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I HAVE claimed the rank of International law in the highest sense for the provisions of the Consolato del Mare, as being founded on all the three necessary sanctions of such law, viz., (a) the reason and common sense of the thing; (b) the approval of the most eminent jurists; (c) the general consent of nations, when they were not under the influence of motives of state policy.

I wish to examine a little closely the first of these sanctions—the reason of the thing.