sure, topographically or otherwise limited in extent,
may be put upon an offending State. The need for pressure of any kind
is, of course, regrettable, the only question being whether such limited
pressure be not more humane to the nation which experiences it, and less
distasteful to the nation which exercises it, than is the letting loose
of the limitless calamities of war.

The opinion of statesmen and jurists upon this point has undergone a
change, and this because the practice known as "pacific blockade" has
itself changed. The practice, which is comparatively modern, dating only
from 1827, was at first directed against ships under all flags, and
ships arrested for breach of a pacific blockade were at one time
confiscated, as they would have been in time of war. It has been purged
of these defects as the result of discussions, diplomatic and
scientific. As now understood, the blockade is enforced only against
vessels belonging to the "quasi-enemy," and even such vessels, when
arrested, are not confiscated, but merely detained till the blockade is
raised. International law does not stand still; and having some
acquaintance with Continental opinion on the topic under consideration,
I read with amazement "M.'s" assertion that "the majority in number,"
"the most weighty in authority" of the writers on international law
"have never failed to protest against such practices as indefensible in
principle." The fact is that the objections made by, e.g. Lord
Palmerston in 1846, and by several writers of textbooks, to pacific
blockade, had reference to the abuses connected with the earlier stages
of its development. As directed only against the ships of the
"quasi-enemy," it has received the substantially unanimous approbation
of the Institut de Droit International at Heidelberg in 1887, after a
very interesting debate, in which the advocates of the practice were led
by M. Perels, of the Prussian Admiralty, and its detractors by Professor
Geffken. It is true that in an early edition of his work upon
international law my lamented friend, Mr. Hall, did use the words
attributed to him by "M.": "It is difficult to see how a pacific
blockade is justifiable." But many things, notably Lord Granville's
correspondence with France in 1884 and the blockade of the Greek coast
in 1886, have occurred since those words were written. If "M." will turn
to a later edition of the work in question he will see that Mr. Hall had
completely altered h