ns in relation thereto; (3) a recital of the Foreign Enlistment Act
of 1870; (4) a command that the statute be obeyed, upon pain of the
penalties thereby imposed, "and of Our high displeasure"; (5) a warning
to observe the duties of neutrality, and to respect the exercise of
belligerent rights; (6) a further warning to those who, in contempt of
the proclamation "and of Our high displeasure," may do any acts "in
derogation of neutral duty, or in violation of the law of nations,"
especially by breach of blockade, carriage of contraband, &c., that they
will be liable to capture "and to the penalties denounced by the law of
nations"; (7) a notification that persons so misconducting themselves
"will in no wise obtain any protection from Us," but will, "on the
contrary, incur Our high displeasure by such misconduct."

The question which I have ventured to raise is whether the _textus
receptus_, built up, as it has been, by successive accretions, is
sufficiently in accordance with the facts to which it purports to call
the attention of British subjects to be properly submitted to His
Majesty for signature. I would suggest for consideration: 1. Whether the
phrases commanding obedience, on pain of His Majesty's "high
displeasure," and the term "misconduct," should not be used only with
reference to offences recognised as such by the law of England. 2.
Whether such condensed, and therefore incorrect, though very commonly
employed, expressions as imply that breach of blockade and carriage of
contraband are "in violation of the law of nations," and are liable to
"the penalties denounced by the law of nations," should not be replaced
by expressions more scientifically correct. The law of nations neither
prohibits the acts in question nor prescribes penalties to be incurred
by the doers of them. What it really does is to define the measures to
which a belligerent may resort for the suppression of such acts, without
laying himself open to remonstrance from the neutral Government to which
the traders implicated owe allegiance.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND.
Oxford, December 5 (1904).

THE BRITISH PROCLAMATION OF NEUTRALITY

Sir,--I am glad that Mr. Gibson Bowles has called attention to certain
respects in which the Proclamation of Neutrality issued by our
Government on the 3rd of the present month differs from that issued on
February 11, 1904.

In two letters addressed to you with reference to the Proclamatio