The committee accordingly prepared a draft, framed in accordance with the existing practice, to the discussion of which the Institut devoted the whole of its recent session at Oxford, eventually giving its _imprimatur_ to a Manual of the law of maritime warfare, as between the belligerents, in 116 articles. As opportunity serves, the committee will prepare a second draft, proceeding upon the hypothesis that the right of capturing private property at sea has been surrendered, which, in its turn, will be debated, word for word, by the Institut de Droit International. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, T. E. HOLLAND. Oxford, November 4 (1913). * * * * * SECTION 13 _Martial Law_ The first of the letters which follow has reference to the case of two Boer prisoners who, having taken the oath of neutrality on the British occupation of Pretoria, attempted to escape from the town. Both were armed, and one of them fired upon and wounded a sentinel who called upon them to stop. They were tried by court-martial, condemned to death, and shot on June 11, 1901. The Hague Convention quoted in the letter is that of 1899, but the same Art. 8 figures in the Convention of 1907. The second and third of these letters relate to a question of English public law, growing out of the exercise of martial law in British territory in time of war. One Marais, accused of having contravened the martial law regulations of May 1, 1901, was imprisoned in Cape Colony by military authority, and the Supreme Court at the Cape held that it had no authority to order his release. The Privy Council refused an application for leave to appeal against this decision, saying that "no doubt has ever existed that, when war actually prevails, the ordinary courts have no jurisdiction over the action of the military authorities"; adding that "the framers of the Petition of Right knew well what they meant when they made a condition of peace the ground of the illegality of unconstitutional procedure" (_Ex parte_ D.F. Marais, [1902] A.C. 109). Thereupon arose a discussion as to the extent of the prohibition of the exercise of martial law contained in the Petition of Right; and Mr. Edward Jenks, in letters to _The Times_ of December 27, 1901, and January 4, 1902, maintained that the prohibition in question was not confined to time of peace.