herself justified in condemning under this rule, not only the cargoes of belligerents found on neutral vessels engaged in such trade, but the neutral vessels also, and any neutral goods they might have on board.
The results of the conflicting views of the nations of Europe on the question of maritime rights were reflected in their public acts. While on the one hand there were countries like England, which held to the old principles of the Consolato del Mare, and on the other, those who had adopted the principle of "Free ships, free goods," there was yet a third class which had adopted the converse of the latter proposition as well, viz. "Enemies' ships, enemies' goods"; and this principle of having exclusive regard to the property of the vessel, and not of the goods on board, had been adopted in most of the treaties made since 1650.[1]
It has already been seen that the claims put forward by England had led to the proclamation of an Armed Neutrality by Russia, which since that date had been joined by the other Northern powers, by Prussia, and the Empire. Of all the States however most interested in the introduction of a change in maritime law, Holland stood the first. Her position in regard to England was peculiar. When the latter claimed and exercised the right of searching the vessels of Russia or of Sweden, she had immemorial practice on her side, unrestrained by any special treaty or convention; and it is open to doubt if the difference with the Northern powers, which led to the Armed Neutrality, might not have been avoided, had it not been for the extension of the definition of contraband of war by the English commanders and prize courts, to articles which the law of nations had not hitherto been supposed to condemn, and which happened to be the staple produce of the Baltic powers. With Holland the case was different. As a belligerent power at sea she had steadily declined, ever since the great wars of the seventeenth century, but her carrying trade had as steadily increased, although those wars had been the
- ↑ Marten's Law of Nations, b. viii. c. vi. sec. 19.
