The Emperor Andronicus Comnenus, who reigned at Constantinople in 1183, made great efforts to repress this inhu

man practice. His edict was worthy of the highest *14 *praise, but it ceased to be put in execution after his

death. Pillage had become an inveterate moral pestilence. It required something more effectual than papal bulls, and the excommunication of the church, to stop the evil. The revival of commerce, and with it a sense of the value of order, commercial ordinances, particular conventions and treaties between sovereigns, contributed gradually to suppress this criminal practice, by rendering the regulations on that subject a branch of the public law of nations. Valin says, it was reserved for the ordinances of Louis XIV. to put the finishing stroke to this species of piracy, by declaring that shipwrecked persons and property were placed under the special protection and safeguard of the crown; and the punishment of death, without hope of pardon, was pronounced against the guilty. (a)1

Treatment The progress of moderation and humanity in the of prisoners. treatment of prisoners, is to be imputed to the influence of Christianity, and of conventional law, establishing a general exchange of prisoners, rank for rank, and giving protection to cartel ships for that purpose. It is a practice of no very ancient introduction among the states of Europe, and it was not of very

(a) The sense of justice in respect to shipwrecks and piracy, has made its way into the kingdom of Siam, in Eastern India; and by a treaty with the United States, in April, 1836, persons and property in American vessels, suffering shipwreck in the Siamese dominions, or taken by pirates and brought therein, are to be carefully protected, preserved and restored.2 By the treaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and Hanover, May 20, 1840, art. 8, assistance is to be given to the shipwrecked and stranded vessels, and no more than the ordinary salvage or duties, on unlading the cargo for repairs in such cases, shall be demanded. The treaty likewise specially declares, "that the ancient and barbarous right to wrecks of the sea shall be entirely abolished, with respect to the property of the subjects or citizens of the contracting parties." Such a stipulation between two civilized and Christian nations, near the middle of the 19th century, sounds oddly, and might as well have been spared.

1 Principles of enlightened justice and generous policy were applied to the interpretation of the Revenue Laws of the United States, in a late case of shipwreck. It was held that goods, taken from a British vessel wrecked on our coast, and landed and sold without a permit therefor, were not forfeited to the United States. The Gertrude, 3 Story's Rep. 68.

2 Similar stipulations are introduced into the treaties with Borneo and Lew Chew, 10 U. S. Stat. 909, 1101, and Japan, 11 U. S. Stat. 597.

familiar use in the age of Grotius, and it succeeded the elder practice of ransom. From the extracts which Dr. Robinson (a) gives from Bellus, who was a judge or assessor in the armies of Charles V. and Philip II., he concludes that no practice so general and so favorable to the conduct of prisoners, as a public exchange in time of war, was known in the 16th century. (b) The private interest of the captor in his prisoner, and his right to claim ransom money, continued through that period; and the practice of ransom, founded on the right of property claimed by the captor, succeeded to the Greek and Roman practice of killing prisoners, or selling them as slaves.

of Ambas

The custom of admitting resident ministers at each Admission sovereign's court, was another important improvement sadors, in the security and facility of national intercourse; (c) and this led to the settlement of a great question, which was *15 very frequently discussed in the 15th and 16th centuries, concerning the inviolability of ambassadors. It became at last a definitive principle of public law, that ambassadors were exempted from all local jurisdiction, civil and criminal; though Lord Coke considered the law in his day to be, that if an ambassador committed any crime which was not merely malum prohibitum, he lost his privilege and dignity as an ambassador, and might be punished as any other private alien, and that he was even bound to answer civilly for his contracts that were good, jure gentium. (d)

(a) 3 Rob. Rep. Appendix A.

(b) When Sir Richard Hawkins, in his armed ship Dainty, was captured in the South Sea, after a desperate engagement, in 1594, the Spanish commander, Don Beltran, an officer of great gallantry, courtesy, and humanity, claimed, nevertheless, a property in his prisoner, and the right to a ransom. Callender's Voyages, vol. ii. 126, 134. The custom of enslaving prisoners of war was continued in Europe down to the 13th century, and was then extinguished, though asserted even by Grotius, De Jure Belli, lib. 3, c. 7, to be conformable to the law of nations. It was discontinued under the influence of Christianity, though the right to the ransom of prisoners as the subjects of property, was continued to a much later period.

(c) Ferdinand, the Catholic, is said to have introduced the practice of resident ministers. Prescott's Hist. of Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. i. 352. The right of sending public ministers to the confederate states, and to foreign states, is preserved to all the princes and states composing the present Germanic Confederation, (1844,) and so it is in that of the Swiss Cantons; but the privilege is wisely taken away from the several states by the Constitution of the United States of America.

(d) 4 Inst. 153.

Grotius.

Thus stood the law of nations at the age of Grotius. It had been rescued, to a very considerable extent, from the cruel usages and practices of the barbarians. It had been restored to some degree of science and civility by the influence of Christianity, the study of the Roman law, and the spirit of commerce. It had grown in value and efficacy, from the intimate connection and constant intercourse of the modern nations of Europe, who were derived from a common origin, and were governed by similar institutions, manners, laws, and religion. But it was still in a state of extreme disorder, and its principles were little known, and less observed. It consisted of a series of undigested precedents, without order or authority. Grotius has, therefore, been justly considered as the father of the law of nations. He arose like a splendid luminary, dispelling darkness and confusion, and imparting light and security to the intercourse of nations. It is said by Barbeyrac, (a) that Lord Bacon's works first suggested to Grotius the idea of reducing the law of nations to the certainty and precision of a regular science. Grotius has himself fully explaired the reasons which led him to undertake his necessary, and most useful and immortal work. (b) He found the sentiment universally prevalent, not only among the vulgar,

but among men of reputed wisdom and learning, that war *16 was a stranger to all justice, and that no commonwealth

could be governed without injustice. The saying of Euphemus in Thucydides, he perceived to be in almost every one's mouth, that nothing which was useful was unjust. Many persons, who were friends to justice in private life, made no account of it in a whole nation, and did not consider it as applicable to rulers. He perceived a horrible licentiousness and cruelty in war, throughout the Christian world, of which barbarians might be ashamed. When men took up arms, there was no longer any reverence for law, either human or divine; and it seemed as if some malignant fury was sent forth into the world, with a general license for the commission of all manner of wickedness and crime. (c)

The object of Grotius was to correct these false theories and pernicious maxims, by showing a community of sentiment among

(a) Puff. sec. 29. (b) Proleg. De Jur. Bel. (c) Proleg. sec. 3 and 28.

the wise and learned of all nations and ages, in favor of the natural law of morality. He likewise undertook to show that justice was of perpetual obligation, and essential to the well being of every society, and that the great commonwealth of nations stood in need of law, and the observance of faith, and the practice of justice. His object was, to digest, in one systematic code, the principles of public right, and to supply authorities for almost every case in the conduct of nations; and he had the honor of reducing the law of nations to a system, and of producing a work which has been resorted to as the standard of authority in every succeeding age. The more it is studied, the more will our admiration be excited at the consummate execution of the plan, and the genius and erudition of the author. There was no system of the kind extant, that had been produced by the ancient philosophers of Greece, or by the primitive Christians. The work of Aristotle on the rights of war, and the writings of the Romans on their fecial law, had not survived the wreck of ancient literature; and the essays of some learned moderns on public law were most imperfect, and exceed- *17 ingly defective in illustrations from history, and in omitting to place their decisions upon the true foundations of equity and justice. (a) Grotius, therefore, went purposely into the details of history and the usages of nations, and he resorted to the works of philosophers, historians, orators, poets, civilians, and divines, for the materials out of which the science of public morality should be formed; proceeding on the principle, that when many men, at different times and places, unanimously affirmed the same thing for truth, it ought to be ascribed to some universal cause. (b) His unsparing citation of authorities, in support of what the present age may consider very plain and undisputed truths, has been censured by many persons as detracting from the value of the work. On the other hand, the support that he gave to those truths, by the concurrent testimony of all nations and ages, has been justly supposed to contribute to that reverence for the principles of international justice, which has since distinguished the European nations.

(a) Proleg. of Grot. sec. 36, 37, 38.

(b) Omni autem in re consensio omnium gentium lex naturæ putanda est. Cic. Tuscul. Quæst. lib. 1, c. 13.

Puffendorf.

Martens.

Bynkershoek.

Among the disciples of Grotius, Puffendorf has always held the first rank. His work went more

at large into the principles of natural law, and combined the science of ethics with what may be more strictly called the law of nations. It is copious in detail, but of very little practical value in teaching us what the law of nations is at this day. It is rather a treatise on moral philosophy than on international law; and the same thing may be said of the works of Wolfius, Burlamaqui, and Rutherforth. The summary of the law of nations, by Professor Martens, is a treatise of greater practical utility, but it is only a very partial view of the system, being confined to the customary and conventional law of the modern nations of Europe. (a) Bynkershoek's treatise on the laws of war has been received as of great authority on that particular branch of the science of the law of nations, and the subject is by him *18 ably and copiously discussed. The work is replete with practical illustration, though too exclusive in its references to the ordinances of his own country, to render his authority very unquestionable. The most popular, and the most elegant writer on the law of nations, is Vattel, whose method Vattel. has been greatly admired. He professed to have followed the voluminous work of Wolff on the Law of Nature and Nations, and to be enlightened and guided by his learning, with much improvement upon the doctrine and arrangement of his great master. He has been cited, for the last half century, more freely than any one of the public jurists; but he is very deficient in philosophical precision. His topics are loosely, and often tediously and diffusively discussed, and he is not sufficiently supported by the authority of precedents, which constitute the foundation of the positive law of nations. There is no work which combines, in just proportions, and with entire satisfaction, an accurate and comprehensive view of the necessary and of the instituted law of nations, and in which principles are sufficiently supported by argument, authority, and example. Since the age of

(a) Wheaton, in his History of the Law of Nations, edit. N. Y. 1845, says that the treatise of Martens, of which a third edition in French appeared in 1821, Précis du Droit des Gens Modernes de l'Europe fondé sur les Traités et l'Usage, has become a justly esteemed manual of the science.