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THE QUEEN'S PROCLAMATION.

475

aforesaid, although no enlisting money, or pay, or rewardesty's Customs or Excise and the officers of His Majesty's

shall have been or shall be in any or either of the cases aforesaid actually paid to or received by him, or by any person to or for his use or benefit; or if any person whatever, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or any part of His Majesty's dominions elsewhere, or in any country, colony, settlement, island or place belonging to or subject to His Majesty, shall hire, retain, engage, or procure, or shall attempt or endeavor to hire, retain, engage, or procure any person or persons whatever to enlist, or enter, or engage to enlist, or to serve or to be employed in any such service or employment as aforesaid, as an officer, soldier, sailor, or marine, either in land or sea service, for or under or in aid of any foreign prince, State, potentate, colony, province, or part of any province or people, or for, or under, or in aid of any person or persons exercising or assuming to exercise any powers of government as aforesaid, or to go or to agree to go or embark from any part of His Majesty's dominions, for the purpose or with intent to be enlisted, entered, engaged or employed as aforesaid, whether any enlisting money, pay or reward shall have been or shall be actually given or received, or not; in any or either of such cases every person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon being convicted thereof, upon any information or indictment, shall be punishable by fine and imprisonment, or either of them, at the discretion of the Court before which such offender shall be convicted.'

navy are empowered respectively to make seizures under the laws of Customs and Excise, or under the laws of trade and navigation; and that every ship and vessel, with the tackle, apparel, and furniture, together with all the materials, arms, ammunition, and stores which may belong to or be on board of such ship or vessel, may be prosecuted and condemned in the like manner, and in such courts as ships or vessels may be prosecuted and condemned for any breach of the laws made for the protection of the revenues of Customs and Excise, or of the laws of trade and navigation.'

"And it is in and by the said act further enacted: "That if any person in any part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or in any part of His Majesty's dominions beyond the seas, without leave and license of His Majesty, for that purpose first had and obtained as aforesaid, shail, by adding to the number of the guns of such vessel, or by changing those on board for other guns, or by the addition of any equipment for war, increase or augment, or procure to be increased or augmented, or shall be knowingly concerned in increasing or augmenting the warlike force of any ship or vessel of war or cruiser, or other armed vessel, which at the time of her arrival in any part of the United Kingdom, or any of His Majesty's dominions, was a ship of war, cruiser, or armed vessel in the service of any foreign prince, State, or potentate, or of any person or persons exercising or assuming to exercise any powers of government in or over any colony, province, or part of any province or people belonging to the subjects of any such prince, State or potentate, or to the inhabitants of any colony, province, or part of any province or country under the control of any person or persons so exercising or assuming to exercise the powers of government, every such person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, upon being convicted thereof, upon any information or indictment, be punished by fine and imprisonment, or either of them, at the discretion of the Court before which such offender shall be convicted.'

"Now, in order that none of our subjects may unwarily render themselves liable to the penalties imposed by the said statute, we do hereby strictly command, that no person or persons whatsoever do commit any act, matter or thing whatsoever, contrary to the provisions of the said statute, upon pain of the several penalties by the said statute imposed, and of our high displeasure.

"And it is in and by the said act further enacted: "That if any person, within any part of the United Kingdom or in any part of His Majesty's dominions beyond the seas, shall without the leave and license of His Majesty, for that purpose first had and obtained as aforesaid, equip, furnish, fit out, or arm, or procure to be equipped, furnished, fitted out, or armed, or shall knowingly aid, assist, or be concerned in the equipping, furnishing, fitting out, or arming of any ship or vessel, with intent or in order that such ship or vessel shall be employed in the service of any foreign prince, State, or potentate, or of any foreign colony, province, or people, or of any person or persons, exercising or assuming to exercise any powers of government in or over any foreign State, colony, province, or part of any province or people, as a transport or store-ship, or with intent to cruise or commit hostilities against any prince, State, or potentate, or against the subjects or citizens of any prince, State, or potentate, or against the persons exercising or assuming to exercise the powers of government in any colony, province, or part of any province or country, or against the inhabitants of any foreign colony, province, or part of any province or country, with whom His Majesty shall not then be at war; or shall, within the United Kingdom, or any of His Majesty's dominions, or in any settlement, colony, territory, island, or place belonging or subject to His Majesty, issue or deliver any commission for any ship or vessel to the intent that such ship or vessel shall be employed as aforesaid, every such person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall upon conviction thereof, upon any information or indictment, be punished by fine and imprisonment, or either of them, at the discretion of the Court in which such offender shall be convicted; and every such ship or vessel, with the tackle, apparel, and furniture, together with all the materials, arms, ammunition and stores which may belong to or be on board of any such ship or vessel, shall be forfeited; and it shall be lawful for any officer of His Majesty's Customs or Excise, or any officer of His Majesty's navy, who is by law empowered to make seizures, for any forfeiture incurred under any of the laws of Customs or Excise, or the laws of trade and navigation, to seize such ships and vessels aforesaid, and in such places and in such manner in which the officers of His Maj-tablished by or on behalf of either of the said contending

"And we do hereby further warn all our loving subjects, and all persons whatsoever, entitled to our protection, that if any of them shall presume, in contempt of this Royal Proclamation, and of our high displeasure, to do any 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-as, for example and more especially, by entering into the military service of either of the said contending parties as commissioned or non-commissioned officers or soldiers; or by serving as officers, sailors, or marines on board any ship or vessel of war or transport of or in the service of either of the said contending parties; or by serving as officers, sailors, or marines on board any privateer bearing letters of marque of or from either of the said contending parties; or by engaging to go or going to any place beyond the seas with intent to enlist or engage in any such service, or by procuring or attempting to procure within Her Majesty's dominions, at home or abroad, others to do so; or by fitting out, arming or equipping any ship or vessel to be employed as a ship-of-war, or privateer, or transport, by either of the said contending parties; or by breaking, or endeavoring to break, any blockade lawfully and actually es

parties; or by carrying officers, soldiers, dispatches, arms, military stores or materials, or any article or articles considered and deemed to be contraband of war according to the law of modern usage of nations, for the use or service of either of the said contending parties, all persons so offending will incur and be liable to the several penalties and penal consequences by the said statute, or by the law of nations, in that behalf imposed or denounced.

"And we do hereby declare, that all our subjects and persons entitled to our protection who may misconduct themselves in the premises will do so at their peril and of their own wrong, and that they will in nowise obtain any protection from us against any liability or penal consequences, but will, on the contrary, incur our high displeasure by such misconduct.

"Given at our Court at the White Lodge, Richmond Park, this 13th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1861, and in the 24th year of our reign.

"GOD SAVE THE QUEEN."

DECREE OF NAPOLEON ON PRIVATEERING

AND NEUTRALITY.

His Majesty the Emperor of the French, taking into consideration the state of peace which now exists between France and the United States of America, has resolved to maintain a strict neutrality in the struggle between the Government of the Union and the States which propose to form a separate confederation. In consequence, his majesty, considering article 14 of the naval law of August, 1681, the third article of the law of the 10th of April, 1825, articles 84 and 85 of the Penal Code, 65 and following of the decree of the 24th of March, 1852, 313 and following of the Code Penal Maritime, and article 21 of the Code Napoleon, declares:

1. No vessel of war or privateer of either of the belligerent parties will be allowed to enter or stay with prizes in our ports or roadsteads longer than twenty four hours, excepting in case of compulsory delay (relache forcee).

we have resolved to observe. All persons acting contrary to the prohibitions and recommendations contained in the present declaration will be prosecut ed if required, conformably to the enactments of the law of the 10th April, 1825, and of articles 84 and 85 of the Penal Code, without prejudice to the application that might be made against such offenders of the enactments of the 21st article of the Code Napoleon, and of articles 65 and following of the decree of the 24th of March, 1852, on the merchant service, 313 and following of the Penal Code for the navy.

His Majesty declares, moreover, that every Frenchman contravening the present enactments will have no claim to any protection from his Government against his acts or measures, whatever they may be, which the belligerents might exercise or deNAPOLEON. THOUVENEL, Minister of Foreign Affairs.

cree.

The decree was afterwards explained and enforced by a note addressed by M. Rouher, Minister of Commerce, to the various Chambers of Commerce in France. From that note we quote the following: In guarding respect for the immunities which modern law has now, fortunately, consecrated in favor of neutrals, we cannot pretend to protect them from all the consequences which ordinarily follow to other nations from the armed strife of two peoples. From the moment that we find ourselves in the presence of two belligerents to whom we know not how to deny that character, we find ourselves obliged to recognise in them all the rights which, according to international rules, war confers on those who make it. Consequently we cannot contest with either of them the right to injure the other by all the legitimate and direct means which it pos sesses, such as that which consists in seizing upon its possession, besieging its towns, blockading its ports. The natural consequence of the exercise of the law

2. No sale of goods belonging to prizes is allowed of blockade is to interdict to other Powers access in our ports and roadsteads.

3. Every Frenchmau is prohibited from taking a commission under either of the two parties to arm vessels of war, or to accept letters of marque for privateering purposes, or to assist in any manner whatsoever the equipment or armameut of a vessel of war or privateer of either party.

4. Every Frenchman, whether residing in France or abroad, is likewise prohibited from enlisting or taking service either in the land army or on board vessels of war or privateers of either of the two belligerent parties.

5. Frenchmen residing in France or abroad must likewise abstain from any act which, committed in violation of the laws of the empire or of international law, might be considered as an act hostile to one of the two parties and contrary to the neutrality which

to the blockaded places. It is incontestable that those Powers have to suffer from the interruption thus put upon their usual commercial relations; but they would have no right to make any reclamation for it, because they are only indirectly affected, and because no obstruction is placed upon that freedom of navigation to which they are entitled, except where such freedom would render absolutely inefficacious the military operations between belligerents rendered legitimate by the law of nations.

The admission by all the Powers of this principle, that the blockade, to be obligatory, must be effective, has remedied the abuse which formerly sprung from the right of excluding neutrals from points that were declared blockaded.

The effectiveness of the blockade is, to-day, for all the world, the essential condition of its validity. But so soon

PROCLAMATION

OF THE

QUEEN OF SPAIN.

477

as there are, a' the places to which a belligerent wishes to interdict access, forces sufficient to prevent their being approached without exposure to a certain danger, the neutral is compelled, no matter how prejudicial to him it may be, to respect the blockade If he volates it he exposes himself to being treat d as an enemy by the belligerent with respect to whom he has deviated from the duties of neutrality. These principles, which have become the rule of all nations, appear to be completely ignored by the claimants. They appear to think that their customary relations of commerce should not be affected by a state of hostility to which they are not parties, and to admit at farthest that there may be a right to hold them accountable for their ulterior operations. Unfortunately such is not the case. It is true that a belligerent may not employ, to annoy his enemy, any means that strike directly at peoples who have remained strangers to the strife; but it is no less true that these latter have always to endure the indirect consequences of the perturbation resulting from the war from the moment that it breaks out. Another error of the claimants is to believe that the blockade does not exist until it is notified diplomatically, and that it does not apply to neutral vessels that have quitted their country previously to the notification. A blockade is obligatory from the moment that it is effectively established; being the material result of a material fact, it commences with the real in vestment of the place, continues so long as that investment remains, and ceases with it.

It matters little that neutrals are ignorant of the facts. If one of their vessels presents itself at the place, the belligerent has the right to forbid its

entrance.

The general usage is, doubtless, for a Government to inform other Governments of the measures of blockade to which it has recourse; but this notification, which is not by an absolute rule, is of no value by itself; it is only the announcing of an existing fact, which would already produce its effects. It may sometimes serve, it is true, to diminish the losses which neutrals may have to sustain in consequence of the state of war, by preventing them undertaking useless commercial expeditions for places really blockaded; but it is evident, on the other hand, that if neutrals suspended or modified according to this notification, their commercial operations, they would be exposed to the danger of doing so inappropriately, in case the blockade did not actually exist, or in case it had already closed at the time their expeditions might have arrived.

It is by erroneously attributing to the diplomatic notices of blockade a value and a signification which they have not in themselves, that it might be pretended to exclude neutrals from an entire territory, the access to which could not in reality be interdict

ed; and it is for the purpose of rendering these fictitious blockades entirely impossible that the agreement has been entered into at present not to consider a neutral as entitled to notice of existence of a blockade except at the blockaded places themselves. This practice, which leaves a belligerent the faculty of acting with all the promptitude often required by operations of war, which permits a military chief to blockade, according to necessity, places distant from his country before he has instructed his Government of the fact, has this advantage for the neutral, that it does not impose upon him obligations inevitably onerons, except, at least, under circumstances where he must inevitably submit to them.

PROCLAMATION OF THE QUEEN OF SPAIN.

Considering the relations which exist between Spain and the United States of America and the expediency of not changing the reciprocal feelings of friendly understanding on account of the grave events which have happened in that republic, I have resolved to maintain the strictest neutrality in the struggle engaged in between all the Federal States of the Union and the Confederate States of the South; and in order to avoid the losses which my subjects might suffer both in shipping and commerce, for want of definite rules to which their conduct might conform, in accordance with my Council of Ministers I decree as follows:

Article 1. It is forbidden in all the ports of the Spanish realm, to arm, supply and equip any privateer vessel, whatever may be the flag she carries.

Art. 2. It is in like manner forbidden to owners, masters or captains of merchant vessels to accept letters of marque or contribute in any way to the arming and equipping of vessels of war or privateers.

Art. 3. The entering and remaining for more than twenty-four hours in the ports of the realm is forbidden to vessels of war or privateers with prizes, unless in case of necessity through stress of weather.

When this latter happens the authorities shall watch the vessel and oblige her to go to sea as soon as possible, without permitting her to take any more supplies than for present necessity; but on no account either arms or munition of war.

Art 4. Effects taken from prizes shall not be sold in the ports of the realm.

Art. 5. Transportation, under the Spanish flag, of all articles of commerce is guaranteed, except when directed to blockaded ports.

The carrying of war material, papers or communications for the belligerents is forbidden. Trespassers shall be responsible for their acts, and shall have no right to the protection of my government.

Art. 6. All Spaniards are forbidden to enlist in the belligerent armies or to engage themselves to serve on board vessels of war or privateers.

Art. 7. My subjects shall refrain from every act which, by violating the laws of the kingdom, may be considered contrary to neutrality.

Art. 8. Transgressors of the foregoing regulations shall have no right to the protection of my Government, shall suffer the consequences of the measures which the belligerents may prescribe, and shall be punished as provided by the laws of Spain.

Given at the Palace, on the seventeenth of June, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one. Signed by the royal hand.

SATURNINO CALDERAN COLLANTES,
Minister of State.

VIEWS OF RUSSIA.

PRINCE GORTSCHAKOFF TO BARON DE STOECKL.

ST. PETERSBURG, July 10th, 1861. Sir-From the beginning of the conflict which divides the United States of America, you have been desired to make known to the Federal Government the deep interest with which our august master was observing the developement of a crisis which puts in question the prosperity and even the existence

of the Union.

The Emperor profoundly regrets to see that the hope of a peaceful solution is not realized, and that American citizens already in arms are ready to let loose upon their country the most formidable of the scourges of political society - -a civil war. For more than eighty years that it has existed the American Union owes its independence, its towering rise and its progress to the concord of its members, consecrated under the auspices of its illustrious founder, by institutions which have been able to reconcile the Union with liberty. This Union has been faithful. It has exhibited to the world the spectacle of a prosperity without example in the annals of history. It would be deplorable that, after so conclusive an experience, the United States should be hurried into a breach of the solemn compact, which, up to this time, has made their power. In spite of the diversity of their constitutions and of their interests, and perhaps even because of their diversity, Providence seems to urge them to draw closer the traditional bond which is the basis of the very condition of their political existence. In any event, the sacrifices they might impose upon themselves to maintain it, are beyond comparison with those which dissolution would bring. United, they perfect themselves, isolated, they are paralyzed.

The struggle which unhappily has just arisen can neither be indefinitely prolonged nor lead to the total destruction of one of the parties. Sooner or

later it will be necessary to come to some settle. ment, whatsoever it may be, which may cause the divergent interests now actually in conflict to coexist. The American nation would then give a proof of high political wisdom in seeking in common such a settlement before a useless effusion of blood, a barren squandering of strength and of public riches, and acts of violence and reciprocal reprisals shall have come to deepen an abyss between the two parties of the Confederation, to end definitely in their mutual exhaustion, and in the ruin, perhaps ir reparable, of their commercial and political power.

Our august master cannot resign himself to admit such a deplorable anticipation. His Imperial Maj. esty still places his confidence in that practical good sense of the citizens of the Union who appreciate so judiciously their true interests. His Majesty is happy to believe that the members of the Federal Government, and the influential men of the two parties, will sieze all occasions and will unite all their efforts to calm the effervescence of the passions. There are no interests so divergent, which may not be reconciled by laboring to that end with zeal and perseverance, in a spirit of justice and moderation.

If, within the limits of your friendly relations, your language and your counsels may contribute to this result, you will respond, sir, to the intentions of His Majesty the Emperor, in devoting to this the personal influence which you may have been able to acquire during your long residence at Washington, and the consideration which belongs to your char acter as the representative of a sovereign animated by the most friendly sentiments towards the American Union. This Union is not simply in our eyes an element essential to the universal political equilibrium; it constitutes, besides, a nation to which our august master and all Russia have pledged the most friendly interests for the two countries placed at the extremities of the two worlds; both in the asceuding period of their developement appear called to a natural community of interests and of sympathies, of which they have already given mutual proofs to each other.

I do not wish here to approach any of the questions which divide the United States. We are not called upon to express ourselves in this contest. The preceding considerations have no other object than to attest the lively solicitude of the Emperor in the presence of the dangers which menace the American Union, and the sincere wishes that his Majesty entertains for the maintenance of that great work, so laboriously raised, and which appeared so

rich in its future.

It is in this sense, sir, that I desire you to express yourself, as well to the members of the General Government as to the influential persons whom you

THE VIEWS OF PRUSSIA.

479

may meet, giving them the assurance that in every event the American nation may count upon the most cordial sympathy on the part of our august master during the important crisis which it is passing through at present. GORTSCHAKOFF.

PRUSSIA.

BARON SCHLENITZ TO BARON GEROLT.

BERLIN, June 13th, 1861. The incontestable fact of the state of intestine war in which the Union is engaged at this moment, is for the royal government a subject of deep regret. The relations of profound friendship which bind Prussia to the Government of the United States have existed since the establishment of the Union. They have never been disturbed or troubled in any manner in the course of a century by the vicissitudes of events. By a series of treaties having especially in view the advantages of reciprocal commercial interests, those intimate relations between the two States have been happily consolidated. At no time has a collision of opposing interests taken place between both Pow

ers.

The scope which the internal prosperity of the Union has taken, the growing extent of the States held together by the bonds of harmony, and the power which North America has acquired abroad, far from being viewed with jealousy by Prussia, have ever been greeted with sincere sympathy.

Our regret is so much the more lively at seeing now the continuance of so happy a condition become a question, in consequence of the disturbance that internal harmony is experiencing, the existence of which has hitherto been the surest basis of the Union.

It is not the part of the royal government either to discuss the causes of that rupture or to pass judgment on litigious questions which regard exclusively the internal situation of the Union. All our efforts will tend to preserve, even under present circumstances, our position towards the United States. Yet the grave turn which the conflict has taken, and the measures which the Government of the Union itself has taken in relation to blockade and the treatment of neutral vessels, have a sensible and serious bearing on our interests, and the royal gov. ernment believes it to be its duty to give to those interests the protection which is founded upon public law and upon treaties.

You are fully informed of the negotiations which have been carried on for many years between Prussia and the United States relative to the principles which should be applied in time of war touching the rights of neutral vessels. With the American Cabinet will ever rest the honor of having first, in

the proposed treaty which it submitted to us in 1854, taken the initiative in carrying out liberal principles, and insuring on a wider scale the rights of which it treated. It is with great pleasure we have received at this time the proposals from North America, and if the negotiations conducted by you have not had the desired success, because there was a hesitation in deferring to our wishes for the abolition of letters of marque, yet, the generally felt necessity of seeing the rights of neutrals in time of war, mutually settled on a wide and unalterable basis, has been taken into serious consideration by the great maritime Powers of Europe.

The declaration signed at Paris on the 6th of April, 1856, is a proof of it. All the European States, Spain alone excepted, have adhered to it. If the United States have, to our regret, in regard to the first proposition concerning the abolition of letters of marque, refused in their turn to adhere to the Paris declaration, we do not overlook the kindly and liberal intention which controlled the views of the Washington Cabinet. That intention was manifested in the counter proposition of President Pierce, according to which the principle of the inviolability of private property on the sea should be inscribed in the code of international law. Unfortunately, the President did not succeed in getting that proposition adopted. You are perfectly aware of the justice we have done him.

In view of the doubts existing in regard to the treatment of which neutral shipping may be subjected in the course of the present war, I beg you to make this important question the object of a free and friendly explanation with the American Secretary of State.

What we should most desire is that the American Government should seize this occasion to proclaim its accession to the Paris declaration. If that be not possible, we would be satisfied for the present that, while the war lasts, they would please to apply to neutral shipping generally, the second and third propositions of the Paris declaration. The application of the second proposition, providing that a neutral flag covers enemies' merchandise, unless contraband of war, is already guaranteed to Prussian shipping by article 12 of the treaty of September 10, 1785, reproduced in our treaty with the United States of May 1, 1828. However, we attach a particular importance to the application at this time, generally, of that principle to neutral shipping. We have the less doubt of it since, conformably to a dispatch, under date of June 27, 1859, addressed by Mr. Cass, Secretary of State, to the Minister of the United States at Paris, and which has been communicated to us; the President, without, however, adhering to the Paris declaration, expressly

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