te in which contracts cannot
be enforced is not a state of legal commerce."

[Sidenote: No Trade permitted except under Royal licence.]

"Upon these and similar grounds, it has been the established
rule of this court, confirmed by the judgment of the supreme
court, that a trading with the enemy, except under a Royal
Licence, subjects the property to confiscation.

"Where the Government has authorised, under sanction of an
Act of Parliament, a _homeward trade_ from the enemy's
possessions, but has not specifically protected an _outward_
_trade_ to the same, though intimately connected with that
homeward trade, and almost necessary to its existence, the
rule has been enforced, where strong claim not merely of
convenience, but almost of necessity, excused it on behalf
of the individual.

"It has been enforced, where cargoes have been laden before
the war, but where the parties have not used all possible
diligence to countermand the voyage after the first notice
of hostilities.[23]

"In the last war between England and America, a case
occurred in which an American citizen had purchased a
quantity of goods within the British territory, a long time
previous to the war, and had deposited them upon an island
near the frontier; upon the breaking out of hostilities, his
agents had hired a vessel to proceed to the spot, to bring
away the goods; on her return she was captured, and with the
cargo, condemned as prize of war."[24]

So also, where goods were purchased, some time before the war, by the
agent of an American citizen in Great Britain, but not shipped until
nearly a year after the declaration of hostilities, they were
pronounced liable to confiscation.[25]

Where property is to be withdrawn from the country of the enemy, it is
the more satisfactory and guarded proceeding on the part of the
_British_ merchant to apply to his own Government for the special
importation of the article; it is indeed the only safe way in which
parties can proceed.[26]

[Sidenote: Subjects of an Ally may not trade with the Enemy.]

During a Conjoint War no Subject of an Ally can trade with the common
enemy without liability to forfeiture in the prize courts of the Ally,
of all his property engaged in such trade. As the former rule can be
relaxed only by permission of the Sovran power of the state, so this
can be