Page:Elements of International Law - Wheaton - Dana (1866).djvu/12

x commentator on that branch of science, he combined advantages which, in no one of his countrymen, were ever before united. He was familiar with the four languages in which the stores of international law are gathered. He had the early preparatory discipline successively of a practising lawyer, and a reporter of judicial decisions, followed by twenty years of diplomatic experience at one of the political centres of Europe. He maintained an intimate personal acquaintance and familiar correspondence with the most eminent statesmen, publicists, and scholars of Europe and America; and kept himself thoroughly informed of the current history of whatever bore upon the relations of States. In short, he combined the advantages of the discipline of a barrister, the culture of a scholar, the experience of a diplomatist, and the habits of a man of society. And it is no small thing to add, that, to a subject essentially moral, he brought a purity of nature, candor, and fidelity to truth and duty, as remarkable as his learning, industry, and philosophy.

This work, under the title of The Elements of International Law, was first sent to the press in 1836, in two editions,—one at Philadelphia, and the other at London; the preface being written at Berlin, and dated Jan. 1, 1836.

The third edition was published in Philadelphia in 1846; the preface being dated at Berlin, November, 1845.

In 1846 and 1847, Mr. Wheaton prepared an edition in French; the preface being dated at Paris, April 15, 1847, just before his final return to America. It was published at Leipsic and Paris, in 1848,—the year of the author's death.

A second edition of the work, in French, was published at the same places in 1853.