§ LORD ALFRED CHURCHILLsaid, he wished to ask Mr. Solicitor General, Whether Merchant Ships, in the prosecution of a voyage between neutral ports, would be legally justified in defending themselves, by the use of arms, from capture by the cruisers of the Federal States of America?
THE SOLICITOR GENERALSir, in answer to the noble Lord, I have no hesitation in saying that Merchant Ships, under the circumstances supposed by his question, would certainly not be justified in defending themselves from capture by the use of arms. That question was decided in this country in the celebrated case of the Swedish convoy, in which it was held, according to previous authorities, not only that they would not be justified in doing so, but that the very attempt to do it, even with the assistance of the ships of war of the convoy, would expose them not only to capture, but to just condemnation.