A Prisoner of War is not adhering to the King’s enemies, for he is here under the protection from the King.  If he conspires against the King’s life it is high treason; if he is killed (malice aforethought), it is murder.  He is not, therefore, in a state of actual hostility.  At one time it was ruled, that a prisoner of war could not contract; but that case was thought hard.  Officers on their parole must subsist like other men of their own rank; but if they could not contract they must starve; for they could gain no credit if deprived of the power of sueing for their own debts.  A prisoner in confinement is protected as to his person, and if on parole he has protection in his credit also.[60]

He is allowed to support himself, and add to his personal comfort, by applying himself in his trade or business, and may maintain an action on his contract for his wages; nor can he be compelled, when sueing for money necessary for his support, to give security for costs like any other foreigner temporarily resident in this country.[61]

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[Sidenote:  Married Foreigners.]

A wife generally follows the country and allegiance of her husband; but where she is in this country of necessity, or is here owing allegiance by her birth, and her husband is an alien enemy and under an absolute disability to come and live here, the law steps in to her aid, and gives her the privileges of an unmarried woman, so that she may sue and be sued, and make contracts for and against herself, for her maintenance.  “Her case,” says Chief Justice Holt, “does not differ from that of those ladies who were allowed to sue and be sued upon the adjuration or banishments of their lords, as if they had been sole."[62]

Foreign ladies, who have married Englishmen, are, by their marriage, naturalized, and have all the rights, privileges, and duties, of natural-born subjects, and cease to be enemies.[63]

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[Sidenote:  Enemies by Hostility.]

A hostile character may be acquired by alien friends, by acts of actual hostility, and by alien friends and our fellow-subjects also, by what are termed personal and commercial domicile.  Of course a British subject in actual hostility to his native country is more than enemy, he is a traitor, and has no belligerent rights; but an alien friend, that is a neutral engaging in war against this country, under the commission of a foreign prince, and in the ranks of a hostile army, or on board a legally commissioned enemy’s vessel, is an enemy, and has all the rights of a prisoner of war, if taken.

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[Sidenote:  Mariners.]

A Mariner, by a general rule, takes the character of the country in whose service he is employed, and even fugitive visits to the place of his birth will not entitle him to retain the benefit of a neutral character, in opposition to a regular course of employment in the enemy’s country and trade; nor does the fact of his wife and family residing in his own country enable him to retain his native character.[64]