THE THEORY OF THE STATE BY J. K. BLUNTSCHLI LATE PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG AUTHORISED ENGLISH TRANSLATION FROM THE SIXTH GERMAN EDITION Oxford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS M DCCC LXXXV [ All rights reserved ] " TRANSLATORS' PREFACE. THE ' Theory of the Modern State' (Lehre vom modernen Stat) by the late Professor Johann Kaspar Bluntschli, of Heidelberg, may be described as an attempt to do for the European State what Aristotle accomplished for the Hellenic. The material being far more complex, the task is very much more difficult, but Bluntschli's is, at least, the most successful attempt that has been made. We have hardly any works in English which we can put beside it in respect of intention and compass; and of these, none is equally useful for the student. No writer can escape the influence of his surroundings, and although Germany was only his adopted country, he being a native of Zürich, Bluntschli's point of view is sometimes too exclusively German. But perhaps this is not altogether a disadvantage to us the endeavour to understand a mode of looking at some political subjects, different from that to which we are accustomed, may not be without its uses. On the whole, Bluntschli is a candid and fair critic both of actual constitutions and of political theories. Occasionally he may betray some of the prejudices of German officialism; occasionally, too, he may push to a somewhat amusing extreme his 'organic' or 'psychological' conception of the State. But these are slight defects, more likely to throw light on the individuality of the author than to mislead the judicious reader. The work here translated, the Allgemeine Statslehre, is only the first part of the Theory of the Modern State.' The relation of the other two parts, the Allgemeines Statsrecht and b |