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of some interpolations, published by Mr. Richard Lee, as an original work, under the title of A Treatise of Captures in War, a second edition whereof appeared at London in 1803, in the preface to which the book is for the first time acknowledged to be an enlarged translation of the present work. The insufficiency of that performance to supply the place of our author's text is every where admitted; and the friends of science in this country have long expected that some of the learned civilians of Great Britain, a Robinson, a Ward, or a Brown, would present the world with an English translation of the treatise De Rebus Bellicis, executed in a manner worthy of its author. But this fond hope has unfortunately been disappointed.

No person has wished more anxiously than myself to see this translation performed by some one of the able professors whom I have just named, and who are so capable of doing it complete justice. Then my favourite author would have appeared in an English dress, with all the advantages which brilliant talents, combined with a profound knowledge of the science of which he treats, could have given him. The translation which I offer to the public cannot boast such high advantages; it claims no other merit but that of correctness, the only one which a translator cannot dispense with. To deserve this humble praise has been the object of my constant efforts. I have endeavoured to discover the precise English expressions which my author would have used, if he had written in our language. If sometimes I have shortened his long Ciceronian periods, and divided them into more convenient paragraphs; if sometimes, also, I have connected his phrases in a manner more suited, as I thought, to the idiom in which I wrote, I believe that I have done it without injury to the

sense. Where my author narrates, I have endeavoured to state with fidelity the facts and events that he relates; where he argues, to convey the full force of his able and luminous reasoning, and I was sensible that it could not be done better, than by keeping as close to the text as possible. I have but in few instances wandered from this strict plan, and only where our author treats of local subjects, of little or no interest to the American reader. Of the few other liberties, which I have thought necessary to take in the course of this work, it is proper that I should give an account in this place.

I have shortened the titles of the several chapters, which in the original are presented in the shape of queries, to suit the modest title of Questions, which is prefixed to the whole work. Considering this first part, as justly entitled to be considered a complete and regular treatise on the law of war, I have thought it my duty to present it as such to my readers, and to head its several divisions accordingly.

For the same reason, I have entitled the twenty fifth chapter, which in the original bears the title of "Various Small Questions," (Varia Quæstiuncula); MISCELLANEOUS MAXIMS AND OBSERVATIONS, for such they will appear to be; and I have headed each of the sections into which that chapter is divided, with the result of the observations that it contains, in the form of an axiom or aphorism, so that the reader may see at once the proposition which the author means to maintain or to illustrate in each of those subdivisions.

I have omitted the whole of the twenty third chapter and some parts of a few others, which are pointed out in notes in their several places, as treating of subjects which are local in their nature and application, and consequently, are neither useful nor interesting to us. I have, for the

same reason, left out a great number of the references, which our author frequently makes to the Dutch statute books, and to some other national works, little or not at all known in this country. I have, however, preserved a few to some of the most noted among them, and particularly to Aitzema, whose Chronicle I consider as an excellent compilation of historical facts and documents, of which I have endeavoured to give a character in a note to page 15.

I have thrown into notes, in the fifteen last chapters, the numerous references which abound in the body of the original work. The first ten chapters being in the press, as I have already mentioned, when I began to revise this translation, I was prevented from doing the same with respect to them by the fear of giving to the printers too much additional trouble.

With regard to the notes which I have subjoined to the body of the work, and which, to distinguish them from those of the author, are marked T., they are principally intended to elucidate and explain the text. Our author often slightly refers to facts which were well known, and some of them even remembered in his day; frequently, also, he alludes to particular texts of the civil law, and to the opinions of writers whose works were familiar to the civilians of Europe and of his country, but are little read among us. In every such instance, whenever it has been in my power, I have presented the reader, in a note, with the text or passage referred to; and where that could not conveniently be done, I have given such explanations as I thought would best enable him clearly to understand the scope and meaning of the observations or arguments of our author.

As I progressed in the work, I have added some other notes, which exhibit a comparative view of the

principles and practice of the different states of America and Europe on various interesting points. In a few instances I have presumed to advance my own opinions, and even in some of them to differ from my author himself; but I have done it, I am sure, in the spirit, and, I hope, in the manner pointed out by the great orator, quærens omnia, dubitans plerumque, et mihi diffidens.*

I have thought that an account of the life and writings of Bynkershoek would not be unacceptable to the reader, and therefore it will be found immediately after this preface. I have added to it a brief alphabetical notice of those writers on the civil law or the law of nations, whose works are not generally known, and are quoted or referred to in this book. A list of the American and English cases cited in the notes, and a table of reference to the books and titles of the quotations from the text of the civil law, which occur in the course of the original work, are also subjoined. I regret that some errors of inadvertence have escaped my attention, particularly in the notes, which I acknowledge, were written with some degree of haste, though they are the result of much previous study and reflection. Such of those errors as I have discovered are noticed in an errata, at the end of the book.†

Being about to commit this work to the candour and indulgence of the public, I have thought it necessary to premise these few observations. It has long been, as I have already observed, an anxious wish of the American jurists to see this celebrated treatise correctly translated into our language, and published in a portable form. It difficult to procure in this country a copy of the

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* Cic. acad. quæst. 1.

To which add the following, which was not noticed at the time: page 155, line 1, of the text, dele "whether."

original, which is only to be found in a few of our libraries. Nor can it be obtained from Europe, without purchasing at the same time two folio volumes, which contain a great deal of matter of little interest to those who do not make the civil law the object of their particular study. With the greatest diffidence, therefore, I submit this feeble attempt to the candid and enlightened judgment of my professional brethren; if it shall be thought deserving of their approbation, I shall consider it as an ample and honourable reward of my labours, otherwise I shall endeavour to profit by their censure.

At the present moment, when the fate of Holland creates a lively interest in every feeling mind, the public will be disposed to receive with peculiar indulgence, a work which recals to our memory the brilliant epochs of that celebrated republic, once so famed in arts as well as in arms. She has proved to the world, that the republican spirit of commerce, and the honourable pursuits of industrious enterprise are not incompatible with any of those more brilliant attainments by which nations as well as individuals are raised to celebrity. Since her separation from the Spanish empire she has produced more great men, and achieved more great deeds, than all the remainder of that once immense and powerful monarchy.

Holland is no more, but the remembrance of her past glory can never die. The admirers of military exploits will with pleasure and pride dwell on the achievements of her Maurice, her De Ruyters, and her Van Tromps. The statesman will still guide his political bark by the lights which her De Witts, her Van Beuningens, and her Fagels have supplied. The astronomer, the philosopher, will explore the secrets of nature and the heavens, with her 's Gravesandes and her Huygens. The physician will improve his theory and his practice by the discoveries

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