No. 1.—Extract.
[Translation.]
De grondwet voor pet Koningcijlc der Nederlanden,
de Nederlandsehe Wetbocken. (Schiedam, 1865,) Wetbock van Straftegt.
Lib. iii, cpt. i, sec. i, pp. 676, 677.
- Art. 84. Whosover shall, by hostile
acts not approved by the government, expose the state to a
declaration of war, shall be punished with banishment, and if
war be actually carried out, he shall be punished with
transportation.
- Art. 85. Whosoever shall, by acts
not approved by the government, expose Frenchmen* to reprisals,
shall be punished with banishment.
[573] *Note.—It
will be observed that the above articles, translated from the
existing code of the Netherlands, are an exact transcript from the
code pénal of France, which was introduced into the Netherlands at
the time of the annexion *of the Netherlands to France, and, of
course, all the commentaries on the subject of the French code, and
of the other continental codes, are applicable to that of the
Netherlands.
Translation of circular of April 14,
1854.
[Nederlandsehe Staats-Courant,
Saturday, April
15, 1854.]
It having come to the knowledge of the minister of foreign
affairs that plans exist to export ammunition of war, contrary
to the duties imposed by the laws of peoples, to neutrals, he
thinks it his duty to call the attention of ship-owners and
ship-chandlers to the danger to which they would expose
themselves by such expeditions, but also to the fatal
consequences and trouble which Dutch vessels would have to
suffer, if with the belligerent powers the confidence could not
exist that said flag will not be used in any case for any
unlawful transport of contraband of war.
[574] By the assurance, received by the
King’s government, that the rule (free ship, free goods) will be
respected by all the belligerent powers, that for contraband of
war and for dispatches for one of the belligerent powers alone
an exception will be made, and that the search, whether vessels
carrying the Dutch flag contain such contraband, will be made in
the easiest manner possible, it is for *the honest trader and
ship-owner of the greatest import, that everywhere the
conviction exists, that no abuses will take place under
protection of the Dutch flag, and that, as such, no cause be
given to raise unfavorable opinions about those having the
privilege to use this flag.
His Majesty’s government would be unable to protect vessels
which, contrary to the duty of neutral states, contained
contraband of war, or were charged with forbidden
dispatches.
VAN HALL.
The
Hague, April 14,
1854.
Translation of circular of April 15,
1854.
[Nederlandche Staats-Courant, Sunday 16 and Monday
April 17, 1854.]
[575] According to decrees of the King,
the ministers of foreign affairs, of justice, and of the navy
announce, to all those whom it may concern,
[Page 136]
that in order to maintain a
complété neutrality in the present war, no cruisers, under any
flags, commissions, or lettres de marque whatever, will be
admitted within our sea-ports, with or without prizes, except in
cases of sea-danger, and that, in any case whatever, such
cruisers and their prizes will be watched and be ordered to sea
as soon *as possible.
The ministers above named,
- VAN HALL.
- DONBER CUBTIUS.
- J. ENSLIE.
The
Hague, April 15,
1854.
