[Footnote 40: See, however, below, § 102_a_ and article 1 of Convention VI., which only stipulates that it is _desirable_ that enemy vessels in the port of a belligerent at the outbreak of war should be allowed to depart freely; see also article 2 of Convention VI.]
[Footnote 41: See Steck, _Versuch über Handels-und Schiffahrts-Verträge_ (1782), p. 355; Caumont, _Dictionnaire universel de droit maritime_ (1867), pp. 247-265; Calvo, III. § 1277; Pradier-Fodéré, V. p. 719; Holtzendorff, IV. pp. 98-104.]
These kinds of international _embargo_ must not be confounded with the so-called _civil embargo_ of English Municipal Law[43]--namely, the order of the Sovereign to English ships not to leave English ports.
[Footnote 43: See Phillimore, III. § 26.]
[Sidenote: Reprisals to be preceded by Negotiations and to be stopped when Reparation is made.]
§ 41. Like all other compulsive means of settling international differences, reprisals are admissible only after negotiations have been conducted in vain for the purpose of obtaining reparation from the delinquent State. In former times, when States used to authorise private individuals to perform special reprisals, treaties of commerce and peace frequently stipulated for a certain period of time, for instance three or four months, to elapse after an application for redress before the grant of Letters of Marque by the injured State.[44] Although with the disappearance of special reprisals this is now antiquated, a reasonable time for the performance of a reparation must even nowadays be given. On the other hand, reprisals must at once cease when the delinquent State makes the necessary reparation. Individuals arrested must be set free, goods and ships seized must be handed back, occupied territory must be evacuated, suspended treaties must again be put into force, and the like.
[Footnote 44: See Phillimore, III. § 14.]
It must be specially mentioned that in the case of recovery of contract debts claimed from the Government of one country by the Government of another country as being due to its nationals, reprisals by means of armed forces can, according to article 1 of Convention II., only be resorted to in case the debtor State refuses to go to arbitration.