An essay concerning obedience to the supreme powers, and the duty of subjects in all revolutions with some considerations touching the present juncture of affairs.

CHAP. V. Of the Law of Nations. (Book 5)

UPON this foundation of the General good of So∣cieties, have certain Rules and Customs been obser∣ved by Nations in their intercourse with one another, which are called the Law of Nations (without which no Correspondence either in Peace or War could be maintain∣ed) which only by tacite consent, and general practice of Nations, upon the account of their evident utility, and common profit, have obtained the force of Laws, and are looked on as sacred. The Supreme Powers, neither by

themselves, nor Representatives, ever met, or enacted such Laws, nor have other Nations Power to oblige any Sove∣reign Independant State, which cannot be bound to ob∣serve these Customs, or Practices, but as they tend to the General good and advantage of all Societies.

Every Nation is at Liberty to appoint what Govern∣ment, Laws, &c. or manage its own Affairs within its self, as it thinks best. The Laws of Nations relate only to their Commerce, and Correspondence one with ano∣ther, and Princes are no other way concerned by the Law of Nations with one another, but as they have the Power of making Peace or War, and all other Leagues for those Nations they Rule.

It is not at all material what Right they have to this Power, it is sufficient the Nations then own them for their Sovereigns, and have intrusted them with this Power; it would be an endless, as well as useless task, for Ambas∣sadors before their admission, to prove the just Right their Masters have to those Titles and Powers they assume to themselves.

All Treaties, except they appear to be merely Personal, though made with Usurpers, will oblige Legal Princes, if they succeed, and so vice versa, and a League made with a Nation, when under a King, will oblige that Nation (provided they continue free) though the Government should be changed to a Commonwealth, because Leagues are National, and made with Princes only upon the ac∣count of the Nations they are Representatives of. But when they lose this Power, and the Nations are no longer concerned in their Acts, they lose all manner of Right that did belong to them by the Law of Nations; because these Privileges are (as Grotius calls them) bona Regni, and did belong to them only as they were the Publick Persons, or Representatives of their respective Nations, which when they cease to be, they have no more Right to

them, then they had before they were these Publick Persons.

But because the same intercourse between Nations will always be necessary, which cannot be maintained, but with those who have the Supreme Power; and they that have that Power, must have a Right to those Privileges, upon the account of the Nations they Represent; and the Dispossessed Princes, must with their Kingdoms lose their Right to them, because more than one at the same time, cannot have the same Right for the same Nation: And though some Princes (out of design, or hatred to their Enemies) may allow outed Princes some of those Privileges that belong only to those that have Summum imperium, yet they have no Right by the Laws of Nations to claim them, but they, as well as those that fol∣low their broken fortunes, can be esteemed no other than Subjects, during their stay, to those Kings in whose Do∣minions they abide; where they are so far from having a Power of making Peace or War, or any other National Contracts, that they cannot, without License first obtain∣ed from those Princes in whose Dominions they are, send any to treat with other Princes, or receive any sent by them; much less allow them those Privileges which are due to Persons of a Publick Character. And it would be unreasonable that Sovereigns should be obliged to allow them, or any sent by them, those privileges, when they are incapable of returning the same. And with as little reason can any Prince in anothers Dominions pretend to grant Commissions to private Men of War, to disturb the Trade and Commerce of any Nation, because he cannot claim in another Prince's Territories a Power (which can only belong to the Sovereignty of those Dominions) to Judge, Condemn, or Restore according to the Maritime Laws, the Ships and Goods which are taken by those that act by his Commission. So that the Privateers themselves

would be their own Judges, whether what they take was Lawful Prize, which in effect would be a power to rob whom they had a mind to. Therefore by the Law of Na∣tions, all who act by such a Commission, are esteemed as Pirates.