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26 The second case has never justified the seizure of the cargo as a recognized maxim of international law, although an abuse of belligerent rights has often, as we shall see, claimed this right, and in all those numerous treaties in the 17th and 18th centuries in which the principle of "free ships free goods" was stipulated, the opposite or converse principle "enemies' ships enemies' goods " was likewise agreed upon between the contracting parties, as a set-off against the concession.

The third case (where the ship belongs to a neutral and the cargo to the enemy) involves the principal matter on which we have to fix our attention. Previous to 1854 the English practice (leaving out of account for the present the modifications introduced into our practice by treaty engagements which will form the subject of a separate chapter) was founded on the simple theory that enemies' property was seizable wherever it was found: in Lord Stowell's words: