The second exception to the immunity of neutral property ispropertycarried in a ship attemptingor reasonably suspected of attemptingto entera blockaded portBlockades in the last century were considered by belligerentsa most elective method of distressing an enemyand over great part of theEuropean continent the great markets for traders and the fortified stationsfor ships are most exposed to blockadeTo prevent neutral vessels from enteringor leaving these portswas to do severe injury to tradeand to impoverishthe blockaded port was to impoverish the country round aboutandif shipsof war were lying within the portto diminish seriously the total fightingforce of the enemyBrest and Toulon were practically blockaded all throughthe great war at the beginning of this century and the end of the lastEnglandwas again a belligerent during the Crimean warand there were some blockades,not perhaps very importantof ports in the Baltic and the Black SeaButduring the American war between the Northern and Southern States she becamea neutralit having been at last allowedeven by the United Statesthatthere was a state of belligerency between the combatantsEven then it becameclear that a considerable change had occurredSteam made the limited navyof the Northern States able to maintain a fairly elective blockade of nearlythe whole coast of the Southern Confederate StatesSteam also greatly facilitatedthe operations of the neutral blockade-runnersBut the land behind the portsof the Southern States was rich and fertileand many railways had been constructedin those territoriesThe effectthereforeof the blockade was very unlikethe eject of the blockades in the great [Trench warArticles of first necessitywere easily supplied to the blockaded ports from withinand the effect ofthe blockade was to raise the price of luxurieswhich were always importedfrom abroadIfhoweverwe look on the present state of the worldwe shallsee that no European continental Power of any importance exists which isnot connected by railways with the interior of the country to which it belongs,and alsothrough connecting linkswith the railway system of the wholeContinentA blockade may still raise the price of necessaries and conveniences,but unless aided by a land siege it cannot prevent a sufficient and evenplentiful supply of necessaries and conveniences entering a blockaded place.
It cannot arrest tradeit can only divert itA land traffic would at oncetake the place of a maritime trafficHardly any colonial produce reachedthe blockaded ports during the great war with FranceNow it would flow infrom a dozen openings in Eastern and North-eastern EuropeIt is possiblethat no part of North America could now be blockaded so as to greatly distressthe country behindThere has been an extensive construction of railwaysthrough all the states on the east side of the United Statesand an immensemultiplication of manufactures throughout the countrySouth Americarapidlygrowing in wealth but insufficiently supplied with railway communication,would be the only part of the world to which neutrals would resortand atwhich blockades would be of any value.
The fact that in any future maritime war it will probably be found thatthese branches of law have changed their characternot through any alterationof opinionbut through industrial developmentmay suggest a suspicion thatthe new maritime law created by the Declaration of Paristhough now hardlymore than thirty years oldmay yet shortly prove obsoleteThe positionis thisNeutral trade is relieved from annoyance and interruptionand privateeringis abolished as regards most of the worldBut the United States declinethe new neutral immunities because they will not surrender privateering.
Now in any new war an attempt to enforce the parts of law unfavourable toneutralswill probably turn the neutral trading community into a belligerent,and the power of employing its own and foreign ships as privateers wouldmake the American Union a very formidable belligerentThe question iswhetherit is worth while amending the Declaration of Parisand making it of universalapplication by accepting the further reforms proposed by the United States;that isby exempting all private property from captureand by abolishingprivateering.
