this facred rule be entirely forgotten, and the peasant will quit his thatched cottage to invade the palaces of the great, or the delightful poffeffions of the rich. The antient Helvetians, difcontented with their native foil, burned all their habitations, and commenced their march, in order to establish themselves, fword in hand, in the fertile plains of fouthern Gaul. But they received a terrible leffon from a conqueror of fuperior abilities to themfeives, and who paid ftill lefs regard to the laws of justice. Cæfar defeated them, and drove them back into their own country. Their pofterity, however, more wife than they, confine their views to the prefervation of the lands and the independence they have received from nature: they live contented; and the labour of free hands counter-balances the fterility of the foil.

violence the

There are conquerors, who, afpiring after nothing more than § 91. the extenfion of the boundaries of their dominions, without ex- nor to expelling the inhabitants from a country, content themselves with tend by fubduing them;-a violence lefs barbarous, but not lefs unjuft: bounds of while they fpare the property of individuals, they feize all the empire. rights of the nation, and of the fovereign.

$92.

The limits

Since the leaft encroachment on the territory of another is an act of injustice,-in order to avoid the commiffion of any such of territoact, and to prevent every subject of difcord, every occafion of ries ought quarrel, the limits of territories ought to be marked out with to be careclearnefs and precifion. If those who drew up the treaty of fullysettled. Utrecht had beftowed on fo important a subject all the attention it deferved, we should not fee France and England in arms, in order to decide by a bloody war what are to be the boundaries of their poffeffions in America. But the makers of treaties often defignedly leave in them fome obfcurity, fome uncertainty, in order to referve for their nation a pretext for a rupture:-an unworthy artifice in a tranfaction wherein good-faith alone ought to prefide! We have alfo feen commiflioners endeavouring to overreach or corrupt those of a neighbouring state, in order to gain for their mafter an unjuft acquifition of a few leagues of territory. How can princes or minifters ftoop to dirty tricks that would difhonour a private man?

$ 93.

We fhould not only refrain from ufurping the territory of others; we should also refpect it, and abstain from every act con- Violation of trary to the rights of the fovereign: for a foreign nation can territory. claim no right in it (§ 79). We cannot then, without doing an injury to a state, enter its territories with force and arms in purfuit of a criminal, and take him from thence. This would at once be a violation of the fafety of the ftate, and a trefpafs on the rights of empire or fupreme authority vefted in the fovereign. This is what is called a violation of territory; and among nations there is nothing more generally acknowledged as an injury that ought to be vigorously repelled by every state that would not fufer itfelf to be oppreffed. We fhall make ufe of this principle in fpeaking of war, which gives occafion for many questions on the rights of territory.

The

§ 94.

to enter the

The fovereign may forbid the entrance of his territory either Prohibition to foreigners in general, or in particular cafes, or to certain perterritory. fons, or for certain particular purposes, according as he may think it advantageous to the state. There is nothing in all this, that does not flow from the rights of domain and fovereignty: every one is obliged to pay respect to the prohibition; and whoever dares to violate it, incurs the penalty decreed to render it effectual. But the prohibition ought to be known, as well as the penalty annexed to disobedience: thofe who are ignorant of it, ought to be informed of it when they approach to enter the country. Formerly the Chinese, fearing left the intercourse of strangers should corrupt the manners of the nation, and impair the maxims of a wife but fingular government, forbade all people entering the empire: a prohibition that was not at all inconfiftent with juftice, provided they did not refufe humane affiftance to thofe whom tempeft or neceflity obliged to approach their frontiers. It was falutary to the nation, without violating the rights of any individual, or even the duties of humanity, which permit us, in cafe of competition, to prefer ourselves to others.

$95. A country

If at the fame time two or more nations discover and take poffeffed by poffeffion of an island or any other defert land without an owner, feveral na- they ought to agree between themselves, and make an equitable tions at the partition; but if they cannot agree, each will have the right of fame time. empire and the domain in the parts in which they first fettled. $ 96. An independent individual, whether he has been driven from A County, his country, or has legally quitted it of his own accord, may poffeffed by a private fettle in a country which he finds without an owner, and there perfon. poffefs an independent domain. Whoever would afterwards make

country.

himself master of the entire country, could not do it with juftice without refpecting the rights and independence of this perfon. But if he himself finds a fufficient number of men who are willing to live under his laws, he may form a new ftate within the country he has difcovered, and poffefs there both the domain and the empire. But if this individual should arrogate to himfelf alone an exclufive right to a country, there to reign monarch without fubjects, his vain pretenfions would be justly held in contempt: a rash and ridiculous poffeffion can produce no real right.

There are alfo other means by which a private perfon may found a new state. Thus, in the eleventh century, fome Norman noblemen founded a new empire in Sicily, after having wrefted that island by conqueft from the common enemies of the chriftian name. The custom of the nation permitted the citizens to quit their country, in order to feek their fortune elfewhere.

$97. IndepenWhen feveral independent families are fettled in a country, dent fami- they poffefs the free domain, but without fovereignty, fince they lies in a do not form a political fociety. Nobody can feize the empire of that country; fince this would be reducing thofe families to fubjection against their will; and no man has a right to command men who are born free, unless they voluntarily fubmit to him.

If those families have fixed fettlements, the place poffeffed by each is the peculiar property of that family the rest of the country, of which they make no ufe, being left in the primitive ftate of communion, belongs to the first occupant. Whoever chooses to settle there, may lawfully take poffeffion of it.

Families wandering in a country, as the nations of fhepherds, and ranging through it as their wants require, poffefs it in common: it belongs to them, to the exclufion of all other nations; and we cannot without injuftice deprive them of the tracts of country of which they make ufe. But let us here recoliect what we have faid more than once (Book I. §§ 81 and 209, Book II. § 69). The favages of North America had no right to appropriate all that vaft continent to themselves: and fince they were unable to le inhabit the whole of those regions, other nations might without injuftice fettle in fome parts of them, provided they left the natives a fufficiency of land. If the paftoral Arabs would carefully cultivate the foil, a lefs fpace might be fufficient for them. Nevertheless, no other nation has a right to narrow their boundaries, unlefs the be under an abfolute want of land. For, in fhort, they poffefs their country; they make ufe of it after their manner; they reap from it an advantage fuitable to their manner of life, refpecting which, they have no laws to receive from any one. In a cafe of preffing neceffity, I think people might without injustice settle in a part of that country, on teaching the Arabs the means of rendering it, by the cultivation of the earth, fufficient for their own wants and those of the new inhabitants.

$98. Poffeffion

places only,

or of certain

rights, in a

It may happen that a nation is contented with poffeffing only certain places, or appropriating to itfelf certain rights, in a of certain country that has not an owner,-without being folicitous to take poffeffion of the whole country. In this cafe, another nation may take poffeffion of what the first has neglected; but this cannot be done without allowing all the rights acquired by the first to fub- country. fift in their full and abfolute independence. In fuch cafes it is proper that regulations fhould be made by treaty; and this precaution is feldom neglected among civilifed nations.

CHAP. VIII.

Rules with refpect to Foreigners.

WE have already treated (Book I. § 213) of the inhabitants,

vacant

§ 99.

General

to obferve

or perfons who refide in a country where they are not idea of the citizens. We fhall here treat only of thofe foreigners who pafs conduct the through or fojourn in a country, either on bufinefs, or merely as ftate ought travellers. The relation that fubfifts between them and the towards fociety in which they now live,-the objects of their journey foreigners. and of their temporary refidence, the duties of humanity,-the rights, the intereft, and the fafety of the ftate which harbours them, the rights of that to which they belong,-all these prin

ciples,

$100. Ente ing

the eiri

tory.

ciples, combined and applied according to cafes and circumftances, ferve to determine the conduct that ought to be obferved towards them, and to point out our right and our duty with refpect to them. But the intention of this chapter is not fo much to fhew what humanity and juftice require towards foreigners, as to establish the rules of the law of nations on this fubject,rules tending to fecure the rights of all parties, and to prevent the repofe of nations being disturbed by the quarrels of individuals.

Since the lord of the territory may, whenever he thinks proper, forbid its being entered (§ 94), he has no doubt a power to annex what conditions he pleases to the permiffion to enter. This, as we have already faid, is a confequence of the right of domain. Can it be neceflary to add, that the owner of the territory ought in this inftance to refpect the duties of humanity? The cafe is the fame with all rights whatever: the proprietor may use them at his difcretion; and, in fo doing, he does not injure any perfon: but if he would be free from guilt, and keep his confcience pure, he will never use them but in such manner as is most conformable to his duty. We speak here in general of the rights which belong to the lord of the country, referving for the following chapter the examination of the cafes in which he cannot refufe an entrance into his territory; and we shall fee in Chap. X. how his duty towards all mankind obliges him on other occafions to allow a free paffage through, and a refidence in, his ftate.

If the fovereign annexes any particular condition to the permiffion to enter his territories, he ought to have measures taken to make foreigners a quainted with it, when they prefent themfelves on the frontier. There are ftates. fuch as China, and Japan, into which all foreigners are forbid to penetrate without an exprefs permiffion: but in Europe the accefs is every where free to every person who is not an enemy of the ftate, except, in fome countries, to vagabonds and outcaits.

§ 101. But even in thofe countries which every foreigner may freely Foreigners enter, the fovereign is fuppofed to allow him accefs only upon are fubje& to the laws. this tacit condition, that he be fubject to the laws,-I mean the general laws made to maintain good order, and which have no relation to the title of citizen, or of fubject of the ftate. The public fafety, the rights of the nation and of the prince, neceffarily require this condition; and the foreigner tacitly fubmits to it, as foon as he enters the country, as he cannot prefume that he has accefs upon any other footing. The fovereignty is the right to command in the whole country; and the laws are not fimply confined to regulating the conduct of the citizens towards each other, but alfo determine what is to be obferved by all orders of people throughout the whole extent of the state.

$102.

And pu

In virtue of this fubmiflion, foreigners who commit faults, are to be punished according to the laws of the country. The cording to object of punishment is to caufe the laws to be refpected, and to the laws. maintain order and fafety.

nithable ac

For

Who is the

For the fame reafon, difputes that may arife between foreign-$103. ers, or between a foreigner and a citizen, are to be determined judge of by the judge of the place, and according to the laws of the place. their difAnd as the difpute properly arifes from the refufal of the de- putes. fendant, who maintains that he is not bound to perform what is required of him, it follows from the fame principle, that every defendant ought to be profecuted before his own judge, who alone has a right to condemn him, and compel him to the performance. The Swifs have wifely made this rule one of the articles of their alliance, in order to prevent the quarrels that might arife from abuses that were formerly too frequent in relation to this fubject. The defendant's judge is the judge of the place where that defendant has his fettled abode, or the judge of the place where the defendant is, when any fudden difficulty arifes, provided it does not relate to an estate in land, or to a right annexed to fuch an eftate. In this laft cafe, as property of that kind is to be held according to the laws of the country where it is fituated, and as the right of granting poffeffion is vested in the ruler of the country,-difputes relating to fuch property can only be decided in the state on which it depends.

We have already fhewn (§ 84) how the jurifdiction of a nation ought to be refpected by other fovereigns, and in what cafes alone they may interfere in the causes of their subjects in foreign countries.

Protection

due to

foreigners.

The fovereign ought not to grant an entrance into his ftate $104. for the purpose of drawing foreigners into a fnare: as foon as he admits them, he engages to protect them as his own fubjects, and to afford them perfect fecurity, as far as depends on him. Accordingly we fee that every fovereign who has given an afylum to a foreigner, confiders himself no less offended by an injury done to the latter, than he would be by an act of violence committed on his own fubject. Hofpitality was in great honour among the ancients, and even among barbarous nations, such as the Germans. Thofe favage nations who treated ftrangers ill, that Scythian tribe who facrificed them to Diana *, were univerfally held in abhorrence; and Grotius juftiy fays + that their extreme ferocity excluded them from the great fociety of mankind. All other nations had a right to unite their forces in order to chastise them.

tics.

From a fenfe of gratitude for the protection granted to him,§ 105. and the other advantages he enjoys, the foreigner ought not to Their du content himself with barely refpecting the laws of the country; he ought to affift it upon occafion, and contribute to its defence, as far as is confiftent with his duty as citizen of another state. We fhall fee elsewhere what he can and ought to do, when the country is engaged in a war. But there is nothing to hinder him from defending it against pirates or robbers, against the ravages of an inundation, or the devaftations of fire. Can he pretend to *The Taurians. See Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis, lib. ii. cap. xx. § xl. n. 7. † Ibid.