ed Confederate States."

The identity of the address and the equality upon which both the
belligerents were invited to do what had been done by "almost every
other _nation_ of the world" need not be emphasized.

ACTION OF CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT.

On July 5, 1861, Lord Lyons instructed Mr. Bunch, the British Consul
at Charleston, South Carolina:--

"The course of events having invested the States assuming the title
of Confederate States of America with the character of belligerents,
it has become necessary for Her Majesty's Government to obtain from
the existing government in those States securities concerning the
proper treatment of neutrals. I am authorized by Lord John Russell
to confide the negotiation on this matter to you, and I have great
satisfaction in doing so. In order to make you acquainted with
the views of Her Majesty's Government, I transmit to you a duplicate
of a dispatch to me in which they are fully stated." His Lordship
then proceeded to instruct the consul as to the manner in which it
might be best to conduct the negotiation, the object being to avoid
as far as possible a direct official communication with the
authorities of the Confederate States. Instructions to the same
purport were addressed by the French Government to their consul at
Charleston.

What then was the point of the negotiations committed to these
consuls? It will be found in the dispatch from Lord John Russell,
communicated by his order to Mr. Bunch. It was the accession of
the United States and of the Confederate States to the Declaration
of Paris of April 16, 1856. That Declaration was signed by the
Ministers of Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia,
Sardinia, and Turkey. It adopted as article of Maritime Law the
following points:--

"1. Privateering is and remains abolished.

"2. The neutral flag covers enemy's goods with the exception of
contraband of war.

"3. Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are
not liable to capture under the enemy's flag.

"4. Blockades in order to be binding must be effective,--that is
to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access
to the coast of the enemy."

The Powers signing the Declaration engaged to bring it to the
knowledge of those Powers which had not taken part in that Congress
of Paris, and to invite them to accede to it; and they agreed that
"the present Declaration is not and s