night the sky hung dark and heavy, a little sand falling at times, the roaring of the volcano very distinct, although in sight of the North Watcher, and fully sixty-five or seventy miles off it. Such darkness and time of it in general few would conceive, and many, I dare say, would disbe lieve. The ship, from truck to water-line, is as if cemented; spars, sails, blocks, and ropes in a terrible mess; but, thank God, nobody hurt or ship damaged. On the other hand, how fares it with Anjer, Merak, and other little villages on the Java coast?" A LEPER FARM IN CYPRUS. - - A correspondent writes to the St. James's Gazette: "One warm afternoon in the spring of the present year, I determined to pay a visit to the leper farm, or hospital outside Nicosia. A walk of about a mile and a half from the city ramparts, across rough ground covered with the wire-plant,' brought me to the entrance to the hospital. (The wire-plant is'supposed by some to be the same as that which composed our Saviour's crown of thorns. It covers thousands of acres of the uncultivated land in Cyprus, and is also found in Syria and Palestine. It grows about a foot high, and has thorns about an inch long on branching wiry stems. In the winter it is covered with small red berries.) The hospital consists of a range of one-storied buildings, with a quadrangle in the centre about fifty yards square. These buildings, like nearly all the present cottages in Cyprus, are composed of large flat sun-dried bricks made of mud and straw. Round and about the hospital were planted standard apricot, olive, and pomegranate trees; which give a rather picturesque appearance to an otherwise hideous-looking building. On my arrival at the gate I found that the doctor was absent; but I could see the mukhtar. The mukhtar is the principal man in every Cypriote village-a kind of mayor on a reduced scale. After a little while a very dirty man in baggy cotton trousers and shirt, with a blue cotton handkerchief tied round his head, appeared, riding on a wretched donkey: this was my mukhtar. He said he had just been to Nicosia to receive the government fortnightly allowance for the lepers; and that if I would take a seat I could see all the patients who were able to move, as they came up to receive their money. We sat down at a small table with a white cloth over it, placed on a raised stone step at the entrance to the quadrangle; and as the mukhtar called out each name the owner came up to receive his 25. 4d., the fortnightly government allowance for each leper. I was prepared for a sickening sight, but the majority of those who came up to the table were not cases where this frightful disease had made very much progress. Perhaps the most painful one was that of a bright dark-eyed little girl of four or five, who came up with her mother to receive her allowance. To the unprofessional eye she appeared quite healthy; but I understood that, unfortunately, there was no doubt about her having the fatal taint. At the time of my visit there were fifty patients, thirty-three men and seventeen women: the entire number of cases in the island; as I was given to understand that directly a case appeared anywhere the person was at once sent off to the leper farm. After leaving a little silver with the mukhtar to buy the lepers a few cigarettes (almost the sole enjoyment of these poor crea tures), I went into the cottages to see some of the worst cases; but a description of these would be only suitable for the columns of a medical journal. None of the patients I saw at all realized my idea of the white leprosy which clave unto Gehazi." THE JAY AND POETS.-The jay is a bird that the poets do not like. They refer with significant frequency to its "scream and "screech;" Macaulay selects it (in deference to a tradition) as the confederate of the "carrion kite" in insulting the eagle; Wordsworth, Thomson, Prior, seem to know no more of it than its name; while the rest- except Spenser and Gay, who appear to grudge its being “painted;" and Pope, who thinks it was a merry songster"-do not seem to know even that. Yet the jay is emphatically a notable bird. It is one of the very few birds of beautiful plumage that are native to England, and yet it is also one of the most retiring. Its love-notes are curiously subdued and soft, as if it did not wish to be overheard, when nearly all other birds are absurdly demonstrative in courtship. They are singularly intelligent, even amongst such an intelligent family of birds, and teach themselves to imitate woodland sounds. Montague says that, during the nesting season, the male bird apparently amuses its mate by introducing into "its tender wooing the bleating of lambs, the mewing of cats, the cries of hawks, the hooting of owls, and even the neighing of horses;" while Yar rell heard one giving a poultry-yard entertainment, "imitating the calling of the fowls to feed, and all the noises of the fowls themselves, to perfection; while the barking and growling of the house-dog were imitated in a style that could not be distinguished from the original." Moreover, they are the brigands and tyrants of the coppice; for not only do they plunder nests, but they sometimes murder and eat the parents. In prose, therefore, and notably in natural history, the jay is as conspicuous in character and habits as it is in appearance. It has not, however, taken the fancy of the poets, who misrepresent it as an upstart and a forward one. Gentleman's Magazine. For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co. Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents. SING, LITTLE BIRD. A CHRISTMAS CAROL. SING, little bird, on the shivering bough, Sing, little bird, that immortal song The shepherds sang in the days of old, When watchful angels, a glittering throng, The strain first wakened on lyres of gold! Our feeble voices we dare to raise ; So sing, little Robin, thy song of praise! The lightest wind that shakes the glass, Like footfall of beloved feet. And every object that I feel Seems charged by some enchanter's wand, And keen the dizzy senses thrill, As with the touch of spirit hand. At morning in the rosy flush, A voice beside me seems to start, WEARING Aurora's robe, night after night, Some radiant spirit rules the western sky, Drowning the sun-tints with such rich supply That it would seem the Master-painter's might Of colors weaved of unremembered light, Had wrought anew his palette there on high, To tell the tired world rainbows shall not die, Which first his pledge of promise did indite. Forged newly like a steel-blue scimitar, The crescent moon shines keener than of old, And, as the drawn sword of one armed for war, Marshals those hosts of crimson, green, and gold, Till underneath the quiet Evening Star From The Contemporary Review. ANCIENT INTERNATIONAL LAW. PART I. Ir has been remarked by some of the later writers on international law that many of their predecessors have committed the grave mistake of asserting that the ancient world had no conception of a valid and binding international law. This accusation is one to which English and American writers, as compared with Continental jurists, are particularly liable; but those who make the charge, being wholly concerned with modern international relations, do not find it within their scope to do more than adduce a few pas sages from the ancient historians and moralists, containing but the scantiest refutation of the theory to which they object. One or two illustrations will be sufficient. Chancellor Kent writes: modern times. The Law of Nations, as understood by the European world and by us, is the offspring of The most refined States among the ancients seem to have had no conception of the moral obligations of justice and humanity between nations, and there was no such thing in existence as the science of International Law. They regarded strangers and enemies as nearly synonymous, and considered foreign persons and property as lawful prize. Their laws of war and peace were barbarous and deplorable. So little were mankind accustomed to regard the rights of persons or property, or to perceive the value and beauty of public order, that in the most enlightened ages of the Grecian republics piracy was regarded as an honorable employment. There were powerful Grecian States that avowed the practice of piracy; and the fleets of Athens, the best disciplined and most respectable naval force in all antiquity, were exceedingly addicted to piratical excursions. It was the received opinion that Greeks, even as between their own cities and States, were bound to no duties, nor to any moral law, without compact; and that prisoners taken in war had no rights, and might lawfully be put to death, or sold into perpetual slavery with their wives and children. The publication of Mr. John Hosack's work on "The Rise and Growth of the Law of Nations,' which contains a very interesting chapter on Ancient International Law, has rendered the above statement less accurate than it was at the time at which the article was written. Even the French publicists, belonging to a nation justly distinguished for its cultivation of this branch of knowledge, have not escaped this error. M. Laurent, in his "Histoire du droit des Gens," states his view thus: Les Grecs ne se croyaient liés ni par le droit ni par l'humanité; ils ne se connaissaient d'obligations réciproques que lorsqu'un traité les avait stipulées. La notion de devoirs dé. coulant de la nature de l'homme reconnue par les philosophes n'entra pas dans le domaine des relations internationales. It is only fair to add that the writers of this class generally modify to some extent the severity of their criticisms, by noticing the existence of some usages which tended in the direction of justice and humanity, and that they credit the Romans with some efforts in the cultiva tion of the law of nations as a science; but they severely condemn the latter people, too, for "their cunning interpretation of treaties, their continual violation of justice, and their cruel rules of war." The causes of this error are not far to seek. The modern development of international law may be said to date from the end of the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth century, its foundation having been laid in the works of Suarez, Albericus Gentilis, and Grotius. It was an easy, but an illogical, inference that no such system had ever existed before; and the error was perpetuated by a too careless facility in adopting the opinions of men whose authority as jurists was universally recognized. Those who have any definite idea of the successes achieved by the ancient civilizations may well be surprised at the severity of the criticisms quoted above. The various arts and sciences, which belong to and form part of the civilization of a nation, keep fairly even pace with one another in their gradual development. Foremost amongst these in point of time and importance, as being absolutely nec essary to the continuous existence of an independent political community, is the science of law. Thus at Athens in par ticular, and to a greater or less extent in other Greek states, concurrently with a successful cultivation of the arts, a sound system of municipal law and a satisfactory | tionship of the Greek States to one anadministration of justice were established. other is properly denoted by the word The several States which formed the Hel- "international," it will be well to start lenic family were bound together by with one or two definitions. International closer ties than can well be imagined pos- law may be briefly defined as "the system sible under any modern system. They of principles and rules which regulates acknowledged a common ancestry and the mutual intercourse of States; " and a spoke a common language: the constant State may be defined as "an independent recurrence of religious and other festivals, political community." A community, to in which solemnities in honor of the gods be recognized as a State, must have its were combined with international athletic own organized government, but the form competitions, formed also a strong bond of such government is wholly immaterial. of union; while the smallness of the territory belonging to each State, and the consequent proximity of their capitals, tended, by promoting mutual intercourse, to draw closer the relations already recognized. The States many of them insignificant in size which composed the Hellenic world, clearly fall within this definition. Some of them combined from time to time, generally for defensive purposes, in which case the hegemony was assigned to one by express consent or silent recognition; but the system of a central government, though indications of such a tendency appear in the development of Athenian empire, had not then been worked out; and the individual independence of the several States was never so far infringed upon as to render inaccurate the application of the word "international" to their relations with one an Under such circumstances, it would indeed be marvellous, if, among States whose political and social organizations had been so extensively developed, no valid and binding code for the regulation of international relations should have been adopted. The fact is, that among the ancient Greeks and Romans, such a code did exist, though no doubt in a very imperfect form; that it was composed of the same ingredients and drawn from the same sources as that which now regulates | other. the intercourse of the civilized world; that its guiding principles, though laid perhaps on less solid foundations, and prematurely arrested in their progress, were not unlike those upon which international law now rests; and finally, that the development of its rules and institutions was analogous, in many respects, to that of the present system. It is further laid down by various writers of authority, with some variations of form, that international law comprises international moral law and international positive law. The question need not here be raised whether this is a correct terminology; the meaning is clear. The latter consists partly of actual agreements embodied in treaties, but mainly of rules which, dependent originally upon the comity of nations, and coming under the head of imperfect obligations, have gradually been sanctioned by custom, and passed into the region of positive law. The former includes those obligations which are still imperfect, and, forming a portion of the jus naturale, is founded upon those moral principles which are now held, in theory at any rate, to be as binding upon States as upon individuals. It would, of course, be impossible, within the prescribed limits, to do justice to so wide a subject. The development of the treaty system and of diplomacy, the rights of ambassadors, the usages of war, the system of arbitration, and that of consular agency, piracy, rights of asylum and extradition, offer ample subject matter for as many essays of considerable length. Here I propose merely to show the existence of such a law, and of an international spirit recognizing it and giving it effect, It will be useful to cite here, for the and to sketch briefly a few of the institu- purpose of comparing the sentiments tions which were created and fostered by which lie at the root of the ancient and this sentiment. modern systems, the celebrated State paWith the view of showing that the rela- per of 1753, addressed by the British to |