governments to communicate the information to their fubjects, whofe interefts they are bound to protect. I fhall hold therefore that a neutral master can never be heard to aver against a notification of blockade, that he is ignorant of it. If he is really ignorant of it, it may be a fubject of representation to his own government, and may raise a claim of compenfation from them, but it can be no plea in the Court of a belligerent. In the case of a blockade de facto only, it may be otherwise, but this is the cafe of a blockade by notification; another distinction between a notified blockade and a blockade exifting de facto only, is that in the former, the act of failing to a blockaded place

The NEPTUNUS.

July 18th, 1799.

have been a fubject of general notoriety, that the port was
legally confidered by the English in a state of blockade; and it is
impoffible that it should not have come to the knowledge of this
man after he came in; it is not to be faid by any perfon " al-
though I know a blockade exists, yet, because it has not been
notified to my Court, I will carry out a cargo." I cannot but
think that it would have been a very fraudulent omission to take
no notice of what was a fubject of general notoriety in the place.
If it was known to every Dane and Swede, it is impoffible that
it fhould not be known to this man. It is not more likely to
have been unknown to this veffel, from the circumftance of its
being a Bremen fhip, when we confider the particular relation
which Bremen bears to the Sovereign of this Country. As to the
affidavit of the mafter, I should receive that with great diftruft.
Masters have a direct intereft to raise the blockade as foon as
poffible; therefore their affidavits come with a dead weight about
them, that must very much fink their credit whenever they are
produced. I hold that the master must have known of the
blockade, notwithstanding he and his men fwear they did not;
and therefore that the ship is penally liable to confiscation.
Ship condemned-Cargo ordered to ftand over-Mafter's
private Adventure restored.

VOL. II.

I

is

The NEPTUNUS.

July 18th,

3799.

is fufficient to constitute the offence. It is to be prefumed that the notification will be formally revoked, and that due notice will be given of it; till that is done, the port is to be confidered as clofed up, and from the moment of quitting port to fail on fuch a destination, the offence of violating the blockade is complete, and the property engaged in it subject to confifcation: it may be different in a blockade existing de facto only; there no prefumption arifes as to the continuance, and the ignorance of the party may be admitted as an excufe, for failing on a doubtful and provisional destination. But this is a cafe of a veffel from Dantzick after the notification, and the master cannot be heard to aver his ignorance of it. He fails:-till the moment of meeting Admiral Duncan's fleet, I should have no hesitation in saying, that, if he had been taken, he would have been taken in delicto, and have fubjected his veffel to confifcation; but he meets Admiral Duncan's fleet, and is examined, and liberated by the Captain of an English frigate belonging to that fleet, who told him that he might proceed on his destination, and who, on being afked, Whether Havre was under a blockade? faid "It was not blockaded," and wifhed him a good voyage. The question is, In what light he is to be confidered after receiving this information? That it was bona fide given cannot be doubted, as they would otherwise have seized the veffel; the fleet must have been ignorant of the fact; and I have to lament that they were fo: When a blockade is laid on, it ought by fome kind of communication to be made. known not only to foreign governments, but to the King's fubjects, and particularly to the King's

cruizers;

cruizers; not only to thofe ftationed at the blockaded port, but to others, and efpecially confiderable fleets, that are stationed in itinere, to fuch a port from the different trading countries that may be fuppofed to have an intercourse with it. Perhaps it would have been fafer in the English captain to have answered, that he could not fay any thing of the fituation of Havre; but the fact is, (and it has not been contradicted,) that the British officer told the master "that Havre was not blockaded." Under these circumstances I think, that after this information he is not taken in delicto. I do not mean to say that the fleet could give the man any authority to go to a blockaded port; it is not fet up as an authority, but as intelligence affording a reasonable ground of belief; as it could not be supposed, that such a fleet as that was, would be ignorant of the fact.

From that time I confider that a state of innocence commences; the man was not only in ignorance, but: had received pofitive information that Havre was not blockaded. Under these circumstances, I think it would be a little too hard to prefs the former offence against him; it would be to prefs a pretty strong principle rather too ftrongly; I think I cannot look retrospectively to the ftate in which he ftood before the meeting with the British fleet, and therefore I fhall direct this veffel and cargo to be restored.

The NEPTUNUS.

July 18th, 1799.

July 18th, 1799.

Blockade of
Amfterdam.
Effect of terms

of a licence to

the ports of the Vlie, &c.

THE JUNO, BEARD Master.

THIS was a cafe respecting the meaning and effect of a licence, granted to an American ship to go to the ports of the Vlie.

JUDGMENT.

Sir Wm. Scott.-This is a case arifing out of the blockade of Amfterdam; it is the cafe of an American veffel coming from America without any knowledge of the blockade of Amfterdam, and bringing a cargo for that port; fhe came to Falmouth, and then, finding that the port of Amfterdam was under blockade, the petitioned for a licence, and obtained one from this government, and, as I understand the mafter through the whole of his depofitions, "a licence to go to Amfterdam." This he states in ftating his difficulties, and the means he took to relieve himself. The application was "for leave to export to the Vlie, Embden, or Rotterdam;" but the terms of the permiffion are an enlargement of his petition, for they are " to the ports of the Vlie, Embden, Rotterdam, or elsewhere." Whether the petition was an impofition, and framed with a design of deceiving government, will appear on the enquiry which has been directed to be made. If the petition was in the usual form, and if the licence was underftood by those who granted it to permit exportation to Amfterdam, it will clear up that part of the cafe; as to any opinion that I can form, I own, that although the licence is expreffed in this general way, "the ports of the Vlie," I cannot but think that it must have included Amsterdam, which is one of those ports; for it is not to be fuppofed but that they would

intend to grant the licence in a natural and intelligible form, and not fo as to keep the parties in the dark as to its extent. But, it is argued, that, allowing it to have been properly obtained, it was not properly used; because it was at any rate a licence to go to Amfterdam through the Vlie passage, whereas this veffel was taken entering the Texel; and that there might be many reasons for making the distinction in the licence, and therefore that it ought to be ftrictly obferved. Now having heard it conftantly argued, and having myself adopted the interpretation, that the blockade extended to one paffage as well as to the other, and that the whole Zuyder Zee was fhut up; I fhall not go back again and reftrict this interpretation, and fay it is confined to one paffage only. I fhall hold e converfo, that if a licence is given to go through the Vlie, it is not fubftantially violated by going through another paffage, unless it is fhewn to me that it contained some specific prohibition as to other paffages: fuppofing it to have been honestly obtained for Amfterdam through the Vlie, I fhall not hold it to have been a material deviation to go another way, unlefs some special prohibition, or unless some special inconvenience is fhewn, which the party was bound to take notice of.

It has been truly faid, that a licence is a thing ftricti juris a privilegium, which a man does not poffefs by his own right, but that it is conceded to him as an indulgence, and therefore, that it is to be ftrictly obferved. At the fame time, I am to remember, that this is a licence to relax a right which bears pretty hardly, though juftly, on other countries. To shut up the ports of a country, and exclude neutrals from all commerce with it, is a great inconvenience

The

JUNO.

July 18th, 1799.