naval warfare as to blockade, contraband, hostile assistance,
destruction of prizes, change of flag, enemy character, convoy,
resistance and compensation, and so to facilitate the working
of the proposed International Prize Court, if, and when, this
Court should come into existence, has failed to obtain
ratification, as will be hereafter explained.


Concurrently with the efforts which have thus been made to
ascertain the laws of war by general diplomatic agreement, the
way for such agreement has been prepared by the labours of the
Institut de Droit International, and by the issue by several
governments of instructions addressed to their respective
armies and navies.

The _Manuel des Lois de la Guerre sur Terre_, published by the
Institut in 1880, is the subject of the two letters which
immediately follow. Their insertion here, although the part in
them of the present writer is but small, may be justified by
the fact that they set out a correspondence which is at once
interesting (especially from its bearing upon the war of 1914)
and not readily elsewhere accessible.

The remaining letters in this chapter relate to the _Naval War
Code_, issued by the Government of the United States in 1900,
but withdrawn in 1904, though still expressing the views of
that Government, for reasons specified in a note to the British
_chargé d'affaires_ at Washington and printed in _Parl. Papers,
Miscell._ No. 5 (1909), p. 8. The United States, it will be
remembered, were also the first Power to attempt a codification