BY HENRY WHEATON, L. L. D. MINISTER OF THe united staTES AT THE court of BERLIN, CORRESPONDING NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY GOULD, BANKS & Co. AND ANDREW MILLIKEN, DUBLIN, IRELAND. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year cighteen hundred and forty-four, by GOULD, BANKS & Co. in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. NEW YORK: PRINTED BY A. S. GOULD, No. 144 Nassau Street. PREFACE. THIS work was originally written and published in the French language as a Mémoire in answer to the following prize question proposed by the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences in the Institute of France: "Quels sont les progrès qu'a fait le droit des gens en Europe depuis la Paix de Westphalie ?" In rendering it into our language the author has considerably enlarged the work, especially the introductory part relating to the history of the European law of nations previous to the peace of Westphalia. He has also subjoined a summary account of the international relations of the Ottoman Empire with the other European states, of the recent transactions relating to the interference of the great powers in the affairs of Greece and Egypt, and of the discussions between the United States and Great Britain, relating to the right of search as applicable to the African slave trade, terminated by the treaty of Washington in 1842. It has been very justly observed that "international law is founded only on the opinions generally received among civilized nations, and its duties are enforced only by moral sanctions: by fear on the part of nations, or by fear on the part of sovereigns, of provoking general hostility and incurring its probable evils, in case they should violate maxims generally received and respected."a Yet experience shows that these motives, even in the worst. times, do really afford a considerable security for the obser vance of those rules of justice between states which are dictated by international morality, although they are deficient in that more perfect sanction annexed by the lawgiver to the observance of a positive code proceeding from the command of a superiour. The history of the progress of the science of international jurisprudence cannot, therefore, fail to be of the highest interest, when connected with the history of the variations in that more positive system resulting from special compacts, by which the general rules founded on reason and usage have been modified and adapted to the various exigencies of human society. The author has endeavored to trace the progress of both these systems, as marked in the writings of public jurists, in judicial decisions, in the history of wars and negotiations, in the debates of legislative assemblies, and in the text of treaties, from the earliest times of classic antiquity to the most recent public transactions between the states of Europe and of America. He believes that the general result will show a considerable advance, both in the theory of international morality, and in the practical observance of the rules of justice among states, although this advance may not entirely correspond with the rapid progress of civilization in other respects. The work is now submitted by the Austin, Province of Jurisprudence determined, pp. 147-148. |