Pol. Sei THE LAW OF NATIONS CONSIDERED AS INDEPENDENT POLITICAL COMMUNITIES. 188 PART I. SOLD BY LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO., 39, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON ; AND BY HENRY FROWDE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AMEN CORNER, LONDON. 1884. [The right of translation and all other rights reserved.] n 9 S. '08 m. 3.B PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE object, which the author has had in view in undertaking to treat of the Law of Nations, has been to present to the student of that branch of International Law, which is conversant with the Rights and Duties of Nations as Independent Political Communities, a systematic outline of the existing rules of international conduct, by which the harmony of the National State-System of Christendom is maintained, and to the advantages of which the Ottoman Empire was admitted by the Treaty of Paris (1856). The author makes no pretension to discuss any theories of International Ethics, as furnishing rules, by which the intercourse of independent States ought to be guided. He has been content to examine into the existing usages of State-Life, and to illustrate the modifications and improvements which they have undergone from time to time, whereby they have been adjusted to the growing wants of a progressive civilisation. Further he has taken occasion, where the subjectmatter has permitted him, to analyse those usages, with a view to discover whether a given rule has been the result of an application of some principle of Right (Jus) to international relations, or is |