4 o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of Satan ' and ' Pope of the Atheists.' The Treaty of Westphalia in 

 1648, three years after the death of Grotius, closed the Thirty Years 

 War in Germany, the Eighty Years' War in the Netherlands, and a 

 long era of savagery in many parts of the globe. It shows clearly 

 the influence of Grotius's advanced ideas, being founded upon his doc- 

 trine of the essential independence and equality of all sovereign states, 

 and the laws of justice and mercy. In the progress of man from war, 

 lawless and savage, to war restricted and obedient to international 

 law, no name is entitled to rank with his. He is the father of modern 

 international law, so far as it deals with the rights of peace and war. 

 He has had several eminent successors, especially Puffendorf, Bynker- 

 shoek and Vattel. These four are called by Phillimore ' The Um- 

 pires of International Disputes.' They are followed closely by a 

 second quartette, the British judge — S to well, and the American judges 

 — Marshall, Story and Field. 



International law is unique in one respect. It has no material 

 force behind it. It is a proof of the supreme force of gentleness — the 

 irresistible pressure and final triumph of what is just and merciful. 

 To the few who have contributed conspicuously to its growth in the 

 past, and to those laboring therein to-day, civilization owes an un- 

 payable debt. Private individuals have created it, and yet the nations 

 have been glad to accept. British judges have repeatedly declared that 

 ' International law is in full force in Britain.' It is so in America and 

 other countries. We have in this self-created, self-developing and self- 

 forcing agency one of the two most powerful and beneficent instruments 

 for the peace and progress of the world. 



The most important recent reforms effected in the laws of war are 

 those of the Treaty of Paris (1856), the Treaty of Washington (1871), 

 which settled the Alabama Claims, and the Brussels Declaration of 

 1874. 



The Treaty of Paris marks an era as having enshrined certain 

 principles. First, it abolished privateering. Henceforth, war on the 

 sea is confined to national warships, organized and manned by officers 

 and men in the service of the state. Commerce is no longer subject 

 to attack by private adventurers seeking spoil. Second, it ruled that 

 a blockade to be recognized must be effective. Third, it established 

 the doctrine that an enemy's goods in a neutral ship are free, except 

 contraband. These were great steps forward. 



America declined to accept the first (in which, however, she has 

 now concurred) unless private property was totally exempt on sea as on 

 land, for which she has long contended, and which the powers, except 

 Britain, have generally favored. So strongly has the current set re- 

 cently in its favor that hopes are entertained that the forthcoming 

 conference at The Hague may reach this desirable result. It is the 



