A belligerent nation has been conceded the right of visit and search, and the right of capture and condemnation if upon examination a neutral vessel is found to be engaged in unneutral service or to be carrying contraband of war intended for the enemy’s Government or armed forces. It has been conceded the right to establish and maintain a blockade of an enemy’s ports and coasts, and to capture and condemn any vessel taken in trying to break the blockade. It is even conceded the right to detain and take to its own ports for judicial examination all vessels which it suspects for substantial reasons to be engaged in unneutral service, and to condemn them if the suspicion is sustained. But such rights, long clearly defined both in doctrine and practice, have hitherto been held to be the only permissible exceptions to the principle of equality of sovereignty on the high seas as between belligerents and nations not engaged in war. If the rights of the neutral merchant are no greater than I have stated them in the first article, and he acts at his own peril and is entirely independent of his own Government, and if the rights of the belligerents are as large as I have there stated them, then it follows that there can be no question of ‘concession’ by the neutral merchant’s Government, in regard to either contraband or blockade, but only an assertion of belligerent right,[40] and all questions as to the sovereignty of that Government over its merchants’ ships disappear. When the neutral merchant is carrying contraband, or when he is blockade-running, he deliberately runs his risk, and therefore cannot claim the protection of his flag.