The international duty of the neutral Government not to allow its territory to become a base of belligerent operations: e.g.by the organisation on its shores of an expedition, such as that which in 1828 sailed from Plymouth in the interest of Dona Maria; by the despatch from its harbours for belligerent use of anything so closely resembling an expedition as a fully equipped ship of war (as was argued in the case of the _Alabama_); by the use of its ports by belligerent ships of war for the reception of munitions of war, or, except under strict limitations, for the renewal of their stock of coal; or by such an employment of its colliers as was alleged during the Franco-Prussian war to have implicated British merchantmen in the hostile operations of the French fleet in the North Sea.

The use of the term "contraband" with reference to the failure of a neutral State to prevent occurrences of this kind is purely misleading.
2.

The powers conferred upon a Government by legislation of restraining its subjects from intermeddling in a war in which the Government takes no part.

Of such legislation our Foreign Enlistment Act is a striking example.

The large powers conferred by it have no commensurable relation to the duties which attach to the position of neutrality.