Switzerland from a ruinous invasion, they rendered her essential service by the glory they acquired for her arms. A reputation for an inviolable fidelity is no less advantageous to that nation; and they have at all times been jealous of preserving it. The canton of Zug punished with death that unworthy soldier who betrayed the confidence of the duke of Milan by discovering that prince to the French, when, to escape them, he had disguised himself in the habit of the Swiss, and placed himself in their ranks as they were marching out of Novara.* BOOK I. CHAP. XV. Since the glory of a nation is a real and substantial ad-? 191. Atvantage, she has a right to defend it, as well as her other ad- tacking the glory of a vantages. He who attacks her glory does her an injury; and nation is doshe has a right to exact of him, even by force of arms, a just ing her an reparation. We cannot, then, condemn those measures, some- injury. times taken by sovereigns to support or avenge the dignity of their crown. They are equally just and necessary. If, when they do not proceed from too lofty pretensions, we attribute them to a vain pride, we only betray the grossest ignorance of the art of reigning: and despise one of the firmest supports of the greatness and safety of a state. OF THE PROTECTION SOUGHT BY A NATION, AND ITS VOLUN- CHAP. XVI. WHEN a nation is not capable of preserving herself from 192. Proinsult and oppression, she may procure the protection of a tection. more powerful state. If she obtains this by only engaging to perform certain articles, as to pay a tribute in return for the safety obtained,-to furnish her protector with troops,and to embark in all his wars as a joint concern,-but still [94] reserving to herself the right of administering her own government at pleasure, it is a simple treaty of protection, that does not all derogate from her sovereignty, and differs not from the ordinary treaties of alliance, otherwise than as it creates a difference in the dignity of the contracting parties. mission of But this matter is sometimes carried still farther: and, al-? 193. Vothough a nation is under an obligation to preserve with the luntary subutmost care the liberty and independence it inherits from one nation nature, yet when it has not sufficient strength of itself, and to another. feels itself unable to resist its enemies, it may lawfully subject itself to a more powerful nation on certain conditions. * Vogel's Historical and Treatise of the Alliances political France and the Thirteen Cantons, p. BOOK I. agreed to by both parties: and the compact or treaty of subCHAP. XVI. mission will thenceforward be the measure and rule of the ? 194. Se of submis sion. rights of each. For, since the people who enter into subjection resign a right which naturally belongs to them, and transfer it to the other nation, they are perfectly at liberty to annex what conditions they please to this transfer; and the other party, by accepting their submission on this footing, engages to observe religiously all the clauses of the treaty. This submission may be varied to infinity, according to the veral kinds will of the contracting parties: it may either leave the inferior nation a part of the sovereignty, restraining it only in certain respects, or it may totally abolish it, so that the superior nation shall become the sovereign of the other,-—or, finally, the lesser nation may be incorporated with the greater, in order thenceforward to form with it but one and the same state: and then the citizens of the former will have the same privileges as those with whom they are united. The Roman history furnishes examples of each of these three kinds of submission,-1. The allies of the Roman people, such as the inhabitants of Latium were for a long time, who, in several respects, depended on Rome, but, in all others, were governed according to their own laws, and by their own magistrates;2. The countries reduced to Roman provinces, as Capua, whose inhabitants submitted absolutely to the Romans;-* 3. The nations to which Rome granted the freedom of the city. In after times the emperors granted that privilege to all the nations subject to the empire, and thus transformed all their subjects into citizens. zens when the nation er. 195. Right In the case of a real subjection to a foreign power, the of the citi citizens who do not approve this change are not obliged to submit to it-they ought to be allowed to sell their effects submits to a and retire elsewhere. For, my having entered into a society foreign pow- does not oblige me to follow its fate, when it dissolves itself in order to submit to a foreign dominion. I submitted to the society as it then was, to live in that society as the member of a sovereign state, and not in another: I am bound to obey it, while it remains a political society: but, when it divests [95] itself of that quality in order to receive its laws from another state, it breaks the bond of union between its members, and releases them from their obligations. 196. When a nation has placed itself under the protection of These com- another that is more powerful, or has even entered into subpacts annul- jection to it with a view to receiving its protection,-if the latter does not effectually protect the other in case of need, it is manifest, that, by failing in its engagements, it loses all the rights it had acquired by the convention, and that the other, being disengaged from the obligation it had contracted, led by the failure of protection. * Itaque populum Campanum, ur- patres conscripti, populique Romani bemque Capuam, agros, delubra deûm, ditionem dedimus. LIVY, book vii. divina humanaque omnia, in vestram, c. 31. BOOK I. re-enters into the possession of all its rights, and recovers its independence, or its liberty. It is to be observed that this CHAP. XVI. takes place even in cases where the protector does not fail in his engagements through the want of good faith, but merely through inability. For, the weaker nation having submitted only for the sake of obtaining protection,-if the other proves unable to fulfil that essential condition, the compact is dissolved ;—the weaker resumes its rights, and may, if it thinks proper, have recourse to a more effectual protection.* Thus, the dukes of Austria, who had acquired a right of protection, and in some sort a sovereignty over the city of Lucerne, being unwilling or unable to protect it effectually, that city concluded an alliance with the three first cantons; and the dukes having carried their complaint to the emperor, the inhabitants of Lucerne replied, "that they had used the natural right common to all men, by which every one is permitted to endeavour to procure his own safety when he is abandoned by those who are obliged to grant him assistance."† The law is the same with respect to both the contracting § 197. Or parties: if the party protected do not fulfil their engage- by the infiments with fidelity, the protector is discharged from his; he delity of the may afterwards refuse his protection, and declare the treaty tected. broken, in case the situation of his affairs renders such a step advisable. party pio croachments of the pro In virtue of the same principle which discharges one of the $198. And contracting parties when the other fails in his engagements, by the enif the more powerful nation should assume a greater authority over the weaker one than the treaty of protection or sub- tector. mission allows, the latter may consider the treaty as broken, and provide for its safety according to its own discretion. If it were otherwise, the inferior nation would lose by a convention which it had only formed with a view to its safety; and if it were still bound by its engagements when its protector abuses them and openly violates his own, the treaty would, to the weaker party, prove a downright deception. However, [96] as some people maintain, that, in this case, the inferior nation has only the right of resistance and of imploring foreign aid, -and particularly as the weak cannot take too many precautions against the powerful, who are skilful in colouring over their enterprises,-the safest way is to insert in this kind. of treaty a clause declaring it null and void whenever the * We speak here of a nation that has rendered itself subject to another, and not of one that has incorporated itself with another state, so as to constitute a part of it. The latter stands in the same predicament with all the other citizens. Of this case we shall treat in the following chapter. † See The History of Switzerland. The United Provinces, having been BOOK I. superior power shall arrogate to itself any rights not expressly -granted by the treaty. CHAP. XVI. ? 199. How the nation protected is lost by its silence. But if the nation that is protected, or that has placed the right of itself in subjection on certain conditions, does not resist the encroachments of that power from which it has sought support-if it makes no opposition to them-if it preserves a profound silence, when it might and ought to speak-its patient acquiescence becomes in length of time a tacit consent that legitimates the rights of the usurper. There would be no stability in the affairs of men, and especially in those of nations, if long possession, accompanied by the silence of the persons concerned, did not produce a degree of right. But it must be observed, that silence, in order to show tacit consent, ought to be voluntary. If the inferior nation proves that violence and fear prevented its giving testimonies of its opposition, nothing can be concluded from its silence, which therefore gives no right to the usurper. CHAP. XVII. CHAP. XVII. HOW A NATION MAY SEPARATE ITSELF FROM THE STATE OF WHICH IT IS A MEMBER, OR RENOUNCE ITS ALLEGIANCE 2200. Dif tween the present case and those in TO ITS SOVEREIGN WHEN IT IS NOT PROTECTED. WE have said that an independent nation, which, without ference be- becoming a member of another state, has voluntarily rendered itself dependent on, or subject to it, in order to obtain protection, is released from its engagements as soon as that prothe preced tection fails, even though the failure happen through the ing chapter. inability of the protector. But we are not to conclude that it is precisely the same case with every nation that cannot obtain speedy and effectual protection from its natural sovereign or the state of which it is a member. The two cases are very different. In the former, a free nation becomes subject to another state, not to partake of all the other's advantages, and form with it an absolute union of interests (for, if the more powerful state were willing to confer so great a favour, the weaker one would be incorporated, not subjected),-but to obtain protection alone by the sacrifice of its liberty, without expecting any other return. When, therefore, the sole and indispensable condition of its subjection is (from what cause soever) not complied with, it is free from its engagements; and its duty towards itself obliges it to take fresh methods to provide for its own security. But the several members of one individual state, as they all equally participate in the advantages it procures, are bound uniformly to support it: they have entered into mutual engagements to continue united cause. with each other, and to have on all occasions but one common If those who are menaced or attacked might separate themselves from the others, in order to avoid a present danger, every state would soon be dismembered and destroyed. It is, then, essentially necessary for the safety of society, and even for the welfare of all its members, that each part should with all its might resist a common enemy, rather than separate from the others; and this is consequently one of the necessary conditions of the political association. The natural subjects of a prince are bound to him without any other reserve than the observation of the fundamental laws;—it is their duty to remain faithful to him, as it is his, on the other hand, to take care to govern them well: both parties have but one common interest; the people and the prince together constitute but one complete whole, one and the same society. It is, then, an essential and necessary condition of the political society, that the subjects remain united to their prince as far as in their power. (57) BOOK I. CHAP. XVII. members of a state, or When, therefore, a city or a province is threatened or actu- § 201. Dually attacked, it must not, for the sake of escaping the danger, ty of the separate itself from the state of which it is a member, or abandon its natural prince, even when the state or the prince subjects of a is unable to give it immediate and effectual assistance. Its prince, who duty, its political engagements, oblige it to make the greatest are in danefforts, in order to maintain itself in its present state. If it ger. is overcome by force, necessity, that irresistible law, frees it from its former engagements, and gives it a right to treat with the conqueror, in order to obtain the best terms possible. If it must either submit to him or perish, who can doubt but that it may and even ought to prefer the former alternative? Modern usage is conformable to this decision:-a city submits to the enemy when it cannot expect safety from a vigorous resistance; it takes an oath of fidelity to him; and its sovereign lays the blame on fortune alone. they are The state is obliged to defend and preserve all its mem- § 202. Their bers (§ 17); and the prince owes the same assistance to his right when subjects. If, therefore, the state or the prince refuses or neg abandoned. lects to succour a body of people who are exposed to imminent danger, the latter, being thus abandoned, become perfectly free to provide for their own safety and preservation in whatever manner they find most convenient, without paying the least regard to those who, by abandoning them, have been the first to fail in their duty. The country of Zug, being attacked by the Swiss in 1352, sent for succour to the duke of Austria, its sovereign; but that prince, being engaged in (57) Nemo potest exure patriam. This is part of natural allegiance, which no individual can shake off until the part of the country where he resides is absolutely conquered by a foreign |