Page:Handbook of maritime rights.djvu/23

Rh right which her adversary had never relenquished, and this re-assertion was acquiesced in by Spain and approved of by every other Government. In fact the other Governments had nothing to say to the matter; it in no way regarded them. But very different is the case when it is a question of the neutral flag covering the cargo. Then the rights of neutrals step in, and other Governments besides those of the belligerents have a voice in the matter. They will keep, and have a right to keep, the belligerent who has signed the Declaration of Paris to his engagement, by which it is their turn to profit, and by which he himself profited all the time he was a neutral, by driving a flourishing carrying trade with one or both of the belligerents. It is this distinction which clearly detaches the question of privateering from that far more serious question of the neutral flag covering the enemies cargoes.I am not myself an enthusiast for privateering. I take no