INTERNATIONAL LAW.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE FOUNDATION AND HISTORY OF THE LAW OF

NATIONS.

66

tion.

["THERE can be few nobler objects of contemplation and Introduc study," says a modern writer of eminence', than to trace the gradual progress of International Jurisprudence ;" and such has been the inspiring influence of this science, that for upwards of three hundred years from the time of Suarez to our own days it has claimed the exclusive attention of a host of writers, with more or less advantage to the progress of that science, and with more or less reputation to themselves. In so large a crowd of authors of different countries, impressed with different feelings, it is not surprising to find some difference of opinion upon the positions of the subject in the body of general Jurisprudence, upon the method of arrangement, and the proper classifications of its parts; but various as are their opinions, and widely as they differ in detail, they are unanimous in the testimony they bear to the influence of International Law upon the well-being and happiness of nations, and in the energy and devotion they shew in stating the principles and explaining the foundation of what some of them, with more zeal than precision, have called the Law of Nations. For three hundred years and upwards then the study of International Law has been pursued in the great countries of Europe, with such an amount of learning and research, and its doctrines

1 Professor Katchanowsky.

tion.

Introduc- explained with so much vigour and eloquence, "as to raise it from a few simple rules of natural law to the goodly and elaborate fabric it has now become." From the fall of the Roman empire to the Reformation International Law was not directly pursued and illustrated as a separate system of law, but a stimulus of no small nature was given to the study of subjects much akin to it in the publication of those maritime codes, which so remarkably distinguish a period of time when intellectual darkness hung over Europe, and when the science of law lacked that development it had previously received from the genius of Rome. From the era of the Reformation to the peace of Westphalia the stimulus thus given to mercantile law, joined to an increasing fondness for Roman law, was felt in another direction; and the patience of Suarez, the legal acumen of Alberic Gentili, and the vast erudition, the eloquence and the earnest devotion of Grotius, at once drew the attention of the world to the subjects they illustrate so ably. But it is from the peace of Westphalia that International Law, properly so called, dates, that important period in the history of its rise and progress, from which it has grown with the growth and developed with the development of the political system of Europe, has undergone changes that have given it a new character, and by the skill of diplomatists, the discrimination and learning of judges, and the research and eloquence of jurists, has been established among the civilized nations of Europe as their public law. Nor is it in Europe alone that it occupies this prominent position; in the United States' it is equally recognised as a part of their public law-recognised and sanctioned from the period when they ceased to be a part of the British empire and assumed the character of an independent nation;] and if during the war of the American revolution, Congress, claiming cognizance of all matters arising upon the law of nations, professed obedience to that law according to the general usages of Europe;" not less does it still profess to acknowledge its influence and be guided by its precepts. [Nor can we wonder at the anxiety displayed on both sides of the Atlantic to preserve the integrity, to uphold the dignity, and to vindicate the 1 Thirty hogsheads of sugar v. Bayle, 9 Cranch, 198. 2 Ordinance of the 4th Dec. 1781. Journals of Congress, vII. 185.