turies before its destruction, occupied no position which affects the history of International Jurisprudence, yet the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks operated very injuriously upon the jus commune of Christendom; because thereby an important portion of Christendom has been, up to a very recent period, exempted from its influence. Events, however, which are now happening, the great internal changes in the habits and laws of that extraordinary people, and their increasing connection with the Christian States, are evidently preparing the way for a general diffusion of International justice among nations of different religious creeds. During the Middle Ages, the most remarkable features of International Jurisprudence are the maritime codes of commercial towns, the institution of the Consulate, the laws and customs of Embassies.

ERA OF GROTIUS.

It is strange that the admirable and luminous treatise of Suarez (k), De Legibus et Deo Legislatore, is not referred to by Grotius in his great work, because it appears from his other writings that he was acquainted (as indeed he could not but have been) with the works of this profound jurist. Suarez certainly cannot be claimed as a fruit of the Reformation, but at that epoch, from whatever cause, a new æra of International Jurisprudence opens upon us. Streaks of light from various countries, our own included, preceded the dawn of International Jurispru

dence which appeared in the Mare Liberum of Grotius, published in 1609; but its full meridian shone forth in his great work, De Jure Belli et Pacis, which was published in 1624.

It is scarcely too much to say, that no uninspired work has more largely contributed to the welfare of the Commonwealth of States. It is a monument which can only perish with the civilized intercourse of nations, of which it has laid down the master principles with a master's hand. Grotius first awakened the conscience of Governments to the Christian sense of International duty (1).

His work has been blamed for a want of systematic arrangement, and because the examples which illustrate the principles of law are taken chiefly from classical times and classical literature; but these defects were, in truth, necessarily incident to the particular period at which he wrote. His work was defended from these charges by himself during his lifetime (m), and since his death has received a vindication from the pen of Sir James Mackintosh, which will not easily be surpassed (n).

I would fain linger on the merits of this famous master-builder of International Jurisprudence, this great legislator of the community of States, but I am admonished by diminishing space to proceed.

(1) “Christianis placuit," "Christianis in universum placuit,” “hoc perfecit reverentia Christianæ legis," &c.- Vide post, p. 39.

(m) In one of his latest letters to his brother, Grotius says of some one who had attacked his work: "Non probat quod, in illis libris De Jure Belli ac Pacis, utor Paganorum dictis: verùm non ita ut utor, ut illa sequi satis esse Christianis arbitror, sed ut erubescent Christiani si minùs præstent."-II. Grot. Epistolæ, Ep. 546, p. 920 (ed. Amstelod. 1687); and see Proleg. to De Jure B. et P.

(n) Lecture on the Law of Nature and Nations.

FROM THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA, 1648, TO THE TREATY OF UTRECHT, 1713.

International Jurisprudence received considerable cultivation, a natural result from the increased intercourse between European nations, both in Europe and in their colonies.

Puffendorf, in 1672, published his once admired, and still celebrated work, De Jure Naturæ et Gentium: it had the merit of stating boldly that Natural Law was binding upon nations as well as upon individuals.

It would indeed be hardly fair to say that Grotius had altogether omitted Natural Law from the sources of International Jurisprudence; but certainly Puffendorf is entitled to the merit of having supplied, by greater precision of statement, a philosophical defect upon this subject in the work of his predecessor. In other respects, however, the disparaging opinion of Leibnitz upon the work of Puffendorf has been generally confirmed; it is, in truth, very inferior to the treatise of Grotius.

Leibnitz, whose Codex Juris Gentium Diplomaticus was published in 1693, manifested in his preface, and in other passages scattered about his works, a profound and just acquaintance with the principles of the science which we are considering, and left posterity for ever to regret that the fuller prosecution of it was swallowed up in the variety and vastness of his other studies.

THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE TREATY OF

UTRECHT, 1713, AND OF PARIS, 1763.

In 1740-43, Wolff, a disciple of Leibnitz, published the fruit of his enormous labours in nine quarto volumes, Jus Nature Methodi Scientificè Pertractatum, &c. An abridgment of his work, dealing separately with the question of Jus Gentium, subsequently appeared. He prided himself on accurately distinguishing the Natural from the Voluntary, Consuetudinary, and Conventional Law of Nations. His work had two great defects-the application of technical and mathematical terms to moral subjects, and the assumption of the false hypothesis that there existed de facto a great republic of which all nations were members. The latter error, however, does not in reality affect the force of his general position, and exists, perhaps, more in the pedantry of the language than in the spirit of the argument which he derives from it. The work of Wolff, with all its meritsand it had many-would probably have been both unread and unknown to modern readers, but for his abridger Vattel, who, departing in some points from his original, has melted down his ponderous quartos into the concise, readable, practical, sensible, but superficial work, which still retains its popularity. I must, however reluctantly, pass by Montesquieu.

Bynkershoek ranks next to his illustrious fellowcountryman Grotius, whom he delighted to call péyas, and for whom, though not unfrequently dissenting from his opinions, he entertained the reverence which one great jurist naturally feels for another. The Quæstiones Juris Publici appeared in 1737;

this work, and the two treatises, by the same author, De Dominio Maris and De Foro Legatorum, are among the most valuable authorities which this science can claim.

THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE TREATY OF PARIS, 1763, AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1789.

Italy furnishes us with Lampredi and Galliani; Germany with Moser and Martens. The latter has obtained, not undeservedly, a place among the classics of International Law. But this interval is chiefly memorable in its effect upon this science, for the event of the independence of the North American Republics, accompanied by the distinct recognition of the authority and principle of Christian International Law in another quarter of the globe, and by a cultivation of that law which has already produced no less eminent professors of it than a Story, a Kent, and a Wheaton.

FROM THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1789, TO THE PRESENT TIME.

Germany has furnished many writers upon International Law. Two appear to me worthy of especial notice-Klüber, whose work, in spite of leaning to the doctrines of the Holy Alliance, is of great value; and Heffters, who is still enjoying the reputation which he has acquired.

England, to pass by for the moment the achievements of her distinct International profession, has made no mean contributions to the cultivation of International Jurisprudence, in the writings of