Scott, "by stationing a number of ships and forming, as it were, an arch of circumvallation round the mouth of the prohibited port. Then, if the arch fails in any one part, the blockade fails altogether" (b).

If several ports be included in the declaration of blockade when only one of such ports is in fact blockaded, the whole declaration is nullified, and a neutral cannot be condemned for an attempt to break the blockade of that port which really is invested (c). During the civil war in America the Federal States declared a blockade of the whole Confederate coast line, and vessels captured for endeavouring to enter or leave Confederate ports were condemned, though their officers swore that they saw no blockading vessels (d). If an exception be made in favour of one nation the blockade is invalid; for partiality voids the declaration. This was decided in the Russian war of 1854, when it was held in The Franciska (e), a Danish vessel captured by a British cruiser, that inasmuch as the Allies had authorized the Russians to export goods from certain Russian ports declared to be blockaded, the blockade could not be maintained against other nations. It is, however, within the right of belligerents to declare a limited. or modified blockade, provided that, as in other cases, the blockade be applied impartially.

In the Turko-Russian war, the Porte having, by means of cruisers in the Bosphorus, captured certain vessels which had managed to elude the blockading squadron in the Black Sea, it was claimed on behalf of such vessels that, having escaped capture in the Black Sea, they thus became free from further seizure. The Turkish prize court, however, condemned the

(b) The Arthur, 1 Dods. 425; The Stert, 4 Rob. 66.

(c) The Henrick and Maria, 1 Rob. 146; The Mercurius, ibid. p. 83; The Betsey, ibid. p. 93.

(d) Wheat. Int. Law, 2 Eng. ed. 596.

(e) Northcote v. Douglas, 10 Moore, P. C. C. 37.

vessels-mostly Greek-so captured, a decision supported by the foreign ambassadors at the Porte. The ambassadors represented that to allow such vessels to go uncondemned, would be to relieve Greece from the rigours of the blockade, of which the effect would be to invalidate the whole blockade (e). But the blockading power has, it would seem, the right to permit or to deny admission of neutral war vessels to blockaded ports, and the fact that such vessels are admitted will not invalidate the blockade.

In 1884, during the hostilities between France and China, the former power declared a blockade of certain Formosan ports, but the British Government protested against this notification on the ground that the French fleet available was insufficient to render the blockade effectual in accordance with the requirement of the Declaration of Paris (ee).

When in the American civil war the Federal States declared all the Southern ports blockaded, the Supreme Court decided that this did not apply to the western side of the Rio Grande, which was in neutral (Mexican) territory (ƒ).

Proof of discontinuance of a blockade by notification lies on the captured vessel pleading this defence (g).

A blockade otherwise effective is not to be deemed ineffective owing to what may be called accidental circumstances. "The only exception to the general rule which requires the actual presence of an adequate force to constitute a lawful blockade arises out of the circumstance of the occasional temporary absence of the blockading squadron, produced by accident, as in the case of a storm, which does not suspend

(e) Wheat. Int. Law, 2 Eng. ed. 597.

(ee) Cf. reference in Times, 13 July, 1889, to declaration of inefficiency of blockade of Haytian ports by the Haytian Government.

(f) Wheat. Int. Law, 2 Eng. ed. 595; The Peterhoff, p. 186, infra. (g) The Circassian, 2 Wall. 150.

the legal operation of the blockade": so says Wheaton (). Thus the temporary absence of the blockading squadron, owing to adverse weather (i), or to chase of suspicious vessels (j), provided the chase be not unduly prolonged (), has been held not to justify an attempt to break the investment; but in such cases the blockading vessels must return to their station so soon as circumstances may permit. If, however, the squadron should be despatched elsewhere, leaving an insufficient force on the spot (), this would be held to invalidate the blockade. If the blockade be once raised, through whatever cause, neutrals must be served with a fresh notice if the investment be resumed (m).

The occasional success of attempts to break the blockade is not necessarily evidence of ineffectiveness of the investment, for such successful attempts may be owing to temporary absence of some of the squadron, or to other circumstances specially favouring the blockade runner, and not arguing any inefficiency in the blockade as such. The onus of showing. that, at the time of capture, a de facto blockade was actually existing, lies upon the captors (»).

A maritime blockade must be construed literally, and not in such a general sense as to involve confiscation of goods being carried to the blockaded port by means of canals or other internal conveyances (o). Nor can it be applied to ships carrying goods to neighbouring ports with a view to their being forwarded to the blockaded port by inland routes; or to goods similarly forwarded from the blockaded port to a

(h) Int. Law, 2 Eng. ed. 596.

(i) The Columbia, 1 Rob. 156. Vide also p. 118, infra.
(j) The Eagle, 1 Acton, 65.

(4) La Melanie, 2 Dod. 130.

(1) The Nancy, 1 Acton, 58.

(m) The Hoffnung, 6 Rob. 112; The Tisketeir, ibid. 65.

(n) The Circassian, 2 Wall. 150.

(0) The Stert, 4 Rob. 65; The Ocean, 3 Rob. 297.

neighbouring open port, thence to be carried over sea (p). But if a British subject ship goods to the enemy through a neutral country, confiscation will attach (9).

Goods cannot be sent along the coast in lighters so as to evade a blockade. Thus, where a ship left a blockaded port in ballast for a neighbouring river, and there took on board goods which had been previously sent to the same place by lighter, the goods were declared confiscated (r).

The rigorous application of a blockade is usually postponed for a greater or less time in favour of any neutral vessels which, at the time the declaration is made, may be within the port declared to be blockaded. On declaration of blockade, such neutral vessels are entitled to depart free from interference on the part of the blockading squadron, and with any cargo which they may have on board at the time. If this cargo be neutral property, it is entitled to pass freely; and, as has been submitted above (Enemy Cargo on Neutral Vessels) (s), if it be the property of the enemy, where the principle of "free ships, free goods" is accepted, it will similarly be allowed to pass. But no cargo must be taken on board after declaration of the blockade, unless already lying in lighters for the shipment. Cargo found to have been shipped subsequently will, with the vessel, be liable to confiscation (f); and when any portion of the cargo has been so shipped, the departure of the vessel will be regarded as a fraudulent act (u). Ships in ballast may leave at any time,

(p) The Ocean, 3 Rob. 297. But compare as to this the United States decisions in The Stephen Hart, Springbok, and Peterhoff, p. 185, infra. (9) The Jonge Pieter, 4 Rob. p. 83. Vide sub Trading with the Enemy,

p. 258, infra.

(r) Wheat. Int. Law, 2 Eng. ed. 606.

(s) P. 88, supra.

(t) The Rolla, 6 Rob. 367; The Vrow Judith, 1 Rob. 151; The Comet, Edwards, 33; The Frederick Molke, 1 Rob. 86.

(u) The Calypso, 2 Rob. 298.

but the maximum limit of time within which cargo may be carried out is subject to the discretion of the blockading power, to be announced in the public declaration of blockade. Fifteen days would seem to be the minimum time allowed in practice, and on the blockade of Buenos Ayres by France in 1838 forty-two days were allowed (u).

On the blockade of Archangel by the Allies, the port authorities appear to have exhibited to the masters of all neutral vessels in the port a copy of the declaration of the blockade; and each master was required to sign a certificate that the notice had been exhibited to him, and that he had read and understood it.

If a neutral vessel shall have been compelled by stress of weather or similar necessity to enter a blockaded port, she may leave without violating the blockade; and she may also leave free from risk of confiscation if she shall have entered under special licence of the blockading power (x); or if she shall have reloaded neutral goods sent into the port before blockade, and bona fide withdrawn by the owner as being unsaleable (y); or if she shall have on board goods purchased by a neutral subsequent to declaration of the blockade, if the ground for carrying the goods out of port is the bonâ fide and well-founded belief in the immediate outbreak of war between the nation owning the blockaded port and that of which the neutral purchaser is a subject, involving risk of confiscation of the goods (≈); or she may leave in ballast, notwithstanding that she has entered during the blockade, if she arrived off the port in ignorance of the blockade, and was allowed to enter (a); or, similarly, if she knew of the blockade, and was allowed to enter (b); or if she shall have been informed by

(w) Vide also p. 53, supra. Only three days were allowed by France in 1884 to vessels in Formosan ports. 2 Lon. Gaz. 1884, p. 4571.

(x) The Charlotta, Edw. 252; The Byfield, ibid. 188.

(y) The Juffrow Maria Schroeder, 4 Rob. 89, in not.

(2) The Drie Frienden, 1 Dod. 269.

(a) The Christina Margaretta, 6 Rob. 63.

[158, in not.

(b) The Juffrow Maria Schroeder, 3 Rob. 149; The Vrow Barbara, ibid.