man Porte, and with
other princes and states who are without the pale of our ordinary
federal law; together with a view of the most important treaties of
commerce, their principles, and their consequences.

As an useful appendix to a practical treatise on the law of nations,
some account will be given of those tribunals which in different
countries of Europe decide controversies arising out of that law; of
their constitution, of the extent of their authority, and of their modes
of proceeding; more especially of those courts which are peculiarly
appointed for that purpose by the laws of Great Britain.

Though the course, of which I have sketched the outline, may seem to
comprehend so great a variety of miscellaneous subjects, yet they are
all in truth closely and inseparably interwoven. The duties of men, of
subjects, of princes, of law-givers, of magistrates, and of states, are
all parts of one consistent system of universal morality. Between the
most abstract and elementary maxim of moral philosophy, and the most
complicated controversies of civil or public law, there subsists a
connexion which it will be the main object of these lectures to trace.
The principle of justice, deeply rooted in the nature and interest of
man, pervades the whole system, and is discoverable in every part of it,
even to its minutest ramification in a legal formality, or in the
construction of an article in a treaty.

I know not whether a philosopher ought to confess, that in his inquiries
after truth he is biased by any consideration; even by the love of
virtue. But I, who conceive that a real philosopher ought to regard
truth itself chiefly on account of its subserviency to the happiness of
mankind, am not ashamed to confess, that I shall feel a great
consolation at the conclusion of these lectures, if, by a wide survey
and an exact examination of the conditions and relations of human
nature, I shall have confirmed but one individual in the conviction,
that justice is the permanent interest of all men, and of all
commonwealths. To discover one new link of that eternal chain by which
the Author of the universe has bound together the happiness and the duty
of his creatures, and indissolubly fastened their interests to each
other, would fill my heart with more pleasure than all the fame with
which the most ingenious paradox ever crowned the most eloquent sophist.

I shall conclude this Discourse in the noble language of two great
orators an