The American loves the cut and thrust of argument, and must at once have acknowledged that the reference to the fact that the doctrine of ‘continuous voyages’ originated with the Judges of the United States was not a _tu quoque_, but a brilliant illustration of the principle of development of the law. It is abundantly clear from every paragraph of this remarkable reply that this doctrine has become the one principle worth fighting for now, for our national safety depends on it. And the American will appreciate the delicacy of the compliment which can find no stronger arguments than those used by the Judges of the United States Prize Courts when they established it. The earlier American Note of the 7th of November had contended that ‘the belligerent right of visit and search requires that the search should be made on the high seas at the time of the visit, and that the conclusion of the search should rest upon the evidence found on the ship under investigation, and not upon circumstances ascertained from external sources.’ But the major premiss is that the actual destination of the vessel to the neutral port may be merely a cloak for the real destination of the cargo to the enemy; and the citation from the judgment in the case of the _Bermuda_[11] is a complete answer: The final destination of the cargo in this particular voyage was left so skilfully open ... that it was not quite easy to prove, with that certainty which American Courts require, the intention, which it seemed plain must have really existed. Thus to prove it required that truth should be collated from a variety of sources, darkened and disguised; from others opened as the cause advanced, and by accident only; from coincidences undesigned, and facts that were circumstantial. Collocations and comparisons, in short, brought largely their collective force in aid of evidence that was more direct. To introduce the rigid rules of evidence necessary to a common-law action in a question which is not a lawsuit at all, but an inquiry, would obviously cripple the effectiveness of the doctrine of ‘continuous voyages’; the occasions with which that doctrine deals have by force of circumstances become the most important source of supply of those commodities which a belligerent must at all hazards prevent his enemy obtaining. And if we go back to the root-principle, that the whole law and every part of it depend on the right of self-defence, no stronger argument is necessary to justify the principle laid down in this case, nor for the provisions of the Order in Council of the 29th of October, which throw the burden of proof of his innocence on the neutral owner of contraband. _The First American Note to Germany_