I have, for the greater stability of my edifice, used the reinforced concrete of the logic and arguments which Sir William Harcourt created in the famous, but almost forgotten, ‘Letters of Historicus,’ incorporating in the footnotes more extended quotations from those Letters. In a few instances I have added a paragraph to the articles as they originally appeared, for the sake of greater clearness.

I trust that the manner in which I have set forth what I conceive to be the true law of the dispute will give no offence to my friends in the United States. I am sure it will not, for some who took part in the Behring Sea Arbitration are still among the Minority, and they will remember that those discussions did not want for strenuousness with Phelps of counsel for the United States, and Charles Russell for England.

F. T. P.

November, 1915.

CONTENTS

page
Introduction[v]
I.The Neutral Merchant: Three American Notes
and the Answers[1]
II.The Neutral Merchant and the ‘Freedom of
the Sea’[49]
III.Cotton as Contraband of War[95]

THE NEUTRAL MERCHANT

I
THE NEUTRAL MERCHANT: THREE AMERICAN NOTES AND THE ANSWERS

[April 1915]