Personal license vs. general order

The first pre-supposes a personal communication with the enemy, and an avowed intention of furthering his objects, to the exclusion of the general trade by other merchants to the same country; it has a direct tendency to prevent such general trade; and relieves the enemy from the necessity of resorting to a general order of protection; it contaminates the commercial enterprizes of the favored individual with purposes not reconcilable with the general policy of his country; exposes him to extraordinary temptations to succour the enemy by intelligence; and separates him from the general character of his country, by clothing him with all the effective interests of a neutral.