Old Virginia and her neighbours

344 OLD VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBOURS.now without a formal declaration of war. Therewere times in the thirteenth and fourrighting• 111without de-tecuth centuries when the hatred betweenthe commercial rivals, Venice and Genoa,was so fierce that whenever their ships happenedto meet on the Mediterranean they went tofightingat sight, yet those bloody scrimmages did notalways lead to war. In the youth of ChristopherColumbus it was seldom that Christian and Turkishships met without bloodshed, on the assumptionthat war was the normal state of things betweenCrescent and Cross. So when the Dutch werecontending against Philip II. the English oftenhelped their heroic cousins by capturing Spanishships long before war was declared between Philipand Elizabeth. Such laxity of international usagemade it easy to cross the line which demarcatesprivateering from piracy.Itshould also be remembei-ed that the ships ofneutral nations had no such protection as now.Lack of pro-The utmost that is now permitted theneu*tra/°' belligerent ship is to search the neutralships.gj^-p £qj. weapons or other materials ofwar bound for an enemy's port, and toconfiscatesuch materials without further injury to person orproperty. In the sixteenth century it was allowableto confiscate the neutral shij) bound for anenemy's port, sell her cargo for prize money, andhold her crew and passengers for ransom. Themilder doctrine that any kind of goods might beseized, but not the ship and her people, had beenpropounded but was not yet generally accepted.All the circumstances here mentioned were