For it is the brutal force the
aggressor has used that gives his adversary a right to take away his
life and destroy him, if he pleases, as a noxious creature; but it
is damage sustained that alone gives him title to another man's goods;
for though I may kill a thief that sets on me in the highway, yet I
may not (which seems less) take away his money and let him go; this
would be robbery on my side. His force, and the state of war he put
himself in, made him forfeit his life, but gave me no title to his
goods. The right, then, of conquest extends only to the lives of those
who joined in the war, but not to their estates, but only in order
to make reparation for the damages received and the charges of the
war, and that, too, with reservation of the right of the innocent wife
and children.
183. Let the conqueror have as much justice on his side as could
be supposed, he has no right to seize more than the vanquished could
forfeit; his life is at the victor's mercy, and his service and
goods he may appropriate to make himself reparation; but he cannot
take the goods of his wife and children, they too had a title to the
goods he enjoyed, and their shares in the estate he possessed.
Pages:
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177