The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 6, 1866.

week last year, showing an increase of £442. The
total receipts from Ist of July to the above date
amounted to £179,265, and for the same period of
1865 to £173,108, showing an increase of £6,157.

tary condition of that district, the Rev. G. T. Drif-
field, rector of Bow, writes to say that the body
from whom those statements emanated was not the
Bow and Bromley Cholera Relief Committee, of
which he is chairman, and in which representatives
of all religious denominations are combined to carry
out the work, but a comparatively small and pri-
vate committee connected with the congregation
of George-street Independent Chapel, Bromley, of
which the Rev. H. Lance is minister. Mr. Driffield
states that he makes this statement with a view of
vindicating in some degree the local authorities, and
also of avoiding confusion between the two Com-
mittees, as that with which he has the honour of
acting would not have been a party to some of the
allegations made. He and his Committee freely
admit the defective drainage of the locality, but the
remedy for this, he says, is simply dependent on the
completioni of the low-level sewer. The poverty
and destitution prevailing in the neighbourhood, he
adds, are also undeniable, and this has
.been the
ground of their appeal to public sympathy, as well
as to the kindness of the Mansion-house Committee,
who on Tuesday made them an additional grant of
£lOO. It is right, he says, to add that the District
Board of Works have been most energetic in their
efforts to fulfil their duties during the prevalence of
the epidemic, and any complaint made to them from
any quarter as to the use of offensive materials in
roads, or of any similar nuisance, would have been
attended to without the loss of many hours.

On behalf of the Woolwich Local Board of
Health we are asked to contradict the statement of
the Registrar-General, that the authorities there are
negligent. We are assured that at the very first
outbreak of cholera in London the Local Board ap-
pointed a sanitary committee, which has since met
every alternate day, and which, aided by the Garri-
son Sanitari Committee, has been unremitting in
its exertions to remove every nuisance which was
calculated to injure the public health. Their deaths
up to Tuesday during the epidemic had been 12,
out of a population of more than 41,000. Of these
one was an imported case, and in nearly every one
of the remaining 11 some gross error of diet, or
long neglected diarrhoea, had been clearly estab-
lished. The few cases that had occurred had
been essentially sporadic, no second case having oc-
curred in the same house, nor even in the same
street. A cholera ward has been open for nearly
two months, but it has not received a single
patient ; and the house-to-house visitation which
had been projected has not been carried into effect,
simply because there has been no prevalence of
diarrhoea to justify its adoption. We arc also as-
sured that the Registrar-General is wrong in stating
that " the Laths happen chiefly by the river," the
fact being that in Woolwich not one death has oc-
curred " by the river," and the majority has been
on the upper levels.

The following is the official return of deaths from
cholera and diarrhoea in London, registered on
Tuesday, Sept. 4 :

Cholera. Diarrhoea,.
West districts ... 3 ... 4
North districts ... ... 3 ... ... 4
Cehtral districts... 1 ... 3
East districts 15 ... ... 2
South districts ... 9 *" 8

Total ...

... 31

... 21

The return for the sub-district of St. George's,
Bloomsbury, was not received in time for publica-
tion.

Beaumarchais in London.

(From the Pall-Mall Gazette.)

It is stated in the newspapers that the alleged MS.
play in four acts of Beaumarchais, said to have been
discovered in England by M. Fournier some years
ago, will, after many delays, be actually produced at
the Theatre Francais. Its authenticity will no doubt
have been carefully ascertained by the proper autho-
rities, for the names of Beaumarchais and mystifica-
tion are by no means incongruous. The most amus-
ing scamp of the 18th century—concerning whom
M. de Lomenie has written rather a solemn book,
and who ought to be specially dear to this genera-
tion, inasmuch as he was the first man to whom was
revealed the great truth that everything which is
serious and everybody who is earnest are " slow"—
was certainly often in England; and manuscripts of
his are preserved here, some of them of rather equi-
vocal character. He came on divers Bohemian
missions, as an agent, to make matters smooth be-
tween Madame Du Barri and the libeller Thevenot
de Morande ; as a spy, commissioned by the French
Court, to look after the epicene Chevalier d'Eon, and
on sundry contraband financial projects of his own.
What particular mischief he was after in London in
May, 1776, we do not know, but on the 6th of that
month he addressed a letter in French to the Morn-
ing Chronicle, which reminds one so much of his own
immortal " Figaro," that it may be worth translat-
ing and presenting to our readers. It is reprinted
in a collection of his works along with other jeux
d'espr it, but these works, except his two famous
plays, areforgotten, and few will search for it there.

" To THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE (OF
MAY 6, 1776).

" Sir,—l am a foreigner, a Frenchman, and a man of
honour. If this information does not fully apprise you
what 1 am, at all events it shows what I am not, and in
times like these that is something.
" The evening- before last, at the Pantheon, after the
concert and while the dance was going on, I found under
my feet a lady's cloak, of black satin, lined with the same,
and with a lace border. Ido not know to whom this cloak
belonged. I never saw the person who wore it—there or
elsewhere ; and all the inquiries I have since made have
failed in ascertaining anything about her.

" I beg you therefore, Mr. Editor, to announce tho dis-
covery of the cloak inyour journal, in order that it may bo
faithfully returned to the owner. But, in order to avoid
mistakes, I have the honour to inform you that the lady
who lost it wore on that occasion pink feathers. I think
she had diamond drops in her ears, but of this I am not so
certain. She possesses a very good figure. Her hair is blond
argente. Her complexion is brilliantly fair. Her throat is
long; her waist rather long also. She is tall, and has the
prettiest foot in the world. I have even satisfied myself
that sho is very young, lively, and rather absent; that sho
is very quick in her movements, and that she has a decided
taste for dancing.
"If you ask met lir. Editor, why, as I observed her so
closely, 1 did not immediately give her back her cloak, 1
have the honour to repeat to you what I said before, that
I never saw this lady. I know neither her eyes, nor her
features, nor her dress, nor her demeanour.

"But if you Rersist in asking how, never having seen
her, I can describe her to you so closely, I, on my sido,
must express myself surprised that so accurate an observer
as yourself does not know that the more inspection of a
woman's cloak is sufficient to convey all those particulars
which are required to identify her.

"But without boasting of an accomplishment which is
scarcely one at all, since the late Zadig gave so admirable
an explanation of it, suppose, Mr. Editor, that on examin-
ing this cloak I found in the hood attached to it two or
three hairs of a beautiful light colour, and also a few ends
of rose-coloured feather adhering to the lining; you per-
ceive that it required no great effort of genius to conclude
that the plame and the locks of this blonde lady must have
answered to the specimen. Thus much is plain.

"And inasmuch as such locks as these never grow on a
dark forehead, or even ono of impeachable complexion,
analogy would have taught you, as it did mo, that the per-
son in question must havo possessed a skin of dazzling
fairness, which no observer can dispute without casting
discredit on his judgment.
"Again, a slight obrasion or fraying on each side of the
interior lining of the hood, such as could only have been
produced by the continual rubbing of two little hard bodies
in motion, proved to me, not that sho wore earrings with
drops that day, neither have I affirmed it, but that she is in
the habit of wearing them. Although, between you a.ndme
it is not at all likely that she would have omitted to put on
such ornaments for a day of conquest. But never mind this,
if I reason badly, Mr. Editor, do not spare me ; rigour is
not injustice.

"The rest needs no explanation. It will bo soon that it
was enough for me to examine the ribands which fastened
the hood round the neck, and to tie them together in a knot
just at the length where they were crumpled by ordinary
tying, to satisfy myself that, the space encircled by the knot
thus formed being inconsiderable, the throat usually encom-
passed by it is very slender and elegant. No difficultyon that
point. Next, measuring attentively tho space comprised
between the top of the cloak behind, and the marks of
horizontal folds, formed just below the waist by the action
of the wearer in tightening the cloak about her in order to
bring the charms of her figure into greater development and
exhibit the fall of its lower portion with -the lace border at
bottom, no amateur would doubt for a moment, any more
than I did, that the lady was tall, rather long waisted, and
finely shaped. This is self-evident ; the form is visible
beneath the drapery.
"Now suppose, Mr. Editor, that in examining the body
of the cloak you had found on the black satin the impres-
sion marked in dust of a very pretty little ishoo, would you
not have reflected that if any other woman head trodden on

the cloak after the fall, she Would certainly have deprived
me of the pleasure of picking it up ? You would therefore
have concluded at once that the impression was Made by
the shoo of the loser of the cloak. Thou you would have
said if her shoe is very small her pretty foot is still smaller.
Ido not claim any merit for having ascertaiued this. The
simplest observer might have done the same.

"But this footstep, made in passing, and evidently un-
perceived by her who made it, indicates not only extreme
quickness of step, but also a preoccupation of mind, of
which grave, cold, elderly people are seldom susceptible.
Whence I simply conclude that my charming blonde is in
the flower of her age, full of liveliness, and distraite in pro-
portion.
".Again, reflecting that the spot where I found her cloak
was on the way towards the place where the most active
dancing was going on, I inferred that she was very fond of
that amusement, since no less attraction would have suf-
ficed to make her forget her cloak and tread upon it.
It was impossible, I think, to arrive at a different conclu-
sion. And, though a Frenchman, I boldly refer tho ques-
tion to all the honneteg Bens of England.

"Also, when I remembered next day that in a place
where so many people passed I had picked up this cloak
without interruption (which proved that it had just been
dropped), and without being able to discover her who had
dropped it (which proves that she was already a long way
off), I said to myself, Surely this young person is the most
alert beauty in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and if I do
not add America, it is because people have become of late
diablement alert in that country.'

"Had I carried my researches further I might perhaps
have learnt in addition, from her cloak, what is her rank
and quality. But when one has discovered that a woman is
young and handsome, does one not know nearly all about
her that one wishes to learn ? Such, at least, was the notion
in my time in some good cities in France, and even in some
villages, such as Marly, Versailles, and the like.
"Do not, then, be surprised, Mr. Editor, that a French-
man who has made the fair sex the object of his special
and philosophical study all his life should have found out,
on the mere view of the cloak of a lady whom he never
saw, that the beautiful blonde with the rose-coloured
plume to whom it belonged unites to the dazzling beauty
of a Venus the slender neck of a nymph, the figure of a
Grace, and the youth of Hobe ; that she is vivacious, ab-
sent, and so fond of the dance that she forgets everything
else as she hastens to join it, on the feet of a Cinderella,
with the swiftness of an Atalanta.

" And be still less astonished if, occupied all night with
the sentiments inspired in me by so many charms, I made
for her, on my awaking, the innocent little verses, for
which her cloak and your paper, Mr. Editor, will serve as
a passport."
We spare our readers the verses, which are of the com-
mon-place order of gallantry. Tho writer signs himself,
"Amatur Francais," and says that a letter addressed to C.
8., at the coffee-house, St. James's, shall be duly answered.
The Chronicle carries the romance no farther. Tho Pan-
theon, it will be remembered, was in 1776 the novel and
fashionable place for public balls.

Serious Forgeries by a Parish Contractor.

CIRCULATION OF FORGED BILLS OF EXCHANGE

TO THE AMOUNT OF £15,000.

Yesterday at the Marylebone Police-court, before
Mr. Burcham, George Curnock, a contractor, em-
ploying a large number of persons in the parish of
St. Pancras, and who has his offices at 250, High-
street, Camden-town, was charged with knowingly
uttering a number of forged bills of exchange. •
Mr. G. Lewis, jun., who appeared for the prose-
cution, said that the prisoner had f9r a number of
years been the principal contractor for the scavenging,
work for the parish of St. Pancras, and until latterly
had been a man of-some repute in the parish. The
prisoner had a brother named Thomas Curnock, a
farmer, at North Hyde, Middlesex, and, as he would
;.Tow, the prisoner had forged his brother's name to
bills of exchange for a large amount, of which not
less than £5,000 worth had been dishonoured.
Mr. Wm. Aspinall said he was a stone merchant,
at 280, High-street, Camden-town, and had known
the prisoner about 14 years as being a contractor
holding a good position in the parish. On the Bth
March last Mr. Anderton, one of the prisoner's
clerks, came to.him and asked him to discount a
bill for £198115., purporting to have been accepted
by Mr. Thomas Curnock. After some persuasion he
consented to discount the bill, and (less the usual
percentage for discount) gave a cheque on the Lon-
don and Westminster Bank, payable to Mr. George
Curnock. Feeling somewhat suspicious, he followed
the clerk to the door of his master's office, where he
met the prisoner, who, iu answer to his inquiries,
said it was all right, and that he had drawn the
bill on his brother Thomas for some dung he had
sold him. The bill, which was due on the 11th
of June, was dishonoured, and on the following
day the prisoner came into his office, and on learn-
ing that the bill was locked up in the desk, he ex-
pressed his satisfaction, and hoped it would remain
there until he got some money. from the parish,
when he would take it up. At that time he (wit-
ness) feeling ill, left town for about 10 days, and on
returning found that the prisoner had become a
bankrupt. He (witness) was chairman at the first
meeting of the prisoner's creditors, and had the pri-
soner called into the room, when he confessed that
the whole of the signatures to the bills of exchange
produced were forged. The prisoner's brother sat
at the table during the meeting, and at the same
time other creditors said that they held similar
forged acceptances for sums varying from £4OO to
£5OO. He (witness) knew that at the present time
there were forged bills of exchange out, signed by
the prisoner, amounting to upwards of £5,000.
Mr. William Johnson, a timber merchant, at
Kentish Town-wharf, spoke to having been swindled
in a similar manner, and was induced to discount a
forged bill for £2OO.
Mr. Richard Hillsclon, another tradesman in
Kentish Town, who had known the prisoner over
20 years as a contractor in extensive business, also
deposed to having discounted a bill for £137 lls.,
the acceptance of which had been forged by the pri-
soner. The witness added that he held other forged
acceptances amounting to upwards of £570; and he
had ascertained that the prisoner had forged bills to
the amount of £15,000, about a third of which had
been met.

Police-constable John Doudney, 172, said that in
consequence of information received he, at 5 o'clock
the previous afternoon, apprehended the prisoner at
High-street, Camden Town, and conveyed him
.to
the police-station in a cab. On the way to the sta-
tion the prisoner said it was his clerk who bad done
all the mischief.

Mr. Burcham remanded the prisoner for seven
days.

Fatal Affray beveen Two Tradesmen.

SOUTHAMPTON, Wednesday.
At the Guildhall, this day, Samuel Ballantyne, a
draper, of South-front, Kingsland-place, Southamp-
ton, was charged with killing Henry Russell.
The case was of a very painful character. The
parties were near neighbours, and were both highly
respectable, the deceased, who was a painter by
trade, being much respected in the town.
It appeared that a little before 12 o'clock on the
previous night the two parties were in the parlour
at the ". Unicorn" inn, and commenced " chaffing"
each other. Mr. Ballantyne introduced the question
of religion, and deceased told him to go home to his
wife, as he was drunk. Mr. Ballantyne said, " I
can go home to my wife ; she is a virtuous wife, and
I have stuck to her. When Igo home to my wife
I don't go home to a woman." The deceased then
said, " What do you mean ? You area blackguard."
At the same time he rose and struck the accused
open-handed on the cheek. The accused was about
to return the blow, when the landlord prevented it,
and they both left the house. The deceased then
struck Mr. Ballantyne about the head with his
umbrella, and the latter then struck out right and
left, and gave the deceased some very severe blows.
The deceased defended himself as well as he could,
and in the'skirmish he fell very heavily to the ground,
quite insensible. The deceased was taken into the
public-house, and on recovering consciousness Mr.
Ballantyne apologised to him, and they both shook
hands. There was a cut on the deceased's left cheek
from which blood was flowing ; a large lump on the
back of the head, but no blood flowirrg ; and a large
lump over the right eye. Mr. Russell walked to his
home, but died about seven o'clock the next morning.
The accused, who seemed to feel his position most
aeutely,was remanded, in order that a post-mortem
examination might be made.

During the past few weeks numbers of families
have left the iron and coal districts of South Wales for the
United States, and this mania for emigration has taken
such a permanent hold of the miners and ironworkers that
the exodus is expected to keep up for some time, notwith-
standing the improved prospects of the staple trades of the
district.

SPIRIT. OF TAE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

4,-

Timm—The Census of 1861 revealed the remark-
able fact that in the whole south-west of Ireland
there were but two Jews. One of these ancient
people abode in Munster, and the other in Con-
naught, so that they sufficed between them for a
population of nearly three millions. That little piece
of statistical intelligence may be valued, perhaps, for
its curiosity, but it is really of greater worth. We
fear it is instructive. Jews can find no occupation
in a land of poverty, without manufactures, with-
out trade, without any of those commercial demands
which provide them with employment. And the
truth of this deduction is seen by a comparison of
the north-eastern provinces of Ireland with the
south-western. lu the metropolitan districts of
Leinster 200 Jews were found, and a Jewish colony
had settled about Belfast. These are the rising dis-
tricts of Ireland—the counties in which remunera-
tive industry is taking root and prosperity gradually
developing itself. The inhabitants themselves con-
fess as much, and the fact explains the three impor-
tant addresses received by the new Lord-Lieutenant
on Monday last. The known excellence of the Dub-
lin School of Surgery accounts for the professional
deputation which headed‘the list. The Royal College
of Surgeons in Ireland represents almost a special
Irish faculty, and its compliments to the new Viceroy
were naturally paid. But after this deputation came
two others of singular importance—one from the
Dublin Chamber of Commerce, and the other from
the Corporation of Belfast—the two centres of Irish
progress. The spirit of these two addresses is identi-
cal, though the language and arguments differ.
The Ulster people have nothing to fear, and there-
fore nothing to deprecate. There is no disaffec-
tion or conspiracy in their part of the country.
On the contrary, they justly boast of their loyalty,
and express a hope that the value of this
spirit, and of " habits of contented and honour-
able industry," will now be recognised by their
fellow-countrymen. Fenianism has no place by
the side of diligence and thrift. Prosperity goes
hand in hand with loyalty and work, and all the
Belfast people ask for is a quicker mail service
between their town and London. They could not
have preferred a more satisfactory request. It is the
best possible evidence of improvement when com-
munications are found insufficient, and postal ser-
vice too slow for the enterprise of trade. The repre-
sentatives of the commercial and manufacturing
interests of Leinster entertain, of course, a similar
appreciation of the benefits of industry, but they
cannot make the same report of tranquillity and
progress. They do, indeed, " discern evidence of
increasing enterprise in all quarters of the land,"
but the signs of improvement had been clouded
by political follies. A " senseless and wicked
combination" had alarmed the country for its se-
curity. and the apprehensions of disturbance had
scared away capital and injured trade. Naturally,
therefore, they desire to see the evil removed.
They ask simply for a strong Government. They
want no favour for any religious or political party;
on the contrary, they expressly ask for " impartial
justice" without respect to persons or creeds, and
only desire to see the law maintained against the
enemies of order. On this one condition they
predict a good time for Ireland. " Aided," they
say, " by returning peace and security, and pro-
tected by firm and impartial government, the trade
and commerce of our country will be gradually
and largely developed." With this development
will disappear the chief difficulties of Ireland. The
great evil of Ireland is poverty. That the country
suffers also from religious and political dissensions
is true, but such dissensions prevail in other coun-
tries without material injury to the economical inte-
rests of the people. The mischief is that in Ireland
they break out into the lawless outrages which
frighten away capital, paralyse trade, and keep the
population poor. Then this poverty reacts upon the
people, and disposes them in their misery to break
out again. Wealth can only come by industry, and
industry can only be maintained by capital. When
a well-known Irish writer remarked of his country,
in 1782, that the only things then wanting to her
prosperity " were capital and enterprise," he did not
reflect how very great and fatal the deficiency really
was. It is simply because " capital and enterprise"
have not been forthcoming that Ireland has remained
what it is. Ulster alone has possessed these sources
of prosperity, and Ulster is well off and contented,
without a single complaint to make, except against
the Post-office. Leinster, the metropolitan pro-
vince, is making progress ; but the Fenian agita-
tion created an alarm, by which the pleasing pro-
spect was for a time obscured. It is well for Irish-
men to look the truth in the face, and the great
truth before them just now is this—that the only
substitute which has been so much as proposed for
the British Government is a Communistic Republic
founded on murder and pillage, and administered
by men who, even in the abundance of the New
World, cannot refrain from cutting each others'
throats. That is the alternative to be completed ;
nor should it be forgotten that the faults of the
British Government,' whatever they may have been,
are now things of the past. No Government could
be imagined more sincerely anxious to do good to
Ireland than the Governments, whether Conserva-
tive or Liberal, of the present day ; nor could any
people be more ready to help another people than
Englishmen to help Irishmen. We have a super-
abundance of the capital and enterprise which Ire-
land needs. These things are quite at Ireland's
service, but Irishmen always make the mistake of
applying to Parliament instead of dealing with the
people. No mistake could be greater, for public
economists are niggardly, while the people are
lavish. It is not by a local subsidy that Ireland
can be enriched. Parliamentary grants are grudg-
ingly made and hotly disputed; but private capital
will flow in abundant volume through channels once
opened. Look at the example of Scotland. Apart
from questions of trade and industry, look at the
resources found in scerery, sport, and untutored
nature. A Highland forest," a moor, a wild
unnavigable stream, prove to be the most lucrative
'property. The demand for these things expresses
the reaction from intense devotion to business.
If there are parts of Ireland where no energy
can make crops grow or herds flourish, which
are tenanted only by the wild creatures of
nature, and characterised only by natural won-
ders, those are the very parts to which Eng-
lishmen would go. We work so hard, and our crav-
ing•for periodical diversion becomes so strong, that
no price is too high to pay for the alternative re-
quired. We go to the Scottish isles, the Orkneys,
or the coast of Norway for the most absolute change
procurable. The time will probably come in our
own island when a wood full of game will be about
the most valuable species of landed property.
Other countries can grow corn for us. Thatquestion
was settled by Free Trade, and when Free Trade
brought inexhaustible supplies into our ports and
at the same time doubled the profits of commercial
enterprise, the spirit of the age took a new turn.
Where there was formerly one man with money in
his pocket there are now fifty, and those fifty are
exactly the people prepared to spend it. They work
successfully for 11 months in the year, and for the
other month they claim the recreations which were
once the monopoly of a small privileged class. They
want travel, field sports, some absolute contrast to
intense civilisation and brainwork at high pressure.
Now, what a field is Ireland for wants like these !
Why is such a chance thrown away ? Why should
a moor in Scotland fetch a fabulous rent, while
moors in Ireland are left without a tenant? If
Ulster and Leinster have commercial advantages,
the advantages of natural scenery and attractions
belong to Munster and Connaught. Turn both to
account, and the face of Ireland would soon be
changed. Nor is anything wanted to accelerate
this change, except the public tranquillity and con-
tentment which all kinds of enterprise require.

POST.—The refusal of the President of the
United States to recognise the validity of a procla-
mation issued by the Emperor Maximilian, declar-
ing certain Mexican ports to be in a state of block-
ade, furnishes a striking illustration of the applica-
tion of one of the most important canons of inter-
national law as laid down in modern times. The
Emperor of Mexico, having hitherto failed to
establish his authority throughout the entire ex-
tent of his newly-acquired dominions, has thought
proper to declare in a state of blockade certain
ports in the possession of the Republican
party. Now, the right of blockade is one which
only pertains to a belligerent Power, and such
declaration on his part is tantamount to an admis-
sion by him of a belligerent status in those to whom
he is opposed. The exercise of the right of blockade
is one which operates almost as harshly against
neutrals as against the particular Power whose
ports are closed, and as, according to the fundamen-
tal principles of international law, commerce is per-
fectly free, and every State is entitled to trade with
every other, no State can be deprived of that right
without the previous establishment of a state of war,
and the consequent investiture of at least two dis-
tinct Powers with a beclligerent character. No
Power, for example, can declare a blockade of its
own ports, though, if it pleases, it is at liberty to
close them. The difference between a closure and
a blockade is very material as regards foreign
Powers, since the former proceeding involves no
penalties on ships which attempt to enter the closed
ports, whereas the latter entails under similar cir-
cumstances liability .to capture and forfeiture.
During the late American civil war the Government
of the United States proclaimed a blockade of the
ports of the Southern States, and by so doing re-
cognised the belligerent status of the Confederacy.
And it is worthy of remark that as such blockade
was proclaimed previous to the recognition by Great
Britain of the belligerent character of the revolted

~ft.

tly
States, the charge of precipitation so persistea, s
advanced by the Government of the United t.31,e,
against that of her Britannic Majesty Was entir.c,..;
groundless. In declaring Matamoras and ot"f
ports to be in a state of blockade the E
Mexico consequently only followed the examPle 'far
him. by the American Government, and thus. is
his conduct is free from censure. If he tlllifs
proper to recognise the belligerent status of nd
insurgent. subjects, he is at liberty to do so,
and
his best justification for the course he has acl7P,ed
would consist in the fact that he bad employ
what he conceived to be the most efficacious
means of reducing his adversaries to subjection
The objection, however, which has been Lathe
by the Government of the United States W. in
proclamation of blockade by the 111"le`in
Emperor
et
Emperor rests on a ground which is admitted,i.
international law to be substantial if clearly e..,`„
blished. The President declares by his proclaniatlx°i`:
that the Emperor, or, as he terms him, Prince. ,1111'iti
milian, has not a sufficient naval force to inatntrd
a strict blockade, and that in consequence
States are not bound to observe restrictions 'v"l'to
the belligerent imposing them is not in a position
of
enforce. This, of course, is entirely a questlir,
fact, but, assuming that fact to be as stated by.
Johnson, there can be no question that he is entitled
to disallow the right claimed by Maximilian to inter,
rupt the trade of the United States, amongst °the;
with the ports declared to be blockaded. The a,
gality of what are termed paper • blockades was 1
termined a great many years since, and it is 31;,,e
accepted law that no Power is entitled to acquire
the right of stopping and capturing neutral vesnt
bound to a hostile port by simply declaring ""„
such port is in a state of blockade. No one el„,`"
attempted to carry the theory of paper blockade wa
such an extent as the First Napoleon, when, onA.
memorable occasion, by a decree he deela7o
British ports to be blockaded, though at the tll2a
without a single vessel in British waters. Ile
the reason why such blockades should not. ht
recognised must be sufficiently obvious. The 11.0,8
of blockade is one which, in its exercise, preri,
very heavily upon neutrals, and they have a rib.,
to demand that such exercise shall not be ca to
cions or nugatory. A neutral Power is bona 9,9
respect a blockade, and such of its vessels,,,,eit
attempt to enter the closed ports do so at
_9,,g
peril, since, if captured, they may be condemull',
lawful prize of war. If, however, by simply Pict
claiming a blockade, a belligerent could inter t,
commerce with a port, it would be enabled/ ill
though not a maritime Power, to employ indifecol
a means of warfare to which, from the necessity
„
things, it would be disentitled to have recoll'i
The trade of neutral States would be impairedA.
the mere assumption of a power which the bc;
gerent would not in fact enjoy, and no Otis
would exist of ascertaining whether in fact
might enter the blockaded ports with safety or row
It is therefore established by internationalltl ,
that a blockade, to be recognised, must be eft
tive, and not only effective, but continuous.
blockading.. squadron, for example, quits the Tito
minty of the blockaded port for twenty-four hetalcie
(inless. driven off by stress of weather), the block .0
is considered raised, and, if resumed, fresh node,
must be given to neutral States if the belligerent
sires to enforce his rights against vessels atteniPtt
to enter such port. The belligerent cannot core
his rights capriciously or at intervals ; he must re;
main constantly at his post if he intends to in"'"
fere with the trade of neutral vessels.