BOOK II. free in regard to the name, the titles, and honours with CHAP. III. which she may choose to decorate him. But discretion and given by the the care of her reputation require that she should not, in nation to its this respect, deviate too far from the customs commonly conductor. established among civilized nations. Let us further observe, that, in this point, she ought to be guided by prudence, and inclined to proportion the titles and honours of her chief to the power he possesses, and to the degree of authority with which she chooses to invest him. Titles and honours, it is true, determine nothing: they are but empty names, and vain ceremonies, when they are misplaced: yet, who does not know how powerful an influence they have on the minds of mankind? This is, then, a more serious affair than it appears at the first glance. The nation ought to take care not to debase herself before other states, and not to degrade her chief by too humble a title: she ought to be still more careful not to swell his heart by a vain name, by unbounded honours, so as to inspire him with the idea of arrogating to himself a commensurate authority over her, or of acquiring a proportionate power by unjust conquests. On the other hand, an exalted title may engage the chief to support, with greater firmness, the dignity of the nation. Prudence is guided by circumstances, and, on every occasion, keeps within due bounds. "Royalty," says a respectable author, who may be believed on this subject, "rescued the house of Brandenburg from that yoke of servitude under which the house of Austria then kept all the German princes. This was a bait which Frederic I. threw out to all his posterity, saying to them, as it were, I have acquired a title for [152] you; do you render yourselves worthy of it: I have laid the foundations of your greatness; it is you who are to finish the work."* § 42. Whe- If the conductor of the state is sovereign, he has in his ther a sove- hands the rights and authority of the political society; and reign may consequently he may himself determine what title he will what title assume, and what honours shall be paid to him, unless these and honours have been already determined by the fundamental laws, or he pleases. that the limits which have been set to his power manifestly assume oppose such as he wishes to assume. His subjects are equally obliged to obey him in this as in whatever he commands by virtue of a lawful authority. Thus, the Czar Peter I., grounding his pretensions on the vast extent of his dominions, took upon himself the title of emperor. $ 43. Right But foreign nations are not obliged to give way to the will of other na- of a sovereign who assumes a new title, or of a people who tions in this call their chief by what name they please.† respect. burg. Memoirs of the House of Branden † Cromwell, in writing to Louis the Fourteenth, used the following style: 16 Olivarius, Dominus Protector Angliæ, Scotia, et Hiberniæ, Ludovico XIV. Francorum Regi Christianissime Rex."-And the subscription was However, if this title has nothing unreasonable, or con- BOOK II. trary to received customs, it is altogether agreeable to the CHAP. III. mutual duties which bind nations together, to give to a sove- $ 44. Their reign or conductor of a state the same title that is given him duty. by his people. But, if this title is contrary to custom-if it implies attributes which do not belong to him who affects it, foreign nations may refuse it without his having reason to complain. The title of "Majesty" is consecrated by custom to monarchs who command great nations. The emperors of Germany have long affected to reserve it to themselves, as belonging solely to the imperial crown. But the kings asserted with reason that there was nothing on earth more eminent or more august than their dignity: they therefore refused the title of Majesty to him who refused it to them ;* and at present, except in a few instances founded on particular reasons, the title of Majesty is a peculiar attribute of the royal character. As it would be ridiculous for a petty prince to take the title of king, and assume the style of "Majesty," foreign nations, by refusing to comply with this whim, do nothing but what is conformable to reason and their duty. However, if there reigns anywhere a sovereign, who, notwithstanding the small extent of his power, is accustomed to receive from his neighbours the title of king, distant nations who would [153] carry on an intercourse with him cannot refuse him that title. It belongs not to them to reform the customs of distant countries. titles and honours may be se The sovereign who wishes constantly to receive certain § 45. How titles and honours from other powers, must secure them by treaties. Those who have entered into engagements in this way are obliged to conform to them, and cannot deviate cured. from the treaties without doing him an injury. Thus, in the examples we have produced (§§ 41 and 42), the 'czar and the king of Prussia took care to negotiate beforehand with the courts in friendship with them, to secure their being acknowledged under the new titles they intended to assume. The popes have formerly pretended that it belonged to the tiara alone to create new crowns; they had the confidence to expect that the superstition of princes and nations would allow them so sublime a prerogative. But it was "In Aula nostra Alba. Vester bonus amicus." The court of France was highly offended at this form of address. The ambassador Boreel, in a letter to the Pensionary De Witt, dated May 25, 1655, said that Cromwell's letter had not been presented, and that those who were charged with the delivery of it, had withheld it, through an apprehension of its giving rise to some misunderstanding between the two countries. * At the famous treaty of Westphalia, the plenipotentiaries of France agreed with those of the emperor, "that the king and queen writing with their own hand to the emperor, and giving him the title of majesty, he should answer them, with his own hand, and give them the same title." Letter of the plenipotentiaries to M. de Brienne, Oct. 15th, 1646. CHAP. III. BOOK II. eclipsed at the revival of letters.* The emperors of Germany, who formed the same pretensions, were at least countenanced by the example of the ancient Roman emperors. They only want the same power in order to have the same right. neral cus tom. (102) $ 46. We In default of treaties, we ought, with respect to titles, and, must con- in general, every other mark of honour, to conform to the form to ge- rule established by general custom. To attempt a deviation from it with respect to a nation or sovereign, when there is no particular reason for such innovation, is expressing either contempt or ill-will towards them ;-a conduct equally inconsistent with sound policy and with the duties that nations owe to each other. (102) reigns owe $ 47. MuThe greatest monarch ought to respect in every sovereign tual respect the eminent character with which he is invested. The inwhich sove- dependence, the equality of nations, the reciprocal duties of humanity, all these circumstances should induce him to pay, even to the chief of a petty state, the respect due to the station which he fills. The weakest state is composed of men as well as the most powerful: and our duties are the same towards all those who do not depend on us. to each other. But this precept of the law of nature does not extend beyond what is essential to the respect which independent nations owe to each other, or that conduct, in a word, which shows that we acknowledge a state or its chief to be truly independent and sovereign, and consequently entitled to every thing due to the quality of sovereignty. But, on the other hand, a great monarch being, as we have already observed, a very important personage in human society, it is natural, that, in matters merely ceremonial, and not derogatory to the equality of rights between nations, he should [154] receive honours to which a petty prince can have no pretensions and the latter cannot refuse to pay the former every mark of respect which is not inconsistent with his own independence and sovereignty. § 48. How Every nation, every sovereign, ought to maintain their a sovereign dignity (§ 35) by causing due respect to be paid to them; ought to maintain his dignity. (103) * Catholic princes receive still from the pope titles that relate to religion. Benedict XIV. gave that of "Most Faithful" to the king of Portugal; and the condescension of other princes connived at the imperative style in which the bull is couched.-It is dated December 23, 1748. (102) Formerly all nations used to observe, in the British seas, the mark of honour, by lowering the flag or topsail to an English man of war, called the duty of the flag. See 1 Chitty's Commercial Law, 102; and see end of 2d vol. p. 324. See, as to the sea and incidents, ante, 125 and 131 in notes; and Cours de Droit Public, tom. 2, p. 80 to 84, and 396 to 406.-C. (103) The House of Lords recently, rather facetiously, maintained the dignity of the king of Spain, by declining to give him costs, on the same principle that our king does not recover costs, saying, we will not disparage the dignity of the king of Spain by giving him costs. Hewlett v. King of Spain, on appeal from Chancery to House of Lords, 1 Dow Rep. New Series, 177. and, especially, they ought not to suffer that dignity to be BOOK II. impaired. If, then, there are titles and honours, which, by CHAP. III. constant custom, belong to a prince, he may insist upon them; and he ought to do it on occasions where his glory is concerned. But it is proper to distinguish between neglect or the omission of what the established usage requires, and positive acts of disrespect and insult. The prince may complain of an instance of neglect, and, if it be not repaired, may consider it as an indication of ill-will: he has a right to demand, even by force of arms, the reparation of an insult. The czar Peter the First, in his manifesto against Sweden, complained that the cannon had not been fired on his passing at Riga. He might think it strange that they did not pay him this mark of respect, and he might complain of it; but, to have made this the subject of a war, must have indicated a preposterous prodigality of human blood. CHAP. IV. OF THE RIGHT TO SECURITY, AND THE EFFECTS OF THE SOVE- CHAP. IV. REIGNTY AND INDEPENDENCE OF NATIONS. (104) IN vain does nature prescribe to nations, as well as to indi- § 49. Right viduals, the care of self-preservation, and of advancing their to security. own perfection and happiness, if she does not give them a right to preserve themselves from every thing that might render this care ineffectual. This right is nothing more than a moral power of acting, that is, the power of doing what is morally possible-what is proper and conformable to our duties. We have, then, in general, a right to do whatever is necessary to the discharge of our duties. Every nation, as well as every man, has, therefore, a right to prevent other nations from obstructing her preservation, her perfection, and happiness, that is, to preserve herself from all injuries. (§ 18) and this right is a perfect one, since it is given to satisfy a natural and indispensable obligation: for, when we cannot use constraint in order to cause our rights to be respected, their effects are very uncertain. It is this right to preserve herself from all injury that is called the right to security. It is safest to prevent the evil when it can be prevented. § 50. It proA nation has a right to resist an injurious attempt, and to duces the make use of force and every honourable expedient against right of re (104) As to the independence of nations, see in general, Cours de Droit Public. Paris, A. D. 1830, tom. 2, 1st sistance; BOOK II. Whosoever is actually engaged in opposition to her, and even CHAP. IV. to anticipate his machinations, observing, however, not to attack him upon vague and uncertain suspicions, lest she should incur the imputation of becoming herself an unjust [155] aggressor. $51. and that of ob taining re- When the evil is done, the same right to security authorizes the offended party to endeavour to obtain a complete reparation, and to employ force for that purpose, if neces sary. Finally, the offended party have a right to provide for the right of their future security, and to chastise the offender, by inflictpunishing. ing upon him a punishment capable of deterring him thenceforward from similar aggressions, and of intimidating those who might be tempted to imitate him. They may even, if necessary, disable the aggressor from doing further injury. They only make use of their right, in all these measures, which they adopt with good reason: and if evil thence results to him who has reduced them to the necessity of taking such steps, he must impute the consequences only to his own injustice. § 53. Right of all nationsagainst a mischie If, then, there is anywhere a nation of a restless and mischievous disposition, ever ready to injure others, to traverse their designs, and to excite domestic disturbances in their vous people dominions,-it is not to be doubted that all the others have a right to form a coalition in order to repress and chastise that nation, and to put it for ever after out of her power to injure them. Such would be the just fruits of the policy which Machiavel praises in Cæsar Borgia. The conduct followed by Philip II. king of Spain, was calculated to unite all Europe against him; and it was from just reasons that Henry the Great formed the design of humbling a power whose strength was formidable, and whose maxims were pernicious. $ 54. No nation has a right to The three preceding propositions are so many principles that furnish the various foundations for a just war, as we shall see in the proper place. It is an evident consequence of the liberty and independence of nations, that all have a right to be governed as they think proper, and that no state has the smallest right to interfere in interfere in the government of another. Of all the rights the govern- that can belong to a nation, sovereignty is, doubtless, the other state. most precious, and that which other nations ought the most scrupulously to respect, if they would not do her an injury. (105) ment of an The sovereign is he to whom the nation has intrusted the (105) Nor has a subject of one state a right to enter into any contract with, or to assist the revolted colony of another before the same has been formally recognised as an independent state by its own government; and if a state assist a revolted colony, it is just ground of war on the part of the parent state. Thompson v. Powles, 2 Simon's Rep. 194; Taylor v. Barclay, id. 213. Ante, p. 141, note 95. |