e going to the neutral
port of Nassau, though actually bound for the blockaded ports of the
South, were subject to condemnation. Secretary Lansing recalled that
Sir Edward Grey, in his instruction to the British delegates to the
London conference before mentioned, expressed this view of the case,
as held in England prior to the present war:

"It is exceedingly doubtful whether the decision of the Supreme Court
was in reality meant to cover a case of blockade running in which no
question of contraband arose. Certainly if such was the intention the
decision would _pro tanto_ be in conflict with the practice of the
British courts. His Majesty's Government sees no reason for departing
from that practice, and you should endeavor to obtain general
recognition of its correctness."

The American note also pointed out that "the circumstances surrounding
the _Springbok_ case were essentially different from those of the
present day to which the rule laid down in that case is sought to be
applied. When the _Springbok_ case arose the ports of the confederate
states were effectively blockaded by the naval forces of the United
States, though no neutral ports were closed, and a continuous voyage
through a neutral port required an all sea voyage terminating in an
attempt to pass the blockading squadron."

Secretary Lansing interjected new elements into the controversy in
assailing as unlawful the jurisdiction of British prize courts over
neutral vessels seized or detained. Briefly, Great Britain arbitrarily
extended her domestic law, through the promulgation of Orders in
Council, to the high seas, which the American Government contended
were subject solely to international law. So these Orders in Council,
under which the British naval authorities acted in making seizures of
neutral shipping, and under which the prize courts pursued their
procedure, were viewed as usurping international law. The United
States held that Great Britain could not extend the territorial
jurisdiction of her domestic law to cover seizures on the high seas. A
recourse to British prize courts by American claimants, governed as
those courts were by the same Orders in Council which determined the
conditions under which seizures and detentions were made, constituted
in the American view, the form rather than the substance of redress:

"It is manifest, therefore, that, if prize courts are bound by the
laws and regulations under which seizures and detentions are m