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CHAPTER II.


Privateers.

I HAVE already said that the question of privateering has nothing to do with the real question at issue. The distinction between them is made clear by this fact. The question of privateering regards the belligerents only; if both belligerents agree to abstain from the practice, well and good; if either refuses, the other is ipso facto absolved from the obligation of abstaining. This is what happened the other day in the war between Spain and Chili. Chili had adhered to the Declaration of Paris, the first article of which abolished privateering—Spain had not. When war broke out between them, Chili re-asserted a