"Nobody knows better than he that International Law is not really law, and why it is not law; but he seems to have jumped to the conclusion that it is therefore the same thing as morality.... There cannot, in truth, be any closer analogy than that which we drew the other day between the law of nations and the law of honour, and between public war and private duelling." [This is upon an assumption that there is nothing "essentially immoral in the code of honour," as "to a great extent it coincided with morality."] "But it differed from simple morality in that its precepts were enforced, not by general disapprobation, but by a challenge to the offender by anybody who supposed himself to be aggrieved by the offence. The possible result always was, that the champion of the law might himself be shot, and this was the weakness of the system. But this is exactly the weakness of international law, and the _original idea_ at the _basis_ both of _public war_ and of private duelling was precisely the same,--_that God Almighty somehow interposed_ in favour of the combatant _who had the juster cause_. There is clear historical evidence that the feuds which became duels were supposed to be fought out under divine supervision, _just as battles_ were believed to be decided by the God of battles." I believe that if history could be re-written from this point of view that many startling revelations would be brought to light. It is with reluctance that I turn from the points upon which I approach to agreement with the writer, to those upon which we fundamentally differ. And here I must remark, that "the accurate and intelligible account of law and government which forms the basis of Bentham's juridical system"[14] (_supra_, p. 9), is not distinguishable from, and in any case ultimately depends upon, his theory of utility as a foundation, or, as his later disciples say, a "standard" of morals. Such a standard is the negation of all morality; and if it ever came to stand alone every notion of morals would be obliterated, because, being open to every interpretation, and incapable of supplying any definite rule itself, it would abrogate every other, and under a plausible form abandon mankind to its lusts and passions. [14] "From _utility_, then, we may denominate a principle that may serve to preside over and govern, as it were, such arrangements as shall be made of the several institutions, or combinations of institutions, that compose the matter of this science." Bentham's "Fragment on Government," xliii., and at p. 45, the principle of utility is declared "all-sufficient," ... that "principle which furnishes us with that reason, which alone depends not upon any higher reason, but which is itself the _sole and all-sufficient reason_ for _every point_ of practice whatsoever."