Let us get at once a clear view of the position. England by this Order has aimed a very vigorous blow at the heart of her enemy, but the Government of the United States has warned her that she may not do it, not from any humanitarian considerations, but because it would react to the detriment of neutral merchants. It points out that there are some principles of international law, some documents or declarations, which stand in our way. If this be really so, then international law sets the profit of the merchant above the life of nations. The theory of the United States appears to be that the conduct of war is to be governed by the interests of commerce, even if they touch those of the belligerents. The truer theory is, I believe, that commerce, in so far as it touches the interests of the belligerents, is entirely subordinated to the exigencies of war. If the view of the United States is right, then the documents and the declarations have been heedlessly signed and made, and the power of England upon the seas has been recklessly frittered away. I have endeavoured in the first article to get into sharper relief than popular notions give to it the position in which the neutral merchant stands to a belligerent and to his own Government, and also to recall the real meaning of neutrality. The Order in Council had at that time been issued, but the American Protest had not been delivered. I intimated, however, that it seemed probable that a close examination of fundamental principles would show that the Order was abundantly justified by them. The publication of the Protest confirms me in that view.