The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1843-09-07

distracted and weakened by the civil airs. The
french ambassador, in his address the Republican
Parliament, land down the maxim, that the relations
OF ami'y and commerce between different States had
no necessary connexioD with the forms of their
sPective governments. This reasonable ma KIN was
reversed few years subsequently, when the politi-
cal interests OF Louis XIV induced him to support
the claim Of the exed house of Stuart TO the British
throne founded on the principle of divine right, or
what has been since called legitimacy The Eng
ish revolution Of 1858 had raised to that throne his
irreconcileablc enemy, William of Orange who put
himself at the head of the grand alliance against
France The practice Of Louis XIV in direct
contradiction to the wise and benevolent principles
laid down by the vrtuous FeneloD his Instructions
to his royal pupil, the Duke of Burgundy on the du
ties OF a King. The result was the of the Spa
nlsh succession, which placed Bourbon dynasty
the throne of Spain at an immense expense of blood
and treasure, but lost France the opportunity Of ex
tending her frontiers to the Rhine. Louis XIV thus
sacrificed the interests of his country to those of bis
family, as has been shown by M MIGNEr in his pre-
lace to the recent edition of documents relating 10
The Spanish succession and his were left
to expiate policy as weak as it was wicked. a.
Having thus traced the political history of this Pc
Rod in connection with the alternate application Of
the opposite principles of Intervention and non-iner
venton, Mr.. W. proceeds to sketch the portraits Of
the public jurists who succeeded Grotus, such as
Pufcndorf, Leibnitz, Spinosa Selden and the other
professors of the science Unnatural jurisprudence Sc
Protestant Germany the field where this science
was cultivated with the most But sin
this intellectual land" author very justly OBJ
serves more than in any other country, scientific
and active life then Stood they stand detach
ed from each other like two separate worlds" The
consequence was, thai the spscuations of these poll
cal philosophers could be of very little practical use
In laying the foundations Of positive law Of nations.
This could only spring up from the usage of nations
and the precedens created by diplomatic transactions
systematized by more practical writer's. Mr. w.
therefore passes rapidly the sterile and unproG-
able controversies among the German public jurists
respecting the obligation, binding force of nterna-
tional law, its nature and causes, and proceeds
more minute examination of the principles Of the
maritime law of nations, which constantly
brought IN question during the and negotiations
of the latter part Of the 18th and the beginning Of
the 18th centuries.
For this purpose he goes back to the middle age,
when the practices of maritime warfare may be said
to be identified with piracy, which was regulated by
the celebrated Consulate del Mare This work is
shown by Mr.. W. to have been not positive code,
but a mere collection of the usages recognized in
practice by the maritime States Of the Mediterrane-
an during the l4th century According to this COM
pilation, everything belonging to enemy, and
wherever found, was considered lawful booty
According to this principle, the goods of an enemy
taken board the ships Of friend coniscated
prize Of war, whilst the goods Of friend taken in
the ships Of enemy were restored to the proprie-
tor. Such continued hong afterwards TO be the
mon maritime law OF nations, except so far as occa-
sionally modified by special convention When and
how the begerent right of search came to be esta-
blished as means for giving effect to the right Of
capturing enemy's property in the ships Of friend
does not clearly appear. The Consulate is silent
the subject but it would seem to have been some
how or other connected with such claims that Of
the British crown to the sovereignty of the neighbor
ing seas, which was never acknowledged by France,
and gave rise to frequent and bloody wars between
Great Britain and Holland both under the English
commonwealth and under the Stuart Kings. The
means also applied to prevent the carrying
Of contraband to an enemy, and to enforce the
blockade OF his ports against neutral commerce.
What commodities to be considered contra
band became. during this period, the subject Of fire.
quent and fierce controversy, especially between
England and the Baltic powers the former insisting
including in the list Of contraband, naval stores,
corn, and provisions, whilst the latter sought 10
strict it to munitions of actually wrought into
the shape of military weapons.
The conventional law of nations, as arising from
treaties the other hand constantly tended to lin
it these extreme rights of war, and TO establish the
rule that free ships make free goods that the lit Of
should be restricted TO military weapons
and that the declarations of blockade should be
by actual investment, SO TO render
it dangerous to enter the blockaded port The
i'm of free ships free goods generally coupled with the
correlatve maxim of enemy ships, enemy goods,
recognised in almost perpetual succession of trea-
ties from the treaty of the Pyrenees between France
and Spain in 1859, to that Of Utrecht, 17l2. The
practice Of the Courts of Admiralty, and the prize
ordinances of almost every maritime State, were du
ring the period, founded on the opposite max
inns Of the Consulate del Mare
This first period of the authors historical deduc-
tons is closed by examination of the pretenson of
Great Britain to a right of sovereignty the four
seas which surround her islands, and Of Denmark to
that of the Sound and the Baltic under which last
claim tribute still continues to be levied by the Da
nsh Government on foreign navigation passing in
and out Of the Baltic Those who seek for accu
rate information on these important subjects will be
amply grotifed by the funess and precision of the
details contained in this part of Mr.. WIS work.
~ See the additonneieS TO Mr. WIS book note 4.
(To be continued
from The PHILADELPHIA american Sentinel.
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