of France to
take command of the forces at Batavia might be a much more
noxious act than the conveyance of a whole regiment. The
consequences of such assistance are greater, and therefore
it is what the belligerent has a stronger right to prevent
and punish. In this instance the military persons are
three,[175] and there are besides two other persons who were
going to be employed in civil capacities in the Government
of Batavia. *** It appears to me, _on principle_, to be but
reasonable that, whenever it is of sufficient importance to
the enemy that such persons should be sent out on the public
service, and at the public expense, it should afford equal
ground of forfeiture against the vessel that may be let out
for a purpose so intimately connected with hostile
operations.[176] The fact of the vessel having been pressed
into the enemy's service does not exempt her. The master
cannot aver that he was an involuntary agent."[177]

[Sidenote: Neutral Ships Carrying Enemy's Despatches.]

Carrying the _Despatches of the Enemy_ is also a ground of
condemnation.

"In the transmission of Despatches may be conveyed the
entire plan of a campaign, that may defeat all the plans of
the other belligerent, in the world. It is a service,
therefore, which, in whatever degree it exists, can only be
considered in one character--as an act of the most hostile
nature. The offence of _fraudulently_ carrying despatches in
the service of the enemy being greater than other
contraband, some other penalty has to be affixed. The
confiscation of the noxious article would be ridiculous when
applied to _Despatches_. There would be _no_ freight
dependent on their transportation. The _vehicle_ (_i.e._ the
ship) in which they are carried must, therefore, be
forfeited."[178]

[Sidenote: Ambassadors excepted.]

The Despatches of an Ambassador or other Public Minister of the Enemy,
resident in a neutral country, are an exception to this rule, being
the despatches of persons who are in a peculiar manner the favourite
object of the Law of Nations, residing in the neutral country for the
purpose of preserving peace and the relations of amity between that
state and their own government.

The ambassador of the enemy may be stopped on his passage, but when he
has arrived in the neutral country, he becomes a sort