w." This is
the beginning and end of the doctrine of contraband. A neutral
Government has none other than this passive duty of acquiescence. Its
neutrality would not be compromised by the shipment from its shores, and
the carriage by its merchantmen, of any quantity of cannon, rifles, and
gunpowder.

Widely different from the above are the following three topics, into the
consideration of which discussions upon contraband occasionally
diverge:--

1. The international duty of the neutral Government not to allow its
territory to become a base of belligerent operations: e.g. by the
organisation on its shores of an expedition, such as that which in 1828
sailed from Plymouth in the interest of Dona Maria; by the despatch from
its harbours for belligerent use of anything so closely resembling an
expedition as a fully equipped ship of war (as was argued in the case of
the _Alabama_); by the use of its ports by belligerent ships of war for
the reception of munitions of war, or, except under strict limitations,
for the renewal of their stock of coal; or by such an employment of its
colliers as was alleged during the Franco-Prussian war to have
implicated British merchantmen in the hostile operations of the French
fleet in the North Sea. The use of the term "contraband" with reference
to the failure of a neutral State to prevent occurrences of this kind is
purely misleading.

2. The powers conferred upon a Government by legislation of restraining
its subjects from intermeddling in a war in which the Government takes
no part. Of such legislation our Foreign Enlistment Act is a striking
example. The large powers conferred by it have no commensurable relation
to the duties which attach to the position of neutrality. Its effect is
to enable the Government to prohibit and punish, from abundant caution,
many acts on the part of its subjects for which it would incur no
international liability. It does empower the Government to prevent the
use of its territory as a base: e.g. by aid directly rendered thence
to a belligerent fleet; but it, of course, gives no right of
interference with the export or carriage of articles which may be
treated as contraband.

3. The powers conferred upon a Government by such legislation as section
150 of the Customs Consolidation Act; 1853, now reproduced in a later
enactment, of forbidding at any time, by Order in Council, the export of
articles useful in war. The power thus given has no relation to
i