copies, and classifying them for the convenience of scholastic research. Their utility for phonological purposes is a comparatively recent suggestion, but a suggestion that commends itself at once to common sense, and is pregnant with an abundance of novel illustration for this important branch of science. The idea is this: that, in an age when grammatical knowledge was not widely diffused, and the standard orthography of the schools was imperfectly known by the masses, the uneducated stone-cutters who chiselled the inscriptions, or the mere professional copyists who transcribed the manuscript, would follow their ear in the spelling of the words, following of course the known and accepted powers of the letters. When, therefore, an extensive comparison of these ancient monuments belonging to a given period, reveals a prevailing peculiarity of orthography in a certain class of words, this is accepted as evidence of a prevalent popular usage of pronunciation during that period. Again, when, in following a certain element or combination of elements through the inscriptions and MSS. of successive periods, a progressive change on orthography is discoverable, it is held to be evidence of a corresponding progressive change in the national utterance of that element or combination—an evidence all the more striking and convincing, because so utterly undesigned, and made in the interest of no scientific system or creed. The sounds of the language indeed (in the language of Prof. Corssen), "we no longer hear echoing from the mouth of the people, but we see the sounds with our eyes, as the writing of the old Roman records and monuments exhibits them; and upon this authentic and visible basis, Philology lays a foundation on which she may build securely."*

It is this view which Corssen has wrought with such signal success in his prize-essay. But we have already transcended the limits we had assigned to this subject in our present number, and must reserve to another article a statement of the results obtained from this, with the previously enumerated sources, for the true system of Latin pronunciation.

J. H. R.

* Ueber Aussprache, etc., p. vi.

ARTICLE V.-STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW.

Introduction to the Study of International Law, designed as an aid in Teaching and in Historical Studies. By THEODORE D. WOOLSEY, President of Yale College. Boston and Cambridge: James Munroe & Co.

1860.

A TEXT-BOOK on International Law, by a College President, and for the use of college students, may well be regarded as a phenomenon in the progress of our American education. It shows very plainly how much the once rigid curriculum of college instruction is yielding to the demands of the age, and is accepting among the recognized means of intellectual culture those studies which have most to do with the social relations and obligations of men and of states. Hitherto, it has commonly been the advancing sciences of matter that have urged the strongest claims for a place in the course of academical education. But noble as are these branches of knowledge, and worthy as they are to be reckoned among the agencies that should minister to the training of young men, they certainly do not surpass, either in dignity, or interest, or importance, the grand generalizations of history, the philosophy of civil society, or the principles of amity and justice, which are gradually pervading the diversified interests of the civilized world. It is in these realms of humanity in the ever varying fortunes of man and of society-that we discover the sublimest traces of the wisdom and goodness of God, and here that we learn most of the far-reaching plans of his overruling providence.

President Woolsey styles his work an "Introduction to the Study of International Law," and remarks that "it is not written for lawyers, but to introduce students, especially students of history, into a science which has very close relations

to the history of Christian States, and, in general, to that of civilization." He aims to set forth this science, not in the spirit of an abstract moralist alone, or that of a mere cloistered student of history, but in its actual and allowed doctrines, and with the spirit of a careful and thoughtful observer of human affairs. He also seeks to apply its principles to the great problems of history, and thus to show the progressive development of justice and right, of reciprocity and honesty, in the intercourse and relationships of nations. The work which he has conceived and accomplished in this liberal spirit, we deem worthy of all praise for the purpose it was designed to promote, and we venture to commend the study of which it is so judicious an introduction, to the attention of instructors in colleges, and the consideration of all classes of educated men. It will be found to be a very useful and adequate guide-less full, indeed, than may be required for the complete elucidation of some of the doctrines which it involves, but yet modest, learned, and accurate, and abounding in suggestions that will not fail to enlarge and liberalize every mind into which they may enter. They are here presented, for the most part, in the shape of suggestions, but, when once comprehended, they may be readily carried out to their widest results, and their diversified applications.

In the present condition of society, in which public affairs are matters of universal discussion, it needs no argument to prove that some knowledge of the principles by which the international relations of the different countries of the world are regulated, is indispensable to all who lay claims to high education. Such knowledge alone can furnish the materials for sound judgments on many of the most interesting questions of the past, or enable the intelligent observer fully to appreciate the changes that are going on around him. The movements of nations in their relations with each other, are among the most conspicuous phenomena of every age, and these movements are to be estimated and judged of in the light of those comprehensive maxims which, by common consent, have become the rules of action and relationship among all civilized States. We deem it important, therefore, that this knowledge Vol. xxvii-9

should be wrought into the education of the more cultivated classes, for thus can it be most effectually made a part of the common intelligence of the country, and thus will that intelligence be most surely rendered tributary to the happiness and improvement of mankind.

By some writers, the very existence of anything like International Law has been denied, and the term itself has been denounced as a misnomer. It is said that nations are governed by their interests, or what are deemed to be their interests, in their relations with each other, and that, even if it were not so, the idea of a law is excluded by the obvious facts of the case. A law, we are told, supposes an enactment and an enacting power-a legislative authority to decree a penalty, and an executive to enforce it—and, as nations have never met to enact any international law, and have never delegated any power of coercion, that, therefore, they are controlled each by its own separate sovereignty, with no code of common obligation, and no tribunal of dernier resort. But plausible as this view may seem, it is hardly necessary to suggest that, by the very necessities, if not by the consent, of mankind, usage may become a law, or a recognized rule of action, just as truly as any formal enactment. The agreeing to do a thing, cannot, in any manner, be more positively asserted than by doing it; and as for the penalty of not doing and its enforcement, these may often be as effectually secured by the action of the parties themselves to an agreement, as by any coercive authority that can be delegated to their common agent or supreme arbitrator.

In ordinary civil society, we provide, by special statutes, the penalties which are to be inflicted on those who are guilty of crimes, and we rightly attach great importance to a judicial and executive authority-to magistrates and courts who may condemn the culprit, and to sheriff's and constables who shall inflict the penalty. But these are by no means the only or the most formidable sources of terror to evil doers. Except among the most depraved and abandoned of felons, the heaviest punishments, and those most dreaded by the criminal, are not such as are inflicted by officers of the law. It is not the fine or the

imprisonment, or even the taking of life, or anything the magistrate can do, that exhausts the power of civilized society to protect its interests and the rights of its members. Far beyond all these, and more dreaded than all, is it to be blighted in reputation to be cast out and despised of all men - to be deprived of all confidence and all occupation from othersto be seen while living, and to be mentioned when dead, only to awaken the scorn and execration of every citizen. These are the heaviest punishments which can be inflicted on men in a civilized state; but they require no agency of courts or sheriffs-they arise spontaneously, and follow, with inevitable certainty, from the moral sentiments and social interests which hold sway in a well ordered community. In analogy with all this, is the condition of an offending nation. Let it but cast aside the agreements which bind it to others- let it but outrage the sense of right and justice which is recognized as the basis of intercourse, or violate the rules which it has covenanted with others to observe- and it becomes the victim of universal distrust and hostility, and is at length cast out of the pale of civilized states. The consequences which thus descend on a nation that sets at defiance the recognized rules of international intercourse and relationship, of themselves constitute a penalty of momentous efficacy in the affairs of the world.

We believe, then, that there is such a thing as International Law, and that it exists not merely in books and the speculations of publicists, but in the faith and practice of nations, and, though it be enacted by no legislative assemblies, and arranged in no code, that it yet has an authority that can command respect, and is capable of being enforced with penalties upon those who violate it. We hold this law, also, to be the reflection of the common civilization of the age, and, in its constant development and expansion, we recognize the triumphs of peace, the growth of humane and kindly sentiments among different portions of the human race, and the ever widening acknowledgment of the brotherhood of man. This law, indeed, is thus far in its infancy, but it is the legitimate offspring of civilization-we may say, of Christian civiliza