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 LAW OF NATIONS 223 tive enactments, and then it formed an ele- ment of the jus civile, or municipal law of the state ; or, if regarded as the basis and rule of the dealings of states with each other, it signi- fied what is now called international law, or jus inter gentes. It was the object of Grotius to show that nations are governed by a law distinct from the natural law, to wit, by a code or body of rules founded indeed in the law of nature, but proceeding immediately from uni- versal consent. "Those right deductions," he says, "which proceed from the principles of reason point to the law of nature, while those which proceed from common consent proceed from the law of nations." Pufendorf, who was invested with the professorship of public law at Heidelberg, rejected the dis- tinction which Grotius had drawn between the law of nature and the law of nations ; he de- nied that the latter was founded upon express consent, but considered it merely the law of nature applied to nations; he maintained, therefore, that the customs and usages which nations observe in war have no legal obligation in them, and consequently that, unless they are directly deduced from the law of nature, they may be rejected at pleasure. Wolf, who represented rather the school of Grotius than that of Pufendorf, admitted with the latter and with Hobbes that, as aggregate bodies of individuals, nations must be in some degree subject to the law of nature, yet maintained that, in their collective capacity, nations ac- Suire a new character and being, different from lat of the individuals of whom they are com- posed; therefore, in its applications to soci- eties of men, the law of nature must undergo some changes and modifications, and thus is derived the voluntary law of nations. Vattel, a disciple of Grotius, assents to this doctrine of the latter, and develops still further his con- ception of the law of nations. There is an internal, necessary law, he says, resting upon the natural law or dictates of conscience, and therefore immutable ; and there is an exter- nal, conventional law, which admits deviations from the former, when these involve an inva- sion of perfect rights. Finally, according to Vattel, the voluntary law, founded on pre- sumed consent, the conventional, framed by express consent, and the customary, proceeding from the tacit consent of nations, compose the positive international law. The sources of in- ternational law are, according to Grotius, natu- ral law, divine law, customs, and special com- pacts : natura ipsa, leges dimnw, mores, et pacta. In the celebrated reply made by the British government in 1V53 to a Prussian state paper, the law of nations is said to be founded upon justice, equity, convenience, and the reason of the thing, confirmed by long usage. The principle of national jus- tice, founded upon the laws of morality, is, then, the basis of the positive law of nations, that is to say, of the treaties, conventions, and usages which compose it. It is the office of 482 VOL. x. 15 right reason to apply this natural law of equity to the circumstances of each case ; and it is the art of applying this law, according to justice and guided by reason, which renders interna- tional jurisprudence a particular science. Trea- ties and usages offer evidence of the general consent of nations, and are important sources of the law. The customary law of nations is further expressed in manifestoes and declara- tions of war and in the decisions of prize courts. Finally, the concurrent testimony of the great writers upon the science, and the written opin- ions which official jurists give to their govern- ments, are further evidence and depositories of the law of nations. States are the proper and immediate subjects of this international law. A state is defined by Phillimore as "a people permanently occupying a fixed territory, bound together by common laws, habits, and customs into one body politic, exercising, through the medium of an organized government, indepen- dent sovereignty and control over all persons and things within its boundaries, capable of making war and peace, and of entering into in- ternational relations with other communities." The sovereignty of a state depends upon its ex- istence de facto as a state ; and until this is recognized by other nations, the state enjoys no share in international rights. When once, however, it is admitted into the society of sov- ereign states, it is the equal of each of these. States may combine and form a confederacy, in which each retains its independent power and sovereignty, or may form a federal government or composite state, which alone is the sovereign power. It is the clear right of every sovereign state to maintain its political integrity in the society of nations. It may, therefore, justly assert its independence of and its equality with all other sovereign states, and by all the modes permitted in the practice of nations it may con- firm its power and extend its domain, either by the acquisition of new territory, the extension of its commerce, or the development of its in- ternal sources of wealth. All these rights pre- suppose that of self-preservation. The state may, then, to this end, form alliances, provide land and sea forces, build fortifications, or employ any other usual means for its defence. With these measures other powers have no right to interfere, unless they assume an aggressive character, and seem to threaten the security of such states. Thus a sudden and extraordinary increase of armaments would furnish good rea- son for demanding an explanation of the ob- ject of such warlike preparations. Further, by virtue of its independence, every sovereign state may adopt whatever form of government and whatever political institutions it may pre- fer, free from the control of any foreign power. Still each state is to remember that all other sovereign states are its equals, and therefore that it may not, by any measures of its private legislation or policy, virtually invade the sover- eignty of others. When in 1792 the French national convention declared that it would