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Rh to the provisions of the Consolato del Mare.

Here I will close the account of the French practice, because from this date began the policy dictated by the events (1) of the American War of Independence, and (2) of the French revolution,—in which exceptional feelings of animosity and bitterness introduced exceptional regulations, and threw considerations of equity and of law into the background.

But before taking leave of the review of French practice between 1543 and 1744, there is a very interesting incident to be recorded, worthy of attention inasmuch as it exemplifies the fact that the idea of a law of nations, independent of and superior to municipal regulations in conflict with that law, had not up to that date deserted the public conscience in France. The incident is this.—

The ordinances of 1543 and 1584 enacted, as we have seen, the confiscation of the neutral vessel as well as the enemy's