tions, and the most valuable parts of his work have been embodied in later collections. (1) The first great general collection of treatises was that of Leibnitz, entitled Codex Juris Gentium Diplomaticus, which has been already mentioned, and of which the publication was commenced in 1693, the same year that the work of Leonard appeared. Also in 1693 was issued a warrant to Thomas Rymer, to search and publish the British records existing in our various archives. The work of Rymer was undertaken on the plan, and at the instigation, of the Earl of Oxford; and the first volume of the Fœdera (as the work is usually called from the commencement of its long title) was published in 1704, and the fourteenth in 1713, in which year Rymer died. Sanderson, who had been assistant to Rymer, subsequently published the fifteenth and sixteenth volumes, which had been left by Rymer ready for the press, and he also issued a seventeenth, containing an excellent index, in 1717. These seventeen volumes compose the first edition of the Federa, and contain documents from A.D. 1101 to A.D. 1654. Various editions have been since published; that used in the following work is the edition published at the Hague in 1740; and a new edition was commenced in 1816 under the auspices of the Record Commission, who propose to continue the work of Rymer to the reign of George III. In 1710 appeared the first volume of Lunig's Teutsches ReichsArchiv, a collection of state papers relating to the German empire, which was completed in 1722, in twenty-three volumes folio. This production has not, according to De Martens, the value of the works of Leonard and Rymer, the author not having had the " (1) The title of Leonard's work was Recueil des traités de paix, de trêve, de neutralité, de confédération, d'alliance, et de com merce faits par les Rois de France avec tous les Princes et Potentats de l'Europe et autres depuis près de trois sieèles," in 6 vols, 4to. same advantage of free access to the public archives. Lunig afterwards published a Codex Italiæ Diplomaticus, in four volumes folio. matique. Thus, at the commencement of the last century, seve- Dumont's ral of the chief European states had published records Corps Diplo drawn from their public archives, and illustrating their own individual history, and that of other states so far as connected with them; but with the exception of the Codex of Leibnitz, there was no work serving as a general book of reference to the diplomatic student. This want was supplied by the celebrated Corps Diplomatique of Jean Dumont, historiographer of the emperor. Of this admirable collection four folio volumes were published in 1726, under the superintendence of Dumont, who died in 1727. M. Rousset, who had also been an editor of a collection of public documents, conducted through the press four volumes which had been left in manuscript by Dumont, with the superscription, written on his death-bed :-" On trouvera cette seconde collection fort derangée, parceque j'étais actuellement occupé à l'enrichir, lorsqu'il plut à Dieu de m'envoyer la dernière maladie dont je vais mourir." These eight volumes folio compose the part of the Corps Diplomatique which was collected by Dumont. The work of Dumont commenced with state papers of the time of Charlemagne; and in 1739 was published another folio volume, containing ancient treaties from the Amphyctionic agreements of unknown antiquity to the time of Charlemagne, compiled with the greatest diligence and erudition by Barbeyrac. Rousset also published four volumes of supplement, and these thirteen volumes form the Corps Diplomatique. With this, however, are often sold two works, which have no connection with the Corps Diplomatique, though relating to diplomatic * [ See Freeman's History of Federal Government, vol. i. ch. iii.] Its great value. subjects. Of these, one is a History of Treaties of Peace, by M. de Saint-Prest, and the other is a History of the Peace of Westphalia, making together six folio volumes. And about the same time as the Corps Diplomatique, were published Lamberty's Mémoires du XVIIIme Siècle, which obtained considerable reputation at the time, but which is now seldom referred to, the period it embraces being only from 1701 to 1731. The Corps Diplomatique is by far the best collection of state papers that has yet appeared: it is a work of enormous labour and research, and has superseded previous collections by embodying most of the valuable instruments which they contained. Nor is it probable that the work of Dumont will be superseded by a collection of greater value embracing the same period; partly from the little demand which exists for such collections at the present day; and partly because the race seems extinct of the old plodding students, those misers of learning, who toiled out a lifetime in burrowing among old manuscripts, and heaping together ponderous stores of knowledge, content with the pure satisfaction arising from the pursuits on which they were engaged. At the present day almost every thing is made for immediate use, and antiquarian collections of this description, if made at all, must probably be undertaken under the auspices of the government of a country. Some continental states have commenced such undertakings, and our own government is, by the instrumentality of the Record Commission, disclosing, for the benefit of future investigators of our history, the stores of our public archives. The labours of the commissioners are, however, hardly likely to benefit the student in diplomacy, being directed to so remote a period of our history that they interest the antiquarian rather than the politician; and although I understand that the commission is intended to embrace the whole compass of our history down to a recent period, yet it is pretty clear that, at their present rate of procedure, that recent period will be antiquity long before the commission reaches it.* And national collections of state papers will inevitably be so voluminous, that to a student the perusal of many of them would be impracticable, and they would require some future Dumont to make their stores available by selection and condensation; and after the advantages which Dumont enjoyed of personal access to the imperial archives, and to the documents drawn from the French archives in the work of Leonard, and from the British archives in the work of Rymer, it seems probable that further stores would rather be curious, or corroborative, than affording new materials available for diplomatic purposes. tions. In Germany the works of Schmauss and of Wenck, Other collecpublished shortly after the Corps Diplomatique, gained considerable notoriety; but the smallness of their compass makes them very imperfect books of reference compared to the work of Dumont. In England several small collections of treaties were published in the early part of the last century, but none were of permanent value: the best English collection is that published by Chalmers, in two vols. 8vo. in 1790. This is a useful little collection, but it principally owes its circulation to the want of a better; the documents being but few in number, and by no means well-selected, many trivial papers being inserted at full length, while many important treaties are not given at all. Chalmers also published a work entitled A Collection of Opinions of Eminent Lawyers, on various subjects relating to commerce, reprisals, &c.; such a work, if well executed, [Since this was written a very different rate of progress has been made by the ably edited publications of the Record Office ] That of De would have been very useful, but it is so badly performed, from the want of judgment shewn in the selection, that it is of very slight value. The most complete collection of modern treaties is that of De Martens, commencing with those of 1761, and concluding with those of 1830. The first volume of this work was published in 1791, and it was continued at different periods, till the seventh, which comes down to 1803. This concludes the original Recueil. In succeeding years four volumes of supplement were published, of which the last is dated 1808. In these supplements a variety of instruments are given which had been omitted in the seven preceding volumes, and documents which had been omitted in the Corps Diplomatique of Dumont, and the Codex of Wenck, are also inserted, some of which are valuable, but most are of secondary importance. In the last volume there is a copious double index, in which the conventions in the whole eleven volumes are arranged, first in chronological order, and next under the heads of the different states whom they concern, and the index also contains references to the documents in the collections of Wenck and Koch. The work was then discontinued for nine years, during part of which time M. de Martens occupied an official station in the kingdom of Westphalia, and in that capacity concluded some treaties which are inserted in his subsequent collection. After the peace M. de Martens resumed his labours, and in 1817 and the three succeeding years, four additional volumes were published. Shortly afterwards M. de Martens died, and in 1824 an additional volume was published by his nephew, the Baron Charles de Martens, and in 1829, and the two following years, six more volumes appeared, published by the same bookseller, and edited by M. F. Saalfeld, bringing the work |