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adjusting disputes is provided. Every argument against private war applies also to that which is public. The reign of law has put an end to the former. Why may it not also put an end to the latter? As in civil society the crown of its polity is the establishment of tribunals for the adjudication of differences between individuals, so in that greater society, where states stand for individuals, the establishment of arbitration for international differences will be the crown and glory of public law.

This is the consummation that we wish. We desire to see the rights and duties of nations, and of their members toward each other, defined with as much precision as is practicable, and set down in a general treaty, which is but another name for an International Code, and the whole crowned with a stipulation binding the honor of nations that, whenever a disagreement between any of them shall arise, it shall be determined by the judgment of impartial arbiters. We are thus aiming at the improvement of that system of law which establishes the relations of one nation with another, and the relations of their respective inhabitants; the relations, for example, of France with Italy and England, and of every Frenchman with every Italian and every Englishman. Such is the precise purpose of our society, and we challenge for it, not disfavor, but favor; not ridicule, but respect; not disdain, but acceptance. If any one thinks the scheme a chimera, let him ask himself whether there be any great reform now accepted by the world which has not been at some time denounced as a chimera, and consider whether there be greater reason for denouncing this than that. Private war was for many ages held to be just, and practiced as honorable; yet it has long ago passed into the category of things unlawful and dishonorable. The reason of

mankind is against public war. The majority stand ready to prohibit it, if they could find a sanction sufficient to enforce the prohibition. They fear that there can be no law without a sanction, and no sanction but force, and, as there is no common force great enough to coerce nations, so there can be no law against war. But do not they err who reason thus? Are there not sanctions where there is no force? Is not the loss of honor, of the respect of others, of self-respect, a sanction suffi

cient, and even all-powerful, in moral and social relations? Debts of honor are paid more promptly than debts that can be sued for at the law, and enforced by sheriffs. When America and England submitted their differences to the arbiters of Geneva, were they not bound to acquiescence in the award by a power greater than fleets and armies bear-that is to say, the moral sentiment of the world? Is there not, in our day at least, a public sentiment, strong and pervading, which coerces and restrains nations, as it coerces and restrains individual members of society?

In aid of this sentiment and this moral sanction, we point, not only to the sufferings, the cruelties, and barbarities of all war, but to the general inefficiency and folly of war when it is aggressive. I do not say that a war of defense is unjust or unwise. I do not even say as much of all wars of aggression, but this I do affirm, that history can show few aggressive wars which have not proved as unwise as they were unjust. I need look no further than the history of the French, that great and martial people who, for so many ages, ravaged their neighbors, and dominated over Europe. What, after all, have their wars brought them? Wander through Paris and count the monuments of martial glory, study the figures and the scenes displayed upon the column of Vendôme and the Arch of Triumph, and ask yourself what of permanent or real good have they bestowed upon that people? The scroll has been unrolled; the invaders have been invaded; the trophies have been recaptured; the conquests have been regained; and the treasure and the blood have gone for naught. Nearly two hundred years ago Louis XIV, by acts of violence and treachery, made himself virtual master of Alsace and Lorraine. A hundred years later Chesterfield declared, in one of his letters, that he wished the Emperor of Germany and the King of Prussia, together with some of their allies, would take these provinces from France. Look through the years that have since passed. For a while it seemed as if France and conquest were to be synonymous; the French nation first bounded itself by the Rhine, and then marched on wherever it would. Behold it now! Alsace and Lorraine have gone back to Germany. The French have no longer part or lot in the "exulting and abounding

river." The great nation stands to-day shorn and crippled, a warning to the nations of the folly of aggression and the vanity of conquest. All has been lost that she won by the genius of her captains and the valor of her troops.

The culmination of all the changes in public law that have been here described, and of all the revolutions that these hundred years have witnessed among the nations, must be a general revision of international law, and the adoption of some peaceful expedient for the adjustment of international differences.

A great poet of our time and country, whose genius has helped to make the century illustrious, while bewailing the barbarous cruelties of the past, looks confidently forward to the ultimate reign of peace. I will close with a quotation from Longfellow's magnificent stanzas, venturing to express my hope and belief that the blessed time will come sooner even than he dreamed:

"I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus,
The cries of agony, the endless groan,

Which through the ages that have gone before us,
In long reverberations reach our own.

"The tumult of each sacked and burning village,
The shout, that every prayer for mercy drowns,

The soldiers' revels, in the midst of pillage,
The wail of famine in beleaguered towns.

"Down the dark future, through long generations,
The echoing sounds grow fainter, and then cease;
And like a bell, with sweet vibrations,

I hear once more the voice of Christ say 'Peace.'

"Peace! and no longer from its brazen portals

The blast of war's great organ shakes the skies,
But, beautiful as songs of the immortals,

The holy melodies of love arise."

J

MISCELLANEOUS ADDRESSES AND

PAPERS ON LAW REFORM.

STUDY AND PRACTICE OF THE LAW.

Article published in the "Democratic Review," April, 1844.

In a slight notice of Mr. Duer's "Lectures on Marine Insurance" contained in our last number, we mentioned our purpose to make them, at another time, the occasion of some observations on the study and practice of the law. Having now an opportunity, we proceed with our purpose, not without some misgivings respecting the interest of the subject to general readers. The subject, however, really concerns the whole body social, although it relates chiefly to one profession; for that one is intimately connected with all classes of people, and with civil government itself.

What we are going to say may not accord exactly with either the popular notions, or those which prevail among the legal profession; but we say it confidently, nevertheless, as the result of much reflection. Some persons look with jealousy upon the lawyers as a class, and think that whatever they say of themselves, or of their science, should be received with a certain distrust; while there are others who conceive that the law is perfect, and the profession as nearly so as it can be, in the nature of things. We are of neither class. We think the profession does, at this time, hold certain grave errors, while we think, also, that it is naturally and in fact the first of professions, and its proper employments the noblest which the citizen can exercise in a free State.

It is changed-greatly changed-from what it was, whether for better or worse we need not inquire. They who can recol

lect the men of the last generation will recall very different figures from those which now occupy the courts. To judge from the portraits and anecdotes of a remoter period, the difference then was still greater. We have a certain veneration for an old-fashioned lawyer, such as we can ourselves recollect having seen in our boyhood. Well do we remember the powdered hair, the small-clothes, the silver knee-buckles, the silk stockings, the gold-headed cane, the steady, upright gait, the solemn countenance. There was none of the bustle of our period. Moderation and gravity were the two words written most strongly on the faces of the venerable men who walked quietly into court in the morning, spoke, when they had anything to say, earnestly and to the point, and then walked home as serene as they came. Some few portraits of the old lawyers are still hanging in the court-rooms, with their placid faces regarding the new spectacle, as if they scarcely knew what to make of it. There is, for instance, a full-length portrait of the late Abraham Van Vechten hanging in the Supreme Court room at Albany; the exact image of the man, as we last saw him. Learned, good, venerable, you felt instinctively a respect for him. When we saw him last, he was arguing a motion before the Chancellor. His full Dutch face, his fine figure, for so old a man, his sonorous voice, deliberate utterance, and earnest, logical argument, made a strong impression on our then young imagination. Was he the last of his race?

The bar is now crowded with bustling and restless men. Those who have the best practice are tasked almost beyond endurance. The multiplication of law-books, and, above all, the multiplication of courts, have quadrupled their labors. The quiet, decorous manners, the gravity, and the solid learning, so often conjoined in a former generation, are now rarely seen together. A new race has sprung up and supplanted the old. A feverish restlessness and an overtasked mind are the present concomitants of a leading position in the profession.

But we must not be detained from the main purpose we had in view. We maintain, then, at the outset, as a fact as well established as any in the history of the race, that the condition of the legal profession is an index of the civilization of a people. The following are some of the reasons of this opinion:

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