Maza and Larrache against the United States in 1886 (Foreign Relations of U.S., 1887).

A similarly loose use of the term was its application by General B.F.Butler to runaway slaves who had been employed on military works--an application of which he confessed himself "never very proud as a lawyer," though "as an executive officer, much comforted with it." The phrase caught the popular fancy, came to be applied to slaves generally, and was immortalised in a song, long a favourite among negro children, the refrain of which was "I'se a happy little contraband." The decision of the Court of St.Petersburg in the case of the _Calchas_, so far as it recognises the existence of a conditional class of contraband, and that raw cotton, as _res ancipitis usus_, must be treated in accordance with the rules applicable to goods belonging to that class, has laid down an unimpeachable proposition of law.

Whether the view taken by the Court of the facts of the case, so far as they relate to the cotton cargo, is equally satisfactory, is a different and less important question, upon which I refrain from troubling you upon the present occasion.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, T.E.HOLLAND.
P.S .-- It may be worth while to add, for the benefit of those only who care to be provided with a clue (not to be found in the judgment) through the somewhat labyrinthine details of the question under discussion, a summary of its history.

The Russian rules as to contraband are contained in several documents--viz.

the "Regulations as to Naval Prize" of 1895, Arts.