Definition of part à la guerre, en faveur de celui qu'il sou neutrality. tient, et dès lors il cesse d'être neutre. L'adversaire est autorisé à voir dans cette participation un acte d'hostilité. Et cela n'est pas seulement vrai quand l'état neutre livre lui-même, des troupes ou des vaisseaux des guerre, mais aussi lors qu'il prête à un des belligérents un appui médiat en permettant, tandis qu'il pourrait l'empêcher, que, de son territoire neutre, on envoie des troupes ou des navires de guerre.' Hautefeuille says: "Cet état nouveau impose aux neutres des devoirs particuliers: ils doivent s'abstenir complétement de toute acte d'immixion aux hostilités et garder une stricte impartialité envers les deux belligérents. ** L'impartialité consiste à traiter les deux belligérents de la même manière et avec une parfaite égalité dans tout ce qui concerne les relations d'état à état."2 * Lord Stowell says: "The high privileges of a neutral are forfeited by the abandonment of that perfect indifference between the contending parties, in which the essence of neutrality consists."3 Calvo collects or refers to the definitions given by the various writers on International Law, and expresses a preference for Hubner's: "La mas 1 Opinion impartiale sur la question de l'Alabama. Berlin, 1870, page 22. 2 Nécessité d'une loi maritime pour régler les rapports des neutres est des belligérents. Paris, 1862, page 7. 3 The Eliza Ann, (1 Dodson's Reports, 244.) aceptable es la de Hubner, por la claridad y precision con que fija, no solo la situacion de las naciones pacificas, sino la extension que tiene sobre ellas el status belli."1 2. The proclamation also distinctly recognizes the principle that the duties of a neutral in time of war do not grow out of, and are not dependent upon municipal laws. Offenders against the provisions of the act are therein expressly forewarned that such offenses will be "acts in derogation of their duty as subjects of a neutral sovereign in the said contest, or in violation or contravention of the law of nations in that behalf." Definition of neutrality. Duties recognized by instruc tions to British officials during the The next acts of the British Government, indicating its sense of its duties as a neutral toward the United States, to which the attention of the insurrection. Tribunal is invited, are the several instructions issued during the contest, for the regulation of the official conduct of its naval officers and of its colonial authorities toward the belligerents.2 These various instructions state or recognize the following principles and rules: 1. A belligerent may not use the harbors, ports, coasts, and waters of a neutral in aid of its warlike purposes, or as a station or place of resort for any warlike purpose, or for the purpose of obtaining any facilities of warlike equipment. Calvo Derecho Internacional, tom 2, page 151, § 608. 2 Vol. IV, page 175, et seq. Duties recog- 2. Vessels of war of the belligerents may be nized by instrue ficials during the tions to British of required to depart from a neutral port within insurrection. twenty-four hours after entrance, except in case of stress of weather, or requiring provisions or things for the crew, or repairs; in which case they should go to sea as soon as possible after the expiration of the twenty-four hours. between the two 1793-'94. 3. The furnishing of supplies to a belligerent vessel of war in a neutral port may be prohibited, except such as may be necessary for the subsistence of a crew, and for their immediate use. 4. A belligerent steam-vessel of war ought not to receive in a neutral port more coal than is necessary to take it to the nearest port of its own country, or to some nearer destination, and should not receive two supplies of coal from ports of the same neutral within less than three months of each other. Correspondence The attention of the Tribunal is further invited Governments in to the official opinions expressed by the representative of Great Britain in the United States during the administration of President Washington upon the duties of a neutral toward a belligerent; and to the acts of the Government of the United States during that administration, preceding, and accompanying, and subsequent to those expressions of opinion; and to the treaty concluded between the United States and Great Britain in 1794. The first acts took place in the United States in Correspondence between the two 1793-'94. 1793, a year before the passage of the first Ameri- Governments can Neutrality Law, when the United States had nothing but the law of nations and the sense of their duties as a neutral to guide them. The envoy from the new French Republic, M. Genet, arrived at Charleston, in the United States, early in April, 1793, with the purpose of making the ports and waters of the country the base of hostile operations against Great Britain. The steps which he took are fairly referred to by Lord Tenterden in the memorandum already cited.' The Capital was then at Philadelphia, several hundred miles distant from Charleston, with few regular means of communication between the two towns. The Government of the United States. was in its early infancy. Four years only had passed since it was originated, and it had not been tested whether the powers confided to it would prove sufficient for an emergency that might arise in its Foreign Relations. It had neither navy, nor force that could be converted into one, and no army on the sea-coast; and it was obliged to rely upon, and did actually call out, the irregular militia of the States to enforce its orders. Under the directions of M. Genet, privateers were fitted out, manned, and commissioned, from 1 Vol. IV, page 93, et seq. in Correspondence Charleston and other ports, before he reached in Philadelphia, and prizes were brought in by between the two them. On the 22d of April, 1793, M. Genet not having yet reached Philadelphia, President Washington issued his celebrated proclamation, the first of its kind, in which he declared that "the duty and interest of the United States require that they should, with sincerity and good faith, adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerent Powers;" and he warned all persons against "committing, aiding, or abetting hostilities against any of the said Powers." The news of the coming of M. Genet had preceded his arrival at Philadelphia. On the 17th May, 1793, Mr. Hammond, the then British Minister, made complaint of his acts, and called attention to the fact that privateers were fitting in South Carolina, which he conceived to be "breaches of that neutrality which the United States profess to observe, and direct contraventions of the Proclamation." He invited the Government to "pursue such measures as to its wisdom may appear the best calculated for repressing such practices in future, and for restoring to their rightful owners any captures which these particular privateers may 1 Vol. IV, page 94. |