ain, _cf.
infra_, Ch. VI. Section 10); the Hague Conventions of 1907, No.
iv. (superseding the Convention of 1899) as to the conduct of
warfare, and No. v. as to neutrals, of which only the former
has as yet been ratified by Great Britain.

(iii.) With reference only to war at sea: the Declaration of
Paris, of 1856, supposed apparently to need no ratification (to
which the United States is now the only important Power which
has not become a party), as to privateering, combination of
enemy and neutral property and blockades; The Hague Conventions
of 1907, No. vi. as to enemy merchant vessels at outbreak, No.
vii. as to conversion of merchantmen into warships, No. viii.
as to mines, No. ix. as to naval bombardments, No. x. as to the
sick and wounded, No. xi. as to captures, No. xii. as to an
International Prize Court, supplemented by the Convention of
1910, No. xiii. as to neutrals. It must be observed that, of
these Conventions, Great Britain has ratified only vi., vii.,
viii., ix., and x., the three last subject to reservations. The
Declaration of London of 1909, purporting to codify the laws of
naval warfare as to blockade, contraband, hostile assistance,
destruction of prizes, change of flag, enemy character, convoy,
resistance and compensation, and so to facilitate the working
of the proposed International Prize Court, if, and when, this
Court should come into existence, has failed to obtain
ratification, as will be hereafter explained.

Concurrently with the efforts which have thus been made to
ascertain the laws of war by general diplomatic agreement, the
way for such agreement has been prepared by the labours of the
Institut de Droit International, and by the issue by several
governments of instructions addressed to their respective
armies and navies.

The _Manuel des Lois de la Guerre sur Terre_, published by the
Institut in 1880, is the subject of the two letters which
immediately follow. Their insertion here, although the part in
them of the present writer is but small, may be justified by
the fact that they set out a correspondence which is at once
interesting (especially from its bearing upon the war of 1914)
and not readily elsewhere accessible.

The remaining letters in this chapter relate to the _Naval War
Code_, issued by the Government of the