influence on the deliberations of the
States-General; but it did not make them commit injustice: for when a
people, from good reasons, take up arms against an oppressor, _justice
and generosity require that brave men should be assisted in the defence
of their liberties_. Whenever, therefore, a civil war is kindled in a
state, foreign powers may assist that party which appears to them to
have justice on their side. _He who assists an odious tyrant, he who
declares FOR AN UNJUST AND REBELLIOUS PEOPLE, offends against his duty_.
When the bands of the political society are broken, or at least
suspended between the sovereign and his people, they may then be
considered as two distinct powers; and since each is independent of all
foreign authority, nobody has a right to judge them. Either may be in
the right, and each of those who grant their assistance may believe that
he supports a good cause. It follows, then, in virtue of the voluntary
law of nations, (see Prelim. Sec. 21,) that the two parties may act as
having an equal right, and behave accordingly, till the decision of the
affair.

[Sidenote: Not to be pursued to an extreme.]

[Sidenote: Endeavor to persuade subjects to a revolt.]

"But we ought not to abuse this maxim for authorizing odious proceedings
against the tranquillity of states. It is a violation of the law of
nations _to persuade those subjects to revolt who actually obey their
sovereign, though they complain of his government_.

[Sidenote: Attempt to excite subjects to revolt.]

"The practice of nations is conformable to our maxims. When the German
Protestants came to the assistance of the Reformed in France, the court
never undertook to treat them otherwise than as common enemies, and
according to the laws of war. France at the same time assisted the
Netherlands, which took up arms against Spain, and did not pretend that
her troops should be considered upon any other footing than as
auxiliaries in a regular war. _But no power avoids complaining of an
atrocious injury, if any one attempts by his emissaries to excite his
subjects to revolt_.

[Sidenote: Tyrants.]

"As to those monsters, who, under the title of sovereigns, render
themselves the scourges and horror of the human race,--these are savage
beasts, from which every brave man may justly purge the earth. All
antiquity has praised Hercules for delivering the world from an Antaeus,
a Busiris, and a Diomedes."--Ibid. ch. iv. Sec. 56.

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