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OF POLITICAL THEORIES, 315ferent forms of the constitution, yetit was impossible butthat some should arise as to the mutual rights and relationsof states.lic'sThis subject received the attention of one of the repubgreatest citizens, and produced the famous work ofHugo Grotius " De Jure Belli et Pacis."It is true that this treatise led its author into some researches, respecting the natural rights of man, and the principles on which they are founded, without which he thoughthe could not attain to a just view of his subject.But thetheory of civil government could littlegain from a work devoted to another and separate inquiry ;while the manner inwhich this inquiry itself is conducted, is by no means attractive to readers of our own time,Grotius was more a man of learning than a philosopher,and he has encumbered his work with a mass of historicaland philological research, which could not possibly turn toits advantage.Still, however, it must rank among the highest efforts, not only of his own, but of all subsequent times ;for it was no mean advantage to point out that there is, orat least that there ought to be, a law of nations. Moreover,the great name which Grotius had acquired, and which associated him, not only with the most distinguished men oflearning, but, as a statesman, with the princes and courts ofhis day, secured his principles an admittance into the circlein which they were most likelyto obtaininfluence. 1a ready practical1[The following defence of Grotius is interesting, as coming from the penof the late Sir James Mackintosh : and it will be the more appreciated as thepamphlet from which it is taken is now rarely to be met with,Few works were more celebrated than that of Grotius in his own days,and the age which succeeded. It has, however, been the fashion of the lasthalf century to depreciate his work as a shapeless compilation,in whichreason lies buried under a mass of authorities and quotations. This fashion.know notoriginated among French wits and declaimers, and it has been, Ifor what reason, adopted, though with far greater moderation and decency,by some respectable writers among ourselves. As to those who first used thislanguage, the most candid supposition that we can make with respect to them,is, that they never read the work ;for if they had not been deterred from theperusal of itby such a formidable display of Greek characters, they mustsoon have discovered that Grotius never quotes on any subject till he has firstappealed to some principles and ; often, in my humble opinion, though notalways, to the soundest and most rational principles.But another sort of answer is due to some of those who* have criticized* FALET, pre to H&ral and Political Philosophy (to -wham we mayHEESEN, in the passage of the text).add Prof,