which
there are wide differences of opinion. On most debatable points, the
rules are in accordance with the views of this country--e.g. as to the
right of search (Art. 22), as to the two-fold list of contraband (Arts.
34-36), as to the moment at which the liability of a blockade-runner
commences (Art. 44), and as to the capture of private property (Art.
14), although the prohibition of such capture has long been favoured by
the Executive of the United States, and was advocated by the American
delegates at The Hague Conference. So also Arts. 34-36, by apparently
taking for granted the correctness of the rulings of the Supreme Court
in the Civil War cases of the _Springbok_ and the _Peterhoff_ with
reference to what may be described as "continuous carriage," are in
harmony with the views which Lord Salisbury recently had occasion to
express as to the trade of the _Bundesrath_ and other German vessels
with Lorenzo Marques. It must be observed, on the other hand, that Art.
30 flatly contradicts the British rule as to convoy; while Art. 3 sets
out The Hague Declaration as to projectiles dropped from balloons, to
which this country is not a party. Art. 7 departs from received views by
prohibiting altogether the use of false colours, and Art. 14 (doubtless
in pursuance of the recent decision of the Supreme Court in the _Paquete
Habana_), by affirming the absolute immunity of coast fishing vessels,
as such, from capture.

On novel questions the code is equally ready with a solution. It speaks
with no uncertain voice on the treatment of mail steamers and mail-bags
(Art. 20). On cable-cutting it adopts in Art. 5, as your Correspondent
points out, the views which I ventured to maintain in your columns when
the question was raised during the war of 1898.[2] I may also, by the
way, claim the support of the code for the view taken by me, in a,
correspondence also carried on in your columns during the naval
manoeuvres of 1888, of the bombardment of open coast towns.[3] Art. 4
sets out substantially the rules upon this subject for which I secured
the _imprimatur_ of the Institut de Droit International in 1896.

Secondly, the code is so well brought up to date as to incorporate
(Arts. 21-29) the substance of The Hague Convention, ratified only in
September last, for applying to maritime warfare the principles of the
Convention of Geneva. Art. 10 of The Hague Convention has been
reproduced in the code, in forgetfulness perhaps of the fa