to which the articles are going, is a
test of the matter of fact on which the distinction is to be
applied. If the port is a general commercial port, it shall
be understood that the articles were going for civil use,
although occasionally a frigate or other ship of war may be
constructed in that port. On the contrary, if the great
predominant character of a port is that of a port of naval
equipment, it shall be contended that the articles were
going for military use, although, merchant ships resort to
the same place, and although it is possible that the
articles might have been applied to civil consumption; for
it being impossible to ascertain the final application of an
article, _ancipitis usus_, it is not an injurious rule which
deduces both ways the final use from immediate destination;
and the presumption of a hostile use, founded on its
destination to a military port, is very much inflamed, if at
the time when the articles were going, a considerable
armament was notoriously preparing, to which a supply of
those articles would be eminently useful."[170]

In a later case he seems to have modified his opinion with respect to
undoubted naval stores, either so by nature, or intended as such for
the occasion. He says--

"The character of the port is immaterial, since naval
stores, if they are to be considered as contraband, are so
without reference to the nature of the port, and equally,
whether bound to a mercantile port only, or to a port of
military equipment. The consequences of the supply may be
nearly the same in either case. If sent to a mercantile
port, they may be applied to immediate use in the equipment
of privateers, or they may be conveyed from the mercantile
to the naval port, and there become subservient to every
purpose to which they could have been applied if going
directly to a port of naval equipment."[171]

[Sidenote: Controversy between England and America on Contraband
Provisions.]

The doctrine of the English Admiralty Court, as to provisions becoming
contraband, was adopted by the Government in the instructions given to
their cruisers, on the 8th June, 1793, directing them to stop all
vessels laden wholly, or in part, with corn, flour, or meal, bound for
France, and to send them into a British port to be purchased by
Government; or to be released