It is not customary, except in one clear case, for a neutral Government to insist that a belligerent should adopt, _in medias res_, its views of a question which does not involve any issue of peace or war: to press on him, _in medium bellum_, a modification of his belligerent action which might cost him the victory. The clear case of exception is when, philosophy at fault, there are not two sides to the question, but one only, and that testified to by flagrant breaches of the laws of humanity and war. Everything else is fair fighting; and for a neutral Government, because its own commercial interests are affected, to insist on the adoption of its view of a debateable point, to persist that it is not debateable, to take action, in itself a violation of international law,[1] savours of unneutral service. In the absence of suggestion of anything but perfect good faith, in the face of much demonstrated care of the interests of its citizens, the abandonment by a neutral Government of the dispassionate attitude which neutrality requires not merely heartens the enemy but must result in rendering him material assistance. The United States Government, by placing England and Germany on the same plane of protest,--the ‘lawless conduct’ of the belligerents--has, as it seems to me, lost the true measure of national right and wrong on which humanity must rest its laws if civilisation is to continue. In redressing wrongs the law has never placed injuries to life and property on the same level. A neutral Government whose citizens have suffered in life by the action of one belligerent, in fortune, however grievously, by the action of the other, must yet be guided as to the manner of its protests by the relative degree of the offences. Now, assuming England’s high-sea policy to be illegal, two things appear to me clear: First, that we are entitled to claim from the United States a consideration of the circumstances which led to the commission of the offence of which we are accused, in order to see whether, as Reprisals, it was not justified. The Protest of the 2nd of April expressly refuses this consideration; it proceeds on the assumption that Reprisals can never be resorted to against an enemy, if the interests of a neutral trader are affected: Secondly, that, quite apart from the Arbitration Treaty, we are justified in insisting on a reference to arbitration after the War as the complete present answer to the charge, for this all-sufficient reason, that on calm review it may appear that our action is warranted by international law. There is no indication in the last paragraph of the new Protest that this view is acquiesced in by the United States.