accustomed to listen to the voice of justice and humanity, appears but too plainly in their haughty triumphs, their cunning interpretation of treaties, their continual violation of justice, their cruel rules of war, and the whole series of their wonderful successes, in the steady progress of the conquest of the world. The perusal of Livy's magnificent history of the rise and progress of the Roman power excites our constant admiration of the vigor, the skill, the valor, and the fortitude of the Roman people; yet, notwithstanding the splendor of the story, and the attractive simplicity of the writer, no reader of taste and principle can well avoid feeling a thorough detestation of the fierce spirit of conquest which it displays, and of the barbarous international law and customs of the ancients.

A purer system of public morals was cultivated, and insensibly gained ground, in the Roman state. The cruelties of Marius in the Jugurthan war, when he put part of the inhabitants of a Numidian town to the sword, and sold the rest for slaves, were declared by Sallust (b) to be a proceeding contra jus belli. At the zenith of the Roman power, the enlarged and philosophical mind of Cicero was struck with extreme disgust, at the excesses in which his countrymen indulged their military spirit. He justly discerned that mankind were not intended, by the law and constitution of their nature, as rational and social beings, to live in eternal enmity with each other; and he recommends, in one of the most beautiful and perfect ethical codes to be met with * among the remains of the ancients, the virtues of humanity, *7 liberality, and justice towards other people, as being founded in the universal law of nature. Their ancestors, he observed, applied the term "enemy" to that man whom they regarded merely as a foreigner; but to deny to strangers the use and protection of the city, would be inhuman. To overturn justice by plundering others, tended to destroy civil society, as well as violate the law of nature, and the institutions of heaven; and by some of the most happy illustrations and pathetic examples, Cicero vindicated the truth, and inculcated the value of the precept, that nothing was truly useful which was not honest. (a) In the latgium fetialium was instituted, according to legendary story, as early as the reign of Numa Pompilius, and the efficacy of that institution on the rights of war is declared by Cicero, belli æquitas sanctissime fetiali populi Romani jure prescripta est.

(b) Sal. Jug. c. 91.

(a) Off. b. 1, sec. 12; b. 3, sec. 5, 6, 7, 11; De Legibus, b. 1.

The irruption of the northern tribes of Scythia and Germany overturned all that was gained by the Roman law, annihilated every restraint, and all sense of obligation; and civil society relapsed into the violence and confusion of the barbarous ages. Mankind seemed to be doomed to live once more in constant distrust or hostility, and to regard a stranger and an enemy as almost the same. Piracy, rapine, and ferocious warfare deformed. the annals of Europe. The manners of nations were barbarous, and their maxims of war cruel. Slavery was considered as a lawful consequence of captivity. Mr. Barrington (c) has, indeed, cited the laws of the Visigoths, Saxons, Sicilians, and Bavarians, as restraining, by the severest penalties, the plunder of shipwrecked goods and the abuse of shipwrecked seamen, and as extending the rights of hospitality to strangers. But notwithstanding* a few efforts of this kind to intro- * 9 duce order and justice, and though municipal law had undergone great improvement, the law of nations remained in a rude and uncultivated state, down to the period of the 16th century. In many instances, shipwrecked strangers were made prisoners, and sold as slaves, without exciting any complaint, or offending any public sense of justice. Numerous cases occurred of acts of the greatest perfidy and cruelty towards strangers and enemies. Prisoners were put to death for their gallantry and brave defence in war. There was no reliance upon the word and honor of men in power. Reprisals and private war were in constant activity. Instances were frequent of the violation of embassies, of the murder of hostages, the imprisonment of guests, and the killing of heralds. The victor in war had his option in dealing with his prisoners, either to put them to death, or reduce them to slavery, or exact an exorbitant ransom for their deliverance. So late as the time of Cardinal Richelieu, it was held to be the right of all nations to arrest strangers who came into the country without a safeconduct. (a)

The Emperor Charlemagne made distinguished efforts to improve the condition of Europe by the introduction of order and the propagation of Christianity; and we have cheering examples, during the darkness of the middle ages, of some recognition of

(c) Observations on the Statutes, chiefly the more ancient, 22.
(a) Ward's History of the Law of Nations, c. 7, 8, 9.

lawful to invade and subdue Mahometan and Pagan countries continued very long to sway the minds of men; and it was not till after the age of Grotius and Bacon that *this error * 11 was entirely eradicated. Lord Coke (a) held that an alliance for mutual defence was unlawful between Christians and Turks; and Grotius was very cautious as to the admission of the lawfulness of alliances with infidels, and he had no doubt that all Christian nations were bound to assist one another against the attacks of infidels. (b) Even Lord Bacon (c) thought it a matter of so much doubt as to propound it seriously as a question, whether a war with infidels was not first in order of dignity, and to be preferred to all other just temporal quarrels ; and whether a war with infidels might not be undertaken merely for the propagation of the Christian faith, without other cause of hostility.

The influence of chivalry was beneficial upon the laws of war.1 It introduced declarations of war by heralds; and to attack an enemy by surprise was deemed cowardly and dishonorable. It dictated humane treatment to the vanquished, courtesy to enemies, and the virtues of fidelity, honor, and magnanimity in every species of warfare.

The introduction and study of the civil law must also have contributed largely to more correct and liberal views of the rights and duties of nations. It was impossible that such a (a) 4 Inst. 155.

(b) Grotius, b. 2, c. 15, sec. 11, 12. The university of Salamanca, as early as 1550, decided in favor of Las Casas upon the thesis maintained by Sepulveda, and refuted by Las Casas, that it was a right and duty to make war upon Pagans and Heretics, in order to propagate the true faith. But the minds of men in Catholic countries remained long unsettled on this point, and the doctrines of Sepulveda are said to have been sanctioned within the period of the last fifty years, by the Royal Academy of History at Madrid. (Dict. Hist. art. Sepulveda. Verplanck's Discourse before the New York Historical Society, 1818.) Even as late as 1718, the Emperor Charles VI. commissioned two ships of war to cruise "through any seas, far and wide, to follow and pursue any such as are the enemies of our august house, but chiefly the enemies of the Christian name." The commission was dated at Vienna, July 16, 1718. But afterwards the commission was restricted by an additional instruction, dated at Brussels, 28th September, 1718, to war "against the Spaniards, but not against any other power, though even enemies to the Christian name." See the commission at large in Callender's Voyages, iii. 447, 450.

(c) Bacon's Works, iii. 472, 492.

1 Maine, Anc. Law, c. 4, explains the influence of feudalism on international law. [See also Amos, Lect. on Int. Law, p. 21.]