is not merely by the obligations contracted by one generation that the present State is bound; the engagements of the past, whether arising from the implied contract of long usage, or the express letter of treaty, or the pledge of the Executive Government, howsoever plighted, are as stringent upon her as those of the present. The individual succeeds to rights and obligations which he had no share in obtaining or contracting; and still more is this condition predicable of every corporate body. Nor is the greatest of all corporations, the State, exempt from the operation of a rule which is laid in the eternal constitution of things: "Cœtus quilibet, “non minus quam personæ singulares, jus habet se obligandi per se aut per majorem sui partem. Hoc jus transferre "potest tum expresse tum per consequentiam necessariam, "puta imperium transferendo "(g). The rule by which an individual's duties are discovered-namely, by considering the place which he occupies in the great system of the universe-"qua parte locatus es in re"-furnishes an equally sound maxim for national as for individual conduct. "seroit pas," says the Abbé Mably, "moins superflu de "m'arrêter à prouver qu'un Prince est lié par les engage"mens de son prédécesseur: puisqu'un Prince qui fait un "traité n'est que le délégué de sa nation, et que les traités "deviennent pour les peuples qui les ont conclus des lois 66 66 "Il ne qu'il n'est jamais permis de violer." He proceeds to cite a passage from Bodinus to the effect that a King of France is not bound by the treaties of his predecessors; because each King of France is only the "usufructuarius" of his kingdom, and does not appoint his successor, who has an absolute right to the throne; and observes truly, "Il n'est "point de lecteur qui ne sente tous les vices de ce misérable "raisonnement " (h). CXXIX. The authority of D'Aguesseau (i) and Montes (g) Grotius, 1. ii. c. xiv. s. 11, p. 408. (h) Mably, du Droit public, etc. t. i. pp. 111, 112. (i) There are some striking remarks of D'Aguesseau, i. 493, s. 4, as to the observance of Treaties. quieu further strengthens a position of such paramount importance to the peace of the globe. The latter conclusively destroys the sophistry by which it has been sometimes attempted to chicane away the binding force of Treaties, on the ground of their having been extorted by that superior force which might vitiate a civil contract between individuals (j). It might, indeed, have been supposed that this truth was too firmly established, and the value of it too deeply felt and too generally recognized, to be liable to question in these days. After the overthrow of the Orleans dynasty in France, the proclamation of M. de Lamartine (1848) appeared for a moment to throw the weight of France into the opposite scale, as disavowing the obligations of the treaty of Vienna, chiefly, it would seem, because at the time it was made France was governed by a Monarchical, and at the time it was disavowed by a Republican Government (k). Now no doctrine more fatal than this to the tranquillity of the globe can well be maintained-none which it is more the duty of every upholder of International Law to denounce. Nor can any doctrine be more pernicious to the country itself, be it Monarchical or Republican, which propounds it. "Nulla res," said Cicero, with all the energy of moral wisdom, "vehementius Rempublicam continet quam fides.” What becomes of national faith if it be made to depend upon a form of Government? Much what would become of individual faith if it depended upon no change happening in the condition or age of the individual who plighted it. CXXX. The importance of the subject did not escape the notice of Grotius; and I do not know that, upon such a point, a higher authority can be appealed to: Neque refert quomodo gubernetur, regisne, an plurium, "an multitudinis imperio. Idem enim est populus Roma 66 (j) Esprit des Lois, 1. xxvi. c. xx.-"Qu'il ne faut pas décider par les principes des lois civiles les choses qui appartiennent au droit des gens." (k) Trois Mois au Pouvoir, par M. de Lamartine, p. 75. 66 66 nus sub regibus, consulibus, imperatoribus. Imo etiamsi "plenissimo jure regnetur, populus idem erit qui antea erat "cum sui esset juris, dum rex ei præsit ut caput istius populi, non ut caput alterius populi. Nam imperium quod in rege ut in capite, in populo manet ut in toto, cujus pars est caput: atque adeo rege, si electus est, aut regis "familia extincta, jus imperandi ad populum redit, ut supra "ostendimus" (1). 66 66 And in another part of his great work he expresses his free and manly opinion on this matter: "Huc et illa "frequens quæstio referenda est de pactis personalibus ac "realibus. Et siquidem cum populo libero actum sit, "dubium non est, quin quod ei promittitur sui natura reale "sit, quia subjectum est res permanens. Imo etiamsi status "civitatis in regnum mutetur, manebit fœdus, quia manet "idem corpus etsi mutato capite, et, ut supra diximus, im"perium, quod per regem exercetur, non desinit imperium "esse populi" (m). With this opinion Heineccius, in his commentary upon Grotius, entirely concurs. CXXXI. An English civilian of considerable note in his day, commenting upon this passage, recognizes and adopts the doctrine which it conveys: "All leagues and treaties are "national: and where they are not to expire within a shorter "time, though made with usurpers, will bind legal princes if "they succeed, and so vice versa; and a league made with a "king of any nation will oblige that nation, if they continue "free, though the Government should be changed to a "Commonwealth, because the nation is still the same though under different Governments" (n). 66 Vattel, whom Lord Stowell pronounced to be not the least indulgent of modern professors of Public Law (0), speaks unhesitatingly to the same effect: "Puisque les traités publics, (1) Grotius, 1. ii. c. ix. s. 8. (m) Ib. 1. ii. c. xvi. s. 16. (n) An Essay concerning the Laws of Nations and the Rights of Sovereigns, by Matthew Tindall, LL.D. p. 14 (London, 1734). (0) The Maria, 1 C. Rob. Adm. Rep. p. 163. 66 66 "même personnels, conclus par un roi, ou par tout autre "souverain qui en a le pouvoir, sont traités de l'Etat, et obligent la nation entière, les traités réels, faits pour sub"sister indépendamment de la personne qui les a conclus, obligent sans doute les successeurs. L'obligation qu'ils "imposent à l'Etat passe successivement à tous ses con"ducteurs, à mesure qu'ils prennent en main l'autorité publique. Il en est de même des droits acquis par ces "traités. Ils sont acquis à l'Etat, et passent à ses con"ducteurs successifs" (p). And in another place he says: "Dès qu'une puissance légitime contracte au nom de l'Etat, "elle oblige la nation elle-même, et par conséquent tous les "conducteurs futurs de la société. Lors donc qu'un prince a le pouvoir de contracter au nom de l'Etat, il oblige tous "ses successeurs: et ceux-ci ne sont pas moins tenus que "lui-même à remplir ses engagements" (q). 66 CXXXII. The language of Bynkershoek is still more forcible. In one passage he observes: "Recte dixit Grotius "jus populi non deficere nisi deficiat ipse populus. Forma "autem regiminis mutata non mutatur ipse populus. "Eadem utique respublica est, quamvis nunc hoc, nunc alio " modo regatur; alioquin diceres, rempublicam in statu, "quo nunc est, exsolutam videri pactis et debitis in alio "statu contractis. De debitis id dicere non licere consentit "Grotius (r). De pactis ut idem dicamus, eadem quæ in "debitis obtinet ratio persuaserit" (s). His chapter “ De "servanda fide pactorum publicorum, et an quæ eorum tacitæ exceptiones," begins: "Pacta privatorum tuetur jus civile, pacta principum bona fides. Hanc si tollas, tollis mutua "inter principes commercia, quæ oriuntur e pactis expressis, "quin et tollis ipsum jus gentium, quod oritur e pactis "tacitis et præsumptis, quæ ratio et usus inducunt” (t). (p) Vattel, Le Droit de Gens, l. ii. c. xii. s. 191, p. 400. (q) Ib. l. ii. c. xiv. s. 215. (r) De Jure Bel. 1. ii. c. ix. s. 8, n. 3. (8) Q. J. P. l. ii. c. xxv.- Variæ Quæstiuncula. (t) Q. J. P. l. ii. c. x. See, too, Burke's Tracts on the Popery Laws, c. iii. in fine, as to the ratification of the Treaty of Limerick. He then proceeds to comment upon the sophistry which defends a departure from the obligations of treaties: "Hæc 66 pactis omnibus inesse credit clausulam salutarem, rebus sic "stantibus, atque adeo a pactis recedi posse: I. Si qua nova "causa, satis idonea, obveniat. II. Si res eo deducta sit, unde "incipere non possit. III. Si ipsa pactorum ratio cesset. "IV. Si necessitas ac utilitas reipublicæ aliud flagitent" (u). The last pretext he denounces as a detestable Machiavellism" the beast of many heads, Reason of State, the bane "of Princes," and characterizes the three former excuses as "totidem ruptæ fidei velamenta; "—and again, in his boldest manner, “Promissum igitur, si me audias, etiam tunc servandum, cum id servari Reipublicæ non expediat, imo "periculosum sit "(x). 66 66 CXXXIII. Not less emphatic and decisive is the language of the great Republican Confederation of North America: "Nations are at liberty" (says Mr. Chancellor Kent) "to 66 use their own resources in such manner and to apply them "to such purposes as they may deem best, provided they do "not violate the perfect rights of other nations, nor endanger "their safety, nor infringe the indispensable duties of humanity. They may contract alliances with particular "nations, and grant or withhold particular privileges, in "their discretion. By positive engagements of this kind a "new class of rights and duties is created, which forms the "conventional law of nations, and constitutes the most diffusive, and generally the most important branch of "public jurisprudence. And it is well to be understood, at a period when alterations in the constitutions of Govern"ments and revolutions in States are familiar, that it is a "clear position of the law of nations that treaties are not "affected, nor positive obligations of any kind with other "Powers or with creditors weakened, by any such mutations. "A State neither loses any of its rights nor is discharged 66 66 |