亨利-梅因：国际法Lecture 1

t the most humane and virtuous of the acts and opinions which he quotes were prompted by an instinct derived from a happier state of the human race， when it was still more directly shaped and guided by Divine authority， we should probably have got as near his conception as possible. As time has gone on， some parts of this basis of thought have proved to be no longer tenable. Grotius greatly overrated the extent of recorded history and， still more， the accuracy of the record. The very conception from which he started， the conception of a real and determinable Law of Nature， has not resisted the application of modern criticism. To each successive inquirer， the actual childhood of the human race looks less and less like the picture which the jurists of the seventeenth century formed of it. It was excessively inhuman in war； and it was before all things enamoured of legal technicality in peace. But nevertheless the system founded on an imaginary reconstruction of it more and more calmed the fury of angry belligerency， and supplied a framework to which more advanced principles of humanity and convenience easily adjusted themselves.

　　The effects of the 'De Jure Belli et Pacis，' both in respect of its general influence and of the detailed propositions which it laid down， were exceedingly prompt and have proved extremely durable. At about the middle of his reign Louis XIV of France adopted two measures by which he was thought to have carried the severity of war to the furthest point. He devastated the Palatinate， expressly directing his officers to carry fire and sword into every corner of the province， and he issued a notice to the Dutch， with whom he was at war， that， as soon as the melting of the ice opened the canals， he would grant no more quarter to his Dutch enemies. The devastation of the Palatinate has become a proverb of savageness with all historians， though fifty years earlier it might at most have been passed as a measure of severity， or might even have been defended； but the proclamation to the Dutch called forth a burst of execration from all Europe， and the threat to refuse quarter was not acted upon. The book of Grotius was making itself felt， and the successors of Grotius assure us that it was his authority which deterred the French king a

nd the French generals from the threatened outrage.

　　But there is other evidence of the respect paid to the details of his system. Among the most interesting legal products of our day are the Manuals of the usages of war which a great number of civilised states are now issuing to their officers in the field. The Manual prepared for the United States is the oldest of them， but most of them have followed the attempt to form a Code of Land War which was made at the Conference at Brussels in 1874， an attempt which miscarried principally through recollections of the course of the great Franco-German war in 1870-1871. There is very much that is remarkable in all this private codification， as I propose to show in one or two lectures which will follow； but perhaps the most singular feature of the Manuals is the number of rules adopted in them which have been literally borrowed from the 'De Jure Belli et Pacis，' and specially from its third book. Remembering what Grotius himself says of the condition in which he found the law and usage of war when be began to write of it， and recalling what we learn from historical sources of the wars of succession and the wars of religion， we may well believe Vattel， the Swiss Jurist， a contemporary of the Seven Years' War and of Frederick the Great， when he tells us that what struck him most in the wars of his day was their extreme gentleness； and of the standard of gentleness proper to be followed in war Vattel was a severe judge.

　　I here conclude this Introductory Lecture， but there still remain some points of principle which meet us on the threshold of International Law， and which cannot be dismissed absolutely in silence. In my next lecture I propose to consider the binding force of International Law， and with it a question of some gravity on which the judges of England and the legal authorities of the United States do not entertain absolutely identical opinions， and I will state the way in which I venture to think the various shades of difference can be got over. In the succeeding lectures I shall have to consider a few fundamental topics in the system before us， and I hope afterwards to give a sketch， which must be brief on account of the narrow limits of my course， on the law of war by sea and land； and finally I will endeavour to discharge a part of the duty imposed on me by Dr. Whewell's directions， and to state what measures proposed in our day seem to me to tend to diminish the evils of war and to do something to something

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