constitute the jus gentium of the Roman lawyers. As might be expected from an isolated and religious people, most of the laws regulating their international intercourse in peace and war, were of the latter character. Nevertheless the history of the ancient Jews is well worthy of careful study in its connection with this branch of public law; but it must be remembered there is much in the Jewish dispensation, although of divine revelation, which has exclusive reference to them as a peculiar people, with a special mission to perform, and therefore not of general application. (Wheaton, Hist. Law of Nations, pp. 103, 104; Selden, De Jure etc., Ebraeorum; Josephus, Jewish Antiquities; Josephus, History of the Jewish War; Manning, Law of Nations, p. 6; Garden, De Diplomatie, pt. 1; Laurent, Droit des Gens, tome 1, liv. 4.)

§3. Nearly all our knowledge of international law among ancient states is derived from their intercourse with the Jews, and with the Greeks and Romans, more particularly with the latter. Although no professed treatise on international jurisprudence has been left us by any classical writer, nevertheless much information respecting this branch of public law among the Greeks and Romans has been elicited from their civil laws and military ordinances, and from the history of their numerous wars,-information calculated to throw much light upon the rules by which, at different periods, they regulated their intercourse with other nations. Most of these rules were exclusively founded on religion. "The laws of peace and war, the inviolability of heralds and ambassadors, the right of asylum, and the obligation of treaties, were all consecrated by religious principles and rites. Ambassadors, heralds, and fugitives who took refuge in the temples, or on the household-hearth, were deemed inviolable because they were invested with a sacred character and the symbols of religion. Treaties were sanctioned with solemn oaths, the violation of which, it was believed, must be followed by the vengeance of the Gods. War between nations of the same race and religion was declared with sacred rites and ceremonies. The heralds proclaimed its existence by devoting the enemy to the infernal deities." (Wheaton's Elm. Int. Law, pref. to third edition; Wheaton, Hist. Law of Nations, pp. 1-25; Mackintosh, Miscellaneous Works, p. 165;

Ward, Law of Nations, vol. 1, pp. 171 et seq.; Manning, Law of Nations, pp. 6-8; Martens, Precis du Droit des Gens, §10; Ritter, De Feciales Populi Romani; Garden, De Diplomatie, pt. 1; Laurent, Droit des Gens, tomes 2 and 3.)

§4. What was called the law of nations (jus gentium) by the Romans, was not any positive system or code of jurisprudence established by the consent of all, or even the greater part, of the nations of the world, and applicable alike to themselves and others; it was simply a civil law of their own, made for the purpose of regulating their own conduct toward others in the hostile intercourse of war. therefore, contracted in its nature, and somewhat illiberal in the character of its provisions. In proportion, however, as the Roman empire was extended, and as the Roman people established distant provinces and assimilated to itself the nations which it conquered, the jus gentium became more general and comprehensive in its character and more liberal in its precepts.

The Romans early incorporated into their maritime laws the principles of the nautical code of the Greeks, and as their commerce and intercourse with other nations increased, these laws became more liberal and general in their character and provisions. Many fragments of these old laws are still preserved and may be traced in the code Theodosian, the Code, Digest and Pandects of Justinian, in the Basilicae, and the Maritime Constitutions promulgated by the emperor Leon. (Wheaton, Hist. Law of Nations, p. 29; Ward, Law of Nations, vol. 1, pp. 171, et seq.; Mackeldy, (Kaufman,) Civil Law, vol. 1, pp. 20, 21; Manning, Law of Nations, pp. 7, 8; BoulayPaty, Droit Com. Mar., t. 1, pp. 33–54; Pardessus, Us et Coutumes de la Mer, tom. 1, caps. 1-5; Laurent, Droit des Gens, tom. 3.)

SECOND PERIOD FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE FALL OF

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

§ 5. The doctrines of the christian religion, and the universality of their application, were well calculated to give a milder character and a greater extension to the principles of

international law, than they had received either under the Jewish dispensation, or the defective and multifarious system of the Greek and Roman mythology. But its progress was comparatively slow, and the bitter persecutions suffered by the early christians naturally engendered a spirit of retaliation. Moreover, it must be continually borne in mind, while tracing the history of international relations during the reigns of Constantine and the succeeding christian emperors, that the contests which they carried on with barbarous states were not of a character to develop the refinements of a commercia belli, or even to cause the observance of the acknowledged usages of war, or the previously established practices of international intercourse in peace. It is also to be observed that the seeds of intellectual decease had already been sown, and that all branches of learning were on the decline, before the acknowledgment and toleration of christianity in the empire, by the formal edict of pacification at the hands of Constantine. "The revolution accomplished by Constantine," says Schlegel, "might have become a real, and by far the most comprehensive, regeneration of the Roman State, as it substituted for its originally defective and now completely rotten foundation of paganism, a new principle of life, and a higher and more potent energy of divine truth and eternal justice. But christianity had not yet become the universal religion of the people, and the empire of Rome, otherwise the great reaction, which took place under Julian, had not been possible. The peasantry, in particular, continued for a long time yet attached to the old idolatry; and hence the name of pagans was derived. Even Constantine, though he publicly declared himself a convert to christianity, still did not dare to receive baptism immediately, and thus enter fully into the great community of christians. The administration of the Roman State was so completely interwoven with pagan rights and pagan doctrines, that, from an act of this public nature, dangerous collisions might have at first easily ensued. On the whole, the old Roman maxims and principles of state policy continued to prevail, even for a long time after the reign of Constantine; and the period had not yet arrived when christianity was to work a fundamental reform throughout the whole political

world, and a christian government, if I may so speak, was to be established and organized on that eternal basis, and to strike a deep root and grow into the faith and life of the people, and into their habits and their feelings; but this great renovation was reserved for another and a later period." (Schlegel, Philosophy of History, lec, 10; Ward, Law of Nations, vol. 1, p. 195 et seq.; Garden, De Diplomatie, pt. 1; Laurent, Droit des Gens, tome 4.)

§ 6. It is not within the object of this chapter to investigate or describe the causes which finally overthrew the mighty fabric which valor and policy had founded on the seven hills of Rome, nor to trace the history of those barbarous nations of the north, who, by their martial energy and irresistible numbers and force, imposed their yoke upon the ancient possessors of that vast empire, and permanently settled themselves in its fairest provinces. The decline of taste and knowledge for several preceding ages, and the general corruption of political partizans and office-holders, had prepared the way for this revolution, and the establishment of the barbarian nations on the ruins of the Roman empire in the west, was accompanied, or immediately followed, by an almost universal loss of that learning which had been accumulated in the Greek and Latin languages. What of classical learning is still preserved to us, is the mere fragments of those magnificent intellectual temples, which industrious antiquaries have dug up from the vast ruins of ancient greatness. These fragments, however, are sufficient to show the grandeur of the original structure and the beauty of its architecture; and the value of what remains, only increases our regret for what is irrecoverably lost. (Hallam, Literature of Europe, vol. 1, pp. 1, 2; Schlegel, Philosophy of History, lec. 10; Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; Garden, De Diplomatie, pt. 1; Laurent, Droit des Gens, tome 4.)

THIRD PERIOD-FROM THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE TO THE BEGINNING OF THE REFORMATION.

§ 7. After the fall of the Roman empire, many cities still preserved their municipal constitutions, and the jus gentium,

in connection with the jus civile, into which many of its principles had become incorporated, continued to be practiced to a limited extent, both in Italy and the Provinces. Some have attempted to trace its influence upon the institutions and history of the different European nations, even through the darkest ages of human learning; it must, however, be admitted that this influence was not very marked in any case, and was by no means general. But on the restoration of the western empire under Charlemagne, the study of the Roman civil law, (and with it the jus gentium,) was revived, and its professors were frequently employed in diplomatic missions, and as arbiters in disputes which arose between different cities and states. (Laurent, Droit des Gens, tome 4; Wheaton, Hist. Law of Nations, pp. 26-33; Mackintosh, Miscellaneous Works, p. 156; Ward, Law of Nations, vol. 1, pp. 211-236; Manning, Law of Nations, pp. 8, 9.)

§ 8. The origin of the law of nations in modern Europe has been traced to two principal sources, the canon law, and the Roman civil law. It was founded, says Wheaton, mainly upon the following circumstances: "First, The union of the Latin church under one spiritual head, whose authority was often invoked as the supreme arbiter between sovereigns and between nations. Under the auspices of Pope Gregory IX., the canon law was reduced into a code, which served as the rule to guide the decisions of the church in public as well as private controversies. Second, The revival of the study of the Roman law, and the adoption of this system of jurisprudence by nearly all the nations of christendom, either as the basis of their municipal code, or as subsidiary to the local legislation of each country." (Mackintosh, Miscellaneous Works, p. 165; Wheaton, Elem. International Law, pref. to third edition; Garden, De Diplomatie, pt. 1.)

§ 9. On the formation and consolidation of the christian government in modern times by Charlemagne, the human mind began to recover from its torpor, and art, science and learning sprung up out of the ruins of the ancient world. The church had constituted a kind of bridge, spanning the chaotic gulf which separated declining antiquity from modern civilization: The effects which this change produced upon international relations, and public law in general, may