The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-21

the most distinguished audiences that
ever gathered here. When Lord Rus
sell entered the hall he was greeted
with hearty applause, and as ne as
cended the platform the ovation in
creased and was more demonstrative
Besides Lord Russell, there were
grouped on the platform United States
Supreme Court Judge Rufus w. Peck
ham. United States Attorney General
Harmon, New York Court of Appeals
Judge Bartlett; Hon. Cortland T..
Parker New Jersey; United States Dis
trict Court Judge Cox; Hon. j. Ran
dolph Tucker, Virginia.; Hon. Henry
Hitchcock, st. Louis; Hon. William
Allen Butler, New York; Hon. Edward
J. Phelps, Vermont; Hon. James car
ter, New York; Hon. Nathan J. Ship
man, Connecticut; Bishop John p.
Newman and Sir Francis Lockwood
and Montagu Crackenthorpe The pres
ident of the association, Moorfield
Storey, Boston, in presenting Lord
Russell, said:
II have now the very great pleas
ure, not of introduction, for he needs
no introduction to any English speak
ing lawyer, but of presenting to you
Lord Russell, of Killowen, the lord
chief justice of England, who will de-
liver the annual address on the sub
ject of international Arbitration
Lord Russell prefaced his words by
a modest but graceful acknowledg-
ment of the loving and hearty welcome
with which he was honored on this
occasion Continuing, he said:
LORD RUSSELL'S ADDRESS.
Mr. President: My first words must be in
acknowledgment of the honor done me by
inviting me to address you on this interest
ing occasion. You are congress of lawyers
of the United States met together to take
counsel, in no narrow spirit, on questions al
fecting the interests of your profession. l,
on the other hand, come from the judicial
bench of a distant land Though we repre-
sent political communities which differ widely
in many respects, in the structure of their
constitutions and otherwise, we yet have
many things in common. We speak the
same language; we administer laws based
on the same judicial conceptions; we are CO.
heirs in the rich traditions of political free
dom long established, and we enjoy in COM
mon literature the nOblest and the purest
the world has known. Beyond this the un-
seen crimson thread of kinship, stretching
from the mother islands to your great con-
tinent, unites US and reminds us always that
we belong to the same, though a mixed
racial family. This consideration is promi-
nent among those which suggest the theme
on Wnlcn QeSlro TO aQQreSS y0u-namely,
international law.
l call the rules which civilized nations
have agreed shall bind them in their conduct
inter Sc, by the Benthamite title, ''interna-
tional law" And here Mr.. President, on the
threshold of my subject, l find an obstacle in
my way. 1t is said by some that there is
no international law; that there is only a
bundle more or less confused of rules to
which nations more or less conform, but
that international law there is none. The
late Sir James F. Stephen takes this view
in his History Of the Criminal Law of Eng
case the late Lord Coleridge speaks in the
same sense. He says: Strictly speaking
international law is an inexact expression
and it is apt to mislead if it's exactness is
not kept in mind. Law implies a lawgiver
and tribunal capable of enforcing it and
be said that with few exceptions the same
note is sounded throughout the judgments in
that case. These views, it will at once be
seen, are based on the definition of law by
Austin in his Province of Jurisprudence De-
termined," namely, that law is the COM
mand of a superior who has coercive power
to compel obedience and punish disobedience
But this definition is too narrow; it relies too
much on force as the governing idea. If the
development of law is historically consid-
cred, it will be found to exclude that body
of customary law which in searlv stages Of
society precedes law which assumes definitely
the character of positive command coupled
with punitive sanctions. But even in socie-
ties in which the machinery exists for the
making of law in the Austinian sense
rules customs grow up which are laws
in every real sense of the word as for ex
ample, the law merchant Under later de-
yelopmeEts of arbitrary power laws NAV be
regarded as the command of a superior with
a coerciye power in Austin's sense Ouod
placuit principi legis vigorem habet. In