to the International Conference at Geneva, with an invitation to accede thereto; the Protocol is for that purpose left open."

ARTICLE X.

"The present Convention shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Berne in four months, or sooner if possible.

"In witness whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the same, and have affixed thereto the seal of their arms.

"Done at Geneva, the twenty-second day of August, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four."

(Here follow the Signatures).

"And the Swiss Confederation having, in virtue of Article IX. of the said Convention, invited the Government of Her Britannic Majesty to accede thereto;

"The undersigned, Her Britannic Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, duly authorised for that purpose, hereby declares that the Government of Her Britannic Majesty fully accedes to the Convention aforesaid.

"In witness whereof he has signed the present Act of Accession, and has affixed thereto the seal of his arms.

"Done at London, the eighteenth day of February, in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.

II.-A Declaration renouncing the use, in time of War, of Explosive Projectiles under 400 grammes weight.

DECLARATION.

"On the proposition of the Imperial Cabinet of Russia, an International Military Commission having assembled at St. Petersburg in order to examine into the expediency of

forbidding the use of certain projectiles in times of War between civilised nations, and that Commission, having by common agreement, fixed the technical limits at which the necessities of War ought to yield to the requirements of humanity, the undersigned are authorised by the orders of their Governments to declare as follows:

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Considering that the progress of civilisation should have the effect of alleviating as much as possible the calamities of

war;

“That the only legitimate object which States should endeavour to accomplish during War is to weaken the military forces of the enemy;

"That for this purpose it is sufficient to disable the greatest possible number of men ;

"That this object would be exceeded by the employment of arms which uselessly aggravate the sufferings of disabled men, or render their death inevitable;

"That the employment of such arms would, therefore, be contrary to the laws of humanity;

"The Contracting Parties engage mutually to renounce, in case of War among themselves, the employment by their military or naval troops of any projectile of a weight below 400 grammes, which is either explosive or charged with fulminating or inflammable substances.

"They will invite all the States which have not taken part in the deliberations of the International Military Commission assembled at St. Petersburg, by sending Delegates thereto, to accede to the present engagement.

"This engagement is obligatory only upon the Contracting or Acceding Parties thereto, in case of War between two or more of themselves: it is not applicable with regard to non-Contracting Parties, or Parties who shall not have acceded to it.

"It will also cease to be obligatory from the moment when, in a War between Contracting or Acceding Parties, a non-Contracting Party or a non-Acceding Party shall join one of the belligerents.

"The Contracting or Acceding Parties reserve to themselves to come hereafter to an understanding whenever a precise proposition shall be drawn up in view of future improvements which science may effect in the armament of troops, in order to maintain the principles which they have established, and to conciliate the necessities of War with the laws of humanity.

"Done at St. Petersburg, the twenty-ninth of November (eleventh of December), One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.

2. As to the enemy after he is a prisoner. Is Henry V. to be condemned, when, after the battle of Agincourt was over, being suddenly attacked by a body of armed peasants, he ordered his numerous prisoners to be put to death, lest the scanty remains of his victorious army should be anni

(4) See Papers presented to Parliament, 1869.

hilated? Was Anson justifiable, when, after the capture of the Acapulco galleon, finding that his crew was outnumbered by his prisoners, he consigned the latter to the horrors and dreadful suffering of incarceration in the hold?

These are instances "at which morality is perplexed, "reason is staggered, and from which affrighted nature "recoils " (h). At least, it may be said, that the clearest evidence of the absolute necessity of self-preservation is required to palliate them. The prisoner who has yielded under conditions cannot be injured so long as he fulfils his part of the condition. The prisoner who has made no such condition may be subject to all necessary restraint, proportioned, of course, to his readiness to submit or his intention to escape.

But surely the brave, the wise, and the humane will join in preferring the conduct of Charles XII., when, after the battle of Narva, he disarmed and set at liberty the prisoners who encumbered him, to the conduct of his adversary, who, after the battle of Pultowa, sent the prisoners, whose prowess he had experienced and dreaded, into the wilds of Siberia.

The selling (i) prisoners as slaves, is, as Vattel observes, a disgrace to humanity, happily banished from Christendom (k). Prisoners are exchanged in War, are dismissed on their

(h) Burke's Works, vol. iv. p. 127.

(i) "Of being taken by the insolent foe,

And sold to slavery, and my redemption thence."-Oth. act 1. sc. 3. Vide ante, vol. i. pt. iii. c. xvii. pp. 342–3., SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE, and ib. the opinion of Grotius and Bynkershoek.

La

(k) "Le droit de guerre, disent les jurisconsultes Romains, permet de tuer les prisonniers; en les rendant esclaves, on leur fait grâce de la vie. Nous répondons, avec Brusseau, que la guerre n'est point une relation d'homme à homme, mais une relation d'État à État, dans laquelle les particuliers ne sont ennemis qu'accidentellement, non point comme hommes, ni même comme citoyens, mais comme soldats. fin de la guerre étant la destruction de l'État ennemi, on a droit d'en tuer les défenseurs tant qu'ils ont les armes à la main; mais sitôt qu'ils les posent et se rendent, cessant d'être ennemis, ils redeviennent simplement hommes, et l'on n'a plus de droit sur leur vie.'"-Rousseau, Contrat Social, 1. i. p. 4.

parole, under promise not to carry arms for a certain time, or during the continuance of the War. A commander may make engagements with the enemy to this effect, but such engagements must have their limits; he cannot undertake that his troops shall never bear arms against the enemy, though he may engage that they shall not do so during the existing War, because the enemy may so long detain them in captivity (7).

The ransom of prisoners (m) is a practice now much discountenanced, but which cannot be said to be unlawful. If prisoners are not released during the War, their freedom should always form one of the conditions of the peace which terminates it.

XCVI. The following classes of persons have no claim to the treatment of prisoners of War (n):

1. Bands of marauders, acting without the authority of the Sovereign or the order of the military commander,a class which of course does not include volunteer corps, permitted to attach themselves to the army, and under the command of the general of the army (0).

2. Deserters captured among the enemy's troops. 3. Spies, even if they belong to the regular army.

The most melancholy and affecting instance in modern times of the severity with which this class of persons is treated, is afforded by the well-known history of Major André, of which some further mention will be made hereafter.

XCVII. I agree with Calvo that an enemy in a balloon captured by the accidental descent of that vehicle into the eremies' lines, should on principle be treated not as a spy, but as a prisoner of war (p).

(1) Vattel, ubi supr.

(m) As to ransoms of ships, vide post, cccc. xxxii.

(n) Heffters, s. 126.

(6) See a Paper, by Mr. Droop, read before the Juridical Society, March, 1871, and Calvo, ii. 115-19, as to "corps francs, &c." (P) II. 141-2.