The fact is that, whatever grandiloquent language may have been judicially employed by Lord Stowell in a contrary sense, it will now hardly be denied that a Prize Court sits by national, not international, authority, and is bound to take the view of International Law which, if any, is prescribed to it by the constitutionally expressed will of its own Government.
The Declaration of London is in many ways a great achievement; but one is glad to learn from Mr.McKinnon Wood's third answer that opportunity will be given for discussing all important points in connexion with its rules.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, T.E.HOLLAND.
Oxford, March 30 (1909).
THE DECLARATION OF LONDON Sir,--Both the Prize Court Convention of 1907 and its complement, the London Declaration of 1909, stand greatly in need of full and well-informed discussion before receiving the Parliamentary approval which ought to be a condition precedent to the ratification of either of them.

It is well, therefore, that many Chambers of Commerce have called the attention of Government to the detriment to British interest which may in their opinion result from these agreements if ratified, although the representations thus made exhibit, in some cases, so little technical knowledge as to have been readily disposed of by the Foreign Secretary.

For the same reason, I welcome the letter from Mr.Gibson Bowles, which appeared in _The Times_ of yesterday, although it contains some statements the inaccuracy of which it may be desirable at once to point out.
1.

The Declaration of Paris is neither implicitly nor explicitly adopted by the Declaration of London, "as a part of the common law of nations which can no longer be disputed." The later makes no mention of the earlier one, and M.Benault's _rapport_ (as to the interpretative authority of which opinions may well differ) applies the words quoted, not to the Paris Declaration as a whole, but to one only of its articles.

Mr.Bowles's statement that "the Declaration of London, if adopted, would reaffirm, and its ratification would in effect, for the first time ratify, the Declaration of Paris" cannot be supported.
2.