First Platform of International Law. By Sir E. S. Creasy.
(John Van Voorst.)—This is a book which every student of history and polities (the two can hardly be distinguished) will do well to read. It is as might be expected from the author's name a valuable contribution. to a subject of growing importance, and it is not designed to be a mere book of " cases " for "forensic practitioners." At the same tdme, it is not intended to be a regular history of the progress and development. of international law, though it necessarily often touches on the subject. The author's object is to explain the general principles on which inter- national law rests, to supply, as he says, a sound foundation or platform. Before a student can enter on the subject with much profit, he must make himself master of the meaning of a good many phrases, such as. "sovereign state," "moral law," "natural law," "comity of nations,' itc. The old Athenian law-giver, Solon, may be said to have contributed an important thought towards international law, when he said that" the
best-administered commonwealth was that in which any wrongs done to individuals are resented and redressed by the other citizens as promptly as if they were personal sufferers." This, as the author observes, applies precisely to the great commonwealth of civilised States', and if this feeling were to become extinct, the phrases of international law would be gibberish. The Roman jurists had very clear conceptions of the subject, and Sir Henry Maine has shown, in his work on " Ancient Law," that " the additions made to international law since Grotius's day bear a very small proportion to the ingredients taken from the most ancient stratum of the•Romau jus gent (urn." Roman law, in fact, may be said to be historically the basis of international jurisprudence, and one of the special merits of the Roman jurists was their distrust of hasty innovations, which would be peculiarly fatal to a science, the development of which must necessarily be very gradual. As tho world becomes more humane and civilised, international law will, of course, have a wider scope ; it Must decide, for instance, questions as to war and slavery. On both these subjects the author bestows specially careful treatment. The marginal summaries and index make this interesting volume most useful as a book of reference. The volume is well worth attentive study.
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