best assured by extending rather than by contracting its jurisdiction in ordinary comercial subjects.  In dealing with such subjects, however, Marshall did not achieve that pre-eminence which he acquired in the domain of constitutional law, a fact doubtless to be accounted for by the defects of his early legal education, since no originality of mind can supply the place of learning in matters which depend upon reasoning more or less technical and artificial.  But in the domain of international law, in which there was greater opportunity for elementary reasoning, he exhibited the same traits of mind, the same breadth and originality of thought, the same power in discovering, and the same certainty in applying, fundamental principles that distinguished him in the realm of constitutional discussions; and it was his lot on more than one occasion to blaze the way in the establishment of rules of international conduct.  During the period of his judicial service, decisions were rendered by the Supreme Court in 195 cases involving questions of international law, or in some way affecting international relations.  In eighty of these cases the opinion of the court was delivered by Marshall; in thirty-seven by Mr. Justice Story; in twenty-eight by Mr. Justice Johnson; in nineteen, by Mr. Justice Washington; in fourteen by Mr. Justice Livingston; in five, by Mr. Justice Thompson; and in one each by Justices Baldwin, Gushing, and Duvall.  In eight the decision was rendered “by the court.”  In five cases Marshall dissented.  As an evidence of the respect paid to his opinions by publicists, the fact may be pointed out that Wheaton, in the first edition of his “Elements of International Law,” makes 150 judicial citations, of which 105 are English and 45 American, the latter being mostly Marshall’s.  In the last edition he makes 214 similar citations, of which 135 are English and 79 American, the latter being largely Marshall’s; and it is proper to add that one of the distinctive marks of his last edition is the extensive incorporation into his text of the words of Marshall’s opinions.  Out of 190 cases cited by Hall, a recent English publicist of pre-eminent merit, 54 are American, and in more than three-fifths of these the opinions are Marshall’s.

One of the most far-reaching of all Marshall’s opinions on questions of international law was that which he delivered in the case of the schooner “Exchange,” decided by the Supreme Court in 1812.  In preparing this opinion he was, as he declared, compelled to explore “an unbeaten path, with few, if any, aids from precedents or written laws;” for the status of a foreign man-of-war in a friendly port had not then been defined, even by the publicists.  The “Exchange” was an American vessel, which had been captured and confiscated by the French under the Rambouillet decree,—­a decree which both the Executive and the Congress of the United States had declared to constitute a violation of the law of nations.  She was afterwards converted