be granted, unless in case of the _denial
of justice_. "An unjust sentence," says Wheaton, "must certainly be
considered as a denial of justice, unless the mere privilege of being
heard before condemnation is all that is included in the idea of
justice."[106]

Thus the sentence of a Prize Court, it is plain, is sufficient to
confirm the captor's title to captures at sea; but a different rule
applies to real property or immoveables.

Immoveable possessions, lands, towns, provinces, &c., become the
property of the enemy who makes himself master of them; but it is only
by the treaty of peace, or the entire subjugation and extinction of
the state to which those towns and provinces belonged, that the
acquisition is completed, and the property becomes stable and perfect.
Thus, a third party cannot safely purchase conquered land till the
Sovran from whom it has been taken has renounced it by a treaty of
peace, or has irretrievably lost his sovereignty.[107] Until such
confirmation, it continues liable to be divested by the _jus
postliminii_. The purchaser of any portion takes it, at the peril of
being evicted by the original Sovran owner, when he is restored to his
dominions.[108]

I now pass on to the more commercial question of Passports,
Safe-Conducts, and Licences to Trade.

SECTION III.

_Licences_.

[Sidenote: Passports and Safe Conducts]

Passports, and Safe-conducts, are a kind of privilege, insuring safety
to persons in passing and repassing, or to certain things during their
conveyance from one place to another. All Safe-conducts, like every
other act of Supreme Command, emanate from the Sovran authority, but
are constantly delegated to inferior officers, either by an express
commission, or by a natural consequence of the nature of their
functions. The person named in the Passport cannot transfer his
privilege to another. They generally promise security wherever the
grantor has authority and command, and are interpreted by the same
rules of liberality and good faith, with other acts of the Sovran
power.[109]

[Sidenote: Licences to Trade with the Enemy]

A Licence granted by a state to its own subjects, or to those or the
enemy, is a dispensation on its own side of the Laws of War, as far as
its terms can be fairly construed. The adverse party may justly
consider such licence as a ground of capture and confiscation _per
se_; but the Prize Courts of the state, under whose authority they are
is