“That a vessel hired, by the enemy, for the conveyance of military persons is to be considered as a transport, subject to condemnation, has been in a recent case, held by this Court, and on other occasions.[174] What is the number of military persons that shall constitute such a case it may be difficult to define.  In the former cases there were many, in the present they are fewer in number; number alone is an insignificant circumstance in the considerations on which the principles of law on this subject are built; since fewer persons of high quality and character may be of more importance than a much greater number of persons of lower condition.  To send out one veteran general of France to take command of the forces at Batavia might be a much more noxious act than the conveyance of a whole regiment.  The consequences of such assistance are greater, and therefore it is what the belligerent has a stronger right to prevent and punish.  In this instance the military persons are three,[175] and there are besides two other persons who were going to be employed in civil capacities in the Government of Batavia. *** It appears to me, on principle, to be but reasonable that, whenever it is of sufficient importance to the enemy that such persons should be sent out on the public service, and at the public expense, it should afford equal ground of forfeiture against the vessel that may be let out for a purpose so intimately connected with hostile operations.[176] The fact of the vessel having been pressed into the enemy’s service does not exempt her.  The master cannot aver that he was an involuntary agent."[177]

[Sidenote:  Neutral Ships Carrying Enemy’s Despatches.]

Carrying the Despatches of the Enemy is also a ground of condemnation.

“In the transmission of Despatches may be conveyed the entire plan of a campaign, that may defeat all the plans of the other belligerent, in the world.  It is a service, therefore, which, in whatever degree it exists, can only be considered in one character—­as an act of the most hostile nature.  The offence of fraudulently carrying despatches in the service of the enemy being greater than other contraband, some other penalty has to be affixed.  The confiscation of the noxious article would be ridiculous when applied to Despatches.  There would be no freight dependent on their transportation.  The vehicle (i.e. the ship) in which they are carried must, therefore, be forfeited."[178]

[Sidenote:  Ambassadors excepted.]

The Despatches of an Ambassador or other Public Minister of the Enemy, resident in a neutral country, are an exception to this rule, being the despatches of persons who are in a peculiar manner the favourite object of the Law of Nations, residing in the neutral country for the purpose of preserving peace and the relations of amity between that state and their own government.