of war, was known in the 16th century. 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.

Admission The custom of admitting resident ministers at each sovereign's court, was another important improvement in

of ambassadors.

the security and facility of national intercourse ;b *15 and this led to the settlement of a great question,

which was very frequently discussed in the 15th and 16th centuries, concerning the inviolability of ambassadors. It became at last to be 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

When Sir Richard Hawkins, in his armed ship Dainty, was captured in the South Sea, after a desperate engagement, in 1594, the Spanish com. mander, 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. ch. 7. to be conform. able 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.

▸ 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.

private alien, and that he was even bound to answer civilly for his contracts that were good jure gentium.a

Thus stood the law of nations at the age of Grotius. 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 Kanellach. the father of the law of nations. He arose like a splendid luminary, dispelling darkness and confusion, and ter imparting light and security to the intercourse of nations. En It is said by Barbeyrac,b that Lord Bacon's works first a suggested to Grotius the idea of reducing the law of nations to the certainty and precision of a regular science. Grotius has himself fully explained the reasons which led him to undertake his necessary, and most useful and immortal work. He found the sentiment universally prevalent, not only among the vulgar, but among

men of reputed wisdom and learning, that war *was 16* 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,

■ 4 Inst. 153.

Puff. sec. 29.

c Proleg. De Jur. Bel.

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."

The object of Grotius was to correct these false theories and pernicious maxims, by showing a community of sentiment among the wise and learned of all nations and ages, in favour 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 honour 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 litera

ture; and the essays of some learned moderns on *17 public law, were *most imperfect, and exceedingly 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, ora-
tors, 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. His unsparing citation of authorities,
vide
in support of what the present age may consider very
Cal-plain and undisputed truths, has been censured by many
persons as detracting from the value of the work. On
into 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.

Among the disciples of Grotius, Puffendorf has always Puffendorf.
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 prac-
tical 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, Burlemaqui and Rutherforth. The
summary of the law of nations, by Professor Martens, is Martens.
a treatise of greater practical utility, but it is only a very
partial view of the system, being confined to the custom-
ary and conventional law of the modern nations of Europe.c

* Proleg. of Grot. sec. 36, 37, 38.

Omni in re consensio omnium gentium lex naturæ putanda est.
Tuscul. Quaest. lib. 1. ch. 13.

Cic.

• 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, Précès du Droit des Gens Moderne de l'Europe fondé sur les Traités et l'Usage, has become a justly esteemed manual of the science.

Byncker. Bynkershoeck's treatise on the laws of war has been received as of great authority on that particular branch

shoeck.

Vattel.

of the science of the law of nations, and the subject *18 is by him 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 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 examples. Since the age of Grotius, the code of war has been vastly enlarged and improved, and its rights better defined, and its severities greatly mitigated. The rights of maritime capture, the principles of the law of prize, and the duties and privileges of neutrals, have grown into very important titles in the Modern im- system of national law. We now appeal to more accuIn the Law of rate, more authentic, more precise, and more command

provements

Nations.

ing evidence of the rules of public law, by a reference to the decisions of those tribunals, to whom, in every country, the administration of that branch of jurisprudence is specially intrusted. We likewise appeal to the