Page:Handbook of maritime rights.djvu/151

Rh That a document, known as the Declaration of Paris of 1856, nevertheless assumed to abolish this right, and to prohibit its exercise by Great Britain. That an adherence to the rules laid down by the Declaration of Paris would in the event of war immediately deprive Great Britain of the whole of the carrying trade, and drive it into neutral vessels; would deprive her of the power of acting against the enemy's commerce, by enabling it to be carried on in security under the neutral flag, thus rendering naval warfare unnecessary to the enemy, and therefore impossible to Great Britain; and, finally, would deprive her of the power of issuing commissions to volunteer vessels as an auxiliary force to the Navy. That by this Declaration the authority and the position of Great Britain are 