§ 42. Whether a fovereign and honours he pleafes. yourselves worthy of it: I have laid the foundations of your "greatnefs; it is you who are to finish the work *." If the conductor of the ftate is fovereign, he has in his hands the rights and authority of the political fociety; and confemay affume quently he may himself determine what title he will affume, and what title what honours fhall be paid to him, unless these have been already determined by the fundamental laws, or that the limits which have been fet to his power manifeftly oppofe fuch as he wishes to affume. His fubjects 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 pretenfions on the vaft extent of his dominions, took upon himself the title of § 43. Right of other na 1 emperor. But foreign nations are not obliged to give way to the will of a fovereign who affumes a new title, or of a people who call tions in this their chief by what name they please †. relpect. 944. Their duty. However, if this title has nothing unreafonable, or contrary to received cuftoms, it is altogether agreeable to the mutual duties which bind nations together, to give to a fovereign or conductor of a ftate the fame title that is given him by his people. But if this title is contrary to cuftom, if it implies attributes which do not belong to him who affects it, foreign nations may refuse it without his having reafon to complain. The title of "Majesty" is confecrated by cuftom to monarchs who command great nations. The emperors of Germany have long affected to reserve it to themselves, as belonging folely to the imperial crown. But the kings alerted with reafon, that there was nothing on earth more eminent or more auguft than their dignity: they therefore refufed the title of majesty to him who refufed it to them; and at prefent, except in a few inftances founded on particular reafons, 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 affume the style of "Majefty," foreign nations, by refufing to comply with this whim, do nothing but what is conformable to reafon and their duty. However, if there reigns anywhere a fovereign, who, notwithstanding the fmall extent of his power, is accustomed to receive from his neighbours the title Memoirs of the Houfe of Brandenburg. + Cromwell, in writing to Loui, the Fourteenth, ufed the following ftyle"Olivarsus, Dominus Protector Angliæ, Scotia, et Hiberniæ, Ludovico XIV. "Francorum Regi. Chrattiniflime Rex."-And the fubfcription was,-" In aula "noftra Alba. Veiter bonus amicus." The court of France was highly offended at this form of addrefs.-The an.baffador B reel, in a letter to the Penfionary De Witt, dared May 25, 1655, faid that Cromwell's letter had not been prefented, and that those who were charged with the delivery of it, had with-held it, through an apprchenfion of its giving rife to fome misunderstand.ng between the two countries. At the famous treaty of Weftphalia, the plenipotentiaries of France agreed with thof of the emperor, "that the king and queen writing with their own hand "to the mperor, and giving him the title of majesty, he thould aniwer them, "with his own hand, and give them the fame title." Letter of the plenipoten tiaries to M. de Brienne, Oct. 15, 1646. of of king, diftant nations who would carry on an intercourse with him, cannot refufe him that title. It belongs not to them to reform the customs of diftant countries. § 45. nours may The fovereign who wishes conftantly to receive certain titles and honours from other powers, muft fecure them by treaties. How titles Thofe who have entered into engagements in this way are and hoobliged to conform to them, and cannot deviate from the treaties be fecured. without doing him an injury. Thus, in the examples we have produced (§ 41 and 42), the czar and the king of Pruffia took care to negotiate before-hand with the courts in friendship with them, to fecure their being acknowledged under the new titles they intended to affume. The popes have formerly pretended that it belonged to the tiara alone to create new crowns; they had the confidence to expect that the fuperftition of princes and nations would allow them fo fublime a prerogative. But it was eclipfed at the revival of letters. The emperors of Germany, who formed the fame pretensions, were at least countenanced by the example of the ancient Roman emperors. They only want the fame power in order to have the fame right. § 46. We must conform to In default of treaties, we ought, with refpect to titles, and, in general, every other mark of honour, to conform to the rule eftablifhed by general cuftom. To attempt a deviation from it general with refpect to a nation or fovereign, when there is no parti- cuftom. lar reafon for fuch innovation, is expreffing either contempt or ill-will towards them ;-a conduct equally inconfiftent with found policy and with the duties that nations owe to each other. The greatest monarch ought to refpect in every fovereign the $ 47 eminent character with which he is invested. The independence, Mutual respect, the equality of nations,-the reciprocal duties of humanity, which 1all these circumstances fhould induce him to pay even to the verein; chief of a petty state the refpect due to the ftation which he owe to each fills. The weakeft ftate is compofed of men as well as the moft powerful; and our duties are the fame towards all thofe who do not depend on us. But this precept of the law of nature does not extend beyond what is effential to the refpect which independent nations owe to each other, or that conduct, in a word, which fhews that we acknowledge a state or its chief to be truly independent and fovereign, and confequently entitled to every thing due to the quality of fovereignty. But, on the other hand, a great monarch being, as we have already obferved, a very important perfonage in human fociety, it is natural, that, in matters merely ceremonial, and not derogatory to the equality of rights between nations, he should receive honours to which a petty prince can * Catholic princes receive ftill from the pope titles that relate to religion. Benedict XIV. gave that of " Mot Faithful" to the king of Portugal; and the rondefcenfion of other princes connived at the imperative ftyle in which the bull is couched. It is dated December 25, 1743. other. $48. vercign have no pretenfions: and the latter cannot refufe to pay the former every mark of refpect which is not inconfiftent with his own independence and fovereignty. Every nation, every fovereign, ought to maintain their dignity How a fo- (§ 35) by caufing due refpect to be paid to them; and efpecially they ought not to fuffer that dignity to be impaired. If then there are titles and honours which by conftant custom belong his dignity to a prince, he may infift upon them; and he ought to do it on occafions where his glory is concerned. ought to maintain But it is proper to diftinguish between neglect or the omiffion of what the established ufage requires, and pofitive acts of difrespect and infult. The prince may complain of an instance of neglect, and, if it be not repaired, may confider it as an indication of ill-will: he has a right to demand, even by force of arms, the reparation of an infult. The czar Peter the First, in his manifefto against Sweden, complained that the cannon had not been fired on his paffing at Riga. He might think it strange that they did not pay him this mark of refpect, and he might complain of it; but to have made this the fubject of a war, must have indicated a prepofterous prodigality of human blood. CHA P. IV. Of the Right to Security, and the Effects of the Sovereignty and $42. IN Right to f.curity. 8 50. N vain does nature preferibe to nations, as well as to individuals, the care of felf-prefervation, and of advancing their own perfection and happiness, if fhe does not give them a right to preferve 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 poffible,what is proper and conformable to our duties. We have then in general a right to do whatever is neceffary to the discharge of our duties. Every nation, as well as every man, has therefore a right to prevent other nations from obftructing her preservation, her perfection, and happinefs,-that is, to preferve herfelf from all injuries (518): and this right is a perfect one, fince it is given to fatisfy a natural and indifpenfable obligation: for when we cannot ufe contraint in order to cause our rights to be refpected, their effects are very uncertain. It is this right to preferve herself from all injury that is called the right to fecurity. It is fafelt to prevent the evil, when it can be prevented. A naproduces tion has a right to refift an injurious attempt, and to make ufe the right of of force and every honourable expedient against whofoever is acdance; tually engaged in oppofition to her, and even to anticipate his machinations, obferving, however, not to attack him upon vague and uncertain fufpicions, left the fhould incur the imputation of becoming herfelf an unjust aggreffor. When When the evil is done, the fame right to fecurity authorises § 51. the offended party to endeavour to obtain a complete reparation, and that and to employ force for that purpose, if necessary. of obtaining repara Finally, the offended party have a right to provide for their tion; future fecurity, and to chaftife the offender, by inflicting upon § 52. him a punishment capable of deterring him thenceforward from and the fimilar aggreffions, and of intimidating those who might be right of pu niihing. tempted to imitate him. They may even, if neceffary, disable the aggreffor from doing further injury. They only make use of their right in all these measures, which they adopt with good reafon: and if evil thence refults to him who has reduced them to the neceffity of taking fuch steps, he muft impute the confequences only to his own injuftice. § 53: nations If then there is any-where a nation of a reftlefs and mischievous difpofition, ever ready to injure others, to traverfe their defigns, Right of all and to excite domeftic disturbances in their dominions,-it is against a not to be doubted that all the others have a right to form a coali- mischievous tion in order to repress and chaftife that nation, and to put it people. forever after out of her power to injure them. Such would be the juft fruits of the policy which Machiavel praises in Cæfar Borgia. The conduct followed by Philip II. king of Spain, was calculated to unite all Europe against him; and it was from juft reafons that Henry the Great formed the defign of humbling a power, whofe ftrength was formidable, and whose maxims were pernicious. The three preceding propofitions are fo many principles, that furnish the various foundations for a just war, as we shall fee in the proper place. It is an evident confequence of the liberty and independence § 54. of nations, that all have a right to be governed as they think No nation has a right proper, and that no ftate has the fmalleft right to interfere in to interfere the government of another. Of all the rights that can belong to in the goa nation, fovereignty is, doubtlefs, the most precious, and that vernment which other nations ought the moft fcrupuloufly to refpect, if of another they would not do her an injury. state. reign can conduct of The fovereign is he to whom the nation has intrusted the em- $ 55. pire, and the care of the government: fhe has invefted him with One foveher rights; fhe alone is directly interested in the manner in which not make the conductor fhe has chofen makes ufe of his power. It does himself the not then belong to any foreign power to take cognifance of the judge of the adminiftration of that fovereign, to fet himself up for a judge of another. his conduct, and to oblige him to alter it. If he loads his fubjects with taxes, and if he treats them with feverity, the nation alone is concerned in the business; and no other is called upon to oblige him to amend his conduct, and follow more wife and equitable maxims. It is the part of prudence to point out the occafions when officious and amicable reprefentations may be made to him. The Spaniards violated all rules, when they fet themfelves up as judges of the Inca Athualpa. If that prince had violated the law of nations with refpect to them, they would $56. How far Jawful to have had a right to punifh him. But they accufed him of having put fome of his fubjects to death, of having had several wives, &c.-things, for which he was not at all accountable to them: and, to fill up the measure of their extravagant injustice, they condemned him by the laws of Spain *. But if the prince, by violating the fundamental laws, gives his fubjects a legal right to refift him,-if tyranny becoming infupportit terfere in able obliges the nation to rife in their own defence,-every foreign aquariel power has a right to fuccour an oppreffed people who implore between their alliftance. The English juftly complained of James II. The and his fub- nobility and the moft diftinguished patriots, having determined to fovereign jects. check him in the profecution of his fchemes, which manifeftly tended to overthrow the conftitution, and to deftroy the liberties and the religion of the people,-applied for affistance to the United Provinces. The authority of the prince of Orange had, doubtlefs, an influence on the deliberations of the ftates-general; but it did not lead them to the commiffion of an act of injustice: for when a people from good reafons take up arms against an oppreffor, it is but an act of juftice and generofity to aflift brave men in the defence of their liberties. Whenever therefore matters are carried fo far as to produce a civil war, foreign powers may aflift that party which appears to them to have juflice on its fide. He who aflifts an odious tyrant, he who declares for an unjust and rebellious people,-violates his duty. But when the bands of the political fociety are broken, or at least fufpended, between the fovereign and his people, the contending parties may then be confidered as two diftinct powers; and fince they are both equally independent of all foreign authority, nobody has a right to judge them. Either may be in the right; and each of those who grant their affittance may imagine that he is acting in fupport of the better caufe. It follows then, in virtue of the voluntary law of nations (fee Prelim. § 21), that the two parties may act as having an equal right, and behave to each ether accordingly, till the decifion of the affair. But we ought not to abuse this maxim, and make a handle of it to authorise odious machinations against the internal tranquillity of flates. It is a violation of the law of nations to invite thofe fubjects to revolt who actually pay obedience to their fovereign, though they complain of his government. The practice of nations is conformable to our maxims. When the German proteftants came to the affiftance of the reformed party in France, the court never attempted to treat them otherwife than on the ufual footing of enemies in general, and according to the laws of war. France was at the fame time engaged in affifting the Netherlands then in arms against Spain,and expected that her troops fhould be confidered in no other light than as auxiliaries in a regular war. But no power ever fails to complain, as of an atrocious wrong, if any one attempts by his emiffaries to excite his fubjects to revolt. |