§ MR. HUTTsaid, he begged to ask whether the bonâ fide sale of a Russian vessel to a British subject, since the declaration of war, but within six weeks of that event, would be regarded by the British Government as a legitimate transaction?
THE SOLICITOR GENERALsaid, he conceived it to be somewhat objectionable, as a rule, that questions involving difficult points of law, and which might probably come before legal tribunals, should be put, in this way, to the law officers of the Crown; but he would readily give the best opinion he could offer on the point. Any sort of traffic in or sale of goods, after declaration of war, between the subjects of belligerents, would, of course, be prohibited and unlawful; but having refer- 526 ence to the fact that, by Her Majesty's declaration, Russian vessels in our ports were to be allowed six weeks wherein to dispose of their cargoes, and that Russian vessels which had cleared out before the declaration of war, from any foreign port to a British port, were allowed to complete their delivery within the same period, he (the Solicitor General) thought that the licence so granted would extend to the bonâ fide disposal of Russian vessels being in a British port, or on their way to a British port, antecedent to the declaration of war; and that, consequently, in the case put by the hon. Gentleman, the bonâ fide sale of a Russian vessel to a British purchaser, since the declaration of war, within the six weeks allowed, and under the circumstances, was a strictly lawful and authorised transaction.