135 



In tlie case of The Helena, Lord Stowell, considering the principles 

 of international law, observed "tliat some people have foolishly im- 

 agined that there is no other law of nations bnt that which is derived 

 from positive compact and convention." 4 RoMnsoii's Admiralty^ 

 Rep. 7. 



Bacon, in his Dissertation on the Advancement of Learning, says 

 that "there are in nature certain fonntains of jnstice, whence all civil 

 laws are derived but as streams; and like as waters do take tinctures 

 and tastes from the soils through which they run, so do civil laws vary 

 according to the regions and governments wliere they are ]ilauted, 

 though they proceed from the same fountain." Blc. 5, chap. 33, see. 44. 



Blackstone declares that the law of nature being coeval with man- 

 kind, and dictated by God himself, "is binding all over the globe in all 

 countries, and at jiU times," and that "no human laws are of any validity 

 if contrary to this, and such of them as arc valid derive all their 

 force and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this 

 original." And he also says: "As it is impossible for the whole race of 

 mankind to be united in one great society, they nmst necessarily divide 

 into many, and form separate states, commonwealths, and nations, 

 entirely independent of each other and yet liable to mutual intercourse. 

 Hence arises a third kind of law to regulate this nuitual intercourse, 

 called the 'law of nations,' wliich, ns none of these states will acknowledge 

 a superi<nity in the other, can not l)e dictnted by an}-, but depends en- 

 tirely upon the rules of natural laiv, or upon mutual comiyacts, treaties, 

 leagues, and agreements between those several communities; in the 

 construction, also, of which compacts we have no other rule to resort to 

 but the laid of nature, ))eing tlie only one to which all the communities 

 are equally subject, and therefore, the civil law very justly observes 

 that quod naturalis ratio inter omnes homines constituit vocatur jus gent- 

 iwm." Bk. 1, p. 41, 43. 



In his Commentaries on International Law Sir Robert Phillimore 

 says : "Grotius enumerates these sources [of international law] as being 

 ^ipsanatnra, leges divincv, mores, et pacta.'' In 1753 the British Govern- 

 ment made an answer to a ]nemorialof the Prussian Government, which 

 was termed by Montesquieu reponse sans replique, and which has been 

 generally recognized as one of the ablest expositions of international 

 law ever embodied in a state paper. In this memorable document the 

 law of nations is said to be founded upon justice, equity, convenience, 

 and the reason of the thing, niid confirmed by long usage." 1 Phllli- 

 more, ch. 3, sec. 20. In the judgment delivered by him in Queen vs. 



