$ 78. Another cafe in which the nation is who had killed their ambaffador, the senate fent them back, refolving to reserve to themselves the liberty of punishing that crime by avenging it on the king himfelf, or on his dominions *. If this was really the cafe, and if the king had no share in the murder of the Roman ambaffador, the conduct of the fenate was highly unjust, and only worthy of men who fought but a pretext to cover their ambitious enterprises. Finally, there is another cafe where the nation in general is guilty of the crimes of its members. That is when by its manners and by the maxims of its government it accuftoms and authorifes its citizens indifcriminately to plunder and maltreat guilty of the etimes of foreigners, to make inroads into the neighbouring countries, &c. the citizens. Thus the nation of the Ufbecks is guilty of all the robberies committed by the individuals of which it is compofed. The princes whofe fubjects are robbed and maffacred, and whofe lands are infefted by thofe robbers, may justly level their vengeance against the nation at large. Nay more, all nations have a right to enter into a league against such a people, to reprefs them, and to treat them as the common enemies of the human race. The chriftian nations would be no less justifiable in forming a confederacy against the ftates of Barbary, in order to defroy thofe haunts of pirates, with whom the love of plunder, or the fear of juft punishment, is the only rule of peace and war. But thefe piratical adventurers are wife enough to refpect those who are most able to chastise them; and the nations that are able to keep the avenues of a rich branch of commerce open for themfelves, are not forry to fee them fhut against others. General ef fect of the doma n. CHAP. VII. Effects of the Domain, between Nations. E have explained in Chap. XVIII. Book I. how a nation takes pofleflion of a country, and at the fame time gains poffeffion of the domain and government thereof. That country, with every thing included in it, becomes the property of the nation in general. Let us now fee what are the effects of this property, with refpect to other nations. The full domain is neceffarily a peculiar and exclusive right: for if I have a full right to dispose of a thing as I pleafe, it thence follows that others have no right to it at all, fince, it they had any, I could not freely difpofe of it. The private domain of the citizens may be limited and reftrained in tovevel ways by the laws of the ftate, and it always is fo by the eminent domain of the fovereign; but the general domain of the nation is full and abfolute, fince there exifts no authority upon earth by which it can be limited: it therefore excludes all right on the part of foreigners. And as the rights of a nation ought to See Polybius, quoted by Barbeyrac, in his notes on Grotius, book iii. chap. xxv. § vii. be be refpected by all others (§ 64), none can form any pretenfions to the country which belongs to that nation, nor ought to difpofe of it, without her confent, any more than of the things contained in the country. $ 80. compre The domain of the nation extends to every thing the poffeffes by a juft title: it comprehends her ancient and original poffeffions What is and all her acquifitions made by means which are just in them- hnded in felves, or admitted as fuch among nations,-conceffions, pur- the domain chafes, conquefts made in regular war, &c. And by her poffef- of a nation. fons, we ought not only to understand her territories, but all the rights the enjoys. tizens is the nations. Even the property of the individuals is, in the aggregate, to be $81. confidered as the property of the nation, with refpect to other The properftates. It, in fome fort, really belongs to her from the right ty of the ci fhe has over the property of her citizens, because it constitutes a property of part of the fum total of her riches, and augments her power. She the raton, is interested in that property by her obligation to protect all her withrefpeét. members. In fhort, it cannot be otherwife, fince nations act and to foreign treat together as bodies, in their quality of political focieties, and are confidered as fo many moral perfons. Ali thofe who form a fociety, a nation, being confidered by foreign nations as conftituting only one whole, one fingle perfon,-all their wealth together can only be confidered as the wealth of that fame perfon. And this is fo true, that each political fociety may, if it pleafes, establish within itfelf a community of goods, as Campanella did in his republic of the fun. Others will not inquire what it does in this refpect: its domeftic regulations make no change in its rights with refpect to foreigners, nor in the manner in which they ought to confider the aggregate of its property, in what way foever it is potfelfed. $ 82. quence of By an immediate confequence of this principle, if one nation has a right to any part of the property of another, the has an indif- A confecriminate right to the property of the citizens of the latter nation, this princiuntil the debt be difcharged. This maxim is of great use, as thall ple. hereafter be fhewn. of the do The general domain of the nation over the lands fhe inhabits is $ 82. naturally connected with the empire: for in establishing herfelf Connection in a vacant country, the nation certainly does not intend to pof- main of the fefs it in fubjection to any other power: and can we fuppofe an nation with independent nation not vefted with the abfolute command in her the fovedomestic concerns? Thus we have already obferved (Book I. reignty. $205) that in taking poffeffion of a country the nation is prefumed to take poffeflion of its government at the fame time. We fhall here proceed farther, and thew the natural connection of thefe two rights in an independent nation. How could the govern herself at her own pleasure in the country the inhabits, if the cannot truly and abfolutely difpofe of it? And how could the have the full and abfolute domain of a place where fhe has not the command? Another's fovereignty, and the rights it comprehends, muft deprive her of the free difpofal of that place. Add § 84. Jurifdiction. $85. Effects of the ju if diction in foreign countries. to this the eminent domain which conftitutes a part of the fovereignty (Book I. § 244), and you will the better perceive the intimate connection exifting between the domain and the fovereignty of the nation. And, accordingly, what is called the high domain, which is nothing but the domain of the body of the nation, or of the fovereign who reprefents it, is every where confidered as infeparable from the fovereignty. The useful domain, or the domain confined to the rights that may belong to an individual in the state, may be feparated from the fovereignty: and nothing prevents the poffibility of its belonging to a nation, in places that are not under her jurifdiction. Thus many fovereigns have fiefs, and other poffeffions, in the territories of another prince: in these cafes they poffefs them in the manner of private individuals. The fovereignty united to the domain establishes the jurifdiction of the nation in her territories, or the country that belongs to her. It is her province, or that of her fovereign, to exercife juftice in all the places under her jurifdiction, to take cognilance of the crimes committed, and the differences that arife in the country. Other nations ought to refpect this right. And as the adminiftration of juftice neceffarily requires that every definitive fentence, regularly pronounced, be efteemed juft, and executed as fuch,-when once a caufe in which foreigners are interested, has been decided in form, the fovereign of the defendants cannot hear their complaints. To undertake to examine the justice of a definitive fentence, is an attack on the jurifdiction of him who has pafled it. The prince therefore ought not to interfere in the caufes of his fubjects in foreign countries, and grant them his protection, excepting in cafes where juftice is refused, or palpable and evident injuftice done, or rules and forms openly violated, or, finally, an odious diftinction made to the prejudice of his fubjects, or of foreigners in general. The British court eftablifhed this maxim, with great ftrength of evidence, on occafion of the Pruffian vessels feized and declared lawful prizes during the laft war *. What is here faid has no relation to the merits of that particular caule, fince they muft depend on facts. In confequence of thefe rights of jurifdiction, the decisions made by the judge of the place within the extent of his power, ought to be refpected, and to take effect even in foreign countries. For inftance, it belongs to the domeftic judge to nominate tutors and guardians for minors and idiots. The law of nations, which has an eye to the common advantage and the good harmony of nations, requires therefore that fuch nomination of a tutor or guardian be valid and acknowledged in all countries where the pupil may have any concerns. Ufe was made of this maxim in the year 1672, even with refpect to a fovereign. The abbé D'Orléans, fovereign prince of Neufchatel in Switzerland, *See the report made to the king of Great Britain by Sir George Lee, Dr. Paul, Sir Dudley Ryder and Mr. Murray. It is an excellent piece on the law of nations. being incapable of managing his own affairs, the king of France appointed, as his guardian, his mother, the duchefs dowager of Longueville. The duchefs of Nemours, fifter to that prince, laid claim to the guardianfhip for the principality of Neufchatel: but the title of the duchefs of Longueville was acknowledged by the three eftates of the country. Her counsel refted her caufe on the circumftance of her having been nominated guardian by the domeftic judge. This was a very wrong application of a juft principle: for the prince's domeftic refidence could be no where but in his ftate: and it was only by the decree of the three eftates, who alone had a right to chufe a guardian for their fovereign, that the authority of the duchefs of Longueville became firm and lawful at Neufchatel. In the fame manner the validity of a teftament, as to its form, can only be decided by the domeftic judge, whofe fentence delivered in form ought to be every where acknowledged. But, without affecting the validity of the teflament itself, the bequests contained in it may be difputed before the judge of the place where the effects are fituated, becaufe thofe effects can only be difpofed of conformably to the laws of the country. Thus the abbé D'Orléans above-mentioned having appointed the prince of Conti his univerfal legatee,-the three eftates of Neufchatel, without waiting till the parliament of Paris fhould pronounce their decifion on the queftion of two contradictory wills made by the abbé D'Orléans, gave the inveftiture of the principality to the duchefs of Nemours, declaring that the fovereignty was unalienable. Befides, it might have been faid on this occafion alfo, that the domeftic refidence of the prince could be no where but in the flate. $86. Defert and uncultivat As every thing included in the country belongs to the nation, -and as none but the nation, or the perfon on whom the has devolved her right, is authorifed to difpofe of thofe things ed places. ($79), if the has left uncultivated and defert places in the country, no perfon whatever has a right to take poffeffion of them without her confent. Though fhe does not make actual ufe of them, thofe places ftill belong to her: fhe has an intereft in preferving them for future ufe, and is not accountable to any perfon for the manner in which the makes ufe of her property. It is, however, neceffary to recollect here what we have obferved above (Book 1. § 8). No nation can lawfully appropriate to herfelf a too difproportionate extent of country, and reduce other nations to want fubfiftence, and a place of abode. A German chief, in the time of Nero, faid to the Romans, "As heaven be"longs to the gods, fo the earth is given to the human race; and "defert countries are common to all †,"-giving those proud conquerors to understand that they had no right to referve and appropriate to themfelves a country which they left defert. The * Memorial in behalf of the Duchefs of Longueville, 16-2. + Sicut cœlum dis, ita terras generi mortalium datas; quæque vacuæ, eas publicas effe. Tacit. nation in Romans had laid waste a chain of country along the Rhine, to cover their provinces from the incurfions of the barbarians. The German's remonftrance would have had a good foundation, had the Romans pretended to keep without reafon a vaft country which was of no ufe to them: but thofe lands which they would not fuffer to be inhabited, ferving as a rampart against favage nations, were of confiderable ufe to the empire. $87. When there is not this fingular circumftance, it is equally Duty of the agreeable to the dictates of humanity, and to the particular adthis refpect. vantage of the ftate, to give thofe defert tracts to foreigners who are willing to clear the land and to render it valuable. The beneficence of the ftate thus turns to her own advantage; the acquires new fubjects, and augments her riches and power. This is the practice in America; and, by this wife method, the English have carried their fettlements in the new world to a degree of power, which has confiderably increafed that of the nation. Thus alfo the king of Pruffia endeavours to repeople his ftates laid wafle by the calamities of former wars. $88. have no owner. The nation that poffeffes a country is at liberty to leave in the Right of poffefling primitive state of communion certain things that have as yet no things that owner, or to appropriate to herfelf the right of poffelling thofe things, as well as every other advantage which that country is capable of affording. And as fuch a right is of ufe, it is, in cafe of doubt, prefumed that the nation has referved it to herfelf. It belongs to her then, to the exclufion of foreigners, unlefs her laws exprefsly declare otherwife, as thofe of the Romans, which left wild beasts, fish, &c. in the primitive ftate of communion. No foreigner, therefore, has a natural right to hunt or fith in the territories of a state, to appropriate to himself a treasure found there, &c. $89. Rights granted nation. There exifts no reason why a nation, or a fovereign if authorifed by the laws, may not grant various privileges in their territo another tories to another nation, or to foreigners in general, fince every one may difpofe of his own property as he thinks fit. Thus feveral fovereigns in the Indies have granted to the trading nations. of Europe the privilege of having factories, ports, and even fortrefies and garrifons in certain places within their dominions. We may in the fame manner grant the right of fishing in a river, or on the coaft, that of hunting in the forefts, &c. and when once thefe rights have been validly ceded, they conftitute a part of the poffeffions of him who has acquired them, and ought to be refpected in the fame manner as his former poffellions. 6 ༡༠. It is not al Whoever agrees that robbery is a crime, and that we are not allowable to lowed to take forcible poffeflion of our neighbour's property, will drive a na- acknowledge, without any other proof, that no nation has a right tion out of to expel another people from the country they inhabit, in order to a confettle in it herfelf. Notwithstanding the extreme inequality of clihabits; mates and foils, every people ought to be contented with that which it in which has fallen to their fhare. Will the conductors of nations despise a rule that conftitutes all their fafety in civil fociety? Let |