Elements of International Law

national morality. "The opinions of these eminent men," says Mr. Fox, "formed without prejudice upon subjects which they have carefully studied, under circumstances the most favorable to an impartial judgment, cannot but be considered as entitled to the highest respect. The maxims laid down by them are uninfluenced by national prejudices or particular interests; they reason upon great principles and with enlarged views of the welfare of nations; and by comparing the results of their own reflections with the lessons taught by the experience of preceding ages, they have established that system which they considered as of the greatest utility and of the most general application." 1

The rules of international morality recognized by these writers are founded on the supposition, that the conduct which is observed by one nation towards another, in conformity with these rules, will be reciprocally observed by other nations towards it. The duties which are imposed by these rules are enforced by moral sanctions, by apprehension on the part of sovereigns and nations of incurring the hostility of other States, in case they should violate maxims generally received and respected by the civilized world. These maxims may, indeed, be violated by those who choose to suffer the consequences of that hostility; but they cannot be violated with impunity, nor without incurring general obloquy. The science which teaches the reciprocal duties of sovereign States is not, therefore, a vain and useless study, as some have pretended. If it were so, the same thing might be affirmed of the science of private morality, the duties inculcated by which are frequently

1 Mackintosh, Hansard's Parl. Deb. vol. xxx. p. 894; Fox, Parl. Hist. of England, vol. xxx p. 1260.

destitute of the sanction of positive law, and are enforced merely by conscience and social opinion. As the very existence of social intercourse in private life depends upon the observance of these duties, so the existence of that mutual intercourse among nations, which is so essential to their happiness and prosperity, depends upon the rules which have generally been adopted by the great society of nations to regulate that intercourse.

In preparing for the press the present edition of the Elements of International Law, the work has been subjected to a careful revision, and has been considerably augmented. The Author has endeavored to avail himself of the most recent questions which have occurred in the intercourse of States, the discussion and decision of which have contributed to throw new light upon that system of rules. by which all civilized nations profess to be bound in their mutual intercourse. He has especially sought for those sources of information in the diplomatic correspondence and judicial decisions of our own country, which form a rich collection of instructive examples, arising out of the peculiar position of the United States during the wars of the French Revolution, and during the war declared by them against Great Britain, in 1812. That international law, common to all civilized and Christian nations, which our ancestors brought with them from Europe, and which was obligatory upon us whilst we continued to form a part of the British Empire, did not cease to be so when we declared our independence of the parent country. Its obligation was acknowledged by the Continental Congress, in the ordinances published by that illustrious assembly for the regulation of maritime captures, and by the Court of

CONTENTS.

PART FIRST.

DEFINITION, SOURCES, AND SUBJECTS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW.