With this problem, devised in some such human fashion, the United States was faced during the Civil War, and the Judges settled it in characteristic and logical manner. They discovered the doctrine of ‘continuous voyages.’ It is nothing more than the simple application of elementary principles, and is arrived at by the elimination of the presumption of innocence which the voyage to the neutral port raised. All presumptions may be rebutted, and this one manifestly. ‘Be the destination what it may,’ the right of search existed; the presumption had only been allowed to grow because it was convenient. If goods destined for the enemy reached him by way of a neutral port, that port was only an intermediate destination; the ultimate consignee was the enemy, and there was a continuous voyage to him from the port of shipment. Therefore the seizure, and therefore the search, were justified, and could not be denied merely because ‘the final destination of the cargo was left so skilfully open.’ But the neutral merchant’s wits are sharpened by much profit in prospect; he is no simpleton, and a consignment of, let us say, copper from the United States is not likely to be addressed ‘Herr Krupp von Bohlen, Essen, _viâ_ Rotterdam, by kind favour of Messrs. Petersen & Co.’ Hence a most ingenious argument conducted on the principle ‘You shut your eyes, I’ll keep mine open.’ A consignment ‘to order’ (as ‘to the order of Messrs. Petersen & Co.’) may perhaps be legitimately seized, because the words do not clearly indicate the Dutch firm to be the real purchasers; but certainly not a consignment to a specific person (as to Messrs. Petersen & Co., Rotterdam). The sophistry is obvious; it does not negative the possibility that Messrs. Petersen & Co. are either acting as buyers for, or have imported the goods with the intention of passing them on to, Herr Krupp of Essen. And with the help of trade statistics the possibility may be discovered to be a probability. _Embargo_