“I do not say, _To give assistance equally_, but, _To give no
assistance_; for it would be absurd that a State should assist at
the same time two enemies.”--_Le Droit des Gens_, Liv. III. ch.
vii. § 104.
Another home authority, the late General Halleck, in his work on
International Law, after speaking of merchants engaged in selling
ships and munitions of war to a belligerent, says:--
“The act is wrong in itself, and the penalty results from his
violation of moral duty as well as of law. The duties imposed upon
the citizens and subjects flow from exactly the same principle as
those which attach to the government of neutral States.”