CHAPTER XV
THE DECLARATION OF WAR.
I think we have already distinct evidence that the Fecial Law was something more than our Treaty and Diplomatic Law. Let us examine it more particularly in action. If the law of nations ever was appealed to, and, if over and above, there was a tradition of a Divine revelation, or even of a prescriptive law founded on natural right, and having reference to war, which was ever invoked, it would have been in the first instance of aggression, supposing, as is implied in the term, that it was without fair cause and without fair warning. The declaration of war, therefore, is manifestly the hinge upon which the whole system of the law of nations turns.[324] Accordingly, the further we go back the more solemn and formal do we find the declaration of war to be.
“In every instance the declaration of war was accompanied by religious formalities. When the Senate believed that it had cause of complaint against a nation, it sent a Fecial to his frontier. There the pontiff, his head bound with a woollen veil,[325] exposed the griefs of the Romans and demanded satisfaction. If it was not granted, he went back to render an account of his mission to the Senate, ... and after a delay of thirty or thirty-three days they voted a declaration of war. Then the Fecial returned to the frontier, and, casting a javelin into the enemy’s country, he pronounced the following formula—‘Quod populus Hermundulus,’ &c.... Every war which had not been declared in this manner was considered as unjust, and certain to incur the displeasure of the gods. In the course of time this solemn declaration was replaced by a vain formality.”[326]
Montfauçon (“L’Antiquité Expliquée,” ii. 1, p. iv., p. 35) says:—
“Lorsqu’ils alloient parlementer, ils avoient sur la tête un voile tissu de laine,[327] et ils étoient couronnéz de vervaine: leur office étoit d’impêcher que les Romains n’entreprissent point de guerre injuste: d’aller comme legats vers les nations qui violoient les traitez, etc.... ils prenoient aussi connaissance faits au legats de part et d’autre. Quand la paix ne se trouvoit pas faite selon les loix, ils la declaroient nulle. Si les commandans avoient fait quelque chose contre la justice et contre le droit des gens, ils reparoient leur faute et expioient leur crime, ... à cause du violement des traites faits devant Numance, dit Ciceron par un décret du Senat le Patrapatratus livra, C. Mancinus aux Numantins.”[328]
We must content ourselves, of course, with what evidence we may get of similar institutions elsewhere; but what strikes me as strange in the contrast of modern civilisation with barbarism, is, that whereas our advances, whether in the sense of peace and war (whenever they are formally made), are commonly understood, the corresponding demonstrations on the side of barbarism are invariably misconstrued.
When, for instance, Captain Cook approached the shores of Bolabola, he describes the following scene, which reads to me very like the account we have just been reading of the Roman herald:—
“Soon after a single man ran along the shore armed with his lance, and when he came abreast of the boat he began to dance, brandish his weapon, and call out in a very shrill tone, which Tupia defiance from the people.... As the boat rowed slowly along the shore back again, another champion came down, shouting defiance, and brandishing his lance. His appearance was more formidable than that of the other, for he wore a large cap made of the tail feathers of the topia bird, and his body was covered with stripes of different coloured cloth, yellow, red, and brown.... Soon after a more grave and elderly man came down to the beach, and hailing the people in the boat, inquired who they were, and from whence they came.[329]... After a short conference they all began to pray very loud. Tupia made his responses, but continued to tell us they were not our friends” (i. 119).
Let this be taken in connection with the following narrative:—[330]
“The large canoes came close round the ship, some of the Indians playing on a kind of flute, others singing, and the rest blowing on a sort of shells. Soon after, a large canoe advanced, in which was an awning, on the top of which sat one of the natives holding some yellow and red feathers in his hand. The captain having consented to his coming alongside, he delivered the feathers, and while a present was preparing for him, he put back from the ship, and threw the branch of a cocoa-tree in the air. This was doubtless the signal for an onset, for there was an instant shout from all the canoes, which, approaching the ship, threw volleys of stones into every part of her.”