Note 128 — Chapter I · ON WAR IN GENERAL

See below, § 177. It is confidently to be hoped that the great progress made by the abolition of privateering through the Declaration of Paris will never be undone. But it is of importance to note the fact that up to the present day endeavours have been made on the part of freelances to win public opinion for a retrograde step. See, for instance, Munro-Butler Johnstone, Handbook of Maritime Rights; and the Declaration of Paris Considered (1876), and Gibson Bowles, The Declaration of Paris of 1856 (1900); see also Perels, pp. 177-179. The Declaration of Paris being a law-making treaty which does not provide the right of the several signatory Powers to give notice of withdrawal, a signatory Power is not at liberty to give such notice, although Mr. Gibson Bowles (op. cit. pp. 169-179) asserts that this could be done. See above, vol. I. § 12.