested,
that Great Britain is the only nation that has ever attempted
this momentous innovation on the law of nations.