On the important question of the Slave Trade, the successive acts of March 1794, May 1800, February 1803, March 1807, April 1818, March 1819, and the highly important act, May 1820, which it has been justly remarked, received from England the well deserved praise of being the most vigorous measure, yet devised for the entire suppression of the traffic, are given in this part of the work.

In relation to the collection of Foreign Treaties, the great French work, the "Corps Universel Diplomatique du Droit des Gens," has been occasionally consulted; but the compiler is aware that, in the present day, it is now chiefly looked into more for curiosity, than for daily use. Barbeyrac has also been used in this part of the plan. Chalmers's collection, a work of high standing in Europe, Jenkinson's Treaties, and Hertslet's Treaties, are of great practical use, and have been also employed in making up this collection, beginning with the treaty of Utrecht, and closing with the pacification of Greece and the treaty of Adrianople, which opened, to all nations, the Navigation of the Black Sea.

The Congress of Vienna will probably form a most important epoch in the annals of Diplomacy. On the question of the Slave Trade, the opinions of the Cabinets of Europe are full of interest to the nations of America. On that account, the Declaration of the Eight Powers that signed the treaty of Paris has been preserved entire; the opinions of the leading Cabinets of Europe on the same question are also interesting to this hemisphere.*

* Extract from the Conferences held by the Five Powers, at Aix la Chapelle, Nov. 1818. OPINION of the Russian Cabinet "There is no object in which his Imperial Majesty takes a more lively interest, and which he has more at heart, than that the decision upon this question may be conformable to the precepts of the Christian religion,

The abstract of Judicial Decisions, on points connected with our Foreign Relations, is next in order.

As it was not intended, to form a system, or connected treatise of National Law, but only to serve merely as an Index to the various books in which THE DECISIONS are to be found, it was thought that the form of an Index would be more useful than an attempt to reduce the cases to a system: the facility

to the wishes of humanity, and to the rights and real interests of all the Powers invited to assist therein.

"It is only when this abolition (of the slave trade) shall have been thus solemnly declared, in all countries, and without reserve, that the powers shall be able to pronounce, without being checked by distressing and contradictory exceptions, the general principles which shall characterise the trade, and place it in the rank of the deepest crimes.

"It would denounce, as a fundamental principle, a law characterising this odious traffic, as a description of piracy, and rendering it punishable as such. No maritime nation should refuse to submit its flag to the police of the right of search."

Of the French Government—" It cannot but fear (speaking of the suppression of the slave trade) that the idea of a compulsory sacrifice might attach to the concession in submitting to the reciprocal right of visit." "The immediate consequence of such an institution would be to withdraw the subjects of H. M. from their natural judges," as they would pass under a foreign jurisdiction."

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The Austrian Cabinet, concurs in the opinion that "a system of permanent surveillence" may effect the suppression of the traffic, and "put an end to the slave trade."

The Prussian Cabinet-on the slave question, "cannot dissemble the inseparable inconveniences of the concession of the right of visit on the high seas"-it might "become too easily a source of abuse and misunderstanding."

"The dissenting powers, [the United States and France] hoped that the opinion hitherto given, on the part of their respective cabinets would form no obstacle to the adoption on their part of that measure [the suppression of the slave trade.]

On the subject of these opinions, in conclusion, Lord Castlereagh writes, to Lord Bathurst, on the 10th December, 1818, that he "ventures to indulge an expectation that the French Government may be brought, at no distant period, to unite their naval exertions with those of the other allied powers for the suppression of the illicit trade, under the modified regulations submitted for this purpose to the Plenipotentiaries assembled at Aix la Chapelle."

of reference being the only object. The whole will be found, however, to be somewhat systematically arranged in THE INDEX which accompanies THE ABSTRACT; and which will enable a person at once to read, in connexion, all that is to be found upon any one subject.

It is believed that THE ABSTRACT contains all the important Decisions, in any manner affecting our FOREIGN RELATIONS, and the Rights of Belligerents, Neutrals, and Aliens, which are to be found in the REPORTS of DALLAS, CRANCH, WHEATON, BEE, PETERS, GALLISON, WASHINGTON, CAINES, JOHNSON, BINNEY, YEATES, DAY, and the MASSACHUSETTS TERM REPORTS. The utility of this part of the plan was suggested by a distinguished citizen; and it is hoped that it will answer the purpose for which it is intended.

"A CONCISE DIPLOMATIC MANUAL" follows next. It is presumed that it embraces much useful matter, condensed from the Law of Nations,* touching the Rights, Ceremonies, Functions, &c., of Public Ministers and Consuls, from Wicquefort, Vattel, Ward, Martens, and other established authorities.

*The law of Nations is the law of sovereigns. It is principally for them, and for their ministers, that it ought to be written. All men are indeed interested in it; and the study of its maxims are, in a free country, proper for every citizen.—The Law of Nations is as much above the civil law in its importance, as the proceedings of nations and sovereigns surpass in their consequences those of private persons. Vattel

GROTIUS has justly been considered as the father of the Law of Nations; and he arose, like a splendid luminary, dispelling darkness and confusion, and imparting light and security to the intercourse of nations. It is said by Barbeyrac, that Lord Bacon's works first suggested to Grotius the idea of reducing the Law of Nations to the certainty and precision of a regular science. Grotius has himself

The work of Grotius, says Ward, became very early the favorite study of the Great Gustavus, who is said to have found as much pleasure from it, as Alexander found from reading the Poems of Homer, and who proved his admiration of the author, by ordering him to be called to the public employments of Sweden.

From official papers, recently issued from the Department of State at Washington, are introduced "Personal Instructions to the Diplomatic Agents of the United States, in Foreign Countries; and General Instructions to the Consuls* and Commercial Agents:

fully explained the reasons which led him to undertake his necessary, and most useful, and immortal work.

His object was to digest, in one systematic code, the principles of public right, and to supply authorities for almost every case in the conduct of nations; and he had the honor of reducing the Law of Nations to a system, and of producing a work which has been resorted to as the standard of authority in every succeeding age.

Among the disciples of Grotius, PUFFENDORF has always held the first rank. His work went more at large into the principles of natural law, and combined the science of ethics, with what may be more strictly called the Law of Nations. It is copious in detail, but of very little practical value in teaching us what the Law of Nations is at this day. It is rather a treatise on moral philosophy, than on International Law, and the same thing may be said of the works of WOLFIUS, BURLEMAQUI and RUTHERFORTH. The summary of the Law of Nations by Professor MARTENS is a treatise of greater practical utility, but it is only a very partial view of the system, being confined to the customary and conventional Law of the modern Nations of Europe. BYNKERSHOECK's treatise on the law of war has always been received as of great authority, on that particular branch of the science of the Law of Nations, and the subject is ably and copiously discussed. The work is replete with practical illustration, though too exclusive in its references to the ordinances of his own country, to render his authority very unquestionable.

The most popular and most elegant writer on the Law of Nations is VATTEL, whose method has been greatly admired. He has been cited, for the last half century more freely than any one of the public jurists, but he is very deficient in philosophical precision: his topics are loosely, and often tediously and diffusively discussed; and he is not sufficiently supported by the authority of precedents, which constitute the foundation of the positive Law of Nations. Kent's Com.

*President's Mess. Dec.3, 1833—" I deem it proper to recommend to your notice the revision of our consular system. This has become an important branch of the public service, inasmuch as it is intimately connected with the preservation of our national character abroad, with the interest of our citizens in foreign countries, with the regulation and care of our commerce, and with the protection of our seamen. At the close of the last session of Congress I communicated a report from the Secretary of State upon the subject, to which I now refer, as containing information which may be useful in any inquiries that Congress may see fit to institute with a view to a salutary reform of the system.”

also extracts from the Commentaries of Judge Story, and of Judge Kent, on Consular Duties and Powers. These authorities, emanating from legal talent, of such exalted character, it is believed may prove acceptable on the subject of international law. Extensive Notes, on Consular Functions, are appended, from Warden's work, published at Paris, in 1811.

DIPLOMATIC WRITINGS-The Papers composing this head will be found to furnish extracts from the most important portions of the official communications of the Diplomatic Agents of the United States, from Silas Deane's departure for Europe in 1776, to the peace of 1783; from thence to the period when the Federal Constitution went into operation in 1789: and from that time, to the present day. Most of this correspondence was produced by our greatest men, on Diplomatic subjects, every way worthy of their talents.

In this way the compiler has endeavoured to bring out the great principles, and the weightiest doctrines, of international law, which have governed our foreign relations, from the period of our independence, down to the present time, and which may still serve to guide all our future diplomatists; because these principles and doctrines have given an elevated tone to our foreign negotiations, and have now become wrought into our political system.* Subsequent statesmen may also see, by looking at our foreign correspondence, as in a diplo

* In a letter to Mr Adams, Mr Jefferson, in the 4th vol. of his Writings, remarks"On the conclusion of peace, Congress, sensible of their right to assume independence, would not condescend to ask its acknowledgment from other nations, yet were willing, by some of the ordinary international transactions, to receive what would imply that acknowledgment. They appointed commissioners, therefore, to propose treaties of commerce to the principal nations of Europe. I was then a mem ber of Congress, was of the committee appointed to prepare instructions for the commissioners, was, as you suppose, the draughtsman of those actually agreed to, and