to anticipate even possible causes of disagreement, and sensible of the anxiety of the American people on this grave subject of past irritation, I should be sorry in any way to discourage the attempt at some settlement of it; and, although without authority to enter upon it here during the limited continuance of my mission, I entertain a confident hope that this task may be accomplished, when undertaken, with the spirit of candor and conciliation which has marked all our late negotiations.

"It not being our intention to endeavour now to come to any agreement on this subject, I may be permitted to abstain from noticing, at length, your very ingenious arguments relating to it, and from discussing the graver matters of constitutional and international law growing out of them. These sufficiently show that the question is one requiring calm consideration; though I must, at the same time, admit that they prove a strong necessity of some settlement for the preservation of that good understanding which, I trust, we may flaiter ourselves that our joint labours have now succeeded in establishing.

"I am well aware that the laws of our two countries maintain opposite principles respecting allegiance to the sovereign. America, receiving every year, by thousands, the emigrants of Europe, maintains the doctrine suitable to her condition of the right of transferring allegiance at will. The laws of Great Britain have maintained, from all time, the opposite doctrine. The duties of allegiance are held to be indefeasible, and it is believed that this doctrine, under various modifications, prevails in most, if not in all, the civilized states of Europe.

'Emigration, the modern mode by which the population of the world peaceably finds its level, is for the benefit of all, and eminently for the benefit of humanity. The fertile deserts of America are gradually advancing to the highest state of cultivation and production, while the emigrant acquires comfort which his own confined home could not afford him.

"If there were anything in our laws or our practice on either side tending to impede this march of providential humanity, we could not be too eager to provide a remedy ; but as this does not appear to be the case, we may safely leave this part of the subject without indulging in abstract speculations, having no material practical application to matters in discussion between us.

"But it must be admitted that a serious practical question does arise, or rather has existed, from practices formerly attending the mode of manning the British navy in times of war. The principle is, that all subjects of the crown are in case of necessity bound to serve their country, and the sea-faring man is naturally taken for the naval service. This is not, as is sometimes supposed, any arbitrary principle of monarchical government, but one founded on the natural duty of every man to defend the life of his country; and all the analogy of your laws would lead to the conclusion that the same principle would hold good in the United States if their geographical position did not make its application unnecessary.

"The very anomalous condition of the two countries with relation to each other here creates a serious difficulty. Our people are not distinguishable; and owing to the peculiar habits of sailors, our vessels are very generally manned from a common stock. It is difficult, under these circumstances, to execute laws which at times have been thought to be essential for the existence of the country, without risk of injury to others. The extent and importance of those injuries, however, are so formidable that it is admitted that some remedy should, if possible, be applied; at all events, it must be fairly and honestly attempted. It is true that during the continuance of peace no practical grievance can arise; but it is also true that it is for that reason the proper season for the calm and deliberate consideration of an important subject. I have much reason to hope that a satisfactory arrangement respecting it may be made, so as to set at rest all apprehension and

anxiety; and I will only further repeat the assurance of the sincere disposition of my government favourably to consider all matters having for their object the promoting and maintaining undisturbed kind and friendly feelings with the United States.

"I beg, sir, on this occasion of closing the correspondence with you connected with my mission, to express the satisfaction I feel at its successful termination, and to assure you of my high consideration and personal esteem and regard.

"Hon. Daniel Webster, &c., &c., &c."

"ASHBURTON.

The treaty of Washington also contained a stipulation, (art. 1.) for the final adjustment of the northern and northeastern boundary, separating the United States from the British dominions in North America, which had remained a subject of dispute between the French and British governments from the treaty of Utrecht, 1713, and so long as France remained in possession of Canada, and between the American and British governments ever since the treaty of peace of 1783. This controversy was finally settled by the substitution of a conventional line for that stipulated by the 2d article of the treaty of 1783, with certain equivalents and compensations deemed equitable between the parties.

§35. Public Jurists of this

The progress made by the law of nations in Europe and America since the French Revolution of 1789 may be traced Period. in the practical discussions and polemic controversies relating to the numerous and important questions growing out of the consequences of that great event, rather than in the systematical treatises of institutional writers upon the science of international jurisprudence. We have already noticed the elementary treatise of Martens upon the positive law of nations of which the first edition was published previous to the French revolution.a The same author sub

4 Vide Part Third, § 20.

§ 36. Kant,

sequently enriched the science of external public law with several other justly esteemed works. Other names might be cited, more or less celebrated, of compilers who have taken for the basis of their works the treatise of Vattel; but it cannot be said that these authors have sensibly contributed to the progress of this branch of science, although they may have facilitated its study by a better arrangement of the scattered materials, which, in the words of Sir James Mackintosh, "called for the skill of a new builder." The name of this distinguished man might have formed an exception to this general remark, had he completed and given to the world his course of lectures on the law of nature and nations, of which the introductory discourse is so justly esteemed for profound thought, vast range of information, and admirable felicity of language. This course of lectures, delivered in Lincoln's Inn Hall in 1797, attracted at first an audience of the most distinguished statesmen and lawyers, and of the most learned and accomplished persons of the metropolis. "The subject, however," we are told by his biographer, "was unattractive to an English auditory, who have no taste for inquiries essentially speculative, which neither admit of demonstrative certainty, nor practical results. Accordingly the lectures of Sir James, although they continued to be praised, ceased to be followed." On the continent such speculations are more highly prized. Several writers of the different schools of German philosophy during this period sought to illustrate the theory of international law, considered as a branch of universal jurisprudence, and proposed, as the result of their meditations on its present imperfect state, the establishment of an Amphictyonic council of nations, by which their mutual differences might be judicially determined, and the guilt and misery of war forever abolished among civilized nations.

One of the most remarkable of these projects of perProject of perpetual peace was that published by Kant in 1795, soon petual peace. after the conclusion of the treaty of peace at Basle by which

Prussia retired from the continental coalition against the French republic, and guarantied the neutrality of the other states of northern Germany. The scheme proposed by the philosopher of Koenigsberg was grounded on the same idea of a general confederation of European nations which had been successively conceived by Saint Pierre, Rousseau, and Bentham.

Kant developes this idea by laying down as the first condition of perpetual peace that the constitution of every state adhering to the proposed league should be republican, which he defines to be that form of government where every citizen participates by his representatives in the exercise of the legislative power, and especially in that of deciding on the questions of peace and war. A declaration of war decreed in this manner by the nation is in effect decreeing against itself all the calamities and burdens of war. On the other hand, under a constitution of government where the subjects are not citizens, that is under a constitution which is not republican, a declaration of war may be rashly pronounced on insufficient grounds, because it costs nothing to the national chief, who is the master, and not a member of the state,-not even the sacrifice of his smallest pleasures. But, according to Kant, a republican form must not be confounded with a democratic form of government. By a republican constitution, he understands any form of government limited by a popular representation, the legislative power being separated from the executive, and the authority to declare war being included in the former. According to his view, democracy excludes representation. It is inevitably despotic, the will of a majority of the sovereigns of which it is composed being unlimited; whilst aristocracy, or even autocracy, although defective inasmuch as they are liable to become despotic by substituting the single will of the chief or chiefs of the state to the general will, still admit the possibility of a representative administration, as Frederick the Great intimated when he said he was "the first servant of the state." Not one of the pre