Non-Fiction > Uncollected essays > Volume 6, 1874 - Academy

Dec. 5, 1874.]
THE ACADEMY.
603
elusive preference for Alps and Pj-ramids as
entirely exotic to the heart of Englishmen,
If this tare has grown up among us, it is
because an enemy came by night and sowed
it-^many enemies rather : the whole genera-
tion of small poets and small romantic tra-
vellers — and because better husbandmen
have been remiss and let the good seed lie
idle. And so we may have all hope of the
ultimate success of books such as this, and
the better spirit of which they are the sign.
The English are a docile people in such
matters : they will gladly learn from Mr.
Champneys that there is a sentiment in
Romney Jlarsh as well as in the Pyrenees ;
this acquisition will make it an easier task
for someone else to prove to them the beauty
of some other out-of-the-way corner or
beaten track; and so, line npon line, precept
upon precept, they will become intelligently
reconciled to the fashion of their own
country, and learn, perhaps, some more re-
fined conception of natural loveliness than
a very big hill of no particular shape with
some white snow upon the top of it.
The district chosen by Mr. Champneys is
one of somewhat romantic geographical con-
ditions. Out of a bay on the old coast line,
still strongly marked and easily recognisable
for a coast line, the sea has gone back step
by step, leaving behind it a great fiat.
This flat is the JRomney Marsh. The chief
note of the district is its amphibiousness ;
and this is capitally realised for us in the
book. Traces of the retiring waters are no-
where wanting. You can recognise what
was once an island by the constrained group-
ing together of trees and houses ; and what
■was once an estuary or lagoon, by bridges
and stepping-stones now left high and dry
for ever. On the horizon, ships in full sail
seem mixed together with stationary trees
and baj'stacks.
" The more subtile effects," says Mr. Champueys,
" are as those upon the sea. You see the storm
gathering in the distance, and it sweeps over the
equ.ll ground self-contained, solid and detached,
neither distorted nor delayed by any prominence ;
the wind blows steady and undiverted : and the
countryman, who shows you a circuitous path to
somedistant object on the openplain,has somestory
to tell of former perils by sea. The farmers keep
a few boats, and the retired sailors become farmers
or farm labourers, and the old houses far inland
are specially and elaborately planned for hiding
smugglers and smuggled goods. Moreover, the
sea, though fi-ora the dead level it is actually un-
secu, is constantly present to the imagination as a
haunting influence, and to the senses as a bright
horizon of reflected light ; and the sea-shore is
marked here and there bj' a few whitewashed
cottages and a flagstaff."
This is very good, and there is more of a like
quality. Altogether, what with Mr. Champ-
neys's description and some of Mr. Dawson's
illustrations, — that, for instance, opposite
page 12, and that at the foot of page 61 —
Romney Marsh becomes very distinct and
familiar to onr minds before we have finished
the little volume.
Of the various buildings that are brought
out for us against this background, the
various bits of architectui-al detail criti-
cised — architectural detail of all sorts and
descriptions, down to the carpentry of
certain prison doors at Rye, and a glazed
cupboard from the inn at New Romney — I
propose to say nothing. There is much to
interest the reader : and here again some of
Mr. Dawson's etchings are worthy of all
pi-aise. But one must avoid falling into the
manner of those critiques de criiiqii.es that
have stirred the scorn of Baudelaire, and
many others who had a better I'ight, per-
haps, to be scornful in such a case. So,
without entering into any of the more par-
ticular points here dealt with, it will be
enough to say that all the criticism bears the
stamp of strong personality. Mr. Champneys
is no more open to all the pleasurable details
of art than angry against those whom he
considers as Art's banded enemies, and he
is a very plain dealer yvheu angry. In-
deed, some of the most entertaining passages
of the volume are those in which he has
suffered his righteous indignation to carry
him away, and refers, with truculent ironj',
to " the refined and interesting zeal of Pro-
testantism," or regrets the rashness which
led him to " anticipate that a Conservative
Government would extend to our most
valuable monuments some portion of that
tenderness which it is supposed to show for
abuses." Robert Lows Stevenson.
Revue de Droit International et de Legislation
Comparce : Orrjane de Vlnstitiit de Droit
International. (Londres : Williams et
Norgate, 1869-7-i.)
This widely-circulated Review has nearly
completed its sixth year, and it is not too
much to say of it that in each successive
year of its publication it has established
fresh claims to the gratitude of the jurist
and to the thoughtful attention of states-
men. It was commenced in 1869 with the
twofold object of encouraging, on the one
hand, the study of comparative legislation
as the best preparation for the study of
international law, and of assisting, on the
other hand, to form a sound public opinion
on matters of international law by a calm
and serious discussion of various topics
within the province of that law, with a view
to make known its anomalies and defects,
and to bring about a consensus gentium as to
the proper mode of remedying them : — ■
" By public opinion," we translate the words of
M. G. Rolin-Jaequemyns, one of the founders of
the Review, " we do not mean those undulating
and ephemeral phases of thought, which express
for the moment the passion, the interest, the pre-
judices of the day, coupled with an imperfect
knowledge of facts ; hut a serious and calm tone of
public thought, founded on the application of
certain principles of universal justice to constant
events Such a public opinion," he adds
aftei-wards, " as becomes the judgment of history,
and in matters of international law is the pro-
gressive expression of that natm'al right, which
Grotius has so well described as ' the dictate of
right reasou, assigning to each act a character of
moral necessity or moral turpitude, according as
it is conformable or not to the reasonable nature
of man, and consequently is enjoined or forbidden
by the Author of Nature.' "
The founders of the Review were M. G.
Rolin-Jaequemyns, of Ghent, whose name
has been already mentioned ; Professor T. M.
C. Asser, of Amsterdam, and Mr. John
Westlake, Q.C., of Lincoln's Inn, yvhose
writings on private international law are
well known to English lawyers. The oppor-
tunity of its appearance was confirmed by
the fact that the third number of the Review
presented a list of 120 jurists and publicists,
among yvhom are to be found some of the
most distinguished names in Europe and in
America, yvho promised their co-operation in
the enterprise, and whose promises have
been y\'ell maintained. Each number of the
Review contains from six to eight original
treatises, which fulfil one or other of the objects
specified in the introductory notice above al-
luded to. In addition to these original trea-
tises there is to be found in each volume an
Annual Chronicle of Comparative Legislation,
in other words, an annual notice of the prin-
cipal statutes and ordinances promulgated in
each year in the various States of Europe
and America which are of interest to other
countries. This chronicle has been under-
taken by Professor Asser, while M. G. Rolin-
Jaequemyns supplies a corresponding Chro-
nicle of International Law. Each number
further contains a careful notice of the more
important publications on legal subjects,
which have appeared from time to time in
Europe and in America ; and although Asia
has not as yet put forth any claim to be
noticed under this list, it is a fact worthy of
remark, and it has not escaped observation
in the Review, that Wheaton's Elements of
International Lav: have been translated into
the Japanese and the Chinese languages, and
that the Chinese Government has officially
adopted the work of Mr. Wheaton as an
authority on all doubtful cases of interna-
tional law. Further, the Review in its first
number for 1873 contains a communication
from Dr. W. A. P. Martin, Professor at the
Imperial College at Peking, from which it
appears probable that the treatise of Dr.
Woolsey, of Boston, U.S., on the Study of
International Law, has been approved as a
text-book by the University of Peking.
There C3,n be no doubt that European ideas
on public layv are rapidly gaining hold of
the Asiatic mind, and that the European
nations must be prepared soon to welcome
the Asiatic nations to a place yvithin the
same international circle, into yvhich the
Ottoman Porte yvas formally admitted by
the Treaty of Paris of 1856. Dr. Martin
states that the chief statesmen in China are
well awaiye of the fact, that it is to the prin-
ciples of public law, which are recognised
amongst the nations of Europe, that their
country oyves its comparative security from
foreign aggression.
In addition to the above-mentioned sub-
jects, the Review supplies an Annual Bul-
letin of the more important decisions of the
Belgian and French Courts on questions of
international law. These bulletins were
commenced in 1872, and have been con-
tinued to the present time. Digests also of
German, English, and Italian judgments on
a like class of questions have been com-
menced ; and it may be expected, when the
cu'cle of these bulletins and digests is com-
plete, that they will materially help to stimu-
late the growth of a branch of legal science
which is still in its infancy — that of Com-
parative Jurisprudence. Mr. Justice Story
may justly be considered to have laid the
foundation of such a science by his well-
known work on the Conflict of Laws, but
there is a large field of juridical conflict