AFFECTING COMMERCE DURING WAR.
OF WAR AND ITS DECLARATION AND HEREIN WHO
ARE LAWFUL BELLIGERENTS.
PUBLIC War is that state. in which nations, authorized by the sovereign power, prosecute their rights by force.1
"It is," says Lord Bacon, "one of the highest trials of right; for, as princes and states acknowledge no superior upon earth, they put themselves upon the justice of God by an appeal to arms."
An appeal of so momentous a nature, involving The war-makthe right of judging whether a nation has real and ing power. just grounds of complaint; whether she is authorized to employ force, and justifiable in taking up arms; whether prudence will admit of such a course; whether the welfare of the nation requires it, and cannot otherwise be secured-can be made only by the supreme sovereign power of the state,
1 Grotius, De Jure, Lib. I., c. i., § 2. Albericus Gentilus, De Jure Belli, Lib. I., c. ii. Bynkershoek, Quæst. Jur. Pub., Lib. I., c. i. Vattel, Lib. III., c. i., § 1. Hobbes, De Corpore Politico, P. I., c. i., § 2.
Bacon's Works, Vol. III., p. 40.