down to 1831.* With the exception of some slight faults in the arrangement, this work is entitled to every praise. A chronological order is usually adopted; but acts relating to one negotiation are placed together, as for instance, the treaties and correspondence relating to the armed neutrality, and the acts relating to the congress of Laybach. Instruments of all descriptions are given, not only treaties, but dispatches relating to them, and other public documents of interest; and the language in which the documents were written is usually preserved. The research and assiduity brought to the task are very great, in short, they are German, and the work deserves the rank which I believe it generally holds, notwithstanding the work of Koch and Schoell, of being the best and most complete collection of modern documents that exists. In the first volume of the supplement, is given an interesting and valuable account of the different collections of treaties that had been published before that of De Martens; and a life of Dumont is also given, in which, with a fine freedom from all spirit of rivalry or detraction, De Martens does ample justice to that indefatigable compiler, to whom he has proved himself a worthy successor. (1)

[The most important British collection of treaties British Statefor practical use is Mr. Hertslet's "Twelve Volumes of papers.

(1) When M. de Martens commenced his new series in 1817, he wished to make this work complete in itself, at the same time that it was a continuation of his former publication, and he therefore called the first volume of the new series the fifth volume of supplement, and also the first

volume of a Nouveau Recueil;
this arrangement has been adopted
by the successors of M. de Mar-
tens, introducing what is, I be-
lieve, unknown in English publi-
cations, namely, that two title
pages are given to each of the
eleven volumes of the new series.

[* The work has since been brought down first by Fred. Murhard from 1837 to 1854, then by Ch. Murhard and J. Pinhar to 1855, then by Ch. Samwer to the present time. - ED.]

Treaties and Conventions and Reciprocal Regulations at present subsisting between Great Britain and Foreign Powers, and of the Laws, Decrees, and Orders in Council concerning the same; so far as they relate to Commerce and Navigation, the Slave Trade, Post Office Communication, Copyright, and to the Privileges and Interests of the High Contracting Parties." The work was commenced in 1820 by Mr. Lewis Hertslet, librarian and keeper of the papers in the Foreign Office, and continued till within a few years of his death in 1870, the eleventh volume being published in 1864. The twelfth volume was published by his son and successor in his office, Mr. Edward Hertslet. The work is admirably indexed. The subjects are arranged in alphabetical order, a date placed against each document, and a reference given to volume and page. The index is printed on one side of the leaf only, so as to preserve a blank page on which to enter modifications as they occur.

Of late years both in France and in Germany some invaluable collections of current diplomatic documents have been made, and periodically published. To this class of works belongs Das Staatsarchiv: Sammlung der officialen Actenstücke zu Geschichte der Gegenwart. It was commenced in July, 1861, by Ludwig Karl Algedi and Alfred Klanhold, and is published at Hamburg. It has two indices, one according to subjects and the other according to countries, each index being alphabetical in some respects and chronological in others. The numbers come out twice a year.

A similar, or, indeed, scarcely distinguishable, work is the Archives Diplomatiques: Recueil de Diplomatie et d'Histoire, published by Amyot, Paris. The first number came out in January, 1861, and the numbers come out quarterly. The general mode of indexing is that of having one chronological and one alphabetical index, the several States being found under the latter index.

Another similar work of equal value to the above is the periodical issue of the Staatsarchiv, by the editors of, and in connection with, the Revue de Droit International (Gand).

Besides the above class of complete documents, a great progress has been made of late years in the publication of copious indices to collections of treaties, a task, the utility of which cannot be put too high.

Such a work is the Répertoire des Traités de Paix, de Commerce, d'Alliance etc., Conventions et autres Actes conclus entres toutes les Puissances du Globe, principalement depuis la Paix de Westphalie jusqu'à nos jours, by M. Tétot, Archiviste to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Paris). In one volume the arrangement is alphabetical and in the other chronological.

An useful selection of treaties for students is Ghillany's Recueil des Traités de Paix les plus importants, des Actes de Congrès et autres documents relative à la Politique internationale depuis le Traité de Westphalie jusqu'à ces derniers temps. The treaties are translated into French, when already not in that language, and there is an introduction by J. H. Schnitzler. The work is published at Nordlingen, and consists of a single compact volume.

Another valuable and copious work of reference of the same species is the Recueil manuel et pratique de Traités, Conventions et autres Actes diplomatiques sur lesquels sont établis les Relations et les Rapports existant aujourd'hui entre les divers Etats souverains du Globe depuis l'Année 1760 jusqu'à l'Epoque actuelle, par le Baron Charles De Martens et le Baron Ferdinand De Cressy. This work is published at Leipzig, and is in several volumes, which are being gradually brought down to the present time.]

I recommend the works of Dumont, and of De Mar- The Abbé Mably. tens, to the student who wishes to obtain a thorough

Ompteda and
Kamptz.

insight into the conventional part of the Law of Nations; but those who have not time to pursue so complete an investigation, will find the work of Chalmers useful; and there is an excellent summary, entitled, Le Droit Public de l'Europe, by the Abbé Mably. But at the same time that I praise his production as a summary, I have no part in the principles, or whatever else they may be, which are advanced by Mably, who is just what is expected from a political abbé before the Revolution, witty, crafty, intriguing, and unscrupulous. The following are samples of what I mean:---" Ma morale est si peu austère, que je ne demande pas pour lecteurs d'honnêtes gens, mais simplement des ambitieux qui fassent quelque usage de leur raison." (1) "Les puissances dominantes doivent en quelque sorte veiller à ce qu'aucune nation ne se corrige de ses vues.” (2) Speaking of a prince of the third class, he says, "Pendant la paix il negocie, et quand ses demandes sont fondées sur un droit évident, on a quelque honte de ne lui pas accorder une partie de ce que lui appartient.”(3) Mably, however, insists on the policy of having a good character, from the use that may be made of it; and thinking it necessary to say something in favour of virtue, he praises it, in the ancient Romans. His work is, nevertheless, a useful compendium of diplomatic history for the period which it embraces.

With this I conclude my notice of previous works connected with the Law of Nations, in which I have endeavoured to avoid being incomplete from too scanty an account, at the same time that I have wished to avoid a tedious minuteness. I believe that I have not omitted the mention of any of the great jurists whose opinions are referred to as authorities on the science under consideration, and of whom Chancellor Kent remarks, that "no civilized nation, that does not arrogantly set all (2) Id. 62. (3) Ch. VIII.

(1) I. 32.

ordinary law and justice at defiance, will venture to disregard the uniform sense of the established writers on International Law." (1) I might easily have made my catalogue much longer, and many other works will be mentioned in the sequel, when discussing topics to which they refer. For a more detailed account of writers on the Law of Nations, I would recommend the work of Ompteda, entitled Litteratur des Völker-Rechts, (2) to which a volume in continuation was added by Kamptz in 1817. These works contain catalogues, arranged in several different ways, of works on the Law of Nations, and I found in them mention of English works which I had never heard of in our own country. (3) It is a curious contrast that is presented by these three volumes of critical catalogues of foreign works, on a science on which we have not a single systematic treatise by an English writer.

(1) Commentaries on American Law (Abdy), p. 43.

(2) 2 vols. 8vo, 1785.

(3) The English is, however, so very badly spelt as to make it desirable that the authors should have begun their knowledge of

our literature, as M. Jourdain proposed to commence his course of philosophy, "apprennez moi l'orthographie," but it may not have been the fault of the authors, and "hanc veniam damus petimusque vicissim."

M.

F