r should be
drawn, accepted, or indorsed, or in any manner sent from any part of
the dominions of France, &c.; every person so offending to forfeit
_double_ the value, and the payment not to be effectual against any
person who might otherwise have demanded the same; but the demands of
all persons to remain, notwithstanding such payment, and
notwithstanding such bills shall have been delivered up.

NOTE C.--_Rule of_ 1756.

During the war of 1756, the French Government, finding the trade with
their colonies cut off by the maritime superiority of Great Britain,
relaxed the monopoly of that trade, and allowed the Dutch, then
neutral, to carry on the commerce between the mother country and her
colonies, under special licences or passes, granted for this
particular purpose, excluding at the same time, all other neutrals
from the same trade. Many of their vessels were captured by the
British cruizers.

The policy under which they were captured is called the "Rule of
1756;" and as, in the present war, its justice and propriety has
already begun to be doubted, it may not be uninteresting to read the
reasons upon which it was founded.

1. They were considered as part of the French navigation, having
adopted this otherwise exclusive commerce, and acting in the character
of French enemy in identifying themselves with that interest, in
direct opposition to the belligerent interests and purposes of Great
Britain.

2. Inasmuch as they were only carriers for the French, they were to be
regarded as French transports, carrying national assistance to the
enemy, and therefore to be condemned on the same principle as vessels
carrying troops or despatches.

3. That the property they carried being from one part of the French
empire to the other, was so completely identified with French
interests as to take a hostile character.

4. When war comes it is necessary to shut some of the avenues of
commerce, otherwise the belligerent rights could not be protected.

5. That the neutral ought not to have _through_ and by means of the
war, which is not his affair, that he has not in time of peace; and by
natural justice he is only entitled to his accustomed trade. That any
inconveniences he may suffer are quite balanced by the enlargement of
his commerce; the trade of the belligerents is usually interrupted to
a great degree, and falls into the lap of the neutral.[205]

6. That it is a direct assistance to the enemy, and an injury to t