lf a century. Its strongest
expression is perhaps to be found in the President's Proclamation of
April 26, 1898, in which, after reciting that it being desirable that
the war with Spain "should be conducted upon principles in harmony with
the present views of nations and sanctioned by their recent practice, it
has already been announced that the policy of the Government will not be
to resort to privateering, but to adhere to the rules for the
Declaration of Paris," he goes on to "declare and proclaim" the three
other articles of the Declaration. The rule of Art. 2, as to exemption
of enemy goods in neutral ships, was embodied in Art. 19 of the Naval
War Code of 1900 (withdrawn in 1904, for reasons not affecting the
article in question), and reappears in Art. 17, amended only by the
addition of a few words relating to "hostile assistance" in the draft
Code which the United States delegates to the Conferences of 1907 and
1908 were instructed to bring forward "with the suggested changes, and
such further changes as may be made necessary by other agreements
reached at the Conference, as a tentative formulation of the rules which
should be considered." (My quotation is from the instructions as
originally issued in English.) Such changes as have been made in the
Code are due to discussions which have taken place between high naval
and legal authorities at the Naval War College. I do not know whether
the annual reports of these discussions, with which I am kindly
supplied, are generally accessible, but would refer, especially with
reference to the Declaration of Paris, to the volumes for 1904 and 1906.

It can hardly be necessary to add that no acts of the Executive, such as
the Proclamation of 1898, the order putting in force the Code of 1900,
or the instructions to delegates in 1907 and 1909, amount to anything
like a ratification of the Declaration in the manner prescribed by the
Constitution of the United States.

I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND.
Oxford, January 4 (1911).

THE DECLARATION OF PARIS

Sir,--Mr. Gibson Bowles resuscitates this morning his crusade against
the Declaration of 1856. It is really superfluous to argue in support of
rules which have met with general acceptance for nearly sixty years
past, to all of which Spain and Mexico, who were not originally parties
to the Declaration, announced their formal adhesion in 1907, while the
United States, which for well-known