DEVELOPMENT DURING PAST CENTURY 473 



in social and political affairs, until it has finally become the dom- 

 inating idea of the time. The balance has swung; the men of our 

 time are more interested in the rights of men than in the rights of 

 man; the whole has come to be regarded as of more value than the 

 separate parts. Beginning with the construction of railroads, the 

 idea attained a firm standing in politics in the sixties. Whereas, 

 before that time, the movement had been toward separation, now 

 it was toward consolidation. People felt the tie of nationality 

 stronger than the aspiration for individual development. The uni- 

 fication of Italy and of Germany, the federation of Canada, the pre- 

 valence of corporate feeling in America which, first passionately 

 expressed by Webster, prevailed in 1865, mark the principle of 

 association in political affairs. In business, the great combinations 

 of capital have been the salient features of the change. 



Professor Dicey, in a most suggestive series of lectures a few years 

 ago, pointed out many ways in which the English law had been 

 affected by this progress of thought during the nineteenth century; 

 but since the thought of the whole world has been similarly affected 

 we should expect to find, and we do find, that not merely English 

 law but universal jurisprudence has developed in the direction of 

 the progress of thought: during the first period in the direction of 

 strengthening and preserving individual rights, both of small states 

 and of individuals; in the second period in the direction of creat- 

 ing, recognizing, and regulating great combinations, whether of 

 states or of individuals. Let us develop this line of thought by 

 examining the progress of law in a few striking particulars. 



IV. International Law 



The most striking development of the law of nations during the 

 last century has been in the direction, if I may so call it, of inter- 

 national constitutional law rather than of the substantive private 

 law of nations. At the beginning of the period, the fundamental 

 doctrine of international law was the equality of all states, great or 

 small, and this idea, as one might expect, was fully recognized and 

 insisted on during the first fifty years of the century. There was 

 little development in the law otherwise. Each nation adopted and 

 enforced its own idea of national rights, and was powerless to force 

 its ideas upon other nations; when, at the beginning of the century, 

 France set up her absurd notions of her own national rights, the 

 other nations were powerless to restrain or to teach her. There was 

 no international legislature or court; no method of declaring or of 

 developing the law of nations. Each state was a lav to itself; giv- 

 ing little more than lip service to a vague body of rather generally 

 accepted principles. The alliance to conquer Napoleon, to be sure, 



