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508 APPENDIX.the privilegesof a proper convoy. II. When the neutral state grants aconvoy, it immediately gives security that the merchant vessels containno wares which, according to general maritime law, or specific treatieswith particular powers, are contraband. In short, the merchant vessels,before they are taken under convoy, must be previously subjected to astrict examination of their papers, which must be conducted by thecommanding officer of the convoy. In Denmark, probably also inSweden and Russia, the commandingofficer himself is even made responsible for it. III. It is not, therefore, every ship which can, at itsown discretion, obtain convoy even if its papers are in perfect order.The state does not readily undertake the responsibility for foreign ships-It is more usual for each state to allow onlyits own ships to convoy.Agreements, however, may easily be entered into, especially where several powers bind themselves to an armed neutrality, which may occasion deviations from the rule.Hence it will be clearly seen why this disputed point is regarded,especially by neutrals, as a question of honour. The search of a convoyis tantamount to a refusal to accept the given security, and the pledgedword of honour of a state, and the denial of a right which has beenhitherto conceded to every independent state as such. The correspondence which passed between the Danish government and the BritishCharge d'Affaires at Copenhagen, perhaps exhausted every thing whichcan be said on this subject.Some readers will perhaps ask whether something has not been determined on this point in the commercial treaties. But in no singleknown treaty, and not even once in the acts of the armed neutrality of1780, has there been the slightest mention made of it ; doubtless because in the European maritime law which existed before that time, thefreedom of a convoy was taken for granted. That is to say, it is obvious that the opposite claim could never be preferred by any Europeanpower which is not possessed of a similar decisive preponderance at seato that which Great Britain has at present.IY.Wlien are Harbours to be considered as Blockaded fwas decided on this point,In the earlier treaties nothing because theanswer was self-evident : when they are really blockaded. But England gave to the phrase an extension of meaning which few will be prepared to justify, that the bare declaration, * that a port is blockaded, atonce constitutes a blockade.' Indeed this was then extended even tothe whole line of coast. In consequence, the Act of Neutrality contains this just definition, Art. III. " That the name of a blockaded portbelongs only to that which is blocked up by a number of ships of warlying before it and stationed sufficiently near, that the entrance cannotbe hazarded without manifest danger ; and that the vessel which steersits course in that direction shall not be regarded as acting in oppositionto the convention until it makes the attempt to effect an entrance, eitherby force or stratagem, after it has been apprized of the condition of theharbour by the commander of the blockading squadron,"