Page:Handbook of maritime rights.djvu/99

Rh an Order in Council appeared the next morning in which the following words occurred: "In order to preserve the commerce of neutrals from all unnecessary obstruction, Her Majesty is willing, for the present, to waive a part of the belligerent rights appertaining to her by the law of nations;" and a similar declaration was issued by the French Emperor.

Granting that it was desirable that identical instructions should be issued to the English and French Admirals, it is by no means so clear that the English Government, representing an essentially maritime Power, should have yielded in a maritime matter to its military ally; and it could have been shown that, however true it was that France had joined in the armed Neutralities, and that the first Napoleon had always considered the greatest blow that could be struck at England would be to deprive her of her maritime rights, yet that the French law on the subject, if one went