Another point requires explanation. Of course all enemy ships upon the seas are lawful prize. But it strikes one at once that here is a departure from the principle that you do not make war upon the civil population, for merchant ships are civilian property. The neutral merchant has, however, been looked after, for the Declaration of Paris has proclaimed that ‘neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to capture under enemy’s flag.’ But in the converse case, it would not seem reasonable that enemy property in neutral ships should escape capture. The Declaration of Paris, however, steps in with the arbitrary rule that ‘the neutral flag covers enemy’s goods, with the exception of contraband of war.’ It cannot be said that this rule has done much to safeguard the ‘freedom of the sea’ for neutral vessels, for there is no doubt that guns consigned to Germany discovered on an American ship on a voyage from Galveston to Pernambuco would be lawfully seized; and as the guns may be seized the vessel may be detained and searched. But practical considerations work in favour of the neutral merchant. Not all the hosts of the Allied Fleets would be sufficient for the stupendous work which would be involved in putting this right into practice; therefore good sense has decreed that the destination of a ship to an enemy port shall be adopted as the practical working factor in its application, at least in the case of conditional contraband. But this has engendered the idea, which certainly is no part of the rule in its naked simplicity, that neutral ships sailing to neutral ports can carry enemy cargoes of contraband with impunity. Enemy destination is supposed alone to afford a presumption that there is contraband for the enemy on board; but if there were any doubt that the idea is erroneous, the words ‘whatever be their destination,’ in a judgment of Lord Stowell’s, to which I shall presently refer, must dispel it. * * * * *